posted
I'm watching the opening of the US's game against North Korea right now. While they play the national anthems, two things strike me: the US team has a lot of beautiful women and the Korean players all have the exact same haircut. Kinda creepy.
I'm not a stats person, so I can't give you hard facts, but North Korea is supposed to be pretty good this year and the US is still the perennial favorite. So it should be a good game. It better be. I'll only have about 3 1/2 hours of sleep between the game and getting up for work. I napped this afternoon.
Back in the 1999 World Cup, I couldn't be home to watch the final game, so my my mom and sister promised to tape it for me. I refused to let anyone spoil the results for me. As I started watching the game, my sister apologized. I watched the scoreless 90min of regular time and both scoreless overtimes. Then, just as they cut to commercial before the famous penalty kicks, the tape cut out.
Ooh, the keeper (US - I don't know her name) just made a great stop on a breakaway. I love watching the keepers work.
I know I can't be the only soccer fan here. Anybody else staying up late/getting up early to watch?
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In the first 17min since halftime, the game has exploded. First, Abby Wambach scored with a short-range blast on goal. The North Korean keeper got a hand on the ball but couldn't deflect it enough. A few minutes later, Wambach knocked heads with an opposing player and had to come off the field bleeding.
North Korea took immediate advantage and scored on a shot that slipped through our keeper's hands. She should have had it, but everything is so wet out there it's almost understandable. Then North Korea scored again on a mess in the goal box.
Wambach - the US's top scorer - just got back in the game, but this is dangerous territory for the US. They're not used to being behind.
At least it's not boring.
Edit: WE SCORED!! A gorgeous upper-right corner shot by Heather O'Reilly. 2-2 with 20+ min left.
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posted
Three minutes into injury time (in soccer, time is added onto the end of the game instead of stopping the clock during the game) and North Korea just had two very close calls on goal.
Game Over. 2-2.
This is dangerous for the US. The first round of the World Cup is round robin in groups of four. #1 US, #3 Sweden, and #5 North Korea are all in the same group. Only two of them can move on to the quarterfinals. Beyond that, whoever comes in second in the group will most likely play Germany, ranked #2, in the quarterfinals. The quarterfinals on up are all single-elimination.
Now for a nap before work.
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posted
I think that if it's a tie after 90 minutes, they should break out the weapons and duel to the death.
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posted
Are the Hatrackers who are watching this men or women? I at least don't know many men who watch women's sports. Maybe the situation is different in this case because we don't have much soccer of any type on TV in the U.S.
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quote:Originally posted by Omega M.: Are the Hatrackers who are watching this men or women? I at least don't know many men who watch women's sports. Maybe the situation is different in this case because we don't have much soccer of any type on TV in the U.S.
Women play sports? Huh... learn something new every day...
Well, for what it's worth, Women's Beach Volleyball was the most watched sport in the last Summer Olympics, so I guess it all depends on the presentation.
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quote:Originally posted by Omega M.: Are the Hatrackers who are watching this men or women? I at least don't know many men who watch women's sports. Maybe the situation is different in this case because we don't have much soccer of any type on TV in the U.S.
I watch women's sports (not soccer though). I watch college softball, US National Team softball, college volleyball, and AVP volleyball.
CSTV is a great source for most of the college stuff. Plus, I can usually catch some good games when the come to Tulsa University.
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posted
Yeah, but I don't watch women's beach volleyball because I know I'd be doing so just to look at the players. Besides, I know full well there's probably no reason for them to dress any differently from the male players.
I do watch women's gymnastics and figure skating, and a good portion of my interest comes from the beauty of the competitors. But those are more like artistic dance routines in which someone gets judged best in show than actual sports (though of course you have to be very athletic to perform in them), and the beauty of the motion itself also interests me.
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posted
It's not that I don't care about Women's soccer but soccer in general. I do hope they do well and will follow their progress as I watch SportsCenter in the mornings.
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Soccer and rugby are the only sports I make an effort to watch. Unfortunately, I have only seen rugby on TV once. There's even less of a market for it in the US than soccer.
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posted
US beat Sweden 2-0 this morning. Almost surprising, since Sweden outplayed the US for most of the first half. I thought that was the end of the World Cup for us. I fell asleep halfway into the 2nd half, so can't really comment on that (it was late!).
The first goal was of off a well-deserved penalty kick. Sweden was lucky it wasn't a red card. It wouldn't have happened at all if the Swedish keeper didn't make a major miscalculation off a bounce.
The second goal was gorgeous. Wambach trapped a cross with her chest and put it in with her left foot off one bounce. Pretty. She also scored the penalty kick, btw.
Now, the US only needs to tie Nigeria to advance. A win would be better, though, as it would likely allow them to avoid Germany in the quarterfinals. (Germany beat Argentina 11-0 in their opening game.)
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posted
I don't know if anyone cares, but after beating Nigeria (1-0) to win their group and beating England (3-0) in the quarterfinals, the US lost to Brazil (0-4) in the semifinals. Next, they play Norway for third place. The final will be between Brazil and Germany.
The first half of the Brazil game looked like a good, tough, game. In the second half, the US just broke down. Watching the game was almost painful. The Brazillian play was beautiful, they made the US look like amateurs. And the US players didn't do much to refute that.
I suppose it's good for women's soccer on the world stage - that the US is no longer so dominant. Still, it is possible to lose without looking like losers. I hope the US comes out in full force for the third-place match, to redeem themselves a bit.
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US beat Norway for third place, 4-1. If they had played like that against Brazil, it would have been a fun game to watch. Though I think Brazil would have still won.
The Germany/Brazil game was great to watch. Both teams played so well. I was rooting for Brazil the whole way through. They play so pretty. And it's better to be beaten by the champions than by 2nd place.
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