2012 Team USA Women's Olympic Soccer Watch- On To The Semis

FIFA number one ranked Team USA went into this marquee soccer matchup against our southern neighbors with a lot on the line and much to prove. 

In addition to keeping their hopes for an Olympic threepeat alive, they came into this match against Mexico with the Group B title on the line. 

They also wanted to prove that Mexico's 2-1 upset win on November 10, 2010 in Cancun was just a bad day at the CONCACAF qualifying office.  

They did so in convincing fashion as Carli Lloyd scored the first of her three goals in this crucial match in the 7th minute and Heather O'Reilly followed up with another one a minute later to stake the USA to a 2-0 halftime lead they never relinquished.  

Any hope that Mexico had coming out of the locker room of getting back into the match died with Lloyd's second goal in the 57th minute that effectively sealed it.  She completed the hat trick in the 86th minute on a set piece play.

With the 4-0 win the USA clinched the Group B title while unapologetically piling up a +31 goal differential to do so.  They now reap the rewards of topping the group with a Friday semifinal matchup with FIFA number 41 ranked Group B runner up Costa Rica and a trip to London on the line.

The other semifinal at BC Place Stadium will feature the FIFA seventh ranked host Canadians and winners of Group A playing Mexico for the other CONCACAF Olympic berth.   

The anti-climactic tournament final will be played on Sunday.   

The USA women are now 11-0-1 in CONCACAF Olympic qualifying, 26-1-1 against Mexico, still has never lost a match on Canadian soil and are now 9-0-0 when playing in a domed stadium.  

But the most important game and streak for Team USA to maintain right now is the one that happens in the semifinals Friday against Costa Rica.

2012 Team USA Women's Olympic Soccer Watch- Another Crucial Showdown With Mexico

The Team USA women are 25-1-1 against our southern neighbors when it comes to playing soccer against Mexico.  

What's the lone loss?   It's one Team USA still hasn't forgotten.   It was a 2-1 Mexican win on November 10. 2010 during the CONCACAF Women's World Cup Qualifying Tournament in Cancun that not only clinched an automatic berth for them, but forced Team USA into the Third Place match vs Costa Rica and eventually a two leg playoff against Italy to become one of the last teams to qualify for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup.  

FIFA number one ranked Team USA has been on a ruthlessly efficient mission so far to make certain that no such slip ups happen in this qualifying tournament for the London Games.  They know that unlike the World Cup. if they falter in qualifying, they'll be sitting at home watching the Olympic tournament on TV instead of attempting to threepeat as Olympic champions.

They face off at BC Place in a highly anticipated Group B match against Mexico to determine who wins the group and plays Group A runner up Costa Rica in Friday's knockout semifinals to determine the CONCACAF reps for London.   The Group B runner up will play host nation Canada, who knocked off Costa Rica 5-1 last night at BC Place.

Team USA has never lost a game on Canadian soil, are 8-0-0 when playing in domed stadiums, have going into this match a 10-0-1 record in CONCAFAF Olympic Qualifiers and have blistered the nets with 27 goals in this tournament.   But FIFA number 21 ranked Mexico has scored 11 goals of their own in group play and ain't 'scurred' of the mighty USA.  

So throw those stats out tonight.   The last three USA-Mexico matches they have been determined by one goal margins, and much is riding on this one.
 

Karmic Wheel Catches Up With Eucharia Uche

Remember Eucharia Uche, the lesbophobic coach of the Nigerian Super Falcons Phobes who boasted about eliminating suspected lesbian players off her team?

The comments generated a firestorm of international criticism and earned Uche a June 29 chat with FIFA Director of Women's Competition's Tatjana Haenni to remind her about FIFA anti-discrimination policies.

After failing to get out of group play during last year's FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany her squad also failed to qualify for the 2012 London Games.

Nigeria has also been relentlessly attacking Equatorial Guinea ever since they upset them in 2008 and became a challenger to Nigerian dominance of African women's continental football.   They have been subjected to long and loud Nigerian transphobic gender griping and filed CAF and FIFA protests misgendering Equatorial Guinea players.  

It was an interesting 'things that make you go hmm' moment when Equatorial Guinea was ousted from the 2012 Olympic qualifying final due to a player eligibility issue and replaced by Cameroon.

Back in October Nigeria battled Cameroon to see who would join South Africa in representing the continent at this year's women's Olympic soccer tournament.

The Super Falcons won the first game of a two leg playoff in Abuja 2-1 but lost the return leg game on October 25 in Yaoundé by the same 2-1 score.  

The 3-3 aggregate score meant the London Olympic berth was decided by penalty kicks, and the Super Falcons subsequently lost the penalty kick shootout 4-3.  

That means for the first time since 2000 the Nigerian women's team will not be marching into an Olympic stadium and competing in the women's soccer tournament when the Games commence, which is unacceptable to Nigerian football fans. 

That failure combined with the Super Falcon failure to qualify for the 2011 All Africa Games tournament in Mozambique and their highly publicized failure at the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup led to Uche's dismissal by the Nigeria Football Federation as the national team head coach.


No word yet from the Nigeria Football Federation on who will replace Uche.  The decision will be made by the end of the month and has a wide international list of candidates of both genders, but the Super Falcons and women footballers in that nation are justifiably lobbying for another female coach to replace her. 

But for the Super Falcons anybody will be better than the controversial lesbophobe and former international player who excelled more in generating negative press than stacking international football wins and major tournament appearances.

And yeah, karma is a rhymes with itch isn't it?

2012 Team USA Women's Olympic Soccer Watch- Another Double Digit Win

It was a good news, bad news kind of day for the FIFA number one ranked Team USA women as they prepared to play their second Group B match in the 2012 CONCAFAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Vancouver.

The bad news is that Ali Krieger is out for the London Games with tears in her right MCL and ACL ligaments after a reckless tackle from Leonela Mojica sidelined her during the USA's 14-0 victory over the Dominican Republic.

The good news is we may have found Team USA's future striker in 21 year old Canadian born Sydney Leroux.  

Leroux jogged on to the BC Place pitch as a second half sub to scattered boos from Canadian fans frustrated over her decision to play internationally for Team USA.   

Leroux made the most of her homecoming as she scored five goals and helped Team USA clinch a trip to the semifinals of this 2012 edition of the CONCAFAF Women's Olympic Qualifying tournament with a 13-0 demolition of Guatemala. 


Unlike Friday's game against the Dominican Republic, it took Abby Wambach a little longer to score the opening goal in this match. 

Wambach didn't do so until the 12th minute and followed it up with her second tally a mere three minutes later for a 2-0 USA lead. Ten minutes later Lauren Cheney scored to put the USA up 3-0 enroute to a 6-0 halftime lead. 

Amy Rodriguez in the 29th minute, Carli Lloyd in the 33rd minute and Lori Lindsey in the 34th minute were the other first half goal scorers.

Vancouver born Leroux's five goals were scored in the 48th, 50th, 57th, 70th and 87th minutes with Megan Rapinoe adding one in the 75th and Alex Morgan in the 83rd minute.

The win clinched a trip to the qualifying tournament semifinals for Team USA, stretched their CONCAFAF Olympic qualifying record to 10-0-1 and also kept their remarkable streak alive of never losing a game on Canadian soil.  It also means they lock up the Group B title with a win or draw against Mexico on Tuesday thanks to a ginormous +27 goal differential.  

FIFA number 21 ranked Mexico beat the Dominican Republic 7-0 to stay unbeaten in Group B and build their goal differential to +11.  It also sets up the much anticipated January 24 showdown between the two nations to determine who wins the group.

In Group A FIFA number 7 ranked Canada and Costa Rica have dominated with the host nation holding a +8 goal differential over Costa Rica's +4. 

They will battle each other later tonight to determine who wins Group A with  Canada clinching if they win or draw.  The second place team has to play the Group B champ in the January 27 knockout round semifinals.
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The surviving semifinal winners get the two CONCAFAF qualifying spots for the 2012 Olympic women's soccer tournament and play for the title on January 29.

Everybody else goes home and starts plotting and planning for the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup Qualifying and the 2016 Olympics.