We Lost

Congrats go to North Korea who beat the US 2-1 in overtime to win the first ever U-17 Women’s World Cup. And apparently the game was a real nail biter. From the match report at American Soccer News:

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.

photo credit