Jeff Cunningham scored his first international goal, but three second half goals saw the United States lose to Denmark.

Right – disclaimer out of the way and without further ado, I give you my USWNT v Germany post-game analysis…

Twitch of the Match Lori Chalupny. Our captian kept that back line in order. It’s no coincidence that Germany had 12 shots but only one shot on goal.

Who’s the number one twich now? A failed punch away from No Neck Nadine allowed Abby Wambach to head the ball (not so dramatically) into the German net to score the only goal of the game. Meanwhile Hope Solo spent a bit of the second half stopping the German offense before they could even get that party started.

Those twitches DID benefit from a pro league! The crazy phsychic voodoo communication between Solo and Chalupny can probably be attributed to their season together with the Saint Louis Athletica. It was a bit eerie at times.

That twitch needs to learn how to share Was Carli Lloyd the only creative playmaker on the pitch that day? Yet, at times, when she got her opportunity, she tried to score instead of maybe pass to a player in a better position. I’m guessing this is not what Pia meant by “possession football” or what I’d rather rename “put put pass.” So my words of advice to our midfield are the wise words of Kenny Rogers: “You got to know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em.” Hmmm, and I read Tobin Heath was on the roster yet she didn’t play? I’m thinking to make this new system work and work well, we need a bit more flair in the middle. And by flair, I don’t mean flair, I mean flair.

But that twitch gets a consolation prize Ella Masar got her first cap when she replaced A-Rod in the 72nd minute. But, uh… did she even touch the ball?

And that twitch needs to learn from the pros In the second half, Abby got pushed from behind and attempted a really really really pathetic dive to draw a penalty… that the refs completely ignored. Ooops.

Studs up, twitches But to be fair, there were some precarious clips from Lloyd and Averbuch during the first half that went unnoticed.

and finally…

Thanks to the twitches on twitter Because I actually got to watch this one since the link Cat Whitehill found turned out to be a bust. But minutes later, the very small but very vocal grapevine found another stream that worked. Shout out to alondra_h and AreYouOnTheBall for the twits and retweets. That is apparently how we do when we follow this sport.

Peace Twitches!

Here are the facts (or as many facts as I can remember): The #1 and #2 ranked teams in the world are about to play a friendly in the future location of the 2011 Women’s World Cup. Germany recently won the Euros by destroying England 6-2 and if you caught that one on the internets, I don’t use the term “destroying” lightly. Oh, and it appears coach Pia is hell bent on switching the US squad over to this “possession football” thing since she’s bringing over an assload of midfielders plus Abby & A-Rod. And she’s also got a few newbies with her to boot. Gone are Angela Hucles (retirement) and Megan Rapinoe (injury) replaced with Ella Masar and Kacey White. And A-Rod arrived to training hella late (like 2 days ago) cause she apparently hasn’t graduated from USC yet? And a couple of days ago, the USWNT got their asses beat 9-1 by the Bayern Munich U17 boys team! (but to be fair, it was never made clear if the game was on FIFA10 or if it was live on the pitch) This is awesome! We are soooo gonna kick their asses!

As for the dramz, this game will be a matchup against arguably the top ranked goalkeepers in the world: Hope Solo and Nadine Angerer. On a side note, someone told me a story a while back where they were in line at a bank in Germany and Angerer was in front of them and when she got to the teller, the teller mistook for a man. But in my opinion, she really doesn’t look like a man, she just doesn’t have a neck. Seriously people, even if you have zero interest in women’s soccer, check this game out and get back to me on the neck thing. It’s a bit weird.

And, in the US, the game is not on television but thanks to the generosity of Cat Whitehill and her twitter, this link may for realsies be showing the game which starts on Oct 29 at 1pm ET.

p.s. One more thing…

(Thanks to Annie at ONTD Football for the enhanced picture. She’s got more pics in her post so go check ‘em out!)

drinking beers…

first row seats at Saturday’s Bayern/Frankfurt game…

kickin it at some creepy scary looking castle that is totally not the house from The Shining (cause that one’s in Oregon)…

So here’s a shout out to Cat for the updates! The game’s on Thursday by the way and despite the fact that the #1 and #2 ranked teams are playing each other, this one does not appear to be available on tv or the internets. Yup.

For the last time, it’s pronounced HUE-clees!

The Boston Breakers site just announced Angela Hucles is retiring from professional soccer. She says:

I always wanted to involve myself in things I was passionate about and give 110 percent. I feel like I’ve come to a point where I no longer can give that much and I know that there are other players who are ready to step up to the plate in order to bring the World Cup trophy back to the U.S. and carry on the growth of professional women’s soccer in the United States as well.

Sounds like there were a lot of deep thoughts happening in the Hucles household recently. And she will certainly be missed during the US Women’s upcoming friendly against Germany later this month (I’ll have the usual half-assed preview up soon). Hucles has been a rock in the midfield since 2002 who helped us win gold medals in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. And during the 2008 games, she was one of the players chosen to fill in for the injured Abby Wambach. At the end of it all, she wound up the leading scorer for the team with four goals.

Talk about going out with a bang! And her parting professional words ring true because today Pia called up “uncapped with the senior team” Ella Masar to travel to Germany instead.

(Yeah so the USMNT qualified for their World Cup but coming up it will be the women’s turn to qualify for 2011. Stay tuned… uh, just as soon as CONCACAF schedule the qualifiers.)

Image stolen with love and all due respect from the US Women’s National Team blog. Talking bubbles by yours truly. I’m sure that’s really not what Wambach and Sinclair said to each other while this picture was snapped but I’d like to think it was. And that pretty much sums up the preview right there. Both strikers are still ready to make that 100th international goal. Whether it will happen Sunday, July 19th 3pm Eastern on ESPN remains to be seen.

Sacha scored his first goal for US MNT last night and liked it so much that he decided to follow it up with two more. The first was a Ronaldinho-esque free kick that should have make Celtic’s decision on whether to make an offer a little bit easier.

More later…

Oh, and over the weekend the team played China at the Home Depot Center, for the second to last stop of their “let me flash my gold medals in your face” tour. The US won (duh) from a Tina Ellertson goal set up by Amy Rodriguez. Perhaps the most interesting part was Ellertson’s celebration that seemed to look more like the cries of a dying turtle. From the USWNT blog:

After sliding to knock the ball into the net, Ellertson rolled on her back and did a celebration shimmy on the ground that she described as “a dead worm.”

I’m looking for a video even as I write this. But in the meantime, here’s a photo of the action from the same blog.

For the second straight game of the ING Cup, the USA failed to score.

For the second straight game of the ING Cup, the USA failed to reward the handful of die-hard Yankee supporters who woke up with the sun to (illegally or not) stream this display of painful soccer on their desktops for two hours.

Some things are clearly wrong here.

But let’s start with the good news so you don’t go into clinical depression before the post ends…

The Defense ->The group of young in-experienced defenders who many USA fans ripped Nowak for picking has turned out to be the shining light of these two warm-up games. To start, they held a very speedy and dangerous Ivory Coast offense that includes Chelsea striker Solomon Kalou to a goose-egg of goals. Today, although they looked pretty shaky on some early set pieces, the defense proved their worth again. The only Cameroon goal came off of an idiotic Michael Bradley foul that would make Daddy want to whip out the belt like they were back in Essex County, NJ. So, for now, good on you: Marvell Wynne, Michael Parkhurst, Maurice Edu, and Michael Orozco.

Freddy Adu -> If you couldn’t tell before these two games of the Suffix Cup, this guy needs to be on the field in his position all 90, all the time. Friendly or not, this is a game to prepare for the Olympics; not to just mess with your roster and get everybody up to fitness. Freddy Adu is the best player on this roster. Not starting him in the last warm-up game before the official start of the tournament you have been preparing for is flat-out asinine. Nowack is starting to make me look right…

The Second Half -> This has been the saving grace for the USA in both of these warm-up games. It’s like somebody spikes their Gatorade bottles with laxatives in the pre-game, they let lose on the stalls at half time, and then are rippin’ and rearin’ to go by the second session. I don’t know if it’s only down to preparation or a team of naturally slow starters, but whatever it is, they need to fix it. What is going to happen when the USA goes up against the Netherlands in group play and winds up down 3-0 at half time? Try salvaging your tournament life from that one.

What are some of the problems?

Sacha Kljestean -> He just cannot get comfortable out there. Give away after giveaway after giveaway. It just never ends. Maybe it’s because Nowack has him stuck out on the right side of the midfield in the first game, and not in the second striker/ central creative role which he is more used to with Chivas USA. The thing is, the best player on the team (Freddy Adu), plays in that position. So if he wants to take it he needs to be better at it than Freddy, and that is not in the cards this year, especially with the display he put on today. Sacha needs to find a way to make himself effective in whatever position he is playing in, and if he doesn’t learn how to string a few passes together, that position may have to do with quenching the thirst of the other eleven players on the pitch.

Brian McBride -> … is making me (and a lot of other people) look very stupid right now. The once mouth-watering partnership between him and young super striker Jozy Altidore has turned up a dud. McBride looks off the pace of play and quite slow. Maybe this is down to fitness at this point, but if the first group game is tomorrow and was in charge of this ship, I start Jozy over McBride. Captain or not.

0 Goals -> The forward and midfield combination is simply not as cohesive as it needs to be at this point. These two games don’t make Nowack look like he is any closer to achieving “the core” which he can count on to have the USA advance out of the group stage. There are more questions than answers at this point, and you can only hope that this next week of training goes a long way toward having this squad gel.

Hopefully some gain can be taken from this pain.

More on the state of the squad later.

I’m not much for moral victories, but when you are playing against the #1 ranked team in the world, it might be time to make room.

First off, I’d like to highlight the performance of local hero Tim Howard. An epic display of last ditch saves on a number of 1-on-1’s kept the USA in it until the end. In fact, the entire back four in front of Howard showed their quality and resiliency on numerous occasions. Bob Bradley gets a lot of criticism, but having a solid back four to scrape out points in not only qualifiers but the big show as well is a quality you want to have in a USA side.

Pablo Mastroeni was another standout for Bob’s boys, putting in his best performance to date in the run up for the qualifiers. At this point, I don’t think it is any question who will pair with Baby Bradley in the middle of the park throughout the next string of games. Michael needs an experienced hand next to him, and not a fellow youngin in Maurice Edu. Pablo’s grit and calm on the ball is a great combination to have in the center of the park. I look forward to the partnership being formed again the Barbados games.

The fact that you could say we were a crossbar away from a win against the #1 ranked team in the world does sting, but watching the improvement of the squad as a whole over the course of these three games gave us viewers a pretty good idea of where the team is at.

We can compete with top sides in the world. We will have trouble beating them.

That is about where we stand right now.

More posts in a few…