OK, so here's what happened: Sports Illustrated editor Mark Mravic tweeted about England's badass goal to send them to the knockout stage of the World Cup. He mentioned one of SI's football contributors, Andy Benoit, who apparently thinks women's sports are about as exciting as we all think hanging out with Andy Benoit would be.
Yes, you can expect Alex Morgan, arguably the USWNT's best player, to start tonight when the US faces China in the quarter finals of the 2015 World Cup.
Morgan may still be recovering from a knee injury, but she is far closer to being 100% than she has ever been since going down injured in the first place. It is no coincidence that she has started the last two games. Expect that trend to continue, especially given the fact that Morgan scored the game winning goal against Colombia in her last match.
The United States and China have a bit of history in the World Cup. The last time these two teams met in the competition in 1999, the USWNT won the match, and went on to win the entire tournament. A high standard to live up to, especially considering that the US has yet to hit its best, most convincing form.
Although the win wasn’t pretty, the USWNT is through to the quarterfinals in this year’s World Cup, defeating Colombia, ranked 28th in the world.
The second-ranked U.S. came into the match after “struggling” with seven points during group play, while Colombia seemed to be hot after their upset over France.
It actually shows a lot of growth in women’s soccer that analysts are disappointed with the USWNT supposed difficulties and the high expectations that follow the team.
As the USWNT continue their preparations for their quarterfinal match against China, they do so knowing they’ll be without two of their best players: Megan Rapinoe and Lauren Holiday.
Both got a yellow card in the match against Colombia Monday night, The pair already received yellow cards in a previous match, which means neither can play against the Chinese.
The U.S. will miss both, but especially Rapinoe, who has made a huge impact for the U.S. in the World Cup.
As the American women prepare for their first knockout round match against Colombia, they were met with some sad news from their leading goal scorer.
Wambach will say her final farewells to the United State’s National Team, as well as club soccer altogether, after announcing her retirement last Sunday. At 35 years old, she has a longer list of achievements than most in the sport, man or woman, at both the club and international level. She is the all-time USWNT leading goal scorer with 183 international goals, 25 more than American legend Mia Hamm.
We are only a few hours away from the USWNT facing Colombia in the semis of the World Cup and Colombian soccer player Lady Andrade has taken it upon herself to talk a little trash about the Americans.
“They belittle us. They think we’re a team they’re going to walk all over and it will be an easy game for them,” Andrade said in an interview with USA TODAY.
“We’re going to beat them since they like to talk so much.”
Now that the USWNT has moved on from Group D, their road to a World Cup championship has gotten a little bit easier.
The United States road through the bracket includes Colombia (ranked 28th in the world) and China (16th), with the winner of Germany vs France awaiting in the semis.
Other than China, it seems as if the road for the US has gotten a lot easier, although, is anything going to be easy for the US? Defensively, the US has been solid, not so much on the offensive end.
Who doesn’t love a good mockumentary? The Norwegian national team just released one that will not only leave you laughing, but applauding. Unfortunately, there are still people out there who poke fun at the women’s game, despite the fact that the ladies game is typically played with more precise passing and greater inclusion of all 11 players. There is also the entire turf fiasco that has plauged this World Cup (don’t get us started).
Football has done it again. That is, football has proven why it is the greatest sport on Earth.
The Women’s World Cup closed out the group stage this week and, for our money, Korea Republic put on one of the best displays, defeating a strong Spain side 2-1 and securing a nervy, but safe passage to the round of 16.