We won… again

It was a 90th minute volley from Natasha Kai (shown above – hey, isphotos don’t have their game pics up yet so I had to improvise) to put the score at 1-0 and guarantee the US a spot in the March 11 championship match. So the March 9 game against Norway is basically meaningless. Kind of crazy since there are three groups and twelve teams in this tournament so I went and checked the rules: The teams in Group A and B will compete for the title as the group winners will play in the championship game on Wednesday, March 11. The two second-place finishers in Groups A and B will play for third place while the third-place finishers will play for fifth. The Group C teams will be competing for a chance to play for spots 7-12 as the winner of Group C will play the best fourth place team from Groups A or B for seventh place. The second place team in Group C will play the worst fourth place team from Groups A or B for ninth place and the third and fourth place finishers in Group C will play each other for 11th place. Make sense? The US is in Group B. Germany currently sits at the top of Group A with the same points as the US (so do they auto-advance as well?).