US Soccer reports that Leslie Osborne has suffered an ACL tear and is out for the Olympics. Osborne's presence on the field and as a positive support to her teammates will be missed.
Osborne is a steady source of encouragement to the team. She is always one of the first to congratulate a goal scorer and when she's on the bench, she's their greatest cheerleader.
At the match in Cary last month, Osborne was dinged up and not on the roster. She watched the match from a luxury box with the other players that weren't rostered for the match. Late in the match, after Australia equalized, I heard a very loud voice yelling "Come on white! Let's go!" I looked down from my seat in the press box and saw that Osborne had come down from her comfy seat to brave the weather and cheer on her team in their time of need. It made me smile as it was typical Leslie.
Fair Game wishes Leslie a speedy recovery and looks forward to seeing her back on the field soon.
Today at practice all the photographers noticed that Leslie Osborne was sporting a tremendously huge bruise on her thigh. I asked her about it and she shared the gory details.
"I guess I got hit, right when I got in (against Italy). She hit me pretty hard and she went cleats up on me so I actually have her whole cleat on my thigh, but I got it worked on. I have another one on my left thigh, just to make it even. They were pretty brutal out there, kind of like the Brazilians, so it was good."
* Bruise photos compliments of Patricia Giobettii
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.”
For about the first 10 minutes of last nights match against Sweden, I felt like I had stepped right back on the roller coaster ride I had barely survived a few nights before. The Swedes came out firing and the U.S. was forced to defend almost exclusively in the opening minutes. Sweden earned four corners in the first four minutes of the match and five in the first 10.
“We did well (to hold off Sweden during the first few minutes). We held our ground when they came at us and we defended a lot more than we wanted to, but I think that the team stayed together and stayed strong,” said defender Christie Rampone who turned in another first rate performance.
Any doubt I had about Ryan’s choice to start Leslie Osborne as defensive mid over Shannon Boxx evaporated early in the match – about the time she boomed that header halfway up the field. That’s also about the time the match started to settle down for the U.S.
Not too long after, Kate Markgraf played what, according to her, was an uncharacteristically long ball over the Swedish defenders. It bounced over the keeper and into the path of Lori Chalupny who had timed her run perfectly. She was taken down near the goal line and earned a penalty kick, which was made by Abby Wambach.
“I saw (Lori Chalupny) holding a run so I just hit it and I kind of surprised myself with how well I hit it. I hit it how far Cat (Whitehill) hits it, and that’s kind of unusual. I think she inspired me to kick the crap out if it.” said Markgraf.
Boxx subbed in for Carli Lloyd at half time and erased any memory of the less than Boxx-like performance she turned in against North Korea. She took command, cleaning up messes all over the field.
Kristine Lilly and Wambach combined for an insurance goal in the 58th minute. Lilly sent in a beautiful ball to Wambach's chest which she settled and half-volleyed past the dumbstruck ‘keeper. It was a world-class strike
Wambach is having a great tournament Not only has she scored three goals, but she has also thoroughly entertained with fancy footwork, not often seen in a player of her size. She’s not the player she was in 2003. She is much, much more.
The U.S. survived Sweden’s attempt to get back into the match as time started to run down. It was another exciting match, but this one was a little bit easier on my blood pressure.
The U.S. goes into Tuesdays match against Nigeria dead even with North Korea. Both have four points and a two goals for goal differential.
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