2013 Williams Watch-End Of The Aussie Open Title Chases

The title chases for the Williams sisters Down Under came to a screeching halt in the Australian Open quarterfinals.

In doubles, Big and Little Sis fell to the Italian duo of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci 6-3, 6-7 (5-7) 5-7 to end their chance to take home their fifth Australian Open doubles crown.. 

Then a few hours later Serena faced rising newcomer Sloane Stephens with a trip to the semis to take on Victoria Azarenka in the balance.

In the first set looked like Little Sis was going to send the 19 year old fellow American to the sidelines, taking only 29 minutes to win the first set 6-3.   But after opening up a 2-0 lead in the second set Stephens began to fight back and live up to her growing rep as 'the next Serena'.   She chased down shots and frequently made successful foray to the net for drop shop winners that kept her in the set and gave her chances to break Serena's serve.

Stephens caught another break with Little Sis leading 4-3 in the second set when Serena suffered a back spasm while trying to avoid running into the net. 

The injury basically took away Serena's formidable serve for several games and allowed Stephens to pounce on it, climb back into the match and take the second set.

Serena started recovering from the back spasm in the third set but by that point young Stephens wasn't intimidated by her idol and stayed close until she broke Serena again for the deciding set win. 

6-3, 5-7, 4-6.  It was the first loss for Serena in a Grand Slam since the 2012 French Open, ended her chance at another Serena Slam, and was the first time she's lost to an American teenage tennis player since 1999.

And for the haters gloating about this loss, all I have to say about it is remember what happened the last time Serena lost in a Grand Slam tournament.   She won Wimbledon, the Olympics and the US Open.

See y'all in Paris in May.. 

2013 Williams Watch-On To The Third Round

The first week of the 2013 Australian Open continues with my fave tennis playing siblings still kicking butt and taking names in women's singles.

Both won their second round matches in straight sets with Venus taking 77 minutes to complete her straight set 6-3, 6-3 victory over France's Alize Cornet and Serena taking 75 minutes in her straight set 6-2, 6-0 demolition of Garbine Muguruza of Spain to move on to the third round.

While Serena will be taking on Ayumi Morita of Japan in her third round singles match, Venus will have her work cut out for her when she takes on number 2 seed Maria Sharapova of Russia.

The first round of the Australian Open women's doubles competition finally got cranked up with Little and Big Sis taking on the duo of Camila Giorgi of Italy and Stefanie Voegle of Switzerland.

As in the singles competition, the Williams sisters made quick work of their first round doubles opponents, taking only 70 minutes to handle their tennis business with a 6-3, 6-1 straight set win. . 

They move on to a second round doubles match with the duo of  Vera Dushevina of Russia and Olga Gorvortsova of Bulgaria

2013 Williams Watch- Australian Open Starts Today

Another tennis season is about to start with the first Grand Slam tournament of the year in the 2013 Australian Open and yep, my fave tennis playing siblings are in it to win it as the haters continue to hate..

It starts today on our side of the International Date line (Monday) in Melbourne and runs through January 26..

Serena finished 2012 on a Grand Slam roll in taking 'Williams'-don, the Olympic singles gold medal and the US Open and teaming with big sis Venus in taking the Wimbledon doubles and defending the Olympic doubles gold medal they won in Beijing. 

Serena starts off the chase for a 2013 calendar year Grand Slam in the best shape of her career, is seeded number 3 in the women's singles tournament and won the Brisbane International warm up tournament earlier this month without dropping a set .  Little Sis starts her quest for her sixth Australian Open title with a first round match against Edina Gallovits-Hall of Romania

Venus starts this 2013 Australian Open in pursuit of her first ever title seeded 25 and with a first round match against Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan.   She made it to the 2003 final but lost 6-7(4-7), 6-3, 4-6 to Little Sis. 

And yes haters, the Williams sisters are playing doubles in this tournament.  They are seeded number 12 on the doubles side and in pursuit of their fifth Aussie Open double crown and first since 2010.  They will take on in their opening round doubles match Camila Giorgi of Italy and Stefanie Voegle of Switzerland 

So good luck ladies, and may y'all have long deep runs in the singles and doubles tournaments. 

2012 Williams Watch-Whew! US Open Champ

In her run to the final Serena Williams had rolled through this 2012 US open tournament without dropping a set and losing only a total of 19 games.

Serena was facing an opponent in 2012 Australian Open champ Victoria Azarenka she has a 9-1 record against including the Olympic tennis tournament semifinals last month.

Another US Open women's final blowout in the making, right?   Um, that's not quite how it played out.

When Little Sis breezed through the opening set in just 34 minutes it looked like the rout was on.   But unfortunately in this match Little Sis wasn't on her usual A+ game.  She was hitting more unforced errors (45) than she was hitting winners (44) and Azarenka was doing enough on her end to stay in the match and take the second set. 

Yep, this US Open women's final was a three set affair for the first time since 1995.   World number one ranked Azarenka played well enough in this match to where she was up 5-3 in the third set and two points away from the US Open title.  

But you don't win all those major titles Little Sis has without having some serious intestinal fortitude and having the ability to win matches when you're down.  Serena rallied back to win that game and the next three to win it 6-2, 2-6, 7-5

Little Sis captured her fourth US Open title, her first since 2008 and the 15th Grand Slam title of her career to put her in striking range of catching Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert who have both won 18 majors.

She capped an amazing summer of tennis which included the 2012 'Williams'-don singles and doubles titles, the gold medals in single and doubles at the London Games and now the US  Open singles title.  And did I mention Little Sis got handed a check for $1.9 million for her two weeks of work at Flushing Meadow?

She's the champ once again even if she wasn't playing her best tennis Sunday.  Deal with it, Williams sisters haters, the check and the trophy have her name on it and she's climbing up the tennis ranking charts once again. 

And oh yeah, the 2013 Australian Open  is from January 14-27. 

 

2012 Olympics Watch-The Drive For Five Is Golden!

The USA women's ballers used a devastating 19-0 third period run to blow the gold medal game wide open and cruise to a comfortable 86-50 win over France and their fifth straight gold medal since 1996..

It was also their 41st consecutive win in Olympic competition dating back to the bronze medal game of the 1992 Barcelona Games, with the last time the USA lost on the women's side being to the Unified Team AKA Russia in the semifinals.

While I'm happy to see the sustained excellence of the USA women, I worry that the IOC will yank the sport out of the Olympic program for the same reason they pulled softball because we're dominating it. 

Hey world, all I have to say on that is ramp up your level of play like we've had to do in the sports you dominate.  .    

2012 Olympic Watch-Semenya Gets 800m Silver

I was eagerly watching along with the rest of the world the women's Olympic 800m final race to see if now 21 year old Caster Semenya's drama would end with a golden result. 

Alas it didn't.

She was dead last for 600m of the race and waited a little too long to start her finishing kick and ended up with the silver medal behind Russia's Mariya Savinova in a time of 1:57:23.   Defending Olympic champ Pamela Jelimo of Kenya faded badly down the strtch and finished fourth.

The tactics she use in this race has led to speculation by BBC commentator Colin Jackson that she's holding back in order to not win races in dominating fashion, and avoid a repeat of the international drama that sidelined her for 10 months after the 2009 world championship victory.   .

Atlanta Olympian Michael Johnson disagreed with Jackson's theory on Semenya's motivation.


"Why would she prepare and come here and not want to win? She showed in 2009 she was a fighter. I am not buying that. I don't see that in Semenya," Johnson said.

I'm not buying that either.   But damn, Semenya is damned if she does and damned if she doesn't win big.  

What I was happy to hear is that Semenya's coach is now the great Olympian Maria Mutola of Mozambique, who faced her own gender drama back in the day as well.

And yes, there's Rio four years from now.     

2012 Olympics Watch-40.82!

For American track fans, winning the 4x100 and 4x400 relays in an Olympics or World Championships is like winning the gold medal in basketball.

It's expected due to the long and distinguished history in these events on both the men's and women's sides..   

The USA women prior to 2000 had won the 4x100 relay nine of the 16 times the event had been held with the last win being in the 1996 Atlanta Games.

During the Sydney Games a relay team featuring gold medal winner Marion Jones had to settle for bronze because of a sloppy second exchange between Torri Edwards and Nanceen Perry.

In Athens in 2004, they bungled the second exchange again and failed to finish because Lauryn Williams started too early and Jones passed her the baton beyond the legal zone. 

And in Beijing the buzzard's luck for the women's 4x100 relay team continued.  They didn't even make the final because they failed to finish in their qualifying heat.

Track fans in the States were getting restless with the miscues and the gold medal drought in one of the events we consider a signature one for our Olympic track teams of either gender. 

The drought ended in resounding fashion last night.   Not only did the USA quartet of Tianna Madison, Allyson Felix, Bianca Knight and Carmelita Jeter win gold, they beat their Jamaican rivals in a resounding world record setting time of 40.82 seconds.

They took out the 41.37 record set in 1985 by East Germany and also took out the East German 1988 Olympic record in the process.


Great job ladies.   Now how about an encore in Rio?

2012 Olympics Watch-Semenya To 800m Finals

I've been keeping up with the saga of Caster Semenya of South Africa over the years, and hoped that all the gender drama they took her through after her surprise world championship in 2009 would be avenged by an Olympic gold medal in London.

She's on the verge of making that happen.   She won her 800m semifinal heat in a time of 1:57:67 to put her in Saturday's final that will include defending Beijing gold medalist Pamela Jelimo of Kenya, who won her semifinal as well.
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"I'm very happy to get through to the finals," Semenya said. "It was very hard, but I tried my best. I just have to go to my bed."

It was wonderful to see her carry the South African flag during the opening ceremonies.  I hope she gets to top that honor by standing on the top step of the victory platform receiving a gold medal tomorrow.

Good luck Caster!

2012 Olympics Watch-This Time It's For The Gold Medal

The last time Japan and Team USA clashed with a title on the line it was during the the 2011 Women's World Cup final in Frankfurt, Germany.   Japan was recovering from the March earthquake and  tsunami that devastated the northeastern part of the country, and the Nadeshiko Japan rode that wave of international goodwill and determined play to go on a World Cup run that ended with a stunning penalty kick shootout win over Team USA and the FIFA world title..   

It's a year later, and the stage is now a sold out Wembley Stadium and the Olympic Final.   Once again it's Japan and Team USA battling for women's soccer supremacy, and once again the USA comes into the match with the history on their side.   They have won four out of the five Olympic titles since women's soccer became part of the Olympic program in 1996 and are working on a gold medal threepeat .

They also have bitter memories of that loss in Germany and want to atone for it.

"It's definitely redemption," said Carli Lloyd. But it's also opportunity to show that we're the No. 1 team in the world. This game is going to be different. We're a different team. Japan's a different team, and we're ready to bring it."

FIFA world champion Japan wants to make more history and prove their penalty kick shootout win over  the FIFA women's world number one ranked team USA wasn't a one hit wonder.

We'll find out at 1 PM CDT which team takes home the gold.  (Stop hatin', Canada)
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2012 Olympics Watch-USA Advances To Gold Medal Match In Controversial Semifinal

The USA has pretty much owned the international soccer border war with Canada throughout our time playing the beautiful game on the women's side.  

But the 500th match for Team USA is guaranteed to be a memorable one for many reasons on both sides of the border.

The USA entered today's semifinal match at Old Trafford with history and momentum on their side.  They had never failed to reach an Olympic final since women's soccer was added to Games sports calendar in 1996, and the Americans hadn't lost to Canada since 2001.   They were unbeaten in this 2012 Olympic tournament and Hope Solo had posted three shutouts since the opening 4-2 comeback win over France.  
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But the lure of Thursday's gold medal match at Wembley Stadium added additional fuel to the desire for the Canadians to end their 11 year losing streak to Team USA.

Christine Sinclair put the Canadian team on her back and carried them for the initial 90 minutes.  She had a hat trick in this one after failing to score in the last six contests against Team USA with goals in the 22nd, 67th and 78th minutes, but Team USA has a refuse to lose mentality.  

Every time she scored, the USA answered it with two from Megan Rapinoe in the 54th and 70th minute and a controversial penalty kick goal from Abby Wambach in the 80th minute..

Referee Christina Pedersen had warned McLeod for time wasting earlier in the match and finally penalized her with a whistle for unsportsmanlike conduct, giving the USA an indirect free-kick a couple yards inside the penalty area. Tobin Heath tapped the free kick to the right and Carli Lloyd took a right-footed shot that hit Nault’s arm. Pederson did not hesitate to point to the spot.  Wambach calmly placed the penalty kick to the left side of the net past the diving McLeod for her 143rd international goal and a 3-3 tie..

The stage was then set for Alex Morgan's sheroics, but not after some nervous moments for both teams in overtime. 

In the 123rd minute with the game looking like it was headed for the first ever penalty kick shootout Morgan with seconds left in the third and final minute of stoppage time rose over defender Chelsea Stewart to meet a cross from Heather O’Reilly and loop her header over Canadian goalkeeper Erin McLeod's desperate outstretched arm to seal a historic victory.

“For some reason we like to make things dramatic. I’m really happy that Alex Morgan is on my team. This team doesn’t give up" said Abby Wambach.  "This is what we’re about. This is what we’ve been working for since the day we lost to Japan in the World Cup final. We know that it’s not going to be easy. We didn’t anticipate a game like this, but we’re willing to deal with whatever is thrown at us. I’m so thankful that people kept believing in us, that we kept believing in ourselves. We stuck with it until the end.”

Nope, it wasn't but Team USA is about to get what they came to London for, a shot at redemption versus the FIFA world champions.   On Thursday the US gets a chance to avenge the 2011 Women's World Cup final against Japan while a bitterly disappointed Canadian team moves on to play France for the bronze medal.   

2012 Olympic Watch-Marlen Esparza Starts Boxing For Gold Today

I'm keeping up with my Houston area homeboys and homegirls who are involved in the London Games, and one of the people I'm most interested in seeing is 23 year old boxer Marlen Esparza from Pasadena.

She a trailblazer in her own right in terms of not only being part of the first ever USA women's Olympic boxing team, but being the first Latina athlete to have a Cover Girl endorsement.   She's also appearing in commercials for McDonald's, Coca-Cola and other brands.

She was not only interviewed for a recent Vogue magazine article, but was also one of the people featured in CNN's most recent episode of Latino In America. 

And yeah, did I mention that Marlen is all that in the boxing ring as well?   She's a five time national champion with a 69–2 record and has been ranked number one in her weight class since she was 16.  The 97% of her fights she has won is higher than the 93% winning percentage of Muhammad Ali (88-9) and Floyd Mayweather, Jr.(84–6) and the 89% Mike Tyson compiled with his 48–6 amateur record.

The birthday girl (July 29) is ready for the first ever women's Olympic boxing tournament to start.  She will compete in the 51kg flyweight classification and had to gain six pounds to do so. 

She did secure one of the tournament byes and went straight to the quarterfinal round.  She will await the winner of the match between Brazil's Erica Matos and Venezuela's Karlha Maglioccio and hopefully being a historic run to the first ever women's flyweight Olympic gold medal.

 

2012 Olympic Watch-Serena's Golden!

Just finished watching Little Sis blitz Russia's Maria Sharapova 6-0, 6-1 in a little over an hour to capture the 2012 Olympic women's singles gold medal.  

Serena not only didn't drop a set in this golden run to the singles title at the All England Club, she only lost 17 games total while doing so. 

Serena also made a little history in the process.  Little Sis is the first female player ever to achieve the career Golden Slam in singles and doubles.

The Golden Slam is winning all four major tennis tournaments plus winning an Olympic singles gold medal.  To recap, Serena just picked up her singles gold in London, and is on track with Big Sis to possibly win doubles gold.   She and Big Sis won doubles gold in 2000 and 2008.

Speaking of the London Olympic doubles tournament, my fave tennis playing siblings will take on the Russian duo of  Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova in the semifinals of the women's doubles tournament, with the winners challenging the Czech Republic's duo of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka in the gold-medal match.

They beat Hlavackova and Hradecka a few weeks ago for their 'Williams'-don doubles title, and the way Serena is playing right now I have no doubts should they get past the Russian duo they will do so again.

But you still have to platy the matches.

Congrats Serena.  If anyone doubted (or hated on the fact) that you are one of the greatest tennis players of all time, they don't have much of an argument any more.

TransGriot Update:  Serena and Venus are in tomorrow's doubles final after beating Kirilenko and Petrova in straight sets 7-5, 6-4.

2012 Olympic Watch-Gabby's History Making Golden Moment

When the 'Magnificent Seven' were on their way to winning the women's team gymnastics gold medal during the 1996 Atlanta Games, one of the members of that gold medal winning squad was Dominique Dawes who four years later at Sydney won bronze.

Dawes became the first African-American gymnast to win a Summer Games gold medal and in the process became a role model and an inspiration to a generation of African-American girls who dreamed of gymnastics glory similar to what she'd experienced.

One of the girls she inspired to dream and reach for Olympic greatness was one from Virgina Beach,.VA named Gabrielle Douglas.

In order to pursue that dream, she moved away from home at age 14 to train in West Des Moines, IA under 2008 Olympic silver medalist Shawn Johnson's coach Liang Chow.   She came close to quitting during one low point in her journey that her sister Arielle talked her out of doing.

It's a good thing she did.  Two years later Gabby's Olympic gymnastics dreams have become a reality during this one magical week in London.  

One part of that dream came true in her leading the 2012 gold medal winning USA women's gymnastics team that will forever be known as the 'Fab Five' that won the team title Tuesday by a remarkable five point margin. 

The Fab Five lived up to the pre-Olympic hype and beat the Sports Illustrated cover jinx as well as their competition with a 183.596 score while Russia finished second with a 178.503.

Gabby then proceeded to handle her all around competition business Thursday at the North Greenwich Arena.   She beat out her Russian competitors Victoria Komova and her teammate Aliya Mustafina who took the silver and bronze medals.

www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/03/2928618/gabby-douglas-wins-gymnastics.html#storylink=cpy

With the golden win Gabby made history.   She became not only the first African-American gymnast to win the Olympic all around gold medal, she became the first American gymnast ever to win both the team and all around gold medals in the same Olympic games.     .

Her name joins Mary Lou Retton (1984), Carly Patterson (2004) and Nastia Liukin (2008) as USA Olympic all around champions.
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And somewhere in this nation of ours a little African-American girl watched this event like she did back in 1996 and is now thinking about replicating what Gabby Douglas did today at a future Olympic games.

I sure hope so.

 

2012 Olympic Watch-USA Women's Vollyballers Beat China

The number one world ranked USA women's volleyball team has embarked on a mission in which no USA women's Olympic volleyball team has gone before:  Getting to the top step of the medal podium.

Team USA clinched a spot in the quarterfinals after beating number 3 world ranked China in Group B play in straight sets 26-24, 25-16, 31-29. in a battle of Group B unbeaten teams.

Destinee Hooker did much of the damage scoring 22 points wit Megan Hodge added 18 points to help them go to 3-0 in pool play with matches remaining against 0-3 Serbia on August 3 and 1-2 Turkey on August 5.

If Team USA wins their remaining two matches, they would finish at the top of the group and would face the number 4 team from Group A in their opening knockout quarterfinal match..

2012 Olympic Watch-USA Women's Teams Continue To Win

In this Olympic Games which is being contested during the 40th anniversary year of Title IX, it's been interesting to note how well the USA women's team sports are doing vis a vis their male counterparts.  

This is the first ever USA Olympic team that has more female than male competitors, and one of the reasons for it was there were American women's teams that qualified for field hockey and soccer and our men's teams fell short of doing so.

That's a nice segue into doing some updates on how the various women's team sports are doing.  

The USA women's soccer team clinched Group G with a 1-0 over North Korea at Manchester United's  iconic home park of Old Trafford thanks to Abby Wambach's 141st international goal in the 25th minute and her seventh in Olympic play.   It was the first women's soccer match played there in 23 years and going into the match Team USA already had their August 3 quarterfinal spot clinched due to their two wins over France and Colombia    It was just a matter of whether they would do so as group champs or the runner ups..

They will play New Zealand in Newcastle in that quarterfinal knockout round match Friday. 

At 'The Mattress', AKA the Basketball Arena the USA women rolled to a 90-38 win over Angola to go to 2-0 in Group A play and take their Olympic winning streak to 35 games. 

The Angolans stayed close to Team USA in the first quarter and were only trailing by 10 points until Team USA went on a 11-0 run that broke the game open along with holding Angola to only six points in the second quarter to take a 41-18 halftime lead.

Team USA outscored Angola 28-11 in the third quarter thanks to 8-0 and 12-0 runs and by the time they reached the 4:06 mark all eleven available players had scored.  Sylvia Fowles didn't play in this game and next up is Turkey at 4:15 PM CDT.

Over at Earl's Court, the USA women's volleyball team is still rolling along unbeaten in Pool B play as well.  They knocked off number 2 ranked Brazil in four sets 25-18, 25-17, 22-25, 25-21 to go 2-0 in pool play and now face number 3 ranked and unbeaten 2-0 China for the outright lead.   

2012 Olympics Watch-USA Women's B-Ballers Take On Angola

The USA women's basketball team gets their second Group A game at the Basketball Arena that has been dubbed 'The Mattress' (for the way it looks from the outside) when they take on Angola later today.

While the Angolan men have long been dominant on the FIBA Afrobasket scene and perennial Olympic qualifiers, they surprisingly didn't make it to London this year, but the Angolan women did. . 

This is the first ever international competition ever for the Angolan women, and they will have their hands full trying to play with the four time defending gold medalists and the FIBA world number one ranked USA squad coming off a sloppy (for them) win on Saturday versus a scrappy Croatia squad.

That means look out, Team USA will probably be focused from the opening tipoff of this game.

Team USA will be focused on the tasks of keeping  their Olympic win streak alive and stretching it to 35 consecutive wins since the 1996 Atlanta Games, keep an unblemished record in Group A play, and making sure they improve on Saturday's game.

Should be fun to watch at 4:15 CDT to see if they accomplish all three tasks.

2012 Olympics Watch-Great Day For USA Women's Olympic Sports Teams

Saturday was the first official day of competition of the 2012 London Games and to paraphrase an old Ice Cube rap song, today was a good day for the USA's women's Olympic sports teams. 

The USA women's basketball team started on the road to a fifth consecutive gold medal by getting Group A pool play started in the Basketball Arena with an 81-56 win over a scrappy Croatia team that has been zooming up the FIBA basketball rankings lately.

Croatia trailed 11-4 after the first quarter but sloppy USA play, early shooting woes and turnovers kept Croatia close.  Croatia started lighting it up from three point range in the second quarter after attempting and failing to score inside and were rewarded with a shockingly brief second quarter lead and visions of a ginormous upset dancing in their heads until Diana Taurasi launched back to back threes of her own that gave Team USA a narrow 31-28 halftime lead.

Team USA went to work expanding that narrow lead to a six point cushion by the end of the third quarter thanks to Angel McCoughtry coming off the bench to provide an offense and defensive spark.

A 16-0 fourth quarter run secured their 34th consecutive win in Olympic b-ball play since the 1996 Atlanta Games.   Next up is Angola, and you can bet Team USA will be ready for that game.

While the USA roundballers were getting their Olympic pool play wakeup call,  the Team USA soccer players were in Glasgow, Scotland's Hampden Park playing in a rough and tumble match with a scrappy Colombia that featured 30 fouls and goals from Megan Rapinoe, Abby Wambach and Carli Lloyd.

Wambach's goal in the 74th minute was her 140th career international one and her sixth in Olympic play to pass Mia Hamm and Tiffeny Milbrett on the USA all time Olympic goal scoring list.

The had fought 3-0 win guaranteed that Team USA would make it to the quarterfinals, and they can capture Group G with a win or draw against North Korea at Old Trafford in Manchester, England on July 31.

The world number one ranked USA women's indoor volleyball team is attempting to win our first ever Olympic gold medal.  

They got their Olympic tournament started at Earl's Court in a positive manner with a 3-1 Group B win over South Korea and a dominating performance by Destinee Hooker.  

Team USA took the first two sets by 25-19 and 25-17 scores before the South Koreans clawed their way back into the match by taking the third set 25-20.  Team USA regrouped and with the score at 15-14 in that fourth set went on a 7-1 run to take a 22-15 lead to put them on the way to clinching the set and eventually a hard fought 25-21 win  


Their next Group B match will be on July 30 against number two world ranked Brazil.  Like Team USA, Brazil is considered a gold medal favorite and have been traditionally strong in the sport.   Brazil held the FIVB number one world ranking for four years until the USA took it over at the end of 2011.

After the July 30th volleyball tussle with Brazil Team USA has matches remaining with China, Serbia and Turkey and must finish in the top four teams in their group to move on to the medal round.

But Saturday was a great step in the right direction for the USA women volleyballers and the other USA women's team sports that have gold medal dreams.
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USA Women's B-Ballers Playing For Respect

The USA women's basketball team has won four consecutive gold medals, is ranked number one in the FIBA world rankings, are the FIBA world champions, have won 33 straight games in Olympic competition going back to the 1996 Atlanta Games are heavily favored to take an unprecedented fifth one here in London but get no love at home compared to the men.

But on the TransGriot electronic pages, they will.

"I think it's funny," Diana Taurasi said. "We're a team that's won four gold medals in a row and yet we're still fighting for respect in our own country. I think it's a little sad. That's a heck of a motivator for all of us in the gym. Our level is so high, it becomes normal and even to the public `it's they should win the gold medal. If they don't it's a terrible year."

USA Head Coach Geno Auriemma also wants to make it a big deal

"If we win another gold medal it's not going to be a huge story," he said in an ESPN interview. "I want to make it a huge story because the respect that Dee's talking about that these kids deserve for having done what they've done and been able to do it the way they do it should be appreciated. Greatness should be appreciated and not taken for granted.

"People take us for granted."

Some US fans may take a 'ho hum, they're supposed to win' attitude toward the women ballers, but their opponents definitely don't.  They get their opponents A game every time they play, and they still since 1996 have only had one team come within single digits of them during this historic run.

The Team USA average margin of victory during this streak has been 29 points, and the only blemish in international competition since 1996 was a 75-68 semifinal loss in the 2006 FIBA Women's World Championships in Brazil against Russia

This team is also experienced.  It's funny to think of Maya Moore, Asjha Jones, Tina Charles, Lindsay Whalen and Angel McCoughtry as rookies on this 2012 Olympic squad but that's exactly what they are since this is their first Olympics even though they have years of international basketball playing time under their belts.

For example, Maya Moore has been involved in USA basketball since she was 17, and has won international titles as a member of the FIBA U-19, World University Games, and FIBA world championship teams.  Now she gets an opportunity to add an Olympic gold medal to that list.

You also add these Olympic rookies to a team that has veteran Olympic ballers such as Sylvia Fowles, Seimone Augustus, Sue Bird, Swin Cash, Tamika Catchings, Diana Taurasi and Candace Parker and it's going to be a fun one to watch.

They start Olympic Group A play July 28 against a Croatian team that has been surging in the FIBA women's ranking lately, then face Angola on Monday, July 30, Turkey on Wednesday, August 1, a 2010 FIBA world championship game rematch with the Czech Republic on August 3 and close out group play on
Sunday, August 5 with China.

The Drive For Five and the respect of the American sporting public begins after the Olympic flame is lit.later today.

2012 Olympics Watch-Team USA 4-2 Comeback Win!

The 2012 women's Olympic soccer tournament started play today with the defending Olympic champions facing off in a Group G match against France, the nation all our conservafools love to hate in Glasgow, Scotland.

They had more reasons to hate after the first 14 minutes.  A sluggish, nervous start led to scores from Gaetane Thiney in the 12th minute and Marie-Laure Delie two minutes later that put Team USA in an 0-2 hole.

This was not a good sign for those of us who have watched Team USA in Olympic play over the years because they had never come back to win from an 0-2 deficit.


After the French wake-up call was delivered, Team USA struck back in the 19th minute with an Abby Wambach goal off a Megan Rapinoe corner kick to begin the comeback and Alex Morgan sprinting to catch up to a long Hope Solo punt that led to the tying goal at the 32 minute mark.

It was broken open in the 58th minute by Carli Lloyd's blast that rocketed past French goalkeeper Sarah Bouhaddi and found the back of the net.   Alex Morgan scored again in the 66th minute on a open net tap-in to cap the comeback, get three valuable points and the 4-2 win against their toughest opponent in the group.

Team USA plays Colombia on Saturday before finishing Group G play against North Korea on July 31. 

2012 Olympics Watch-US Women's Soccer Team Starts Play

The opening ceremonies for the London Games aren't until Friday, but the FIFA world number one ranked US Women's national soccer team begins their quest for an Olympic threepeat at 12 noon EDT.

In case you're wondering TransGriot readers how the USA women's team has done in Olympic opening matches, they are 3-1-0 all time. 

The USA defeated Denmark 3-0 in their first Atlanta Olympic match in 1996 and eventually won gold in the inaugural women's Olympic soccer tournament.  Four years later they defeated Norway 2-0 in their first Sydney 2000 match but lost the rematch in the gold medal match in sudden death overtime 3-2.   In 2004 they defeated host Greece 3-0 in their first game in Athens to began another gold medal run.   In 2008 Team USA dropped their first Beijing match 2-0 to Norway, but still went on to win the group and eventually the gold medal over Brazil in the final..

They take the pitch at Hampden Park in Glasgow, Scotland in their opening Group G match against FIFA number 6 ranked France in their first ever meeting in Olympic competition.  

It's also the first ever match France has played in Olympic women's competition and will probably have revenge on their minds.  Team USA beat France 3-1 in last year's FIFA Women's World Cup semifinal in Germany and have a 12-0-1 all time record against France.   

The match will be telecast on the NBC Sports Network and the NBC Olympic Soccer Channel and if you're not near a television right now you can follow the match via ussoccer.com’s MatchTracker and on Twitter @ussoccer_wnt

Following today's match against France, the US Women's national team continues Group G play against Colombia at 12 PM EDT on Saturday, July 28, at Hampden Park and will then travel to Old Trafford in Manchester, England to face North Korea at 12:15 PM EDT on Tuesday, July 31.