The draw for the soccer tournaments at the 2012 London Olympics was held earlier today. The groups are as follows:
Group E: Great Britain (E1), New Zealand (E2), Cameroon (E3), Brazil (E4)
Group F: Japan (F1), Canada (F2), Sweden (F3), South Africa (F4)
Group G: USA (G1), France (G2), Colombia (G3), North Korea (G4)
For the USA, this means that they will play France first, then Colombia, and finally North Korea.
Continue reading “Olympics: Women’s Soccer Tournament Groups, With Schedule”
Earlier today, FIFA posted the draw procedure for the soccer tournaments at the 2012 Olympics. On the women’s side, there are no real surprises, as the draw procedure echoes the structure of the 2008 draw procedures. Continue reading “Women’s Olympic Soccer: Tournament Draw Procedure Announced”
(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”
(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”
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”
Earlier today, Japan released its roster for the 2012 Women’s Kirin Challenge Cup, which begins April 1st, with Japan taking on the United States Women’s National Team. The 23-player roster is loaded with ten defenders, which is three more than were on Japan’s recent Algarve Cup roster. From the Algarve Cup roster, head coach Naori Sasaki made five changes, although two are due to medical reasons.
The additional defenders may indicate that Sasaki is unhappy with his defense, which gave up four goals (3 during the run of play, 1 via a PK) versus Germany in the Algarve Cup final.
Continue reading “USWNT Opponent: Japan’s 2012 Kirin Cup Roster Is Loaded With Defenders”
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)”
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)”
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)”
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.
Women's Soccer Express 