GOALKEEPERS (2): Kelsey Davis (Portland), Val Henderson (Los Angeles Sol)
DEFENDERS (6): Nikki Krzysik (Chicago Red Stars), Stephanie Logterman (St. Louis Athletica), Kia McNeil (St. Louis Athletica), Kasey Moore (Boston Breakers), Kat Reynolds (Santa Clara), Jessica Tsao (Portland)
MIDFIELDERS (6): Yael Averbuch (Sky Blue FC), Brittany Bock (Los Angeles Sol), Parrissa Eyorokon (Washington Freedom); Brittany Klein (Chicago Red Stars), Lorraine Quinn (Duke), Amy Smerdzinski (Wake Forest)
FORWARDS (4): Amanda Cinalli (St. Louis Athletica), Katie Larkin (Los Angeles Sol), Kelley O’Hara (Stanford), Christen Press (Stanford)

Feb. 11 USA U-23 vs. England U-23
Feb. 13 USA U-23 vs. Norway U-23
Feb. 16 USA U-23 vs. Germany U-23

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(Ok, I just realized I wrote quarterfinals twice. Yes, I’m lost. Go figure.)

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The USA took an early lead on a strange goal in just the second minute of the match. Central defender Cloee Colohan chucked a long throw-in from the right sideline and the Koreans let the ball bounce in the penalty area. In windy conditions, it took a huge hop over goalkeeper Hong Myong Hui, who jumped backwards for the ball, but only managed to push it into the net. Had she not touched the ball, the goal would not have counted, as a throw-in is an indirect set play.

North Korea managed to equalize 13 minutes before the end of the match, sending the dern thing into overtime (why can’t Chivas USA and Real Salt Lake get it together yet a bunch of 16 year olds can?) when a North Korean player kept a dying free kick in play by kicking the ball over her head and into the middle of the penalty area. Kim Un Hyang then headed the ball into the left corner of the goal.

And the winning goal happened with just seven minutes left in overtime – narrowly avoiding those dreaded penalty kicks – which perhaps maybe would have favored the US since goalkeeper Taylor Vancil (pictured above) only allowed 2 of Korea’s 14 shots on goal in during the match.

So we lost but we didn’t walk away empty. There were quite a few individual awards. Taylor Vancil got the Golden Glove Award as the best goalkeeper in the tournament, Vicki DiMartino got the Silver Boot as the second leading goal scorer and apparently she is now the the first player in U.S. soccer history to score in five consecutive games in a World Cup. Congrats! And devil horn flashing Kristie Mewis won the Bronze Ball as the tournament’s third best player.

FIFA’s site claims to have highlights of the game, but whenever I click the link, I just watch a Playstation 3 ad over and over. Go figure.

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Basically a national team allegiance can be somewhat fluid – until you hit 21 years (or 23 years on the women’s side) – then you gotta make your permanent choice. And while the men’s side has clearly lost and won quite a few players to this rule, the women’s side in the US is actually in a very unique position. It seems, our country’s push for gender equality in sports at the High School and University level, as well as our somewhat odd belief that soccer is a sport girls mostly play, created an elite player development system envied by much of the world. And other countries have been actively recruiting American players with multiple lineages for many years now. I’ll let Timothy Grainey at The Global Game explain further:

Ahead of the 1999 Women’s World Cup in the United States, Mexico stocked more than half of its roster with American collegians of Mexican descent. Eight American college players and graduates with Greek ancestry supported 10 home-based players to build a side before Greece hosted the 2004 Olympic Games. Seeking players with Irish roots, the coach of Ireland’s national women’s team in early September attended a player combine for Women’s Professional Soccer, which will become America’s top division when it launches next spring.

So if you are female and it’s unlikely you’ll ever get that call from Pia, and you can somehow claim a foreign heritage of some sort, then you may still have that national team shot (although Mexico and Greece have apparently since changed their policies to only call-up native players). As mentioned above, Ireland was actively pursuing Irish-Americans during the last WPS Combine and now Portugal will be holding national team tryouts in Newark, New Jersey November 29-30. The criteria is a Portugese parent or grandparent and no senior national team caps. Yup, that appears to be it. It just may be time for some of us to unleash our inner C-Rons. Just lay off the self-tanner and the douche-baggery, ladies.