Tag: women’s national team

[VIDEO] The U.S. women’s national team’s leading scorer, Abby Wambach, underwent successful surgery Thursday on the broken leg she suffered Wednesday that keeps her out of next month’s Olympics. For video of Wambach’s collision with Brazilian defender Andreia Rosa. …

With four MLS teams busy with SuperLiga play against Mexican foes, there were three MLS games last weekend. Chicago ended its five-game winless streak when it hosted Toronto FC. Real Salt Lake’s win over Columbus moved it into first-place in the Western Conference. San Jose’s winless streak grew to six games when it tied Colorado, 1-1. For the up-to-date MLS standings and leading scorers, all the weekend summaries and this week’s TV schedule.

[OLYMPIC COUNTDOWN] The U.S. women’s national team moved to 19-0-1 under first-year coach Pia Sundhage when it defeated Sweden, 1-0, on a 39th-minute goal from midfielder Carli Lloyd to complete a sweep of two matches in Scandinavia.

[OLYMPIC COUNTDOWN] After blowing a two-goal lead with four minutes left, the U.S. women’s national team recovered to beat Australia, 3-2, in the first of a three-game spring tour to tune up for the 2008 Olympics.

[OLYMPIC QUALIFYING] The U.S. women’s national team beat host Mexico, 3-1, in front of a record crowd of 22,280, to come within a game of qualifying for the 2008 Olympic Games. The victory in Ciudad Juarez came two days after the USA’s 6-0 win over Jamaica and puts the Americans in a semifinal against Costa Rica – the winner of which earns a ticket to China.

[ALGARVE CUP] The USA won the Algarve Cup for the fifth time in the last six years when it beat Denmark, 2-1, in Wednesday’s final played in Vila Real de San Antonio. Abby Wambach scored the winning goal four minutes into the second half to break a 1-1 tie.

[HISTORY] The defending champion U.S. women’s national team opens play at the 15th annual Algarve Cup in southern Portugal Wednesday when it faces China in Group B play. The USA didn’t win its first Algarve Cup until 2000 but has since won the tournament four more times — an unprecedented three in a row in 2003-05 and again in 2007.

[U.S. WOMEN] Pia Sundhage is organizing a mega-camp beginning Friday at the Home Depot Center, the last chance for players to impress the new U.S. women’s national team coach before she gets down to the task of picking a squad to prepare for Olympic qualifying in the CONCACAF region to be held April 2-13 in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico

[REACTION] Pia Sundhage‘s reign as U.S. women’s national team coach began with an emphatic 4-0 victory over Canada Wednesday at the Four Nations Tournament in Guangzhou, China. The Swede was delighted with the USA’s new attacking look, in particular the play of USC’s Amy Rodriguez, who scored twice in her first start.

[U.S. WOMEN] The USA and Canada traveled halfway around the world to meet in new U.S. coach Pia Sundhage‘s debut on Wednesday. When the Americans left last Thursday for China, they were headed to Foshan, south of Guangzhou (Canton), but they learned in mid-flight that the Four Nations Tournament had been moved to Guangzhou itself. For a look at the USA and its first three opponents of 2008 …

[OLYMPICS] The most experienced member of the U.S. women’s national team has announced she won’t compete in the 2008 Olympic Games next summer should the USA succeed to qualify in April. Kristine Lilly, 36, who debuted in 1987 at age 16 and has scored 129 goals in 340 U.S. appearances, is due to give birth to her first child in July. “I’m not closing any doors as far as soccer,” said Lilly.

The first training camp conducted by recently hired U.S. women’s national team camp Pia Sundhage will be brief, but it will be important. She has just eight months to repair the effects of a goalkeeping controversy and a humiliating 4-0 loss to Brazil in the Women’s World Cup semifinals before the Americans defend their 2004 Olympic gold medal at the 2008 Games in Beijing.

[AUDIO/TRANSCRIPTS] At Tuesday’s press conference announcing the hiring of Pia Sundhage, U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati explained why he believes the Swede is the right choice to get the USA back on track. Sundhage discussed how the USA can prevail in an increasingly competitive international arena: “The team is capable of keeping possession and finding the right moment to penetrate. The U.S. can be very successful this way, even playing against tough teams and organized teams. It’s about dictating the tempo; sometimes high tempo and sometimes low tempo. You have to expect that they want to keep the ball and to be comfortable with the ball.”