The player’s aren’t the only ones exhausted after a grueling 2-1-overtime victory for the United States over Canada in their Olympic Quarterfinal. Those of us who saw it through from the 6:00 am kickoff, the weather delay, full time and two overtimes, four plus hours worth in all, deserve at least a nap. That includes U.S. coach, Pia Sundhage.

“I feel like I am a player. I am exhausted and happy,” she said.

The match started on time in a heavy downpour reminiscent of the United State’s World Cup match against Nigeria in the middle of Typhoon Wipha. The match was halted in the 21st minute due to lightening, but not before Angela Hucles got the U.S. on the board in the 12th minute.

The break was fortuitous for the Canadians. The U.S. clearly had them on their heels and were playing some of the best soccer we’ve seen from them all tournament. The 139-minute stoppage killed the American’s momentum and allowed Canada time to regroup after a shaky start.

Canada didn’t waste any time after the match resumed. Christine Sinclair capitalized on a casual U.S. throw in, launching a rocket past an outstretched Hope Solo in the 30th minute.

Canada’s coach, Even Pellerud was forced to make an early sub, replacing goalkeeper Erin McLeod with Karina LeBlanc after McLeod was injured attempting to defend Hucles’ goal. LeBlanc played an outstanding match and kept Canada in it into the first overtime when Natasha Kai connected with a beautiful ball from Shannon Boxx for the game-winning header in the 102nd minute.

In what in hindsight appears to be a brilliant move, Sundhage waited until the beginning of the first overtime to sub Kai in for Amy Rodriguez. A fresh Kai was able to run circles around a clearly gassed Canadian side.

“I thought we did well at forward with A-Rod because of her speed and with Angela Hucles,” explained Sundhage. “We switched Carli Lloyd to a more attacking role in hopes that she would get some more shots. With all due respect for Canada, which is a good team, we were thinking about extra time and that 30 minutes. We got 30 minutes out of Tash so I thought that was good timing.”

The U.S. could have managed the waning minutes better. Instead of settling for possession and killing time, they pressed for a third goal, which made the last few minutes a bit nerve wracking for the fans.

The match marked an outstanding effort by U.S. midfielder Shannon Boxx, who was justly named Sierra Mist Player of the Match. Boxx also happened to be celebrating her 100th cap. Lori Chalupny was dangerous and never gave up on any ball despite taking quite a beating from Kara Lang and company. Christie Rampone and Kate Markgraf held the U.S. backline together well to contain Canada. Really, the match was a great team effort.

The U.S. enters their semi-final with Japan spreading the goals around. Angela Hucles is the leading scorer with two.

“The cool thing about this Olympics so far is that we’ve had so many different goal scorers,” said Heather O’Reilly after the match. “I think that is what’s making us special right now. We’ve had six different goal scorers for seven goals, so that’s a pretty cool stat and that’s what’s making us so unpredictable.”

The U.S. has managed this tournament well, getting better every match, a trend they hope continues through to the gold medal.

* Photo of U.S. goal scorer, Angela Hucles, by Brad Smith/isiphotos.com

Fourteen and a half hours to kick off and counting. I’ve seen the U.S. suit up against Canada more times than I can count, but I can’t remember when I’ve approached a U.S./Canada match with such anticipation. I can’t wait until the alarm rings at 5:45 am tomorrow and that is saying a lot for this non-morning person, especially in light of how this tournament started out for the Americans.

Much has been made in the press about the close contests that Canada has had with the U.S. in recent years, especially in significant or non-friendly matches. The U.S. barely eked out a 2-1 win in the 2006 CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup, which was the qualifying tournament for the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup. However, both teams had already qualified for the World Cup so the significance of that match is debatable. It was the same thing with the 2008 CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Tournament. It was decided in favor of the U.S. on penalty kicks, but both teams had already punched their tickets to Beijing.

Mixed in with the tight matches are some thrashings courtesy of the U.S., including 6-0 and 4-0 results this year.

The mixed bag of results makes it difficult to predict a winner. The Canadians have made it clear that they are not intimidated by their neighbors and feel like it is their time. Meanwhile, the U.S. is showing respect to an opponent that they have only lost to three times and not since 2001.

“They are great athletes and very tough,” said U.S. midfielder, Heather O’Reilly. “They are going to be one of the most aggressive and toughest teams in the tournament so that’s something that we need to match or beat.”

Maybe Canada is due and can capitalize on a depleted U.S. squad. However, the U.S. has never finished out of the medals at an Olympics or World Cup and they seem to be on upward swing after a disastrous start. And, if moving onto the medal round isn’t enough motivation for the U.S., Team Canada has been talking enough smack to provide some extra incentive for the U.S. to come out guns blazing.

The pit that settled in my stomach after Norway's goal in the second minute of Wednesday's clash dissipated in the opening moments of the USWNT's contest with Japan this morning. The U.S. came out fired up, yet composed, pinging the ball around the field nicely and putting Japan immediately on their heels. This was a team I recognized, unlike the one that took the field on Wednesday.

The midfield looked much stronger today and the team did a good job of getting the ball out wide to Heather O'Reilly and Lindsay Tarpley. It was another strong outing for O'Reilly, who was singled out for kudos, along with first time Olympic starter Amy Rodriguez, by coach Pia Sundhage.

"I am very happy about our performance today against a very technical, talented Japan team," said Sundhage. "Besides a great goal by Carli Lloyd, I am very happy about our tactics with a fast player up top, Amy Rodriguez, and the way Heather O'Reilly played on the right side. But the bottom line is that the team that won today."

Rodriguez will need to do a better job of finishing her chances going forward, but her combination of speed and savvy made for an overall impressive performance up top and I expect we will see more of her as a starter.

The match's only goal was a nice team effort. Tarpley won the ball and played Stephanie Lopez in. Lopez did well to run the ball down at the end line and get the cross off. For a split second it appeared that her effort was wasted as the ball sailed just over the head of Rodriguez. It skipped to the top of the box where Carli Lloyd cracked her half volley into the back of the net.

“It happened so quickly. It kind of came off of a cross, " said Lloyd. "Amy Rodriguez tried to go for it and it came over her head and my eyes lit up. I was at the top of the box and just made sure I hit a nice smooth stroke.”

The team defended well and Hope Solo came up with a couple of big saves to preserve the 1-0 result. The backline was active on offense as well. Christie Rampone had a chance early, Heather Mitts had two, and of course, Lopez notched the assist on Lloyd's goal.

It wasn't a perfect outing. There were too many long balls sent directly to Japan, Lopez and Mitts being early perpetrators. And, the U.S. should have finished more of the sweet chances they created. Still, it was a night and day performance from the Norway disaster and a good first step towards peaking during the knock out round.

If I were cutting the highlight video of this match besides the obvious goal, these are some moments I would be sure to include:

• Kate Markgraf pulling off a bicycle kick in an attempt to keep the ball in play on our attacking end.
• Hope Solo tipping Homare Sawa's shot just over the net for an awesome save.
• Heather Mitts' almost goal, well, both of them.
• In about the 80th minute, O'Reilly made a nice run, played a beautiful ball through to Rodriguez who shook off her defender. The shot was wide, but still the sequence is definitely highlight worthy.
• Christie Rampone could have her own highlight reel as she put on a master class in defending in the last 15 minutes of the match - snuffing out attacks, defending corners and generally making good decisions on when to possess and when to just clear it.

In closing I will say after shuffling through the match again to dig out some of my match highlights I'm even more impressed with Rodriguez than I was at first glance.

The U.S. Women's National Team's 2-0 loss to Norway today marks the first time the women have lost a group match in a world championship, ever. The U.S. dug themselves in a hole early and were unable to dig themselves out.

Leni Larsen Kaurin opened the scoring for Norway in the second minute, heading the ball into an empty net. Hope Solo came off her line to challenge Kaurin and collided with Lori Chalupny who was defending the header. Stephanie Cox subbed in for Chalupny shortly after the collision in which she took a shot to the head. Chalupny is listed as day to day. She took significant time off in 2007 after a suffering a string of concussions. Hopefully her removal from the game was a precaution.

Norway's Melissa Wiik capitalized on an ill advised back pass from veteran defender Kate Markgraf moments later and in less than five minutes, the U.S. was down by two. After the match Markgraf took ownership of her uncharacteristic mistake.

"The second goal was totally my fault. I didn’t play the ball back hard enough to Hope (Solo) and I didn’t see the player either," she said.

The start of this match reminded me a bit of the 1999 World Cup quarter-final against Germany when the U.S. went down early on an own goal by Brandi Chastain. Chastain came back and scored the equalizer and the U.S. went on to win 3-2. I was hoping for a similar outcome today (and wouldn't it have been a great story for Markgraf to score the equalizer as her first goal), but it was not to be. The U.S. settled down and pretty much contained Norway for the rest of the match, but could not get anything going offensively.

Critics of Greg Ryan ball will not be impressed with the team's first significant match under Pia Sundhage. There were plenty of errant long balls and final passes to lament and we only saw glimpses of the beautiful possession soccer we were hoping for. Still, there were glimpses and I'm not ready to start the funeral march yet. While a Wambach-less offense at times seemed to lack passion and direction, the play of Heather O'Reilly was a bright spot as was Tobin Heath's when she subbed in late in the match.

A part of me is screaming that this result is an unprecedented disaster, but I'm going to write it off as Olympic jitters and assume this team will come back strong against Japan on Saturday. I hope I'm not in denial. Coach Sundhage and Captain Christie Rampone have to help the team put this rocky start behind them.

“We have a choice right now. You can imagine (what it can do to a team) to give up two early goals playing in your first game," said Sundhage. "What is very important is to keep our style and that is something we as coaches will emphasize. We can look at bad things, and we will adjust, but also look at good parts in the game where we created chances and where we kept possession and played pretty good soccer.”

The U.S. has two group games to win and the result today sets up a potential meeting with Germany or Brazil in the quarter-finals.

The U.S. launched their Olympic qualifying campaign tonight with a 6-0 victory over Jamaica with goals from Carli Lloyd, Abby
Wambach (2), Lauren Cheney, Heather O'Reilly, and Tobin Heath. The loss means that Jamaica is out after losing to Mexico 8-1 on Tuesday. The U.S. and Mexico will go through to the semi-finals but the U.S. needs a victory to finish top of the group and avoid an early meeting with Canada (assuming Canada finishes top of their group) before the final. Both finalists will represent CONCACAF in the Beijing Olympics.

In a few hours, I will be heading to Lisbon to catch a plane home. It has been an incredible week of soccer here in the Algarve and while I am anxious to get home to my family, I am sad to see it end.

It isn't often that you get the opportunity to see a team transform before your eyes and while they still have some work to do, I feel like the team I saw take on Denmark today was a better and different team than I saw against China just last week. They faced tougher opponents as the tournament wore on and while their new, more possession oriented style of play wasn't automatic when the pressure was turned on, they stuck with it and it looked better and more natural with each game.

During the opening minutes against China through the waning minutes of the final, I was struck by the chatter I heard out on the field. The team was communicating at a volume I haven't observed since Julie Foudy left the pitch. Sometimes it was captain Christie Rampone exhorting the troops. Other times it was Kate Markgraf shouting out instruction. Heather O'Reilly was frequently heard calling for the ball. At first I wondered if it was my imagination or if the chatter was more noticeable due to the lack of fan noise on the field, but Rampone confirmed my observation.

"The communication is just really good, better than I think it’s ever been," said Rampone. "It’s definitely something we’ve been working on in training because everyone is responsible out there. We’ve been working on being on the same page and having the same voice instead of making so many different commands and I think everyone is feeling more and more comfortable."

As to Pia Sundhage, other than a quick interview at the College Cup, this was my first real exposure to her. She has an enthusiasm that is contagious and while she is a very savvy coach, in some ways she is just a big kid that loves soccer. She talks a lot about belief, courage and confidence. Her team seems to have bought in and will leave the Algarve with more confidence in what they are doing as they have seen it work.

The team will get a week off when they get home although they have a running program to keep them on track, then they are back together to get ready for Olympic Qualifying.

As for me, they are still pictures to post, videos to edit and thoughts to share (as well as Issue 12 to pull together), but they will have to wait until I get back to Georgia and get a few hours sleep. Thanks for sticking with us during the 2008 Algarve Cup. Look for an update on Friday.

There is good news and bad news from today’s match against Norway. The bad news is that U.S. had a really rough first half. They had difficulty solving Norway’s pressure and had a tough time playing the ball through the midfield.

The good news is that the U.S. had a really rough first half, but stuck to the game plan, found a way to solve the pressure, and came back and spanked Norway 4-0 in the second half.

Yes, they had a little help from Norway’s ‘keeper, Ingrid Hjelmseth, but both goals that were in part the result of ‘keeper error wouldn’t have happened with out some pretty spectacular individual effort. Natasha Kai did well to read Hjelmseth’s casual ball placement and put herself in great position to take advantage.

“The big lift in the second half was Tasha Kai’s goal to start off our scoring streak,” said Heather O’Reilly. “Her energy and read on that play was just phenomenal.”

Amy Rodriguez’s shot was weak and should have easily been handled by Hjelmseth, but a nice ball from Wambach and some equally nice moves from Rodriguez put her in position to take the shot in the first place.

Wambach and O’Reilly’s goals were first class.

Pia Sundhage once again used all six subs (Tarpley, Whitehill, Heath, Rodriguez, Lopez and Osborne) and was pleased with the effort she got off the bench.

“The players coming off the bench, they did a great job and that’s a strength,” said Sundhage. “We will play the bench and that’s a message I want to send.”

This match was a better opportunity for Sundhage and the coaching staff to assess Nicole Barnhart and she looked good. Her performance here should keep her in the mix for the trip to Beijing.

Christie Rampone earned the Sierra Mist Player of the Match for the second game in a row. Rampone had an outstanding World Cup and just seems to be getting better and better.

I think it is pretty safe to assume that Natasha Kai, Amy Rodriguez, and Lauren Cheney are competing for two spots on the Olympic roster. They’ve each gotten a start in this tournament and so far, I can’t say that any one has distinguished herself one way or the other over the other two. We’ll see what happens on Wednesday when the U.S. takes on Denmark.

Today's 2-0 win over Italy wasn't as "pretty" as the 4-0 trouncing of China earlier in the week, but it was more exciting.

It was nice to see the team knocking the ball around so well and it's good for the ego to score a bunch of goals, but when a team rolls over like China did, there's no drama.

Italy didn't roll over, not for a moment. They pressured the U.S. from the opening kickoff to the final whistle and though it wasn't always "pretty", it made for an lively match.

“It was really a battle. The Italian team was definitely inspired and motivated for this game for the whole 90 minutes," said Heather O'Reilly whose second half goal was a beauty. "It’s not like they lost their desire at any point. It was a very intense game, so it was really a battle for us to calm it down, ping it around, and keep possession, and I don’t think we did that quite as much as we would have liked, but we won 2-0, it’s a great win and we’re moving on towards Norway.”

The midfield shined against China, but it was the back line, led by Christie Rampone, that stood out against Italy. They were tested by the Italians, especially number eight, Melania Gabbiadini, who was consistently dangerous. They came out unscathed, but had some help from the Italians who were frequently caught offsides.

“It was a great match for us because it challenges us. We seemed a little stressed at times…but we just have to stay composed," said Rampone. "We’re a good team. We’re good on the ball and we just have to believe that and I think these games test us, which is good going into qualifying because at times like that we have to compose ourselves and settle down.”

It is imperative to the development of this team to be put in uncomfortable situations before they get to the Olympics. It's easy to possess the ball when there is no pressure, but this was an opportunity to test themselves against some consistent pressure. It wasn't perfect, but it was an important step towards being able to handle the heat the next time they face down a Brazil or North Korea.

Last night was a breakout World Cup performance for Lori Chalupny. She scored a goal in the first minute and didn’t stop running until the final whistle blew. She was dangerous on several occasions and actively tracked back to help her team defend.

For Chalupny, it was just another day at the office, one in which she just happened to score the winning goal that took the U.S. out of Group B in first place.

“The goal yesterday, being my first World Cup goal, was an amazing feeling and I’m glad that I was able to help the team win,” said Chalupny.
Chalupny was the obvious choice for Player of the Match, but was overlooked in favor of Nigeria’s Perpetua Nkwocha, in what could only be a consolation prize for going home without a win.

Chalupny’s University of North Carolina and U-19 teammate, Heather O’Reilly also impressed with her speed and work rate. She ran down seemingly impossible to retrieve balls to the end line and cut them back to create nice scoring chances for her teammates, and was an active participant in team defense.

“I just think that I’m not the biggest player. I’m not the most tactically aware player, but work ethic is something that you can always bring. That’s just been part of my upbringing, and playing at University of North Carolina, its just ingrained is us that you can have the worst day technically, but as along as you leave it on the field and use your work ethic you can walk away feeling good about yourself,” O’Reilly explained when asked about her work rate and competitive fire.

Chalupny agreed.

“Not only at UNC, but also on the youth teams, the U-19 team, it’s just kind of been an attitude and a mindset that we’ve grown up with. That’s something that I look forward to in the games; running around and playing defense,” she said.

Chalupny, O’Reilly and the U.S. team escaped group play with no suspensions or major injuries. They’ve been getting better every match, but haven’t quite hit their stride yet. They take on England in a quarterfinal on Saturday, which promises to be an exciting match – especially for the Fair Game US and Fair Game UK crew who will be watching together in Tianjin. The trash talk has already begun!

Photo by Robyn McNeil