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......

What do we got going on around the world in soccer? The transfer window has officially opened and almost a week into the FIFA Women's World Cup.

By Money Mike

So the first time we've hit the globe, we were talking about the Premier League, Serie A and La Liga titles being won, as well as the promotion/relegation fight. But fuck that, let's talk about the present. The summer transfer window has opened today, so lots more moves will be made through August 31, which is where I'll bring up the Seattle Sounders after the ridiculous reports about them making an offer to bring in Djibril Cisse. And hey, the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany got underway on Sunday so we'll go back and see how it's going up to Friday. But before that, let's talk about the transfer period.

Summer transfer window has officially opened:

So the summer transfer window has opened which means you'll see more reports of players packing their bags and leaving for their new club or you'll see reports of teams rejecting offers. Every summer, the stupid media would just talk about the same thing every single time. The rumor about Samir Nasri leaving Arsenal for Manchester United is annoying so why dont everybody just shut up and quit talking about it.

The Seattle Sounders were reportedly on the move to bring in Djibril Cisse after he opted out of his contract with Panathinaikos. However, his agent has denied reports that the Sounders have made an offer of any kind for Cisse. Cisse did say that he would like to play in MLS someday, but at this point, we don't know for sure it will be in 2011. We have Lazio also perusing the French striker. There were also reports that the Sounders have reached an agreement with Austrailian defender Lucas Neill who formally played for Milwall, Blackburn Rovers, West Ham United, Everton and Galatasary. But there are others that say the Sounders are interested in picking up Neill. So it's like I'm starting to fall for some stupid reports.

Women's World Cup:

So the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup kicked off about 6 days ago with France defeating Nigeria 1-0 along with Germany defeating Canada by a count of 2-1 in Group A. All 4 teams in that group have played 2 matches each and Germany and France will be the teams moving onto the Kockout stages and Canada and Nigeria are out. In Group B, Japan have booked their place into the Quarterfinals with four points and sadly for New Zealand, they are out. England and Mexico are still tied for second with 3 points. In Group C, the United States and Sweden are both 1-0 after winning their respective first matches. USA will play at 8:30 am today against Colombia. North Korea are in this group as well, they will play Sweden before our match. USA has made it to at least the semi-finals in six straight World Cups. Of course we know what happened in 2007. Prior to that match, starting goalkeeper Hope Solo was questoinably dropped to the bench for Brianna Scurry which was bullshit. Greg Ryan was the coach in the 2007 World Cup, and that move there, benching Solo was a godawful decision because the next day, the United States loses 4-0 to Brazil. Solo had every right to call him off. Greg Ryan is a Fuckin Punk for doing that crap. You can't live through the past every time, you have to start thinkin about the present. Since that incident, Solo made it back on the pitch and the U.S. defeated Brazil in 2008 to win the Gold Medal in China. Will Hope Solo continue where she left off in 2007? The answer is yes. That was a look around the World in Soccer.