Tasha v. Iceland

Natasha Kai scored a pretty goal in the last minute of regulation to lead the US to a 1-0 victory over Iceland in the Algarve Cup, propelling them into the final.



hat tip to JordanCornblog who is keeping me up with the women's soccer scene.

USWNT News

Only one of these players is having a good hair day.

Not new news, but news to me.

The former captain of the Norway WNT, Olympic Gold Medal and World Cup winner Hege Riise has been named Assistant Coach of the USWNT.

Abby Wambach is back training with the national team. She's featured in the 2nd half of this Studio 90 piece (the 1st half is on Frankie Hedjuk of the men's team.)



And finally, from the USWNT's blog, photos of Heather O'Reilly with Nando, Kaka and Messi. Wow, soccer royalty meets soccer royalty.

Cindy Parlow Leaving Her Brain to Science

NYTimes: 12 Athletes Leaving Brains to Concussion Study

Cindy Parlow retired from international play in 2006 because of post-concussion syndrome.

“I’m doing this to raise awareness of concussion and the injury, because it’s so misunderstood,” said Parlow, 30, who competed in three Olympics and two World Cups for the United States team and now has severe headaches from two significant concussions. “You can’t say, ‘Look at my broken leg.’ It’s a hidden injury. Especially in female athletes, because it’s seen as a football or male injury.”

Parlos is also on the Athlete Advisory Board of The Sports Legacy Institute, which was founded to bring awareness of the injuries suffered by athletes, especially brain injuries.

When I saw that a female soccer player was participating in this study, I thought it would be Joy Fawcett, who wore the anti-concussion headgear her last few years with the national team.

Michelle Akers in the news

A nice profile of the greatest women's soccer player ever in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

She was inducted into the State of Washington Sports Hall of Fame last month.

Abby Wambach Back On Her Feet

JEN RYNDA staff photographer
Abby Wambach talks during Abby Wambach's Youth Soccer Clinic.

Via JordanCornBlog, this Rochester Democrat & Chronicle article on Abby Wambach. Good to see Abbs up and about. (I hope she's wearing sunscreen out there in sunny California. I'm sure after growing up in Rochester where six-feet-of-snow winters last from October to May, she's reveling in the good weather, but easy does it, there, kiddo....)

Pittsford native Wambach discusses injury, nutrition at youth soccer camp
Star discusses injury, advocates nutrition

The former high school and college All-American and U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year said her comeback is on schedule for next spring, when the second women's professional league will start. She'll have to wait three more years for the next World Cup. Wambach also conducted two clinics this week in the Albany area and one in Syracuse that attracted about 1,500 children combined.

She flies back to Los Angeles, where she lives and the U.S. team is based, today to resume full-scale rehabilitation about four times a week. The Americans' top scorer the past four years, she has been in upstate New York for about three weeks.

Wambach spent most of the Olympics with her family near Alexandria Bay, where they vacation each summer. That's where she proudly watched her team, cast as underdogs without her, triumph by upsetting Brazil in overtime, 1-0, in the final.

"I'm so proud of them. It was so amazing for me to watch that last game," said the player who scored the winning goal in OT in the 2004 gold-medal match in Athens, Greece.

She flirted with the idea of going to China to root her team on in person and got permission from her coach, Pia Sundhage, but then changed her mind. She also turned down offers from USA Today and TV networks to provide commentary.

"Most people would say for sure, but that's just not me. I didn't want to negatively affect the team. I didn't want to be a distraction," she said. "The truth is I want to be back on that team for a lot more years and when you start criticizing and analyzing your teammates publicly, you cross over into territory that's not suitable to me."

Photo Gallery

There's also an article at RochesterHomepage.net which links to a local TV piece in which Abby says she wants to play for the national team for eight more years and play in two more Olympics. (Click on the "Watch" icon to the right of the headline for the TV piece.)

More video from WSYR.com (ch. 9), and News10 WHEC (NBC) (click on "watch the video" halfway down the page).

USWNT on Oprah Tomorrow

The WNT Blog: Gold Medalists on Oprah!

The gold-medal winning U.S. Women's National Soccer Team -- along with 175 U.S. Olympic medalists -- will appear on a very special season premier of the The Oprah Winfrey Show on Monday, Sept. 8, 2008. Check your local listings for air time.

Check your local listings.

More Video of USWNT Celebrations

From Martynnny, via JordanCornblog.

More Video of USWNT Celebration

From the same Swedish newspaper site, via JordanCornblog, which I am adding to the blogroll. Another blog that loves women's soccer, whoo-hoo!

Double Win For Pia

Pia rocking the black socks.

Head Coach Pia Sundhage takes the USWNT to the Olympics gold medal, and USSoccer, in a shockingly fast display of common sense, gives her a four-year contract extension, to 2012 according to Swedish news reports.

Watch Sunil Gulati drop to his knees to ask her to stay here. The clip is from a Swedish newspaper. Lots of video of the post-game celebration including Christie Rampone giving Pia her own gold medal. (Coaches don't get them.)

Congratulations to Pia, and congratulations to USSoccer for getting this right. Now, Sunil, do you have your calls in to Guus Hiddink for the men? Let's steal him from Russia while they're preoccupied with Georgia. A good international coach must be the priority for the USMNT and the 2010 World Cup

Hope is Golden and Redeemed

ussoccer
A good coach can make all the difference. A bad coach can ruin your World Cup and stomp on your dreams.

I am truth and I approve this message:

Nick Gholson, Times-Record News (TX): Made in China

They are calling the United States men’s basketball “The Redeem Team.”

Well, Hope Solo is “The Redeem Queen.”

Less than a year ago, this kid was blackballed by her U.S. teammates. They wouldn’t eat with her. They wouldn’t fly on the same airplane with her.

Her sin was telling the truth. – that her coach was an idiot.

Solo had been the U.S. team’s starting goalkeeper for the first four games of the 2007 World Cup. She was unbeaten with three straight shutouts.

So what does coach Greg Ryan do? He benches her in the semifinal game against Brazil. With 36-year-old veteran Briana Scurry minding the net, the U.S. lost 4-0.

After the game, Solo was on her way out the door when a reporter asked her what she thought of the coach’s decision. When a PR guy told the guy to only ask questions to the girls who played in the game, Solo got ticked off and gave this answer:

“It was the wrong decision and I think anybody who knows anything about the game knows that. There’s no doubt in my mind I would have made those saves,” she said “You can’t live in the past. It doesn’t matter what somebody did in a gold medal Olympic game three years ago. Now is what matters.”

Ryan benched Solo again for the third place game. Not long after that, he announced she was no longer on the team. Captain Kristine Lilly explained that it was a team decision made by the group.

And we all know the rest of the sorry story. Congratulations to Hope Solo for triumphing over the coach who made the worst decision in the history of sport.

The Golden Girls

Some videos on the USWNT's gold medal performance, with interviews with Pia, Christie, Kate, Hope, and Carli:





All stolen gleefully from Sideline Views.

For more videos and interviews, check out the team's blog: USWNT Blog

Golden Tasha

As a 10-year-old, Natasha Kai already had star potential. Tuesday, the University of Hawai'i sophomore leaves to play in an international tournament in China.
Kai family photo

Nice 2004 article on Natasha Kai, our first Hawaiian to win a gold medal. Pre-tats.

HonoluluAdvertiser: The Natural

As a young child, Kai, who is of English, Irish, Scottish, German, American Indian, Filipino, Chinese, Hawaiian and Spanish descent, was always active, participating in soccer, summer track, and even P.O.N.Y. baseball for one year.

"She would always be running around on the street, going to the beach in the summer, or jumping on the trampoline (in the Kai's yard)," Sharon [her mother] said.

She's a one-woman UN!

Natasha Kai of the U.S. (R) celebrates with teammates after winning their women's final soccer match against Brazil at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 21, 2008.
(Shaun Best/Reuters)

Golden!

Goal!

The USWNT won a hard-fought gold medal this morning, defeating hated Brazil 1-0 in overtime. Carli Lloyd scored the winner in the 96th minute. Christie Rampone was my MOTM; on USSoccer they selected Hope Solo, and I can live with that. She made a point blank reaction save on Marta in the 72nd minute that was amazing. Even watching the game as a spectator was exhausting. So I'm too tired to recap fully. Read these excellent recaps/liveblogs:

Boltgirl on the Loose, here, and here.

(from which I learned that after the 4-0 loss at the 2007 World Cup, the Brazilian players videotaped the US players crying in the hotel lobby. Stay classy, pretty losers. I'm going to start calling Brazil the Anna Kournikova of soccer.)


Andrea Canales at Sideline Views.

Jere Longman, NYTimes

Beau Dure, USAToady


Natasha Kai became the first Hawaiian athlete to win a gold medal. She ripped off her shirt to celebrate, showing the world her sports bra (yawn) and her tattoos (awesome).

How sweet it is!

Bonus video of the USWNTs of basketball and soccer meeting. Watch Tobin Heath make Kara Lawson look tall! See their ball skills. Watch Diana Taurasi tear it up in soccer tennis.

USSoccer Photo Gallery

Yahoo Photo Gallery

Cute soccer mom pics:

Rylie Cate, daughter of United States' Christie Rampone, jumps from the podium in joy after her mom's team won the gold over Brazil in the women's soccer final at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008.
(AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)
United States' Christie Rampone, left, carries her daughter Rylie Cate and United States' Kate Markgraf carries her son Keegan on their shoulders as they are all smiles with teammate Carli Lloyd, center, during the medal ceremony for the women's soccer gold medal match at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008. The US won the gold medal by beating Brazil.
(AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Poor, poor Brazil, the greatest team that's never won anything.

Waaaaaahhhhhhhh! (Hey, Cristiane, there's NO CRYING IN BASEBALL)

Final note, a shoutout to Greg Ryan: She would have made those saves, you moron.

Congratulations to Kristine Lilly

She had her baby, a girl named Sidney Marie Heavey (6 lbs. 13 oz.), born July 22nd.

That's Kristine Lilly's birthday. And my dad's! Best wishes to the new parents.

USWNT Blog: Congrats to Kristine!

Disaster

bigsoccer
The US beat Brazil last night in a meaningless pre-Olympics friendly, 1-0. Brazil was again without Marta, Christiane and Daniela so it wasn't their A team. Natasha Kai scored late to win for the US.

The disaster? US striker Abby Wambach broke her leg. She went barreling into a Brazil defender -- probably steamed as Brazil had been fouling her all game -- and broke both the tibia and the fibula in her left leg. Amazingly, she maintained her composure and even gave the thumbs-up to the crowd as she was taken off the field on a gurney with her leg in an aircast. That is one tough woman. She is having surgery today to have a titanium rod placed in her leg. Ouch.

I didn't see the game as I had a class. Coach Mom reports that Brazil played dirty (as they always do) and the referee let way too much go. The team did not play well. Boxxy looked slow and couldn't connect her passes. The announcer Lori Walker is annoying and never stops talking. In general FoxSoccer's coverage was rather amateurish. All in all, a bad day at Black Rock for the USWNT.

The xinhua news says it best:

The heart, soul and leading scorer of a young U.S. Women's National Soccer Team will not play in the 2008 Olympic Games.

Your heart has to go out to Abby, who lives and dies for soccer and will miss one of the big tournaments where she was expected to lead the team. Get well soon, Wombat.

Boltgirl on the Loose: Oh, Sad. Sad!

NYTimes: Wambach Breaks Leg in Exhibition

WaPo: Wambach to Miss Olympics

xinhuanet.com: Double-leg fracture means no Olympics for Wambach




Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

Wambach will be on crutches for about two weeks and then is expected to face 12 weeks of rehabilitation for what Dr. John Gorczyca, an orthopedic surgeon at Strong Memorial Hospital who is familiar with such injuries, said could be a “career-altering injury.”

“Will she ever be as good as she has been? Perhaps. … It may be that this changes her career,” he said this morning. “Most people with a fracture like hers make a complete recovery. The fact that it’s (the fracture is) midshaft is good. If it’s closer to the knee or ankle we need to be a little more cautious. That’s a favorable prognosis for her to be able to get back to playing soccer more quickly.”

He said about 80 percent of these types of fractures heal in three months, but “the problem is they continue to hurt for more than a year and oftentimes for more than two years, especially with running and jumping and kicking activities, which is what she does.

“How bad will it hurt her? We don’t know. What’s her tolerance for pain? Probably great.”

But Gorczyca added, “I’m a fan of hers. She’s a great thing for Rochester soccer and U.S. soccer.”