It took me a while to finish watching this game I was so disgusted by the first half play. Remember that Simpsons episode where Mr. Burns pulls Darryl Strawberry out of the company softball game and puts in Homer because he likes the righty-lefty match-up, despite Strawberry's 9 home runs (and Steve Sax's run-in with the law)? Basically that's the kind of logic the US went with in this game, benching #1 keeper and blonde sex kitten Hope Solo so they could play Brianna Scurry, because she played a great game against Brazil... three years ago in Athens. Predictably for somebody who's barely played, Scurry was extremely shaky and her defenders were in total disarray, and the whole team just looked beaten and lackluster. Scurry was beaten early and often, and I have to wonder how much energy was sapped out dealing with the locker room controversy. The US went down early, but the red for Boxx meant Brazil kept pushing their heads back down and they never emerged from the hole they were in... the only action the US got was on a Brazil corner Leslie Osborne went diving into her own goal. Trailing and a player short, the US brought in defensive substitutions and bunkered down in the second half, dragging out the inevitable.
I didn't bother to watch the rout of Norway in the 3rd place match once I saw Scurry in goal again. Hope Solo criticized the decision to start Scurry to reporters after the game (which was unwise) and was reportedly frozen out by teammates as a result, which is bad for her given the US residency program and the fact that according to legendary women's soccer coach Anson Dorrance, apparently many female athletes (and David Beckham) would rather lose than play with somebody who isn't their ZOMG bestest friend ever. This means she may never play for the national team again, and next year in Beijing we'll have to hope the increasingly past her prime Brianna Scurry holds up or the US will actually have to start capping Nicole Barnhart and some other green keepers. There were no shortage of keeper controversies last summer, but after initial tantrums (like Gregoire Coupet quitting the team when Fabien Barthez was picked over him) they all got dealt with professionally (Coupet came back after a couple days and apologized). I can only hope the women do the same.
Oh, and Brazil went on to lose to Germany 2-0 in the final, which I was also too irritated to watch after my long-lost cousin Trine Ronning scored an own-goal to start the scoring for Germany in the semi-final. Marta's seventh goal for Brazil also edged out Norway's Ragnhild Gulbrandsen and America's Abby Wambach for the golden boot, so capirinha and sauerkraut are not to be served in my presence until at least after the Beijing Olympics.
Brazil 4 - 0 United States
'20 Osborne (o.g.)
'27 Marta
'56 Cristiane
'79 Marta
No comments:
Post a Comment