Sounders comeback from a 2-1 deficit to defeat the Whitecaps 3-2 in front of over 53,000+

By Money Mike


The Seattle Sounders just continue to find ways to win. Last night, they came back from 2-1 to defeat their Cascadia rivals Vancouver Whitecaps 3-2 in front of a crowd of 53,679 at CenturyLink Field, including Alex Morgan, but I'll get to that part later. The Sounders with the win have gone from 0-3-2 (2 points) all the way up to 6-4-3 (21 points) and have moved up to fourth place in the standings. One point ahead of the LA Galaxy and the Colorado Rapids who are in a tie for fifth place, two points behind the Portland Timbers for third, six behind RSL for second and seven behind FC Dallas for first place. Everything has started to click for the Men in Rave Green and they will look to make sure it continues through the rest of the year as they make a run for the MLS Cup.

The Sounders started the match off brightly and in the 9th minute, the home side opened the scoring. Lamar Neagle saw that Whitecaps defender Johnny Leveron overcommitted and he played a perfectly timed through ball to Andy Rose. Rose had plenty of time to settle and slide the ball past goalkeeper Brad Knighton and into the far corner to put the Sounders ahead 1-0.

The lead last for just over a minute because in the 10th minute, Vancouver pulled one back. Lee Young-Pyo played a very good ball up over the top for Russell Teibert, who got in behind Leo Gonzalez and whipped in a very good cross to the far post and getting up and directing his header in the back of the net was Camilo for his fourth of the season and his third in his career against the Sounders. That's what happens when you celebrate a goal for too long. There's nothing that ticks me off more than the Sounders scoring and then a minute later, they get pegged back. I remember the first two Sounder games I've attended, the Sounders scored early in those two games and then they gave one up a minute later. But of course the Sounders went on to win both those games. And let's not forget the first meeting between the Sounders and the Whitecaps in MLS. You guys remember that game? The Sounders we're down 1-0 until the 81st minute when Mauro Rosales equalized with his first Sounders goal. Then two minutes later, Ozzie Alonso put the Rave Green ahead with a low drive from outside the area. But then a minute later Eric Hassli, who now plays for FC Dallas, pulled the Caps back on level terms with a stunning volley.

Seattle came close to retaking the lead a minute later. Lamar Neagle was found with a good long ball from Servando Carrasco. Neagle sprinted around Y.P. Lee to the byline and tried to sneak one into the far corner, but he just missed wide and as a matter of fact it nearly found the head of Obafemi Martins whose momentum sent him crashing into the goal, which is dangerous because your hands or your feet can get caught into the net. And speaking of that, Martins' right boot got tangled with the net for a few seconds.

In the 26th minute, Teibert and Camilo linked up again. This time off a set piece after some poor communication by the Sounders defense. Russell Teibert curled the ball to the far post and the Brazilian got on the end of it with a diving header and there was no way Michael Gspurning was gonna make the save on this one. When it came off the head of Camilo, I knew from that moment that we were down. This was all on the Sounders defense. Leonardo Gonzalez urged his team to step away, but then they drop so deep, Neagle didn't challenge for the ball and Camilo made them pay with his second of the game to make it 2-1 to the Whitecaps. Awful communication on the part of the Sounders. And I think this is the first home match I've seen where the Sounders strike first and then find themselves on the wrong end of the scoreboard later in the match.

Now on to the 53rd minute of the match where Vancouver more than likely should've made it 3-1. Camilo who was sitting on a hat-trick drove his free kick around the wall. Michael Gspurning got his hands to it and the ball fell nicely to Nigel Reo-Coker for him to put away the rebound but Gspurning somehow made the save with his right boot to keep the Sounders in this match. Probably one of the best saves I've ever seen from the Austrian, but at the same time, I don't know how Reo-Coker wasn't able to score.

Vancouver started to play with 9-10 players back behind the ball trying to defend their lead and they would lose it in the 70th minute after a stupid ass challenge in the box. Marc Burch, who came on in the 61st minute, curled the ball to the far post where Lamar Neagle and Whitecaps defender Greg Klazura were battling for possession. There was some pushing and shoving from both players, but Neagle brought the ball down and Klazura slid in from behind, a blatant foul in the box and referee Hilario Grajeda wasted no time blowing his whistle and pointing to the penalty spot. Just a clumsy challenge by Klazura, who was making his second MLS appearance in as many weeks (he made his pro debut last week) and so far he's been sucking. Last week, he scored in own goal against the Red Bulls and then in this match, he commits a foul in the box. Servando Carrasco stepped to take the penalty for the Sounders and powered it in the top left corner to level things up at two goals a piece. Now as I said, Alex Morgan was in attendance to see her boyfriend play. Allie Long, who is Morgan's club teammate with the Portland Thorns in the new NWSL (I don't really follow that to be honest with you people), was at the match as well and she actually video taped Morgan's reaction to her boyfriend's PK. Check it out right here. It's pretty freakin' hilarious.

Great shot of Lamar Neagle's game-winning goal

In the 81st minute, the Sounders climb back ahead. Andy Rose fed Obafemi Martins with a nice through ball. Martins let the ball roll in front of him before sliding the ball across to Lamar Neagle who taps it in for his fourth goal of the season, and that goal also turned out to be the game winner. I'm starting to love that EJ trade that they made back on February of 2012 even more. He spends the 2012 season with the Montreal Impact. He comes back in 2013, head coach Sigi Schmid starts playing him up top and all Neagle has done was show his home town crowd and all of MLS what he's really made of. He said he came back a better player and a lot smarter. He's proved that so far, four goals and three assists. It's gonna be interesting to see what Sigi will do when Johnson re-joins the club in Salt Lake, but the attack looks 10 times better than before with Eddie Johnson, Obafemi Martins and of course Lamar Neagle.


Scoring summary:

Seattle Sounders FC - Andy Rose 1 (Lamar Neagle 3) 9'

Vancouver Whitecaps FC - Camilo Sanvezzo 4 (Russell Teibert 2, Lee Young-Pyo 2) 10'

Vancouver Whitecaps FC - Camilo Sanvezzo 5 (Russell Teibert 3) 26'

Seattle Sounders FC - Servando Carrasco 1 (penalty kick) 70'

Seattle Sounders FC - Lamar Neagle 4 (Obafemi Martins 1, Andy Rose 1) 81'


Misconduct summary:

Seattle Sounders FC - Andy Rose (caution; foul) 56'

Vancouver Whitecaps FC - Jordan Harvey (caution; foul) 86'


Lineups:

Vancouver Whitecaps FC - Brad Knighton; Lee Young-Pyo, Andy O'Brien (Greg Klazura 62'), Johnny Leveron, Jordan Harvey; Nigel Reo-Coker, Jun Marques Davidson (Kekuta Manneh 83'), Matt Watson (Daigo Kobayashi 89'); Russell Teibert, Camilo, Kenny Miller

Seattle Sounders FC - Michael Gspurning; DeAndre Yedlin, Zach Scott, Djimi Traore, Leonardo Gonzalez; Mauro Rosales (David Estrada 89'), Andy Rose, Servando Carrasco, Alex Caskey (Marc Burch 61'); Lamar Neagle, Obafemi Martins

USA defeats Colombia 3-0, clinches a spot in the Quarterfinals

By Money Mike


The United States in their second group game of the 2012 Olympics completely dominated the entire match from start to finish and come away with a well deserved 3-0 win over Colombia to book their place into the quarterfinal round. The U.S. still have one more group game to go, which takes place on Tuesday at Old Trafford against North Korea. The U.S. would win with at least a draw in that one. I'm not gonna go through the scenarios, we'll just have to wait until the final match to find out who they're playing, when they're playing and where they're playing.

The opening goal didn't come until the 33rd minute for the USA. Colombia failed to get the ball out of their own area and Alex Morgan found Megan Rapinoe out wide. Rapinoe took a couple of small touches and from about 20 yards out, just curls it over the head of goalkeeper Sandra Sepulveda in to the net to put the United States ahead 1-0.

Six minutes later, we had a controversial moment and I got to tell you, Colombia are lucky not to pick up a red card. The United States were on the counter attack and off the ball, Colombian player Lady Andrade threw a forearm right into Abby Wambach's face and the referee somehow didn't see it. After the referee blew the play dead, you could see Wambach's right eye was swelling up. I don't understand how the referee didn't see that or why the assistant referee or fourth official weren't paying any attention to that because that's violent conduct and that should've been a red card. Now, the last thing I heard regarding this was that FIFA was reviewing this play. So by the look of things, Andrade could be banned from international play for a while. I mean that was just stupid and uncalled for.

In the 74th minute, the U.S. doubled their advantage.  Abby Wambach, who stayed in the match despite picking up a black eye, worked a brilliant give and go with Tobin Heath as she beat two Colombian defenders to the ball and slots it home to make it 2-0 USA.

Three minutes later, the U.S. would add one more for good measure. Carli Lloyd made a great run down the center and was found by Megan Rapinoe and she slots the ball away with ease for her second goal of the tournament and that was all the United States needed as they defeat Colombia 3-0 and clinches a birth in the Quarterfinals.


Scoring summary:

United States - Megan Rapinoe 1 (33')

United States - Abby Wambach 2 (74')

United States - Carli Lloyd 2 (77')


Misconduct summary:

NONE


Lineups:

Colombia - Sandra Sepulveda; Nataly Arias, Natalia Gaitan, Kelis Peduzine, Yulieht Dominguez; Tatiana Ariza (Liana Salazar 71'), Carmen Rodallega (Ana Montoya 71'), Maria Usme; Ingrid Vidal (Melissa Ortiz 86'), Orianica Velasquez, Lady Andrade

United States - Hope Solo; Heather Mitts, Christie Rampone, Rachel Buehler, Kelley O'Hara; Heather O'Reilly (Tobin Heath 67'), Carli Lloyd, Lauren Cheney, Megan Rapinoe (Amy Rodriguez 81'); Abby Wambach (Sydney Leroux 78'), Alex Morgan


Now I may be a couple days late with this video because I didn't see it until today, but here's a little trailier on the U.S. women's journey to another Olympic Gold Medal...

U.S. women rally from two down with four unanswered goals to defeat France 4-2

By Money Mike


So we all know that the Olympics don't officially start until Friday. However, the only exception to that is Olympic soccer kicked off with the women's tournament today. Six women's matches were played today but the only match I care about is a match that features the United States. Like earlier today at Hampden Park in Glasgow, Scotland, and yes folks this was an official Olympic game. This U.S. came back from two goals down as they scored four unanswered goals to defeat France 4-2. Good way to kick off the 2012 Olympic tournament for the two time Olympic Champions. Despite the result, I wasn't overly impressed with the midfielders. Most the game, they just seem to have a knack on giving the ball away to the opposition and other times, their teammates just fall asleep at the wrong time. Hopefully USA head coach Pia Sundhage can work with her team in that area during practice leading up to their next match on Saturday.

It took only 12 minutes for the deadlock to be broken, unfortunately, it was France who struck early. France's long ball was headed away by Amy LePeilbet but right to Gaetane Thiney and from 20 yards out Thiney strikes the ball brilliantly in to the back of the net to put France ahead 1-0. Hope Solo did get a fingertip to it but not enough.

Two minutes later, the U.S. we're two goals down. Elise Bussaglia took the corner for France on the far side of the pitch. The U.S. fail to clear the ball out of their area and Marie-Laure Delie makes them pay as she rips her shot into the net to put France up 2-0 over the two-time defending Olympic Champions.

The United States would climb back into this one in the 19th minute. Megan Rapinoe, who is one of four players from the Sounders Women's team, took the corner from the near side and what we all know is that if the corner kick finds the head of Abby Wambach, it's more than likely going to be a goal and that's what happened here. Rapinoe floated the ball to the far post and it was Abby Wambach who got up and headed the ball back across and inside the left post cut the French lead to one.

With just over a half an hour gone by, the United States would equalise and it was another one of four Sounders Women on this team, you guys may have heard of this person before, her name is Alex Morgan. Following an offside call against France, Hope Solo (speaking of the Sounders Women), booted the ball into the French half which missed the head of Abby Wambach but ball found Alex Morgan in the box. Morgan waited for ball to bounce right in front of her before chipping the ball over the head of French goalkeeper Sarah Bouhaddi and in to back of the goal to tie this baby up at two goals a piece. Remember last year following USA's World Cup defeat to Japan, I talked a little bit about Alex Morgan and why she should've started and went ahead and stated that she was the future of this U.S. Women's team. Of course she was just making a jump to the international level and she had nine international goals. Now fast forward to July 25, 2012, and the 23 year old has become one of the best in the game. That equalising goal was Alex Morgan's 28th in her international career in her 43rd cap and I'll bet she's gonna reach 100 caps way before the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup.

In the 56th minute, the United States would get their third unanswered goal to take their first lead of the match. Megan Rapinoe poked the ball in the middle for Carli Lloyd and remember the goal she scored against Brazil in the 2008 Gold Medal match in Beijing? When she took one touch and just cracked one inside the far post? Well, this goal against France was no different. Rapinoe fed the ball to Lloyd who took one touch and then BANG!! Right footed from outside the area and the goalkeeper had no chance of stopping that one and the U.S. who were 2-0 down earlier in the game were now 3-2 up.

10 minutes later the U.S. would add a fourth. Once again, Megan Rapinoe was involved in the play as she played the ball long to the far side of the pitch and French defender Corine Franco made a mistake by sliding in to try to break up the play which gave Tobin Heath so much space to run at the French defense. Heath took it toward the end line and squared the ball across which missed Abby Wambach but right there was Alex Morgan at the far post to tap it in for her second of the game to make it 4-2 for the U.S. and that's how it would end.


Scoring summary:

France - Gaetane Thiney 1 (12')

France - Marie-Laure Delie 1 (14')

United States - Abby Wambach 1 (19')

United States - Alex Morgan 1 (32')

United States - Carli Lloyd 1 (56')

United States - Alex Morgan 2 (66')


Misconduct summary:

NONE


Lineups:

United States - Hope Solo; Amy LePeilbet, Rachel Buehler, Christie Rampone, Kelley O'Hara; Megan Rapinoe (Sydney Leroux 84'), Shannon Boxx (Carli Lloyd 17'), Lauren Cheney, Tobin Heath; Abby Wambach, Alex Morgan (Amy Rodriguez 74')

France - Sarah Bouhaddi; Corine Franco, Wendie Renard, Ophelie Meilleroux (Laura Georges 46'), Sonia Bompastor; Camile Abily (Sandrine Soubeyrand 71'), Louisa Necib (Eugenie le Sommer 46'), Elise Bussaglia; Elodie Thomis, Marie-Laure Delie, Gaetane Thiney

The day after USA's loss in the World Cup final.

By Money Mike



July 18, 2011........... The day after the FIFA Women's World Cup final. The day after all the disbelief from the entire nation. The day after the United States fell apart in the final minutes in both area's of the match and ended up falling to Japan on Penalties. I looked all around facebook on U.S. soccer's fan page as well as Alex Morgan's, Hope Solo's and Tobin Heath's and the only negativity I found came from a couple of stupid bitches from France and Brazil (both of them were women) who thought they were being funny. They're just embarrassing themselves because USA already knocked Brazil out and knocked France out. You know, this is tough to swallow because you're rooting for a team that is well coached, well drilled, ranked #1 in FIFA. When you put together so many chances against your opponent, ok they're under a lot of pressure. If you don't convert those chances, it'll come back to haunt you. It happened to Arsenal in the Carling Cup final against Birmingham City. Failing to convert on so many chances and they end up losing after a Goalkeeping error. But really guys, you can't blame the coach, you can't blame Hope Solo, you can't blame anyone on this team for this defeat. I mean, sometimes things are meant to backfire.

To me, the most underated player on this team would also be the youngest player on this team, Alex Morgan. I just didn't understand at all. Why didn't Alex Morgan start a World Cup match at all. The United States were the very last team to qualify for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, getting past Italy in a 2-legged final playoff round and guess who scored the winner in that one? Alex Morgan. She has a great future with this team, especially after scoring two goals in four World Cup appearances, including one in the final against Japan. I mean, it's just amazing how much this woman has grown, not only as a player, but also as a human being. But now in matches that count, I think it's time to let her go a full 90' minutes.


Overall performance for the U.S. in this World Cup:

There was no doubt in my mind that the U.S. had a very good in the World Cup and the fans knew that. The fans applauded them for their efforts, every single fan. None of them booed them, threw tomatos, none of that bullshit because that would've been disrespectful for the USSF and the all of America. Out of all the Women's World Cup's I've seen, the one I enjoyed most was the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup. And I'm pretty sure everyone who watched would agree with me as well.

Now here's a video I want to share to you guys......