OT - Women's World Cup Day 3 - USA v Australia
The USWNT takes on top 10 ranked Australia in their World Cup opener at 7:30 pm ET. Match will be on FS1, with coverage starting at 6:30.
The Sweden-Nigeria match just finished. And for those that don't know, Sweden's manager was the USWNT manager in the previous World Cup cycle. Sweden and Nigeria are also in the US' group and it was a very entertaining match. 3-3 final, Sweden looked to be running away with it after a 2-0 lead heading into halftime. But the Nigerian women battled back and tied it up, only to fall behind once again. They equalized in the 87'. Very impressive for the team that is supposed to be the weakest in the group, espeically considering they rarely get to travel outside Africa due to lack of support. They are easily the most entertaining team I've seen in the WWC so far and they'll be tough to top in that department.
US women will have their work cut out for them in this group and they can't take any match for granted. Things were looking shaky for the women before they won the Algrave Cup and optimism was raised once again. Then they had a poor performance against South Korea in their final WC warmup.
Hope everyone is enjoying the tournament. It's wide open this year and several teams have a legitimate chance to win it, including the US.
Also gotta say that FS1 is knocking it out of the park when it comes to in studio coverage. Had an all female panel on Saturday, but the men have started to contribute now. Every match is on TV and most are on FS1 or regular Fox. Credit to the network for putting this together and now I'm much more optimistic about when they cover the men's WC from 2018-2026.
Michigan's very own Christina Murillo is on the Mexico WNT. She took off the 2014 season to train for this World Cup.
IMO, Michigan is gonna have an amazing season this fall when she returns to the team for her 5th year.
That is cool and never would have known it otherwise, thanks for sharing.
Merica!
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I hope no one was subject to that Germany Ivory Coast game. Nothing much else was on so I subjected myself to it. Looks like Belgium v US for men's. Except there was no Tim Howard for Ivory Coast.
It looked like a pro team against a pickup team.
I like Christen Press
Looks like a 4-4-2(from what little I know of the Women's team and the positions they play), is this the normal formation for the US team?
What do you think about Press playing wide? I think she is better suited to play like a 10.
As someone who splits time between supporting Sweden & the US in soccer, this is a big day for me. The US side of my heart is happy with the result, because it puts the US in a great position. The Swedish side, though (which was more prominent during that game), is livid. Sweden was good in attack, especially on set pieces (2 goals from corners), but that had as much to do with Nigeria's bumbling goal-keeper, who hardly got her hands to a single set-piece ball all game. The Swedish defense was horrendous, and in the 2nd half looked exhausted. Over and over again sprinting Nigerian attackers left jogging Swedish defenders in their wake. To be honest, Sweden was the team lucky to escape with a draw, not Nigeria. If the game was 100 minutes instead of 90, Nigeria would surely have won.
Turning now (as we near kickoff) to my US affections, things set up great. Neither Nigeria nor Sweden took a major initiative in the group. Sweden's defense looks very exploitable, and Abby Wambach will have an absolute field day against Nigeria, who looked extremely vulnerable to set-pieces. If the US can seize the initiative tonight, making the knock-outs in a strong position becomes a very achievable goal.
Anyone know a good place to watch a stream. Not going to subscribe to Fox Sports 1 for one game.
It's free in most places now, just like ESPN. It's just an unusual number and surrounded by a bunch of "Sports Package" channels.
Not free here. Thanks, though.
Thanks!
(I love opening montages...one of my favorite things about big sporting events).
Best tournament I've ever seen...
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Because I was still bouncing off the wall after hearing Jack Bauer's raspy voice talk about the Ghana match.
Pretty cool that people actually watch this.
Australia starting out pretty strong. Great save by Solo though
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It was versus Korea...however, I thought maybe Korea was just loading the back end trying to get the draw.
Yet they look the same in this match, that said, I think Australia has just come out with a TON of energy and they'll settle in here shortly. This feels like a 1-0 half and a 2-0 victory when the Aussie legs give out later in the match.
Edit...I suppose there's the 1.
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Rapinoe has a shot deflected into goal!
US 1-0 Australia
1-0 USA
Jill Elli's style is too direct for my liking.
Lol, my comment seems silly now. My stream is a min behind.
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I would rather see Press replace Lloyd in the middle and put Heath out wide. Get some players in there that are good technically and tactically.
Lloyd is the Brek Shea of the USWNT.
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Isn't that kind of Rapinoe's specialty? I thought she was pretty well known for pulling offense out of nowhere.
Good lord she's made two amazing saves. Our back end looks awful thus far.
Part of me says she isn't reprimanded the same because she's a female. If the same story was around Tim Howard, there's no way he'd be playing right now.
Fairly obvious double standard. Oh well. Tis is life.
Maybe this is blunt but if our female athletes aren't there to produce revenue, they are there to be role models and for symbolism of female achievement in our country. If anything, female athletes should have a higher code of conduct than their male counterparts by virtue of this.
How about we just hold everybody to a high standard? You're essentially letting men off the hook because they generate more money. Should bank executives have a longer leash than fast food workers? Not in my opinion.
Besides, it's not like the USWNT doesn't produce revenue. They produce a good amount, check the attendance stats for their matches. Where do you draw the line for behavior expectations and money produced?
And looking at crime rates by gender, men commit more transgressions than women so we really should be holding up men to a higher standard as boys are more likely to look up to men than women.
I would prefer no league - regardless of sport or gender - to tolerate behavior like that. A feminist movement doesn't need to advance by holding women to a higher standard than men. It needs to advance through the changing of hearts and minds by education and discussion. It's like saying that there will be less racism if black people were just "better." It's an argument that's been around for years and it's ridiculous. Black people have their own colleges, music, have reached the upper echelons of society through politics, education, medicine etc etc and there's still quite a bit of racism. We shouldn't hold women to a higher or lower standard than we do men. It's not extra hypocritical for them to let Hope Solo play whatsoever.