August 6, 2008
If you don't want to know what happened in today's Olympic opener for the US Women's National Team, stop reading now.
OK.
So when I saw on the ESPNews ticker that the USWNT dropped their Olympic opener to Norway by a 2-0 score, my first thought was "When is Abby Wambach getting on a plane to China to kick some [radio edit]?"
Abby was extremely positive about the team's chances without her. Now we will see how mentally strong this team is after two early mistakes (Norway was up 2-0 4 minutes in) put them in a sizable hole.
Japan and New Zealand await the US. And given that those two teams tied 2-2 today, the US can still look at this as they can win these two matches and then face the Group F winner (likely Germany or Brazil who also tied today) in the Quarters.
But, this team has to really rally around each other and overcome what was the worst possible scenario to starting this Olympic tournament.
The US-Japan game is slated to begin at 5am ET on Saturday morning.
News & Notes:
- Leslie Osborne is the latest guest blogger over at The Red Card Blog. Leslie is out of the Olympics due to a torn ACL.
- Grant Wahl's latest at SI.com is a chat with US Men's Olympic team captain Brian McBride. The US, which failed to score a goal in two tune up matches recently, takes on Japan at 5am tomorrow.
- In a stunner, Macoumda Kandji was named the USL 1st Division Player of the Week. Andrew Gregor was named to the Team of the Week.
- MLSNet.com, The Houston Chronicle, Boston.com and SBI.net all have coverage of last night's crazy SuperLiga final where New England defeated Houston 6-5 on PKs after the game was knotted at one after 90 minutes and knotted at 2 after 120 minutes.
The theme of the tournament has to be "The third time is a charm" as Houston got by Pachuca in their 3rd try and New England defeated Houston in a final for the first time in three tries.
- LA Galaxy GM Alexi Lalas COULD be on borrowed time? I thought that was a given?
The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author, and not necessarily those of the Rochester Rhinos or SoccerSam.com. Feel free to send any comments or complaints to news@soccersam.com. James promises to read (but not to respond) to all of them.
