2011 FIFA Women's World Cup Team USA Watch- On To The Quarterfinals

FIFA world number one ranked Team USA clinched its spot in the quarterfinals for the sixth straight Women's World Cup tournament with a convincing 3-0 victory over first time FIFA Women's World Cup entrants Colombia in its second Group C match in Sinsheim.


It was almost like a home game for Team USA in the sold out Rhein Neckar Arena because is not too far from the US military base in Mannheim where many American military service members are stationed or live in Heidelberg.  

The 25,475 people in attendance were predominately pro-American as a result and Team USA wanted to get the pre-4th of July football party started early in this match for them and they succeeded.  After a few near miss scoring chances,  Heather O'Reilly finally got Team USA on the board at the 12 minute mark with a rocket into the upper left hand corner of the goal for the 1-0 lead.  

They kept putting pressure on the Colombians, but ended up taking that precarious 1-0 lead into halftime. 

Colombia's team is made up predominately of younglings off its U-20 squad which finished 4th in last year's FIFA U-20 World Cup tournament and probably felt good being down by one goal. 

But they were about to find out why Team USA holds that top ranking as they kicked up their level of play another notch and made some substitutions off that deep USA bench to put the match away.   Megan Rapinoe came off the bench to score the second US goal at the 50 minute mark, and seven minutes later Carli Lloyd scored to build the USA lead to 3-0.

The win tied them in Group C play with Sweden, who knocked off North Korea 1-0 in an earlier match played in Dresden   It sets up a showdown match in Wolfsburg on Wednesday for the Group C title.   More importantly Team USA has a +3 goal differential going into that match which puts them at the top of the group for now. .  

Sweden is in the position in which it must win to take the group, and they're bucking history in the fact that Team USA has never lost a group match in Women's World Cup history.   


Should Team USA win or tie against the FIFA number 5 world ranked Swedes, they win Group C and take on the Group D runner up in the quarterfinals.  We'll have a better idea who that might be tomorrow as FIFA number 3 world ranked Brazil and FIFA number 9 world ranked Norway square off in a critical Group D match and the FIFA world number 11 ranked Aussies take on Equatorial Guinea. 

Should be interesting to see what transpires on Wednesday.


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Japan On Heartwarming 2011 World Cup Run

One of the cool things about international sporting events is that it can sometimes help you forget some of the real life drama you're facing in your own lives, if just for that one fleeting moment.

The nation of Japan has had one jacked up 2011 so far to say the least.   Besides a 9.0 quake, the tsunami that is estimated to have killed 10,000 people and the Fukushima nuclear plant meltdown that occurred in the wake of the first two disasters, the citizens of that nation are probably looking for some positive news to savor.

It may be happening courtesy of the FIFA world number 4 ranked women's soccer team.

Japan has clinched a spot in the quarterfinals for the second time in its FIFA Women's World Cup history after beating New Zealand 2-1 in their opening Group B match and putting a 4-0 beatdown on Mexico earlier today powered by team captain Homare Sawa's hat trick

Japan can clinch the group with a win or draw with the Three Lionesses of England, and the scary part is their coach Norio Sasaki says that his team is only operating at 60% efficiency. 

"It's an honor to be counted among the contenders for the final winner, but we need to go step by step," said coach Sasaki. "We are continuously improving. It's an ongoing process and we would like to get even better."

If that's 60% efficiency, I'd hate to see Nadeshiko Japan at 100% efficiency.

We still have a few weeks yet to go until this event concludes, but so far it looks like a feel good story is developing at the 2011 Women's World Cup involving the ladies from Japan..  

2011 FIFA Women's World Cup Team USA Watch- Good Start

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In the weeks leading up to the 2011 Women's World Cup in Germany there were more concerns and questions about the FIFA number one ranked Team USA squad than confident answers. 

USA head coach Pia Sundhage said she wasn't worried, but we fans sure were, especially when we were playing a deja vu opening Group C matchup with North Korea and that 2007 2-2 draw was dancing in our heads.  After being tied with the youthful and speedy North Koreans after 45 minutes of action in Dresden's Rudolf Harbig Stadion, USA fans were even more nervous.

But  in the second half Team USA began to look more like their FIFA world number one ranked selves.  They pretty much stayed on North Korea's side of the pitch and kept blasting away at the North Korean goal until Lauren Cheney scored in the 54th minute to give Team USA their first goal of the 2011 tournament and more importantly a 1-0 lead.

Rachel Buehler added a second goal in the 76th minute and we almost had a third one from Megan Rapinoe in extra time that was disallowed.  

Team USA finished up with a 2-0 win and more importantly, is on the top of the Group C standings.  They can clinch their trip to the knockout round with a win Saturday in Sinsheim against Colombia.

And I'll also be watching today's Group D matches as well with renewed interest.

Nigeria Super Falcons Are Super Phobes

When it comes to international women's football, Nigeria's Super Falcons are quickly garnering an international reputation not for the quality of their play on the football pitch, but for their transphobia and homophobia.

They are longtime African continental powers and six time AWC champs, have gone to the knockout rounds of women's Olympic tournaments and are making their sixth appearance in the FIFA Women's World Cup.

While they have come up empty handed in terms of coming home with the big prizes in international play and are competitive at the FIFA youth levels of the beautiful game, when it comes to hatin', they are the undisputed world champs..   

Back in 2008 they did loud and long gender whining about the host Equatorial Guinea team during the Africa Women's Cup tournament and claimed that Bilguissa and Salimata Simpore and team captain Anonma Genevova were men.

Karma swiftly kicked in as the ladies from Equatorial Guinea upset Nigeria 1-0 in the semis of the AWC tournament and eventually won it all on home soil.  Genevova was the MVP of that tournament and fittingly scored the winning goal in the 58th minute of their semifinal match against the Super Falcons on a free kick that Nigerian goalkeeper Precious Dede mishandled..

That episode was swiftly followed up by karma rearing its head in the case of a talented teen played named Bessy Ekaete Boniface who was discovered to be intersex and dismissed from the Super Falcons camp . 

The Super Falcons avenged their embarrassing for them 2008 loss to Equatorial Guinea by beating them 4-2 in the 2010 AWC final in South Africa to punch their World Cup ticket to Germany, but the sore winners still filed a complaint with the CAF against the Equatorial Guinea squad with the same 'that's a man' charges aimed at Genevova and the Simpore sisters.

The complaint was dismissed by the Confederation of African Football, the continental governing body of football and FIFA, but enough blood was drawn by the constant Nigerian gender grousing to where the Simpore sisters were left off the Equatorial Guinea World Cup squad.

Genevova is still the captain of the team and played in the team's opening Group D l-0 loss against Norway.

But back to the latest drama surrounding the Super Phobes, oops the Super Falcons.  

38 year old Eucharia Uche, who played for the Super Falcons in the 2007 FIFA World Cup, became the first female coach of the women's national team in 2009 in the wake of the anger in Nigeria and Nigerian Football Federation concern over the poor 2008 AWC tournament performance.

But Uche's first trip to the FIFA Women's World Cup as the Super Falcon head coach is under a controversial cloud as she admitted that she purged suspected lesbian players off the team no matter what their talent level.  She also compounded it by admitting that she used her religious beliefs and religious doctrine in an attempt to 'rid her team of homosexual behavior' which she termed in a March 16, 2001 interview in Nigeria's Daily Sun paper as a 'dirty issue,' and 'spiritually, morally very wrong.'

Well, so how did the new 'moral' Super Falcons do?

They lost their opening Group A match to France 1-0 in a lackluster performance, and oh yeah, they still have group matches coming up against the back to back defending FIFA women's world champion Germany and the CONCACAF champs Canada.

Usually, I'm rooting for teams from the Mother Continent to do well in any international sporting event.   But in the case of the Super Phobes, I'm rooting for the karmic wheel to kick in.  May they get the results they  deserve in Group A play and a long depressing plane ride back home to Abuja with the quickness. 

2011 FIFA Women's World Cup Team USA Watch- Playing North Korea Today

The FIFA world Number one ranked Team USA women kick off FIFA Women's World Cup play with their Group C deja vu match in Dresden against North Korea.    Just in case you're wondering, it will be broadcast like all of the FIFA Women's World Cup action on ESPN.

The 2008 Olympic champions are facing questions as to whether this Pia Sundhage coached edition of Team USA has the right stuff to win their first FIFA world title since 1999.   In addition to goalkeeper Hope Solo's recovery from reconstructive shoulder surgery last September, they are adjusting to a European styled possession based attack that's less reliant on long balls.  That change in style may be a factor in why a team that has lost only four matches from 2005-2009 has dropped three matches since November and lost a closed scrimmage to Norway 3-1 just last week. 


Coach Sundhage isn't concerned, but nervous Team USA fans (myself included) are.  Recent history will guarantee the Team USA players or their fans will take the FIFA No. 8 ranked North Koreans lightly.  

In the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup that was held in China, Team USA opened up group play against the North Koreans and found themselves trailing 2-1 after the North Koreans scored two goals in the 58th and 60th minutes.   Heather O'Reilly saved Team USA from a shocking loss with her goal in the 69th minute that helped Team USA salvage a 2-2 draw.


That game later turned out to be critical to both teams qualifying out of Group B into the knockout round.

The 2011 edition of Team USA can help quell those queasy stomachs of their fans by playing a solid game today and getting a win to get off to a good start in this FIFA World Cup Tournament.  They are also aware that how they play in this match against the mystery team from North Korea will go a long way toward determining whether this team is perceived as a pretender or contender.

2011 FIFA Women's World Cup Starts Today

The 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup kicks off today and runs until July 17 with the hosts and defending FIFA world champion Germans taking on our Canadian neighbors in a Group A matchup in Berlin's Olympic Stadium  and Nigeria taking on France in another Group A match in Sinsheim.

For you fans on this side of The Pond, ESPN will be covering all the tournament action, and Team USA doesn't play its first Group C match until Tuesday when they take on North Korea in Dresden.

Of course, I'm going to be showing much love to the Team USA women and all the women footballers on these electronic pages as this tournament gets started and moves to the championship match in Frankfurt am Main on July 17.

I'm hoping my girls will be the ones holding the championship trophy aloft on that day, but there's several weeks worth of games to play before we get to that point.