On Friday, US Soccer announced the roster of players who have been invited to a training camp which runs from April 18th to April 30th in Florida. Twenty-seven players were invited, including all 23 players who traveled to Portugal, for the Algarve Cup, and Japan, for the Women’s Kirin Challenge Cup. Additional players invited to the camp include goalkeeper Jill Loyden; midfielders Kristie Mewis (the only player still in college) and Keelin Winters; and forward Christen Press. Continue reading “USWNT: Late April Training Camp Roster Includes Christen Press”
Category: USWNT
USWNT To Play Sweden and Japan, in Sweden, in June
(Update, 18-April-2012: US Soccer has confirmed the USWNT’s involvement in the tournament. No word yet on TV coverage.)
On Wednesday, Sweden’s soccer federation (SvFF) announced on its website that in June it will be hosting a mini friendly tournament between the women’s national teams of Sweden, the United States, and Japan. The next day, Japan’s soccer federation (JFA), also posted a short news item on its website about the tournament. US Soccer has yet to publicly confirm the USWNT’s participation in this friendly tournament, which may be due to them trying to line-up a TV broadcaster before they make their official announcement. Continue reading “USWNT To Play Sweden and Japan, in Sweden, in June”
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.
USWNT: Brazil, Since Last We Met…
The United States Women’s National Team will play Brazil in the USA’s second match of the Women’s Kirin Challenge Cup on April 3rd, in Japan. The last time these two teams met was just eight months ago, in the 2011 Women’s World Cup. Since that match, Brazil has changed its head coach, changed its captain, and changed its federation’s president. The one thing that has not changed is Brazil’s reliance on a three-back formation. Continue reading “USWNT: Brazil, Since Last We Met…”
USWNT: 2012 Algarve Cup Recap (Catch-Up)
At the 2012 Algarve Cup, the USWNT won its first two matches, then lost to Japan 0:1, in the final group match. In its placement match, the USA defeated Sweden 4:0, with Alex Morgan getting her first international hat trick.
(No real analysis this time, this is mostly just bookmarking of links and notes.) Continue reading “USWNT: 2012 Algarve Cup Recap (Catch-Up)”
USWNT: 2012 Algarve Cup Playing Time
At this year’s Algarve Cup, Alex Morgan led the USWNT in playing time, as she was on the pitch for all but 13 minutes over 4 matches. Sydney Leroux had just 51 minutes of playing time, while defender Whitney Engen did not play at all. Eleven players had at least 180 minutes (equivalent of 2 full matches) of playing time while three more had at least 135 minutes (equivalent of 1.5 full matches).
Continue reading “USWNT: 2012 Algarve Cup Playing Time”
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