Author: RD Welch

U-17 USWNT: Opponent Update, Mexico’s Final Camp Roster

Late Thursday, Mexico’s Under-17 Women’s National Team released its final camp roster prior to the 2012 CONCACAF Women’s Under-17 Championship. Twenty-six (26) players were called into a camp which began on Friday and will run until April 30th. After the camp, a squad of 20 players will travel to Guatemala for the CONCACAF Championship.

Six players will be cut from the roster: Most likely, one of the three goalkeepers and five of the twenty-three field players.

At least sixteen of the twenty-six (16 of 26) players have American connections, namely that they play for USA-based club teams, and presumably live in the United States. Continue reading “U-17 USWNT: Opponent Update, Mexico’s Final Camp Roster”

Americans Abroad: Sarah Hagen, Niki Cross, and Gina Lewandowski All Score in German Cup Semifinals

On Sunday and Monday, three Americans participated in the semifinals of the DFB-Pokal der Frauen, or Women’s German Cup. Each of the three Americans — Gina Lewandowski of FFC Frankfurt plus Sarah Hagen and Niki Cross of FC Bayern Munich — scored key goals and helped their teams advance to the German Cup final, which will be held on May 12th in Cologne at the RheinEnergieStadion.

(Quick match summaries and links to video highlights after the jump.) Continue reading “Americans Abroad: Sarah Hagen, Niki Cross, and Gina Lewandowski All Score in German Cup Semifinals”

Women’s Olympic Soccer: 2012 Draw Hypotheticals

(Update, 24-April-2012: The 2012 draw procedure has been announced. The procedure is as predicted, so the specific hypotheticals discussed in this post are valid. Skip down to the section entitled “The Possible Scenarios…” to avoid the now unnecessary-to-read sections regarding the methodology for predicting the draw procedure.)

The draw to determine the groups for the women’s soccer tournament at the London 2012 Olympics will be held on Sunday, April 24th at Wembley Stadium. Although the women’s field has been finalized, the draw procedure has yet to be released,  which is not out of the ordinary.* In the absence of an actual draw procedure, the next best thing is to figure out the most likely procedure. And, the past draw procedures for the Olympics provide a good roadmap for doing just that.

(Edit: Forgot to add a link to the 2008 draw procedure (PDF), which was in the “Past Draw Procedures” section, which I removed to a separate post.)

Continue reading “Women’s Olympic Soccer: 2012 Draw Hypotheticals”

Women’s Olympic Soccer: 2012 Draw, List of Hypothetical Scenarios

Note: This post is part of my main post on predicting the 2012 Women’s Olympic Soccer Tournament draw, where I review the 2008 tournament’s draw and use that as a model for predicting the seeding for this year’s draw.

In the first section, below, I list all the possible scenarios, based on the predicted seeding. After that section, there is a separate list of all the potential groupings, organized by group, which is useful for comparing and reviewing all the potential group scenarios for one of the seeded teams.

Continue reading “Women’s Olympic Soccer: 2012 Draw, List of Hypothetical Scenarios”

Women’s Olympic Soccer Tournaments: Past Draw Procedures

Note: This post is part of my main post on predicting the 2012 Women’s Olympic Soccer Tournament draw, where I review the 2008 tournament’s draw and use that as a model for predicting the seeding for this year’s draw.

For the main post, it is not necessary to read this, but the history of past draw procedures does reveal a consistent preference of geographic diversity, along with the best teams being seeded into separate groups. Also, the result of the draw for the 2000 Olympics, where the USA was grouped with its two main rivals at the time, China and Norway, is notable in that it likely led to a greater preference for the seeding of top teams, in order to avoid significantly unbalanced groups.

Continue reading “Women’s Olympic Soccer Tournaments: Past Draw Procedures”

Alex Morgan’s Disallowed Goal: Blown Call? (Brazil, April 2012)

The Women’s Kirin Challenge Cup match between the United States Women’s National Team and the Women’s National Team of Brazil had some questionable refereeing. For USA fans, the biggest potentially blown call is when Alex Morgan had a disallowed goal in the 68th minute, off of a free kick.

Continue reading “Alex Morgan’s Disallowed Goal: Blown Call? (Brazil, April 2012)”

USWNT: Kirin Challenge Cup Results

(Note: I’ll have an in-depth review/analysis of the two matches, sometime next week.)

The United States Women’s National Team, finished the Women’s Kirin Challenge Cup earlier than expected, today, as their match against Brazil was moved up four hours. In the first match, versus host Japan, Alex Morgan scored a second-half equalizer in a 1:1 draw. Against an unorganized and less-than-full-strength Brazil, the USA won rather easily, with a 3:0 score, with all goals by Carli Lloyd, Shannon Boxx, and substitute Amy Rodriguez all coming on set pieces.

Continue reading “USWNT: Kirin Challenge Cup Results”

U-20 USWNT: April 2012 Camp Roster

(Edit, 10-Apr-2012: It appears that Micaela Capelle tore her MCL during a spring game versus the University of Washington on April 1st, which was a day before the roster was released. So, that seems to be the likely reason for her absence.)

Next week, the United States Under-20 Women’s National Team will be convening at The Home Depot Center for their first camp since qualifying for the 2012 Under-20 Women’s World Cup. (USSoccer.com news release) Twenty-five players will be rostered for the camp, including nineteen of the twenty players from the CONCACAF Championship in Panama. The only player from Panama who is not rostered is forward Micaela Capelle of the University of Portland. During the camp, the team will play two international friendlies versus China’s U-20 WNT. Continue reading “U-20 USWNT: April 2012 Camp Roster”

U-17 USWNT: What Our Neighbors Have Been Up To… (March 2012)

The CONCACAF Women’s Under-17 Championship, which begins May 2nd, is a month away. The United States Under-17 Women National Team is currently in its final training camp (April 1st through the 10th, more details, here). Meanwhile, fellow group stage opponent Mexico had a training camp in Mid-March (through the 24th or 25th) and Canada just wrapped up a training camp, where they played against one of the USA’s group stage opponents: Trinidad and Tobago.

Continue reading “U-17 USWNT: What Our Neighbors Have Been Up To… (March 2012)”