I probably should have called this the intermittent blog. Who wants to prophecy the margin of victory for the U.S. before kickoff?
Then again, who could have predicted the truth is stranger than fiction of the first five minutes versus Norway?
Anyway, I can't really post too much this morning, but I'll check in occasionally.
1- GOAL! HAO! O'Rielly takes a pass, turns and cracks a distance shot at goal and scores! Fastest goal score in Olympic soccer history.
3- Short corner to Tarpley. New Zealand counter, but Buehler snuffs the attempt.
12 - Boxx with a shot from distance well over the bar.
14 - Boxx with a feed to ARod but she can't quite het a foot on it and ball pops up for the goalie.
22 - the ball has been mired in the midfield for a few minutes here, and then there's a turnover by the us women, but new zealand gets a throw in
31 - Chalupny nearly gets the ball in a dangerous spot but the pass goes to far out of reach
31 - Japan-Norway is now 1-1
36 - New Zealand shot well over the crossbar; they haven't been in many dangerous spots of late
38 - Riley with a cross and forces the US to give away a corner
39 - Nothing comes of it as the ball goes nowhere, not a short corner there and not sure what it was actually
42 - GOAL! A Rod, ball over the top of the defense from the back, A Rod gets the ball just outside of the box, runs in and fires a shot into the back of the net. US are up 2-0
44 - US defense trying to give New Zealand a goal back with a terrible giveaway but New Zealand can't take advantage of a pair of crosses from right side
HALFTIME, US leads 2-0; the US had the bulk of possession and deserves its two-goal margin
47 - Game's back on. Hucles nearly scores another goal but fans on a shot just outside the six yard box
49 - Cross from the left from NZ but Hope Solo catches it and tosses the ball upfield, the US may catch NZ on a counter that way soon as NZ starts to throw numbers forward
53 - NZ's Hearn with space up top but shot goes slowly towards Hope Solo, who easily scoops up the ball
55 - Japan update, the Japanese have gone two up now on Norway. Score's now 3-1. The US could still win the group but they need to score a few more and hope Norway doesn't.
57 - GOAL! Tarpley! A Rod had a shot blocked by Binden, Hucles came close to finding the rebound but it was cleared to Tarpley who did well to knock the ball into an empty net. US 3-0. The US wins the group if these results stand.
60 - GOAL! Hucles! Chalupny started the play on the left side as she lofted a shot on goal that hit the crossbar. Ball bounced to Hucles who swung the ball on goal. Binden gets her hands on it but the momentum carries it over her head and bounces across the goal line. The rout is on. US 4, New Zealand 0
72 - Not much has been going on since the last goal. New Zealand already looked out of it before giving up those two goals but now they've just thrown in the towel completely. The US just needs to escape without any injury and they should win the group.
73 - Japan update - Japan 4, Norway 1. The rout is on in the other match as well.
78 - Hucles threatens to make it 5-0 but ball gets away from here
85 - Japan update - Japan 5, Norway 1.
88 - Hucles beats a defender and sends a ball to front of goal that nearly gets put across the goal line by a NZ defender
FULL TIME
US 4, New Zealand 0. Pretty convincing win by the US, who win the group after all despite a bad start to the Olympics.
5 comments:
I'm not a happy camper!
I did NOT want a U.S. vs Canada match-up until the GOLD Medal game!
O.K. - it is what it is, BRING IT!
;)
I dunno, Coach.
I know you're a fan of both teams, but all things considered, you'd rather be in this half of the draw than the other. I think realistically a US/Can finale wasn't gonna happen, no matter what. I doubt either one of our squads right now could get through both Germany and Brazil in the top half of the draw.
So yeah, it woulda been nice to win the Group and play Japan (I suspect they scored all their goals today). But given the way it went today in the USA's Group, we were almost always going to have to face each other before the final.
And you'll have a pretty good shot at this squad. The US women scored a lot today, but NZ didn't press them much and still the US gave up the ball too quickly too often and went pretty direct much of the time. They'll need to play better than that v. your ladies. McLeod won't give up the same goals and Canadian D won't let balls bounce to unmarked US players as NZ did today. I loved the score, but was not terribly encouraged by the poor use of all the time and space US had today. Still you better watch that A-Rod girl, she's a (loaded) pistol.
Good luck. Hope it's a well played game and whoever goes on gets to the final.
Agreed, but even the semi-final would have been preferred to the QF! Then at least the loser gets to play for Bronze!
If Norway had not imploded (?!), it would be us against Norway but you guys against Brazil - not what I wanted either for the QF for the U.S. but I am confident you guys (glass half full) would have beaten them - then of course there would be a chance we could have met in the Final! :)
It's going to be a tough game to watch Friday morning - I'm going to be in a hotel in Watertown (wife shopping) so they better be showing the game on one of their channels!
BTW, I couldn't watch the USA game this morning, it just kept buffering & wouldn't load! My desire was to watch the USA & Canada games side by side but I had to settle for the Norway & Canada games side by side!
NBC.com must have been overloaded? Anyone else have that problem? :(
Will go for the rewind when NBC makes it available.
Speaking of the Norway implosion/meltdown whateverthehellitwas debacle, it'll be interesting to see how they respond. Brazil's either in for a rough go with a super-motivated hoard of Viking raiders or on easy street with a bunch of stuffed and trussed, morale-collapsed cupcakes.
Test of character for Norway, this next game.
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