It's official. Pia Sundhage is the new U.S. Women's National Team head coach. We "stopped the presses" at Fair Game in anticipation of the announcement so you'll find an article on the hire in Issue 10. It might just arrive in your mailbox a few days later than you were expecting. We spoke with Kristine Lilly today to get her reaction to the news for the article and offer this sneak peak at her response.

What is your reaction to the announcement today that Pia Sundhage is taking over as head coach?
I think it’s exciting. When they didn’t resign Greg, I knew there was going to a process to find a new coach. Choosing Pia and starting to move forward is very exciting. The Olympics are going to be here before you know it and it’s great to have a coach in place. I like Pia and I think she’ll do a great job.
Having played for her, what do you think she brings to the job?
The main thing she brings is she loves the game of soccer. Any way she can make an impact on it she will. Being this coach now, she’s going to add her passion for the game, her tactical awareness, and her experience on and off the field. She has experience coaching against us. She coached in the WUSA. She’s just going to bring so many different dimensions and newness. We’ve never had someone outside of our system so that’s something that’s exciting.
How does this announcement play into your decision about retirement?
You’d think it would make it easier. I don’t know if it makes it easier or harder. I do like playing for Pia. I do like her as a coach, so it does add another dimension to it. I think in the end it’s going to come from what’s inside me. I’m still battling with that. I’m excited because I know she’s going to do great. I think the players are going to like her and I would love to be on the field for her again. That would be fun.
So you’re not just holding out on us? You really haven’t decided?
No I haven’t.
How did the team respond to Pia requesting a mini-camp in December since you’ve already broken for the year?
I think they’ll be ok with it, especially if they want to play soccer (laughs). Just kidding. I think with the transition, she wants to get to know players and to get a little camp in before the year ends. I think it’s probably a good thing because she’s got January and then we’ve got qualifiers. There’s quick stuff happening so I think she wants to get a four day or so camp in and get acquainted with some of the players so its not a whole shock in January and do what we can with the numbers that come in.

Photo by Robyn McNeil

U.S. Soccer will stage a media conference call on TUESDAY (November 13) at 3:30 p.m. ET / 12:30 p.m. PT to introduce the new U.S. Women’s National Team head coach.

Issue 10 of Fair Game is on it’s way to the printer. It is so crammed full of all the best stories, interviews and photos from the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup, that we couldn’t find the space for this quick take with Cat Whitehill from the St. Louis match on what’s she been up to since she got home from China. Enjoy and keep your eyes peeled for Issue 10. It should be in your mailbox soon.

Are you glad to be back from China?
I’m very glad to be back. I’m glad to be back in North Carolina where it feels really like home. I’m back in a home that I bought four months ago that I haven’t actually lived in.

Did your husband Robert have it all decorated and livable for you when you got back from China?
I had it livable before I left, which was good. Robert tried to clean based on his standards so instead of decorating, I’ve been cleaning the whole time I’ve been back.

Did you get out on the pitch at all or did you just relax?
I totally relaxed. I did touch a soccer ball because Robert loves to juggle so we would just juggle in our backyard but besides that, I was taking a break. I needed it. I could feel my legs were tired and it was nice. It was refreshing.

How does this world championship fit in with your other two – bronze in the 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup and gold in the 2004 Olympics?
The good thing is they’re really all the same color. (Laughs.) Every experience so far has been different. Even though I won a bronze in the World Cup in 2003 and a bronze in 2007, they were different experiences and we took a different path to get them. In 2003 we were in America and in 2007 we were in China. So right there you have a completely different lifestyle as you’re preparing for the games. I’ve learned a lot. From being the youngest on the team in 2003 to having over 100 caps in this one. I was more of a leader in this one. I’m going to treasure this one, just as much as the other two.

In regards to the Hope situation, are you guys close to getting that resolved?
You know, I think we all want that. I think we all want for everything to be resolved because we’re a team and we want to move forward. That’s our goal now. We want to move forward. We want to celebrate over these next three games and look forward to Olympic qualifying and hopefully for the Olympics and that’s our goal.

I wouldn't trade my World Cup experience for anything, but I have to confess that it was nice to be on the field for a home game when the U.S. took on Mexico yesterday in St. Louis. I wasn't sure what to expect heading into the game. There has been a lot of negative press surrounding the team in the aftermath of the loss to Brazil and the ensuing Hope Solo soap opera. I was a little apprehensive about whether the fans might stay home in protest or come out booing with nasty signs.

In the end, there were a few nasty signs, very little booing and a boisterous crowd of 10,861 strong that overwhelmingly supported the USWNT. Mexico had cheering sections throughout the stadium which added some flavor, but they could not match the volume of the the U.S. fans. The shrill post-match cheering and autograph seeking hit a level I haven't personally witnessed post-Mia. And speaking of Mia, there were tons of kids and adults wearing U.S. jerseys, but very few of them were Mia's. Lori Chalupny's #17 was definitely the jersey of choice as St. Louis honored their hometown hero, but I saw plenty of Wambach, Boxx, Solo and Lilly kits as well. I'm hoping that's a good sign that this is no longer "The Greatest Team You've Never Heard Of".

It took about 20 minutes for the U.S. to shake off the cobwebs from the long trip back from China and nearly two weeks off, but they recovered from an early deficit to put on an entertaining 5-1 win.

Hope Solo did not dress for the match, but gamely supported the team from the bench in street clothes, hopefully a positive step in closing this chapter in USWNT history.

After the match, Abby Wambach acknowledged that she hadn't had an opportunity to read the statement Solo issue before the match, but said, "As a team, we're just ready to move forward."

The next move is to Portland, where the U.S. will meet Mexico again before finishing off the series and probably the year on Saturday in New Mexico.

The Hope Solo/Greg Ryan debacle could be the best or the worst thing that has ever happened to women’s soccer. I can’t decide. Women’s soccer has certainly gotten more ink in the last week than it has since Brandi Chastain swung her jersey over her head. Of course, the quality of that ink is debatable. In fact, I can’t recall a situation where so much has been written and said based on so little available information.

The heroes and villains in this drama seem to shift with each passing news cycle. Ryan is the villain for distracting his team with a questionable (questionable is probably the most polite thing that’s been said about it) coaching move. Hope Solo is a villain for throwing Briana Scurry under the bus (I know, the under the bus thing is getting old!) with her criticism of Ryan’s decision. Ryan is a villain for keeping Solo away from the third place match. The team is full of vengeful, spiteful, monstrous villains for supporting Ryan’s decision and not supporting Solo. Solo is a hero for having the courage to speak her mind. It goes on and on with the only constant being Ryan as villain.

In recent days, public opinion seems to have shifted to Solo as saint and the rest of the team, led by Kristine Lilly and Abby Wambach, as monsters. Again, this is with very little information available to support an informed opinion.

Let’s review what we know for sure:

• Greg Ryan made a questionable coaching decision to pull his starting keeper from the semi-final match against Brazil and replace her with her back up, a world class keeper in her own right, who hadn’t seen much time in the net since the Olympics and none in this World Cup.
• Solo, the starting keeper, was very upset by this move. We can infer that at least some of her teammates were also upset, but there have been no public statements to support the inference. In fact, the only statement that has been made was that it didn’t divide the team.
• The team, collectively, put in a poor performance and was shelled by a Brazilian team playing the match of their lives.
• Hope Solo gave an emotional, post match interview against advice from her press officer, emphatically stating the coach made the wrong decision, that she would have made the saves that Scurry didn’t and inferring (unintentionally, I suspect) that Scurry was a has been, living on the accomplishments of the past.
• Solo apologized via My Space, to Briana Scurry and to her teammates for her remarks. We don’t know the details of her personal apologies. The public My Space apology reads more along the lines of “I’m sorry I was misunderstood” rather than “I’m sorry for my behavior”. I have a 13-year old son and am very familiar with this genre of apology. It doesn’t usually get him out of trouble either.
• Greg Ryan with input from “team leaders” decided that Solo would not train with the team or suit up for the third place match.
• Team leaders, Kristine Lilly and Abby Wambach, characterized the decision as a team decision as the team felt Solo would be a distraction to their preparation for Norway.
• Solo did not participate in the match or the ensuing medal ceremony.
• Solo was not made available to the media during the duration of the China trip.
• Solo did not fly home with the team.
• She hasn’t spoken to media since.

What we don’t know:

• If the team decision was unanimous
• The content of her apology to Scurry and her teammates. Was it humble and sincere or more forgive me, you misunderstood?
• What has gone on behind the scenes between Solo and her teammates before, during and after this conflict.
• How Solo responded to being left off the team for the Norway match.
• Why she didn’t fly home with the team. Was it her choice or theirs?

Without answers to these questions (which may never come), I’m not prepared to sort the villains from the heroes. And, I’m certainly not prepared to vilify women whose good conduct I’ve observed up close and from afar over a period of years. That includes Hope Solo. I’ll wait for the facts to roll in before I make further judgment.

For now, I’ll enjoy the 15 minutes of fame that this story is bringing women’s soccer, while cringing that this is what it takes for this group of quality athletes and women to get noticed. At least they didn’t have to get naked to catch some attention.

Leslie Osborne credited a freedom to play and a focus on playing to their strengths for the team’s entertaining and decisive victory over Norway in the third place match of the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

“We know that when we play and we have freedom to play, that we play a lot better, “ Osborne said after the match. “Tonight was a good example of us just playing and playing to our strengths and taking initiative ourselves to play how we can play individually and collectively. I think in this tournament we focused a lot on our opponents and tonight we focused on ourselves.

“Tonight and even against England, I think we came out focusing on ourselves. We are such a great group of individuals, when we come together and focus on our strengths; we are a really good team. I think we just focused too much on our opponents. We had such a tough group to get out of, we just took one game at a time and focused so much on the teams we were playing rather than ‘Hey, let’s play our game.’ We learned a lot.”

Many of the reporters that are here in China covering the Women’s World Cup were shocked by the announcement today that Greg Ryan and the U.S. Women’s National Team had elected to, in effect, banish Hope Solo from tomorrows third place match against Norway. I wasn’t. I don’t cover sports, I cover women’s soccer and I’ve followed this team for a long time. I understood that airing team business publicly was a big no-no for this group and expected some kind of response.

Understanding it and explaining to a bunch or reporters who regularly cover professional athletes, that publicly insult and degrade each other all the time, are entirely different things. I tried to think of someone who could help me verbalize why the team (and some of the veterans) would find Solo’s comments so offensive, and immediately thought of Shannon MacMillan. MacMillan is uniquely qualified to address the current crisis. Not only was she a long time member of the team, but she has also been smack in the middle of a coaching controversy.

The coach was Tony DiCicco and the controversy was during the infamous 1999 Women’s World Cup. MacMillan was playing extremely well, having an impact every time she took the field, but she wasn’t starting. DiCicco was taking a lot of heat from the press about his decision to keep her on the bench and MacMillan was fielding questions about it daily. Her response was to go to DiCicco and discuss it. She responded to the media by saying, "I told him I understood that the media was after him to start me, and they're asking me about all the time, too. I know the heat's on him, but I wanted him to know I'm ready to do whatever he wants me to do. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to keep the heat on him."

I spoke with MacMillan, who is in her first year as Assistant Coach at UCLA, today and asked her thoughts on the current controversy. Here’s what she had to say:

“The foundation of our team has been built on the fact that we are one unit. We’re friends and family within the team and issues like this are handled internally. This isn’t the first disagreement with a coach, a coach’s decision, or between teammates, but when something like this happens, you have to keep it in house. You don’t air it out in the media. I think that part of the reason people have fallen in love with our team over the years is because we have a respect for each other. Many times, fans have told us that they love that we’re not bashing each other, we’re not out there for the big dollars, we’re not out there getting in trouble. This just goes against the character and the fiber of this team and what it stood for.

I think that your coach is your coach. When you have a roster like this going into the World Cup, you need to have faith in your whole team. Coaches aren’t perfect and when they make a mistake I don’t think it’s your right to go out and blast them in the media. That’s something that you handle in a one on one meeting. Enough people were already blasting Greg. I don’t think Hope needed to chime in her two cents worth.

It’s sad to see something like this happen because when the cards are stacked against you, that’s when true character is revealed. I know that Hope is a very emotional person, but you need to keep that in check. You had to know that nothing good was going to come of that interview.

I’m actually really proud of Greg and the team for the way they’ve handled this. This isn’t supposed to happen and it’s not right. I have to be honest, like Foudy, when I heard Hope’s interview it kind of made me sick.”

After spending an evening commiserating with our English friends, the Fair Game crew stuck around to watch the Brazil vs. Norway quarterfinal and then took a couple of days off to see Beijing.

The quarterfinal was my first chance to see Marta in person and I was not disappointed. In fact, I probably was able to enjoy her play more since I was not emotionally invested in the match. The first time Brazil served a long ball toward the end line and Marta took off after it, I was reminded of the often-used Anson Dorrance expression, "she looked like she was just shot out of a canon." She was that fast. Formiga was also as impressive as ever. As to Brazil in general, they showed moments of brilliance and were astounding at times, but looked somewhat sloppy and undisciplined in the back, just like they usually do. I like our chances tomorrow.

On our first day off, we took a train into Beijing and visited Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City is massive and a little bit difficult to appreciate as a result. I'm a lousy tourist anyway and found myself feeling a little like Clark Griswold; nodding my head a few times and ready to move on to the next thing.

The next thing for me was a shopping excursion at the Silk Market, a massive shopping center filled with booths packed to the rim with designer shoes, bags, clothes, electronics and who knows what else. I gave up after two floors. The whole shopping experience in the markets in China is really exciting at first. It is all about salesmanship and negotiating. Every time you pass a stall, a sales person yells out, "Heylady, heylady, heylady. I make you bargain. You want shoes? You buy t-shirt?" The sales people are very aggressive at getting you to look at their merchandise. It is all very amusing for about 15 minutes, but after about the 20th time of getting grabbed and pulled into someone’s stall, it wears a little thin.

Once you eye something you're interested in, the real fun begins. My friends and family will attest to the fact that I'm a little contrary, so I love to bargain. Once I even hinted that I was interested in something by making eye contact or asking a question, the first response was always "How many pieces you buy?" Once that was settled, the salesperson would pull out a calculator and show their "best, special friend, just for you price" which would be ridiculously high by Chinese standards (probably would not be so bad if in the states). My response would be to shrug it of and make a face as if it were the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard, followed by a wave of my hand and an attempt to walk off. Then the salesperson would give me the calculator for me to type in my "best price" which was usually about 10% of their asking. They would hold their chest and act like I had insulted their mother and then take the calculator and make their next offer, usually while telling me about the "high quality" of the merchandise. This would go on for a while and usually ended with me walking off as if we were done and being chased for several stalls (one time a city block) and finally settling on a price between 10% and 25% of the original asking price. I took some victory in each successful negotiation, but somehow still feel that there are several Chinese merchants still laughing at the "stupid American" that over paid.

Our second day off (and probably the last of our trip) was spent on an excursion to The Great Wall. The trip was spectacular and one that I'm glad I made time for. We took a ski lift up. There was an anxious moment or two mid ways through the ride as we wondered how we would get off, as we weren't wearing skis. We got off without incident and proceeded to climb up. The view was amazing. The mountainous scenery would be worth the hike, but the combination of what God had made with the wall that man built was awe inspiring. We hiked until we had had enough and then headed back to where we started and enjoyed a moderately thrilling ride down on a toboggan. I have to confess that I was little bit surprised that you could ride down the Great Wall in a toboggan, as it seems a bit commercial, but you can and it's an experience I highly recommend.

Speaking of commercialism, I was quite amused to find a sign at the Forbidden City emblazoned with the American Express logo. I have no idea what the sign said as it was in Chinese, but it did give me a chuckle.

Sightseeing is over and we're back to soccer. I am watching Germany and Norway live at this very moment and it is shaping up to be a great match. I'm looking forward to the "other" semi-final tomorrow and am very intrigued by the news that Greg will start Briana Scurry in goal. Should be a great evening. See you then!

Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the Fair Game UK staff has avenged England's loss to the U.S. by defeating the American's … in bowling.

Kate Markgraf on her "shot":

"I wanted to keep my stat of never scoring a goal. I felt so bad and I was just laughing at myself because I just shanked that ball so bad. I make fun of defenders who shoot like that and then I shoot it off, basically for a throw in. So, once again my record stays intact."

Kate is a great interview and should definitely do more media.

The England and U.S. Fair Game staffs have been criss-crossing China, following our respective teams. We have come together in Tianjin for the big showdown. Will it be an epic battle that shifts the balance of power in women’s soccer? I’ll let you know in about 10 hours. Regardless, it promises to be an entertaining match.

The England contingent, while satisfied at making the quarters, are hungry for more and are hoping for an upset. The U.S. crew is not taking England lightly and will confess to being a tiny bit nervous.

We are all hoping for a great match. Much of England will be watching, as the match will be played live at the favorable time of 1:00 pm. A quality match, win or lose, in front of a potentially huge television audience could go a long way towards advancing the sport.

For the U.S., a loss here would be a disaster. Not because it’s England, but because they have never left a major international tournament before the semi-finals. They are, in fact, expected to win every tournament by a significant margin, playing exceptionally beautiful soccer for a full ninety, every time they take the field. It’s a lot to live up to, but I expect our girls are up to the challenge.

Last night, I attended England’s training session with two of my English colleagues. We were hoping to get a hint of Hope Powell’s lineup. England’s press officer jokingly identified me as a “spy” (at least, I think he was joking). Powell did not tip her hand in the slightest. We were hustled off the field promptly at the 15 minute mark, after seeing the team stretch and knock the ball around a bit.

Greg Ryan has been characteristically tight lipped about his plans to contain Kelly Smith and the England squad. That leaves us all to speculate what personnel and formations we will see on the pitch come match time. Ryan has developed a nice rapport with the foreign press, responding with wit and humor to endless questions about game plans and tactics that we all know he isn’t going to answer.

I haven’t had a chance to sneak a peek at the pitch yet, but if it matches the outside of the Tianjin Olympic Center Stadium and the training fields, we are definitely in for an improvement.

As for the city … all I can say so far is that this is the first stop over where I’ve been physically aware of China’s famously poor air quality, every time I take a deep breath.

The temperature is up today which could favor the Americans. Playing in hot and smoggy conditions should be nothing new for a team that trains in Los Angeles.

Whoever is not left crying will check in after the match. I hope it’s me!