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!
Stop the panic attacks already! (that's for the media, not the players). The US got the result they needed with the 1-0 win over Japan. The team played better of course because it would have been pretty hard to get worse than the first game against Norway - the effort was better but there still needs to be improvement if the US wants to win a medal.
A great strike by New Jersey's Carli Lloyd was all the US needed but it could easily been more if not for some weak finishing by Amy Rodriguez. The USC striker got herself into some great positions but three times all she had to do was beat the keeper and couldn't. Her first was a poor chip, the second was rushed too quickly, and the last was from an angle but still missed the goal. Credit her for gettiing the chances but one good finish would've changed the second half of the game completely.
Pia Sundhage should consider giving her team a second scoring option up front because Hucles was mostly ineffective and for the most part invisible in the attack. Why not start Rodriguez and Kai? To me that would be a much bigger handful for the other team.
It was interesting to watch Japan's methodical approach to going forward and it would be nice for the US to learn a little from watching. They weren't that far off from finishing a couple goals and a little more accuracy in the final pass would've been trouble for the US.
On the plus side, I may be biased for the local girl but I think Heather O'Reilly put in a second-straight solid game. She's one of the few that always looks composed with the ball at her feet and her decisions always looked calculated in contrast to some of the other US players that look like they don't figure out what to do with the ball until it's too late.
And thanks to another NJ girl in Tobin Heath for snaking the Japanese defender on the left side after coming in off the bench (even if Brandi Chastain chastised you for trying to meg someone in your own half of the field a little later).
If Norway beats New Zealand as expected then the US is in good shape to advance to the knockout stage although they better have things sorted out by then or it could be an early exit at that point.
In case you haven’t seen the US vs. Norway game, I wanted to point out that in the second half of the game, the US lineup had FOUR girls from New Jersey on the field (Christie Rampone, Carli Lloyd, Heather O’Reilly and Tobin Heath). It was especially great to see Tobin, who is one of the youngsters and who played for Sky Blue in our inaugural season last year.
We shouldn’t take it for granted to see four NJ girls in the lineup. I think this is evidence of the long and hard work of our youth program in NJ. With roughly 180,000 registered youth soccer players in NJ, we have one of the biggest youth player pools in the country. Over the past 10 years, the development of youth players in clubs across the state improved drastically and the dedicated ODP program goes hand-in-hand with the clubs. I want to send a big THANK YOU to all the coaches in the NJ youth development program to the ODP program and to all the dedicated parents and managers that make it happen every week.
Our new professional league will be another important stepping stone in the development of soccer in the US. The Norway team showed what impact a league can have on a country’s national team. All of the Norwegian players play in European leagues where they are exposed to different styles, different coaches and different philosophies. Furthermore, they are playing meaningful, competitive matches in their leagues on a weekly basis. I think this is evidence for how important the new WPS league is for the future of United States women's soccer.
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!
Add comment