Olympics: April 2008 Archives

Let's start with the draw for the men's and women's Olympic soccer tournament made this morning in Switzerland.

Here's the reaction from U.S. players to the men's team drawing Holland, Nigeria and Japan.

Women's Coach Pia Sundhage had this to say about the women's draw:

“I’m very excited about the challenge of the draw overall. Group F is certainly the strongest of the three groups, but our group will be very good as well. We will play three very different teams with very different styles of play, which will test our ability to adapt in a world championship tournament with just a few days rest between games.”

Also noted: the U.S. roster for upcoming friendlies against Australia and Canada.

Meanwhile, Chivas USA will test the depth of their squad this afternoon (5 p.m. Fox Sports) at Home Depot Center against FC Dallas, who have similar issues.

Dallas is out for revenge, while Chivas USA seems likely to welcome veteran Mexican defender Claudio Suarez back for his first game of the season.

Finally, condolences to notable local Kei Kamara of Lawndale, who scored in San Jose's 2-0 win over the Colorado Rapids Saturday to help the expansion team to their first MLS win, but lost an older brother a few days ago who died in Africa - after getting some teeth pulled.

Puts a mere game in perspective, doesn't it?

I'll blog from the HDC this afternoon as usual. See you then.

Two goals by Rolling Hills Estates' Robbie Rogers led the Columbus Crew past Chivas USA 4-3 Saturday, while the U.S. women beat Canada on penalties in Olympic qualifying.

Columbus Coach Sigi Schmid summed up the game when he talked to the Columbus Dispatch: "I don't know if my heart can take all of them like this," he said. "Everybody should be made to watch this on TV and then say soccer is not exciting."

Too bad it was played before the smallest crowd (6,733) ever to see a Crew game in frigid temperatures.

Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan, to blame for the winning goal, had better hope scouts from Aston Villa etc., weren't watching.

More game details here.

The U.S. beat Costa Rica 3-0 in a dust storm Wednesday night, while Canada defeated hosts Mexico 1-0 to qualify for the Olympics in China.

Torrance duo Shannon Boxx and Vanessa Rojas went 90 minutes for the U.S. and Costa Rica respectively.

More on the U.S.-Costa Rica game is here and the Canada-Mexico game here.

U.S. Coach Pia Sundhage gave kudos to the Americans' CONCACAF rivals.

"The teams here have improved a lot compared to what I knew about them five or six years ago," she said "Look at this game, the U.S. playing Costa Rica and it’s 0-0 at half time. I would say it’s an important moment for me, who has been around the game for so long, to see Costa Rica, Trinidad & Tobago and the way Mexico has improved so much. It’s not only good for U.S. but for women’s soccer overall.”

Crunch Time in Mexico

The U.S. plays Costa Rica, a nation that has never beaten the Americans in four tries, at 6 p.m. while Mexico faces Canada in the nightcap.

Costa Rica features Torrance's Vanessa Rojas on its squad, while the U.S. has Torrance's Shannon Boxx.

“We haven’t played them since 2004, but it looks like they have improved," said U.S. defender Kate Markgraf. "They have really technical players and they look more athletic then they have in the past. We will have to see how much they try to attack or if they sit back, but we can adapt and play our style according to the flow of the game.”

The Americans handily beat Costa Rica 4-0 the last time the nations met.

There's no TV coverage.

Chivas USA Youngsters with USA

Flores played in all five U-20 games in January, including three as captain; Mayen, who signed with Chivas USA on March 27, will be with the U.S. U-20 squad for the first time.

Milestone for Matt

Reis, who has has started 72 consecutive regular season games for the Revolution, the longest current active streak in MLS, has played the last 6,480 minutes for the club, just shy of Pat Onstad's record 6,648 minute stretch set from 2005-2007.

Hamilton Honored

Hamilton, a former Torrance resident, was Galaxy GM when he died in March 2006 from heart complications at the age of 43. He is also the brother of Chivas USA Vice President of Soccer Operations Stephen Hamilton. Proceeds from the game benefit Hamilton's son Aedan.

The U.S. has just beaten Mexico 3-1 in Olympic qualifying meaning Torrance's Vanessa Rojas and her Costa Rican team will meet Abby Wambach, Shannon Boxx et al in the semifinals Wednesday of CONCACAF qualifying with an Olympic slot at stake.

The U.S., which had already qualified for the semifinals, got three first half goals to seal the win, including two from Natasha Kai. Hermosa Beach resident Wambach added another.

Costa Rica, which finished second in Group B, got through by only losing 2-0 to Canada and qualifying on goal difference.

Costa Rica isn't given much chance against the U.S., but I'm sure Vanessa will nevertheless be reveling in being only 90 minutes away from realizing every athlete's dream and appearing at the Olympics.

Game details from a Canadian perspective here.

The U.S.plays Mexico today in CONCACAF Olympic qualifying, although both nations have qualified for the semifinals.

Guest-blogger Vanessa Poster, a Torrance resident and Loyola Marymount student who plays for Costa Rica, returns ahead of that nations' clash with Canada. Costa Rica can qualify for the semifinals outright just by conceding five goals or fewer, since T&T lost to Canada by six. This is her third post.

Friday was an exciting day to say the least.

We began as every other day with breakfast in the morning, a light training session and a chalk talk after lunch.

I was starting the game, earning my fourth cap and was very excited.

We were playing 3-4-3 with an obvious offensive mindset.

Previous encounters with Trinidad and Tobago had been a blow out, but this year they came out with a fury.

I was playing on the back line and they were putting a lot of pressure on us - they were not going to just roll over and let us win just because we were better than them on paper.

I don’t know if it was the grandiose stadium or the dry climate, but we could not get into our groove.

They scored the first goal and it was like a blow to the stomach, but that must have lit a fire under us because we started to play with more passion. As the game went on the coach decided to move into a 4-3-3 to give more support to the back line. Soon after Trinidad scored again, and it put us against the wall, for if we lost this game we were sure not to qualify to the next round of the tournament.

As the game went on we had chance after chance, but the ball would just not go into the net.

Then, with the score 2-1, the fourth official put up injury time of three minutes.

We only had three minutes left in the game to get at least a tie. It seemed improbable, when we would repeatedly cross the ball and it would deflect away it was as if someone had cast a spell on the net.

Then we had a last ditch effort cross deflect off a players' foot and someone was open on the six yard box and GOOAAALLLLL!!!!.

The referee called the game about 25 seconds later.

We play Canada today.

The fight continues

The U.S. beat Jamaica 6-0 tonight in Mexico, while Costa Rica drew 2-2 with Trinidad & Tobago.

More on the U.S. game here while Torrance's Vanessa Rojas played the first 30 minutes of Costa Rica's 2-2 tie with Trinidad & Tobago.

CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying continues today in Mexico with Costa Rica playing its opening game against Trinidad & Tobago at 5 p.m. (vanquished 6-0 by Canada in its first game) and the U.S. playing Jamaica (which lost 5-0 to Mexico in its first game) at 7:30 p.m.

There's no television coverage, although fans can follow the Americans live at the U.S. Soccer Web site.

A preview of the U.S. game is here.

For more on the Costa Rica game we turn to guest-blogger Vanessa Rojas, a Torrance resident and Loyola Marymount University student, who qualifies to represent Costa Rica via her father, who is a native of that nation. This is her second post for 100 Percent Soccer.

I would like to start off by thanking everyone that wished me luck in this tournament.

It’s nice to have some support coming from home.

I would also like to clear up a geographical mistake that I made in my initial post. I arrived in Juarez, Mexico not Guadalajara, Mexico as previously stated (geography was never my strong suite).

Anyway, we arrived here with open arms from the people of Juarez.

There are welcome signs posted all over the city representing the different countries' flags in the tournament.

We had a police escort to our hotel as we got to view this cute little desert town that is located about 12 miles south of El Paso, Texas.

In preparation for today's game against Trinidad & Tobago we got up at 8 in the morning Thursday to have some breakfast, headed to training, lunch, then back to a last training session before our big game.

We are all excited and anxious for out first game and don’t fully know what to expect other than they are very fast and aggressive team.

Our next game is against Canada on Sunday, and that is the team that we are really excited to play against.

The winner from our pool will play the second place team from the U.S., Jamaica and Mexico pool and that is when the tournament really starts to get interesting.

On Thursday there were some little kids that wanted our autographs in the lobby and it reminded me of myself when I was their age. It made me really happy to be able to play a sport I love.

I will blog soon soon with a tournament update.

Pura Vida!

Just in case any reminder was needed regarding the peripheral role MLS plays in the sports mainstream in this country, a trip to Las Vegas on the opening weekend of the season provided it.

Avoiding news about MLS (so I could watch TiVo'd Galaxy and Chivas USA games Monday night and this morning respectively) was disconcertingly easy.

No mention of MLS on the ESPN bottom of the screen crawl during March madness on the ubiquitous televisions in casinos (and this is the league's alleged broadcast partner?).

Most sports books don't take bets on MLS games (the Station Casino chain is an exception).

And Fox Soccer Channel and others that carry the game simply aren't one of the options at the gazillions of television choices at sports books.

So it wasn't until Monday night I learned the Galaxy's new look team looked a lot like their old ones in a 4-0 drubbing at the hands of the Colorado Rapids. That was L.A.'s worst loss since the waning days of the Steve Sampson era (May 6, 2006 to be precise). Exactly a month later, Sampson was fired.

Are you listening Ruud Gullit?

Perhaps even more drastic action needs to be taken in the case of increasingly embarrassing cart horse defender Abel Xavier, who is slowing down almost visibly with every game and was to blame on several of the goals. And I wasn't thinking he needs to be put out to pasture.

Let's see David Beckham laugh that one off at 11:35 p.m. this evening with Leno on "The Tonight Show."

Meanwhile, the Galaxy announced today they will host a U.S. Open Cup qualifying game Tuesday May 27 against those same Rapids. Let's hope Colorado doesn't play another (ahem) "weakened" line-up. Tickets are on sale now for the 7:30 p.m. game.

Good thing Maykel Galindo and Chivas USA are likely to be a lot more diverting than the Galaxy again this year, the Cuban saving the point against Dallas Sunday with a late equalizer.

Condolences to classy Mexican veteran defender Claudio Suarez, a resident of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, who missed the game due to the death of his father.

Congrats to Downey High junior Briant Reyes, 16, named the winner of the Los Angeles portion of "Sueño MLS 2008: The Dream Continues." The Salvadorian-American joins the Under-16 Chivas USA team.

And farewell to reserve Chivas USA forward John Cunliffe who got shipped off to San Jose for Canadian defensive midfielder Chris Pozniak.

Lastly, Shannon Boxx of Torrance, USC's Amy Rodriguez and UCLA's Lauren Cheney were all named Monday to the U.S. Olympic qualifying squad.