Winning

After sweeping through the qualifying for the Olympics 2012 in London like Charlie Sheen on Tiger Blood, the USWNT decided to put their emphatic stamp on the tourney and ensure a top seed. Wambach nets two to move her to 2nd all time in FIFA's top women goal scorers (131) and the US rolls to a 4-0 win that wasn't as close as the scoreline indicates.



So what does this mean for the US? Not too much. We already qualified by making it to the CONCACAF finals. And this is one of the top teams in the world on a regular basis, but I have to disagree somewhat with other educated pundits out there as the fact that we did not concede a goal, despite losing a starter to an ACL tear and we did it against some occasionally tough competition (we lost to Mexico, albeit a surprise 2-1 upset, in WC qualifying just last year). The USWNT should have won 1st place, which it did, and should have shut out their opponents, which they did, and should have qualified, which they did. So why no love for the WNT when they do get it right, dominating the competition with some records broken?

Now comes word that the on and off women's pro league, aka WPS (this time around) has been suspended indefinitely. The women still have to train. And just because we're #1 now, without a national league, do we still give them props when they do win in the WC in 2015?

Video: Universal Sports

Africa Cup of Nations: Gabon v Morocco Highlights

Didn't catch the game live, but after watching the highlights, I wish I had. In the 5th minute of stoppage time, Gabon's Bruno-Zita Mbanangoye hit a spectacular free kick (probably a goal of the tourney) that earned the co-hosts a berth in the quaterfinals, knocking out one of the favorites to win it all.



Video: golofanhd

USWNT v Costa Rica Highlights

The US and Canada are moving on to the 2012 London Olympics. Behind another strong shutout performance by the US. Heath, Lloyd and Morgan all score for the US against Costa Rica. The US carry a 34 goals for, 0 goals against into the final Sunday night in Vancouver.



Video: Universal Sports

Sporting KC 1, Panama 0

Last night, I was at work and I missed the USA at Panama match on Galavision from Estadio Rommel Fernandez in Panama City. Too bad, it would have been my first look at lots of young USMNT prospects making their debut with the senior NT. The starting lineup was Nick Rimando in goal, AJ De La Garza, Michael Parkhurst, Geoff Cameron, and Zach Loyd in the back, Ricardo Clark and Jermaine Jones in the central midfield, Graham Zusi and Brek Shea on the wings, and Chris Wondolowski and Teal Bunbury up top.

In the 9th minute, Teal Bunbury sent a cross from the left to right wing Graham Zusi, his teammate at Sporting KC, and Zusi scored in his second cap, his first coming against Venezuela on Saturday. Nick Rimando was impressive for the rest of the first half, and Chris Wondolowski got a strong header on a hard shot by Jermaine Jones, deflected into the air by Panamanian keeper Luis Mejia. But Mejia made a spectacular diving save to deny Wondo's chance.

Sweep

The USWNT is pissed. Seriously.

How else would you explain the fact that they went 3-0 in the group stages of Olympic Qualifying with a +31 goal differential and no goals against?

The latest installment saw the US beat Mexico by a score of only 4-0.

I say only because with 14-0 and 13-0 scorelines in the previous two matches, 4-0 seems kind of anticlimatic.

That said, 4-0 over a team that upset them in FIFA WC qualifications and forced them to go to playoffs against Italy is pretty good.

Mexico, for their part, was limited to only a few shots, and mostly from distance.

Lloyd with the hat-trick and O'Reilly nets another as the US rolls on.



Next match pits the US v. Costa Rica while Mexico faces the Group 1 winners, Canada.

Video: Universal Sports

Damn Girl

As if going 14-0 in a single match during qualifying wasn't enough, you had to go out and drop 13 on Guatemala? Somewhere, MC Hammer is screaming about copyright infringment.

LeRoux got a natural hat-trick (3 goals in the same half, all uninterrupted)... actually, she got four before someone else found the net. Not to be outdone, Abby Wambach scored her 128th and 129th goals to pass Prinz to move to 3rd on the all-time women's scoring record. The only 2 ahead of Wambach? Kristine Lilly (130) and Mia Hamm (158). LeRoux's scoring outburst aside, we did see 8 different women score for the US.

Tuesday night will be the test, though, as the US matches up against Mexico. Mexico already beat the Dominican 7-0, so both Mexico and the US are already moving on to the semis, regardless of the result Tuesday (watch live via universalsports.com and concacaf.com who will both be streaming the game live at 9:30pm CST Tuesday).



Photo: inquisitir.com
Video: Sportsnetwork