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.)

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.

* 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.

A calm and tranquil national team watches Sunday’s FC Gold Pride v La Sol game

That’s right kids. Monday, 7pm EST on Fox Soccer Channel, the US Women take on Canada for one of (I think) three matches because everyone else is totally using swine flu as an excuse to avoid getting their asses beat by the #1 ranked national team in the world. And you can call this part 0.165849 (not quite part 1) of the road to World Cup 2011. Pia is ready for change: “You need different players. Everybody will be on their toes… To try to win another gold medal the same way for me is not inspiring.” Pia has called up a few youngsters (will they see playing time?). And Pia is still “resting” a few injured players left off this roster (doesn’t mean they are completely out!).

So number one, Carli Lloyd went and got herself injured on Saturday – which probably means we’ll see Shannon Boxx back in the midfield. Seems we have enough depth in defense now so last year’s little experiment is completely unnecessary. And other than that… I’m not really seeing much of a change from the usual line-up. That is, unless Pia goes crazy and throws out something totally new.

As for Canada, the 24th minute blog has a nice preview write up for you to read. Canada have a brand new head coach who took them to second place in the Cypress Cup in March. And oh hey! I did not know that both Abby Wambach and Christine Sinclair have 99 international goals each. So this game could easily be the big one oh oh for either of the two star forwards.

But he final words of this preview go to Lori Chalupny:

I play with a Canadian teammate in St. Louis, and I can say that we have probably trash talked a little bit about this game. One of the good things about the WPS is that it’s nice to get to know foreign players. You can bet this will be a good battle [between us and Canada].

And I think that pretty much sums up the state of women’s soccer in CONCACAF right now.

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and assume today’s news that Japan pulled out of it’s two upcoming friendlies in the US are perhaps a bit of an overreaction to the news that the two remaining Mexican teams in the Copa Libertadores dropped out of the competition because CONMEBOL teams refused to enter Mexico. Uh, and what of the Japanese national teammates playing in WPS right now? Are they effectively banned from playing for their country until this flu situation gets sorted? And will Pia continue to hold next week’s training camp despite the cancellation? And why didn’t Japan just choose to play both games wearing surgical masks?

The next friendlies the US will play are against Canada in July. Since all of us CONCACAF-ians are basically in the thick of it right now, I suspect we’ll be playing those games even if everyone is hacking and coughing their way into the stands.

EDIT: This just in. The USWNT will face Canada in Toronto May 25th and will be broadcast on Fox Soccer Channel. Yay.