It is great to know that we will have some gold medalists on our Sky Blue pro team. We would have been happy without the gold medal, but obviously, it is much nicer with it! Overall, I think the tournament showed that women's soccer is not dominated by one nation. You can't single out one person; there are so many great players.
I still feel emotionally connected to Formiga, who played for Sky Blue. I think no one plays like her. She plays like a man, and I mean that in a positive way! She played soccer tennis with my kids in the backyard; how can I not feel connected to her? I sincerely hope we will see her in WPS.
While I am happy the US won the gold, I am also happy that Germany won a medal, because they deserved it. They could have equally made it to the final. The US had the easier draw, and Germany had to play Brazil twice.
The fact that I am German makes me root for two teams. My kids are very connected as well; one even cheers more for Germany than the US. I would have been very torn if the two teams played each other. For the WPS, I wanted a USA victory, but as a German, I would hope they would win.
United Soccer Leagues put out a nice note today about former Sky Blue players Tobin Heath and Formiga battling it out in the Gold Medal match tomorrow at the Beijing Olympics - Heath for the United States and Formiga for Brazil. Because of the Pan Am Games, which both Tobin and Formiga participated in, the two didn't spend as much time out on the field as Sky Blue had hoped, but it will still be interesting to see the former teammates battle it out.
In all, there are 10 former W-League players taking the field tomorrow in the final including Heather O'Reilly, Lindsay Tarpley, and Carli Lloyd - players I had the pleasure of dealing with during my time working with the New Jersey Wildcats - a team that Formiga and Tobin Heath also played for as well prior to joining Sky Blue.
Read the entire USL story here.
Tomorrow's game should be a great matchup and the US is going to have to play a strong game to beat Brazil, which was on fire against Germany. The US is definitely in a much better place than a year ago when Brazil rolled to victory in the semifinal of the World Cup. The team is playing much better soccer and Hope Solo will finally get her chance to prove that she was right in what she said last year. Even if she apologized for her outburst last year, I still think she meant every word of it so she needs to make some big saves.
The US has faster backs than Germany so that should give it some hope but it's going to take some great defending to shut down Brazil or it's going to take a bunch of goals to counter Brazil's attacking efforts. Either way, there are some great story lines in the final - Brazil searching for its first championship, the US looking to make up for last year's loss, and of course, Tobin vs. Formiga.
Personally, since I was born in Brazil to American parents and can claim citizenship for both countries, I can get away with routing for either team - no matter who wins, I'll still come out on top. Go United States! Go Brazil! Go Sky Blue!
Sky Blue is going to the Olympics!!!
Okay, not exactly, but 2007 Sky Blue player, Melissa Tancredi sealed the deal for Canada's first Olympic appearance last night with her game-winning goal against Mexico. Canada beat Mexico in the semi-finals of Olympic qualifiers in a tight 1-0 game. Here at the office, we were all following the Olympic qualifiers closely, cheering on our Sky Blue representatives, Tobin Heath for the US and Melissa for Canada.
Sky Blue players aren't done yet! Formiga, who also played for the 2007 Sky Blue team, and the Brazilian National team will be playing a playoff game for the last Olympic spot against Ghana. Vá o Brasil!
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