Last week, A.D. Centro Olímpico, an extension of the Brazilian state of São Paolo’s Centro Olímpico de Treinamento e Pesquisa (translates to “Center of Olympic Training and Research;” acronym is “COTP”), announced that it had signed ten former Santos FC players, including Brazilian Women’s National Team players Érika dos Santos , Maurine Dornelles Gonçalves, and Gabriela Zanotti Demoner, to one-year contracts with its women’s soccer club team. All Santos’ players were “orphaned” in December when that club dropped its powerhouse women’s team due to financial issues (OurGameMagazine.com). Continue reading “Brazilian WNT’ers Erika and Maurine, ‘Orphaned’ By Santos, Have Signed With Olympic Training Center Team”
Category: Opposition Research
Posts on the USWNT’s upcoming opponents, its key rivals (Brazil, Germany, Japan, and Sweden), its neighbors (Canada and Mexico). For posts about youth WNT opponents, please see the Under-xx category.
USWNT Rival Watch: Brazil’s Player Pool, 2012 Olympics (Detailed)
(Note: Some of the player’s positions have been corrected. The corrections are mostly due to a minor translation error on my part. Also, positions for other players have been updated, based on additional information.)
Last Wednesday, March 14th, the CBF released the names of 33 players who could be called up for Brazil’s Olympic team roster. This list is required to be submitted to the IOC, but I do not think that it is in anyway binding.
Since the CBF website does not maintain biographical pages for its players, I have listed those 33 players below, with details such as height, birthday, position information, plus relevant links to Wikipedia, FIFA.com competition summaries, etc., where available. Also, a quick summary of the list is provided as a table, which includes whether the player was rostered for recent matches, going back to the 2011 Women’s World Cup in Germany.
Continue reading “USWNT Rival Watch: Brazil’s Player Pool, 2012 Olympics (Detailed)”
USWNT Neighbor Watch: Mexico’s Cuellar, ‘We are on the right track’
After returning from the 2012 CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship in Panama, where Mexico qualified for the 2012 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup, Mexican Women’s National Team head coach Leonardo Cuellar, Mexico’s U-20 WNT head coach Roberto Medina, plus a handful of U-20 players, including senior national team goalkeeper Cecilia Santiago and U-20 team captain Nayeli Rangel, participated in a press conference. A video was posted (direct link, in MP4 format) on Femexfut.org.mx’s website and a text summary (in Spanish) was provided as well. Based on the summary, the press conference was rather uneventful, but did provide a few interesting quotes (translated to English using Google Translate as a starting point): Continue reading “USWNT Neighbor Watch: Mexico’s Cuellar, ‘We are on the right track’”
USWNT Rival Watch: Sweden at the 2012 Algarve Cup (Catch-Up)
In the 2012 Algarve Cup, Sweden suffered two straight 0:4 losses, first to Germany, and then to the USA. In its first two matches, Sweden defeated China 1:0 and Iceland 4:1.
Notables: (1) The back-to-back 0:4 losses; (2) Dennerby’s continued experimentation with the 4-2-3-1 formation; (3) Lotta Schelin earned her 100th cap in the China match; and (4) 21 year-old midfielder Antonia Göransson has 4 goals this year, to lead the team.
Continue reading “USWNT Rival Watch: Sweden at the 2012 Algarve Cup (Catch-Up)”
USWNT Rival Watch: Germany at the 2012 Algarve Cup (Catch-up)
Germany won the 2012 Algarve Cup after winning all its group matches (versus Iceland, China, and Sweden) and then winning the first place match over Japan 4:3. Celia Okoyino da Mbabi had two hat tricks (versus Sweden and Japan). Germany was missing several veterans due to injuries, including Simone Laudeher (meniscus), Kim Kulig (torn ACL in 2011 WWC) as well as two players who were on the squad’s Algarve Cup roster: Nadine Angerer, and Fatmire Bajramaj. Also, veteran strikers Inka Grings and Martina Müller were not available.
Continue reading “USWNT Rival Watch: Germany at the 2012 Algarve Cup (Catch-up)”
USWNT Rival Watch: Japan at the 2012 Algarve Cup (Catch-up)
At the 2012 Algarve Cup, Japan’s Women’s National Team won all three of its group matches, including its final group match versus the United States. By topping the group, Japan played in the placement match for first place, where they lost 4:3 in a match that saw 3 goals scored in the final few minutes.
Continue reading “USWNT Rival Watch: Japan at the 2012 Algarve Cup (Catch-up)”
USWNT Rival Watch: Japan’s Homare Sawa Diagnosed with Vertigo, May Miss Kirin Cup
On Monday, Japan’s Homare Sawa, who recently stepped down as captain, was diagnosed with “benign paroxysmal postural vertigo” on Monday. (Source: Mainichi.jp, English)
In the article, it was stated that recovery time could be as little as a week, or could take over a month. For more on the condition, see its Wikipedia entry.
Japan plays its first match of the Women’s Kirin Challenge Cup in less than three weeks, on Sunday, April 1st, versus the USA.
USWNT Neighbor Watch: Canada at the Cyprus Cup – No Three-Peat
The Canadian Women’s National Team recently participated in the Cyprus Cup, where they won all three of their group matches, but fell to France 0:2 in the final. Notably, during the tournament, Christine Sinclair scored her 130th and 131st international goals, moving her ahead of the USWNT’er Kristine Lilly, who has 130 career international goals.
Continue reading “USWNT Neighbor Watch: Canada at the Cyprus Cup – No Three-Peat”
USWNT Rival Watch: Brazil’s Kirin Challenge Cup Roster
Last Thursday, Brazilian Women’s National Team head coach Jorge Barcellos announced the team’s preliminary roster for an upcoming friendly versus Canada (March 24th, at Gillette Stadium outside of Boston) and the Women’s Kirin Challenge Cup in April. Twenty-one players were called, including several overseas-based players such as Marta, Christiane, and Fabiana, who did not participate in the squad’s prior two training camps this calendar year.
Update, 18-Mar-2012: Upon further research, I can fairly confidently confirm all the player names for the roster, thanks to the CBF releasing a player pool list the day after I posted this, originally.
Continue reading “USWNT Rival Watch: Brazil’s Kirin Challenge Cup Roster”
USWNT Neighbor Watch: Mexico, February 2012 (Catch-Up)
In mid-February, the Mexican Women’s National Team traveled to China for the Yongchuan International Women’s Tournament where they played matches against three opponents: China, North Korea, and South Korea, and lost all three matches. Continue reading “USWNT Neighbor Watch: Mexico, February 2012 (Catch-Up)”
Women's Soccer Express 