As the Senate gets ready to vote on a new bill to stave off economic disaster, and Sarah prepares (feverishly) to debate, and George Will joins the ranks of those who see her as unqualified to serve ... and some (unfortunately) find themselves feeling sorry for the lipsticked pitbull ... my thoughts turn (feverishly) to [.

Call it change. Call it luck. Call it redemption. Call it bravery. Call it what you will - it's gold and it's real and it stays! The USWNT defeated Brazil 1-0 yesterday in extra time after putting on a gritty performance on the pitch on a wet, humid, Beijing night. [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Congratulations to the Golden USWNT .

On the USWNT front, Lindsey Dolich has posted a nice preview on ESPNsoccernet about this post-Abby team. Abby's injury "forces the issue" as far as the USWNT's transformation goes. And I have my suspicions that the "liberating" aspects of the change may be quite strong for this team that has played laborious and [.

I know I promised I wouldn't watch or care about the women's nation team of the US till the team was cleared of the punks.
I was watching the Brasilian women's team, they just happened to be outplaying the US team once again. Hope Solo, remember her, kicked off of the team for talking, she won gold this week for the women's national team.

John McCain made another Bush-worthy geography gaffe yesterday - this time on "Good Morning America." Sorry, John, Iraq and Pakistan don't actually share a border. (As an aside, I've always wished that some brave member of the press would ask Bush, during a press conference, to point to Iraq on a map.

First (from The Writer's Almanac), a wonderful poem by Marge Piercy to start your day with something introspective - before diving into the usual sports-centric deluge! This poem runs along the thought-path I was pursuing last night just before sleep. Guess it may be time to get reacquainted with myself .

The USWNT plays China in snowy Detroit today (while the UAW and the rest of us wait for news of the auto industry bailout ... and snow falls in Michigan, and here in NH .. and presumably pretty much everywhere in between)!  After what Pia did with this team in the Olympics ... Obama might [...]

Hope Solo is returning to China while Briana Scurry is staying home.
Less then a year after coach Greg Ryan set off a goalkeeper firestorm by benching Solo ahead of their World Cup semifinal match against Brazil in favor of Scurry, Hope will finally get her chance to win a big tournament in China.

The USWNT defeated Norway 4-0 yesterday in Fredrikstad, and Abby Wambach scored her 99th career goal! Next up is Sweden on July 5th. Interestingly, the US had not defeated Norway in Norway before - losing and tying their two previous matches there. The Norwegians must love it that the USWNT's first win [.

In a game featuring lots of possession, lots of tough tackles, and lots to build on, the USWNT prevailed over Brazil, again by a 1-0 score. Unfortunately, they lost stalwart forward Abby Wambach who went down after a first half collision and, as it turns out, broke two bones in her leg. She's [...

14 days till kick-off. The team blogs are buzzing with activity. This blog is slowly recovering from its' summer hibernation. Following the Weekly Dose's triumphant return to this blog, it's now time to have regular week-in-review posts again as well. Abby spent her time patiently waiting for Etoile's Amine Chermiti.

Norway 2, USWNT 0. The laments and wailing, the recriminations, the rending of clothes and gnashing of teeth have all begun and will continue until the USWNT plays like they can. Norway did it to us again ... or perhaps more accurately, we did it to ourselves. According to many on-line pundits, the [.

Michael Phelps broke Mark Spitz' gold medal record last night -an amazing feat, indeed. I don't know about you, but I find such milestones diminished by the hype ... the marketing ... the hoopla ... the commentary. The events and the raw footage about the events is enough. The look on Michael [..

Devn McTavish - otherwise known as The Bachelor - will make his final appearance on the Carson Show this afternoon around 4:30 p.m. to discuss the final ten candidates in Mix 107.3's date Devon contest. The winning lady will be decided by your votes, so head over the Mix 107.3 website to vote. Voting ends tomorrow afternoon, so make your pick (I'm voting for Abby).

Abby Wambach flew to Portland, Maine this past week to be present for the opening ceremonies of the US Youth Soccer Region I Championships. Here's a link to Blog entries by the players and coaches at the tournament. And guess who was there with his team? Our own Morgan, of Final Four Fame! [...]SHARETHIS.

Man, I hate the ones where bits get broken. It's not too gruesome folks but it was a crunching challenge that has now left the U.S. ladies football team's hopes of gold in Beijing next month in some peril. Wambach is the heart on soul of that squad and the Americans will be scrambling to replace her considerable influence.

The USWNT and Coach Pia Sundhage are settled in China (Qinhuangdao to be exact) training and doing a little touring, as you can see. The WNT Blog is proving to be a very entertaining source of information for USWNT aficionados. Check it out. It's often updated these days, as the team settles in and [.

The USWNT, along with other US Gold Medalists, will be on Oprah today ... whenever Oprah is on in your world.  I do not know whether coaches are included or not ... but am guessing that, if invited, Pia would not turn down this one! It sounds like Abby is getting out and about more.  [...]

File under "The Better Team Over 90 Minutes Won."

It wasn't that United played horrible. This was a decent effort from United, an effort that even improved as the match went on. There were a few defensive and midfield giveaways, but none of those were directly responsible for the two New England Goals.

Okay, I'm not quite letting go yet.  Here's a bit about the chaos in Philly, post World Series win!  We begin in an anonymous house, somewhere in Philly, as the Phils close it out and some college students watch ... then spill out into the street. From there we move along toward Broad Street ... [.

Just a quick post with some random thoughts on the Rapids win last night.

Did Clavijo tell Colin Clark to not dream about taking a run at people? It looked like Clarke may have seen some bench time to get the message he needs to learn to better choose when to run with the ball. He didn't appear interested in doing much more than pass last night.

Have you missed me?  Hope you're having a great weekend.  I'm heading back to NH from upstate NY (that's HollyCornblog land) sometime today ... and will surely be checking up on the BigSoccer discussion/speculation/trash-talking about the USWNT and more specifically, what to do without Abby.

After a beautiful weekend away and a great visit with HollyCornblog and CharlieHopbrew, there's a lot to catch up on. I'm sure I'll be back in the swing in a couple of days ... but right now it's pretty slow-going. On the USWNT front, Lauren Cheney is replacing Abby on the roster, as the team [...]SHARETHIS.

Tomorrow at 6AM we'll start the next leg of the Olympic tournament journey. There's not a lot in the way of soccer news in the interim. The WNT Blog is a good place to track the USWNT's travels and preparation for tomorrow's showdown with Canada. An upbeat and determined Canadian squad is [...]SHARETHIS.

Germany-Japan are underway and Japan is looking goo so far (17th minute). meanwhile, I can't imagine what the USWNT must be feeling right now. Hopefully they are focused and confident. Their making it to the gold medal match is a wonderful accomplishment and, at the very least, has brought the eyes [.

What an upset!
I didn't even give the U.S. a chance. I thought they looked too slow and didn't have enough offense or creativity to stand a chance against Brazil.
While it may have been lacking throughout the game, there was certain enough creative firepower in the goal scored. What a confident strike by Carli Lloyd.

The Phillies won (Mets and Marlins lost) and Beulah has posted her match report! (Sounds like she had a tough time getting it onto her site .. but it's up and a very good read as always!) In other commentary, here's Mark Zeigler on the game ... The rest of the women's soccer world, though, [...]SHARETHIS.

Abby is explaining the surgery on her leg.
She says she realized in the moment she hit her leg that it was broken, that her Olympic dream was over. She also believes that the team will do well. She wasn't panicked about her injury because of that faith. "It takes a whole team," she says.
She expresses her thanks to supportive friends and family and says she is proud of how her teammates responded.

Just take a look at these images from McCain's week (so far) ... in comparison to the bits and bytes on the airwaves featuring Barack Obama. Almost makes me feel sorry for the Straight Talker. But then I see this video, and that changes! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ieHwOm4ljA Meanwhile, here's an article from Scripps News Service about the newly-configured [.

Just to keep you up to date ... the Red Sox lost and the Phillies won ... and there's nothing from Beulah yet. Rest assured that I'll post as soon as I see anything! Last night I dreamed that I had a quick breakfast with Pia Sundhage and April Heinrichs. (April joined us midway [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Pia Dreams, USWNT News, and a HollyCornblog Update, Too!

The Olympics took center stage this week, not just on the world stage, but also in our blogs... Our Bremen blogger Brian looked at Diego's Olympic club vs country saga from all possible angles. (Werder Offside) Replace Diego with Rafinha and then our new Schalke blogger Jon basically did what Brian did.

Shut Outs, Record, GAA, Saves - Player, Class, School
12, 16-5-2, 0.73, 65 - Rachel Scott, Fr, Springfield Catholic
5, 7-18, 2.02, 150 - Kristin Miller, Fr, Nixa Eagles
13, 19-5-1, na, na - Paige Hemphill, So, Ozark Tigers
5, 11-10, 1.86, n/a, Caylin Manary, So, Parkview
13, 17-9, 1.

On the strength of two goals by Abby Wambach, the USWNT defeated Italy 2-0 in what sounded (on MatchTracker) like a good effort by the US women. They will face Canada in the final. Kick-off is on June 21 at 2PM local ... that's 1AM (ET), folks! I'll add links to this post, as more information [...]SHARETHIS.

MSNBC is reporting a new Pew Poll that shows the balance shifting between those who favor more conservation and those who favor more refineries and more drilling. Among the survey's most astounding findings is the dramatic increase in a span of five months in the support for energy exploration and production among groups that have traditionally [.

Abby nears a historical mark - any guesses as to when she'll hit the full Benjamin?

Please stop referring to things that are not slavery as slavery. Christiano Ronaldo's situation is not modern slavery- this is modern slavery. Please make a note of it.

Thank you,

Abby

Might not have the same impact as Abby Wambach being out of the women's team, but Nathan Sturgis is out of the Olympics with an injured hamstring. The replacement is Dax McCarty of FC Dallas.

In youth news:

- A big USA-Mexico game tonight. This would be the U-17 Women's World Cup qualifying tournament in Trinidad.

I just saw Hope Solo and Lisa Chalupny, in a tentative moment, make the first big mistake as both were unable to thwart Leni Larsen Kaurin's header in the opening minutes.

A few minutes later, veteran Kate Markgraf could only look on as her under pressure backpass found a hustling Melissa Wiik latch onto the astray pass and lash the ball past a hapless Solo into the right hand corner of the net.