Arena Solo and the Gang - the Women's Soccer Thread

Finally got around to seeing the game (my internet connection isn't fast enough to watch the livestream)and wow, anyone who doesn't believe in miracles needs to watch this team play. Between this match and Brazil, this snatching victory at the last second possible is starting to become a trend.

Overall, I thought the team looked rather sloppy. There were a lot of avoidable errors made. And I really miss Krieger in the back. I'm a little worried about Solo as well. The fact that she continues to kick with he left foot and then came out at half, makes me think that quad pull was a little more than she let on. Maybe they're just being overly cautious for the Algarve Cup. Morgan however, looked great and is definitely shutting up the whole "she's not a 90 min player crowd." Let's hope she continues to start.

Not too surprised Solo's playing for Sounder's. I can't see her wanting to play overseas in an Olympic year (too much travel time) and Seattle is her home town. Though part of me expected her to not play outside the national team like she did last year. Guess her shoulder's holding up better.

It looks like WPS is combining its teams with top teams from the WPSL to form a 10 team "WPSL Elite League." I have no idea how this effects player contracts. Though Leroux was drafted by Atlanta and is now playing in Seattle, so maybe all contracts were voided?

Additionally, Independence coach Paul Riley has an idea for a "Supergroup WPS Training Program" instead.

 

And Alex Morgan joins Solo and Leroux on the Sounders. For a non pro team, they're gonna have quite the lineup for the few games these three play in.

 

They'd be formidable in any women's league.


Do you know why the USWNT is playing a friendly in Portugal against Denmark? That seems like a really random location.

 

The Algarve Cup is in Portugal, so they are already there for the competition.

 

Yeah, they're playing in the Algarve Cup. Denmark tomorrow, then Norway and Japan. Unfortunately, according to the powers that be, the Portugal facilities don't have the capabilities for the US to stream their games, so the best you'll get is the highlights videos. I'm not sure why the match against China was a closed door match.

 

That would explain it. The schedule page of USSoccer.com didn't say anything about it, but it makes sense.

 

China Highlights

Denmark Highlights

Looks like they're going back to the 4-4-2 formation which I'm a fan of as it means Alex Morgan will start. Wambach got her 133rd goal which keeps her just ahead of Christine Sinclair on the all time scoring list (Sinclair picked up 130 yesterday in the Cyprus Cup.) They're both chasing Mia Hamm's 158. Dunno if Wambach will catch her, but I bet Sinclair does.

Also, seeing as how the new men's kits were revealed today, I'm hoping we see the women's new design soon (also hoping they look better than the men's uniforms, but they can't look much worse than they do now so....)

 

We get our first rematch with Japan tomorrow. Game goes live at 6:10 PST. Apparently, Japan has a livestream set up for the match. I have no idea of the quality, but I'm going to try and watch it before work tomorrow.

 

And the US Women go down to Japan again, falling 1-0 on a late goal.

 

I knew that it was a scoreless game through the 70th. Too bad that they couldn't pull it out. Their third place match against Sweden won't be a walk in the park...they've got to regroup and refocus.

 

Disappointing start to my week. I did manage to watch this one and we didn't look very good, especially in the first half. Morgan once again had the best chances, but couldn't quite finish anything.

 

Can I also point out how ridiculous UEFA is again with regards to their Women's Olympic soccer qualifying? Clearly Germany should be in London, but they won't be.

 

Can't disagree with that. Doesn't seem fair to use the WC as a qualifier when it has teams from all around the world while the US just has to qualify against Canada and Mexico.

I also don't know why there aren't 16 teams like the men's side. Women's soccer has grown enough that there is no reason we can't field 16 competitive countries in the Olympics.

 

Wow, not the result I was expecting. Thought we'd have a much harder time. With a hat trick from Morgan and a single from Wambach, the US decisively wins third place. Morgan's on fire lately.

 

And with a 4-3 victory in overtime, Germany gets its revenge on Japan. Sounds like it was quite the wild game. I'd like to see a Germany/US game. I can't remember the last time we played.

 

Bunch of news in the last week. We unsurprisingly curb-stomped Costa Rica 8-0 last Saturday in Rochester.

More importantly, Coach Sundhage announced that the two games v Australia would be her last as the US Coach. She will be taking the head coaching job in Sweden. To paraphrase the head of US Soccer, "Pia, we wish you all the best and hope you win every silver medal out there." Julie Foudy had a nice article on the subject.

Also, I'm finally getting my US/Germany game I've wanted since the WWC. Games 4 and 5 of the victory tour will be versus Germany in Chicago and Hartford. Unfortunately, as of now neither game is being broadcast on TV.

 

I respect Sundage. She was able to adapt, and made good use of her players.

Wonder who her replacement will be.

 

Well, it'd pretty much be Dan Wiersema's dream job, righ?

 

ESPN Magazine has an article on Dan Borislow this month. It goes into deeper detail about how bad things were down in Florida for non-national team MJ players and has some player quotes that leave me with complicated feelings.

Borislow confuses me. He says a lot of things I agree with, but if even half of the accusations against him are true, the man's a first class $#@!&% and I don't want him anywhere near a soccer league.

 

Here are my two favorite pictures I took at yesterday's game

And the sign I was holding (I think there are about 100 pictures of it floating around the internet now, since that's around how many people stopped me for a picture, ha.)


The game was really fun and after the game the players all presented Pia with a Taylor guitar they had signed. Definitely more families than other professional sporting events I've been to and the guy behind me kept yelling at me to sit down, lol. But overall great experience and I'm gonna definitely try and catch more.

 

New league will be called "National Women's Soccer League". Logo:



Logos for 7 of the 8 clubs were unveiled as well. For my money, I like KC's best so far:

 

Is that a male or a female?

 

That's Megan Rapinoe. She's awesome.


Re the new league: Hopefully it will work since US Soccer, Canada Soccer, and Mexico Soccer are subsidizing their national team players. I'm excited that Seattle's getting a team as I start grad school at UW in March. I would guess Morgan (and maybe Lereoux) will be playing for Seattle. Up until last month, I would've called Solo playing for Seattle a sure thing, but now I'm not sure about that one.

The USWNT Victory Tour wrapped up yesterday with a 4-1 victory over China. And Morgan and Wambach tied the record for combined goals scored in a single year. The record is at 55 and was set by Akers and Jennings back in '91. Morgan also joined the 20-20 club, finishing the year with 28 goal and 21 assists.

Also, Morgan and Wambach join Marta as finalists for FIFA Player of the Year. I really don't think Marta should be on the list as she didn't do much this year. I'd have picked Sinclair over her. I think Morgan deserves it, but I wouldn't be upset if Wambach gets it since Alex has many more years to win. Sundhage is also a finalist for Coach of the Year. Again, I think Canada got screwed as their coach didn't make the cut and he took a last place WWC team and turned them into bronze medalists.

 

The NWSL announced player allocation today.

I think Portland got the best bunch with Morgan, Heath, Buehler, Sinclair, and LeBlanc. Little surprised (but stoked) Pinoe ended up on Seattle, even if she's missing the first few games due to playing in France. Also happy to see Ali Krieger back in the US. Hope to see her at the next national team training camp.

On the national team front, Wambach won FIFA player of the year and Pia won coach of the year.

 

Whoa, how did Portland end up with Morgan and Sinclair? They've got to be the favorites.