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.)

“I haven’t felt that way in a game in a long time,” Donovan said from Los Angeles. “During the game and even after the game I thought maybe it was the altitude, the heat, whatever. But even so I’ve never felt that bad. The last time I was there [at Estadio Azteca] I didn’t feel that bad. I just felt lethargic, slow. I didn’t feel normal.”

Although Landon was playing in the country where swine flu got its start, he says he started feeling the symptoms in Miami the Sunday before leaving for Mexico. Yet, he still played the full 90 and even had an assist on Davies’ goal. Pretty gutsy performance — but you have to wonder if Bob Bradley was aware of this and if so, why he would let Donovan play the entire match in such a condition.

In January, Ricardo Clark will be joining Gooch in Italy as a player for Livorno. Clark will be penultimate player from the Confederations Cup XI that faced Brazil and Spain to make the jump to Europe. Most of us hope Landon Donovan won’t be far behind him this winter. Consistently one of the most talented Americans, it’s a shame that Donovan hasn’t had a consistent stay in Europe like his teammate Clint Dempsey. Donovan can dominate in the MLS. I’ve called him the American Arshavin (much to your other USA blogger’s amusement) and it’ll be interesting to see if he can finally make a stay in Europe stick.

There’s a lot of hope here in the states that the Americans across Europe will all have good campaigns. We want Gooch to stake his claim in Milan, Dempsey to shine in the Europa League, Benny Feilhaber to continue his good play in Denmark, for Freddy Adu and Jozy Altidore to finally get off the bench, and for Landycakes to make another jump. Good luck to all American footballers in their European campaigns. Hopefully they will give us lots to talk about in the coming months.

On the other hand, Christine Sinclair, did not score her 100th goal for Canada but she does return to the Bay Area to face Los Angeles on Thursday in WPS play where she could score a goal and prevent LA from taking the WPS season title for yet another week.

While the rest of you were busy redacting your missing persons reports on Clarence Goodson, Abby Wambach made history with a whimpering thud. She scored her 100th goal and the only goal against Canada in front of a hometown crowd on Sunday. And she did it in the same stadium where Mia Hamm scored her 100th however many years ago. I know – bit creepy. Now Abby joins Hamm (158), Kristine Lilly (129), Michelle Akers (105) and Tiffeny Milbrett (100). This was also Heather Mitt’s 100th cap. Like I said – creepy.

The US play Canada one more time on Wednesday. And this game’s on FSC.

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.

Given the recent hype surrounding US soccer and the general massiveness that always is USA vs. Mexico, you would think that when the two teams meet for a World Cup Qualifier on August 12, major broadcasting companies would be mauling each other over the rights to carry it.

Well, apparently not. As of right now, the match will only be on Telemundo and something called “mun2″ which may or may not be a network devoted to fetishistic animal porn.

As I’m sure you are by now thoroughly enraged by this travesty of broadcasting injustice, be aware! There are steps to be taken! Jason Davis over at Match Fit USA is leading a campaign to get the match on the USA Network and we can all join in and help. If you click the link above, you’ll find his post on the matter, which includes suggestions on who to email/mercilessly harass to bring about the necessary change. Also, if you go here, you’ll find a petition that you can add your name to.

So get to it, you mongrels — I don’t wanna have to watch this match between Animal Whorehouse and Air Bud: MILF Attack.

* The debut of Napster
* Colombia announced it will include the estimated value of the country’s illegal drug crops in its gross national product
* George W. Bush announced he will seek the Republican Party nomination for President of the United States
* Apple released the iBook

… and of course

Yup, the 1999 Women’s World Cup is officially ten years old this month. Kinda crazy. And WPS is celebrating by doing something or other. The press release has more details.

Working with U.S. Soccer, all seven WPS franchises will feature a 10th Anniversary Tribute Day at one of their WPS home games coinciding with the anniversary of the tournament dates of the 1999 Women’s World Cup. Former U.S. Women’s National Team players will make appearances, sign autographs and be recognized for their accomplishments ten years ago.

The 1999 World Cup trophy will also travel to WPS venues during this time for photo opportunities with fans and a special collector’s edition 1999 World Cup autograph card will be printed for fans.

Uh, cool (I think?). So I guess this means there will be ceremonies and stuff like that. The tour dates look like this:

Saturday, June 20, Saint Louis vs. Washington, AB Soccer Park
Sunday, June 21, Los Angeles vs. FC Gold Pride, Home Depot Center
Saturday, July 4, Sky Blue FC vs. Boston, Yurcak Field
Sunday, July 5, FC Gold Pride vs. Saint Louis, Buck Shaw Stadium
Sunday, July 5, Washington vs. Los Angeles, Maryland SoccerPlex
Sunday, July 12, Boston vs. Sky Blue FC, Harvard Stadium
Sunday, July 12, Chicago vs. Bay Area, Toyota Park

And did I mention that some of the original 99′ers are playing in WPS? So definitely for those FC Gold Pride games, I doubt there will be any cool special appearances because Tiffeny Milbrett, Brandi Chastain, and now 1999 Golden Boot winner Sissi will be on the field playing or riding the bench. I only hope that by the time Chastain has her ceremony, she can get her sports bra out from lockdown.