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 .

First the soccer news, which includes Angela Hucles' 100th cap (in a career year for her) and another win (over South Korea) for the USWNT.  With two more games left in their post-Olympic Tour, it woulds like the team is pleasing Pia! The NESCAC  Soccer Tournament is over for another year.  (Oh yeah, that's the New [.

WPS Player Allocations – U.S. Women's National Team
WPS Team
Players Listed in Alphabetical Order
Bay Area: Nicole Barnhart, Rachel Buehler, Leslie Osborne
Boston Breakers: Angela Hucles, Kristine Lilly, Heather Mitts
Chicago Red Stars: Carli Lloyd,Kate Markgraf,Lindsay Tarpley
Los Angeles: Shannon Boxx, Stephanie Cox, Aly Wagner
Sky Blue FC: Natasha Kai, Heather O'Reilly, Christie Rampone
St.

Heather O'Reilly scored just 40 seconds into the game, USC striker Amy Rodriguez also scored and Torrance's Shannon Boxx was named player of the game as the U.S. crushed New Zealand (much much) earlier today 4-0 to win its group.

The U.S. needed a big win and a large Norway loss against Japan to take the group.

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 news wires are now full of player profiles, match reports, you name it, as the US women's soccer team gears up for its gold medal match versus Brazil on Thursday morning. This team is living up to the Nike Women's World Cup hype of several months ago ... the greatest team you've never [...]SHARETHIS.

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 Canada 1-0 just a few hours ago, to become Peace Queen Cup champs for the second time on a goal Angela Hucles! Hucles also won the golden ball as the tournament MVP! Here's the write-up from USSoccer. The "Aunt Pia" part comes from a recent entry in the WNT Blog, in which [...]SHARETHIS.

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 [.

The United States women's team celebrate their victory over Brazil for the Gold medal in 2008 Olympic Games. The Olympic team included Hope Solo, Heather Mitts, Christie Rampone, Lindsay Tarpley, Shannon Boxx, Amy Rodriguez, Heather O'Reilly, Carli Loyd, Kate Margraf, Angela Hucles, and Lori Chalupny.

A diving header from Natasha Kai gave the U.S. a 2-1 win earlier today over Canada and sent the women to an Olympics semifinal game Monday against Japan.

Game story.

The U.S. lineup: 1-Hope Solo; 17-Lori Chalupny, 15-Kate Markgraf, 2-Heather Mitts, 3-Christie Rampone; 7-Shannon Boxx, 11-Carli Lloyd, 9-Heather O'Reilly (6-Natasha Kai, 91), 5-Lindsay Tarpley (13-Tobin Heath, 82); 16-Angela Hucles, 8-Amy Rodriguez (12-Lauren Cheney, 109).

An important match versus Japan looms. Predictions?
USA: 18-Hope Solo; 2-Heather Mitts, 15-Kate Markgraf, 3-Christie Rampone - Capt., 14-Stephanie Cox, 15; 9-Heather O'Reilly, 7-Shannon Boxx, 11-Carli Lloyd, 5-Lindsay Tarpley; 16-Angela Hucles, 8-Amy Rodriguez.
JPN: 1-Miho Fukumoto; 2-Yukari Kinga, 3-Hiromi Ikeda, 4-Azusa Iwashimizu, 7-Kozue Ando; 5-Miyuki Yanagita, 8-Aya Miyama, 10-Homare Sawa, 15-Mizuho Sakaguchi; 17-Yuki Nagasato, 11-Shinobu Ohno.

Qualifying Teams : Group A : China Sweden Canada Group B : Brazil Germany Group C : USA Norway Japan USA 2-1 Canada ( Aug 15- Shanghai) ( Angela Hucles, Natasha Kai/ Christine Sinclair) Brazil 2-1 Norway ( Aug 15- Tianjin) ( Marta, Daniela/ Siri Nordby penalty) Sweden 0-2 Germany ( Aug 15- Shenyang) ( Kerstin Gerefrekes, Simone Laudehr) China 0-2 Japan ( Aug 15- Qinhuangdao) ( Homare Sawa, Yuki Nagasato)

Here we go, here we go.
USA: 1-Hope Solo; 17-Lori Chalupny, 15-Kate Markgraf, 2-Heather Mitts, 3-Christie Rampone-Capt.; 7-Shannon Boxx, 11-Carli Lloyd, 9-Heather O'Reilly, 5-Lindsay Tarpley; 16-Angela Hucles, 8-Amy Rodriguez
Japan: 1-Miho Fukumoto; 2-Yukari Kinga, 3-Hiromi Ikeda, 4-Azusa Iwashimizu, 7-Kozue Ando; 14-Kyoko Yano, 8-Aya Miyama, 10-Homare Sawa, 15-Mizuho Sakaguchi, 11-Shinobu Ohno, 17-Yuki Nagasato.

4 - 1 is a pretty crushing margin to win a game by after starting off by being a goal down.Formiga, Marta and two goals by Cristiane cancelled out the goal by Birgit Prinz for the German women's team.
The USA women's team also scored 4 goals (over Japan) to reach the finals.

The Women's Professional Soccer League announced its allocation of members of the U.S. women's national team on Tuesday, establishing a foundation for the seven-team league set to kick off next spring.

U.S. Olympic team star Hope Solo and U.S. national team striker Abby Wambach were among the 21 players assigned to the seven teams.

After Carli Lloyd's goal in the first half, the score held and the USWNT defeated a good Japan squad 1-0 to gain three points and move into second place in their group. Next up, New Zealand on Tuesday at 7:45 AM ET. Here are some comments from Pia et al (from the USSF [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "USWNT Notches a Win", url: "http://www.

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.

The USWNT and Brazil both won in convincing fashion and will face off on Thursday morning (9AM ET) in the gold medal match. Germany and Japan (maybe it's me ... but doesn't that sound awfully World War Twoish?) will square off in the Bronze medal match-up (6AM ET). Kudos to Japan for making [...]SHARETHIS.

It's been far too long since I've written about the women's game, so here's some fodder for that anticipated water cooler discussion.
I expected the returns of Angela Hucles and Kristine Lilly to Boston. No surprise there. With another recognizable name like Heather Mitts on board, the Breakers have positioned themselves well with their selections.

I read on The Writer's Almanac that it's William Carlos Williams' birthday today.  He wrote one of my favorite poems - The Red Wheelbarrow. so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens. It makes me think of looking into crystalline water ... absolutely transparent and absolutely mysterious!

UCLA men 2 (2-3-1) Santa Clara 0
No. 2 UCLA women 3 (7-0-1) New Mexico 0
No.4 USC 4 (7-1-0) SMU 0
Long Beach State 3 (5-2-2) Utah State 0
Pepperdine 0 (3-4-2) Marquette 0
Arizona State 2 Cal State Northridge women 1 (5-3)
Sacramento 1 Cal State Northridge men 2
Loyola Marymount women 4 (4-3-2)Oral Roberts 1
Loyola Marymount men 0 (1-2-3) No.

Having been asleep at the switch on the soccer front for awhile, I was pleased to receive a Google Alert about the USWNT's most recent win.  This one coming in Richmond, VA, where South Korea fell to the USWNT.  Vic Dorr, Jr. describes the game in the Times Dispatch.  Sounds like Angela Hucles continues her [.

June 21, 2008 - The United States won the Peace Queen Cup tournament Saturday, beating Canada 1-0 on a 92nd-minute goal by Angela Hucles. Goalkeeper Hope Solo made two game-preserving saves at the end of the match for the American women, who tuned up for the Beijing Olympics by winning their fourth tournament of the year.

CHICAGO -- Goalkeeper Hope Solo is among 18 players picked for the U.S. Olympic women's soccer roster, nine months after she was kicked off the team at the World Cup.

Briana Scurry, who took over from Solo for last year's World Cup semifinal loss to Brazil, was left off the roster by coach Pia Sundhage, who replaced Greg Ryan following the World Cup debacle.

Finally! clipped from www.ussoccer.com The U.S. Women's National Team defeated Brazil, 1-0, on a 41st minute goal from forward Amy Rodriguez in a scrappy encounter at the 2008 Peace Queen Cup, giving the USA control of Group B and taking a major step toward a berth in the tournament's championship game.

Wow - the early shift brought two ties (Germany-Brazil 0-0; New Zealand-Japan 2-2) and a win by Canada over Argentina (2-1). Watching the Germany-Brazil match-up on line was a nice experience. No announcers - just the crowd noise (and the occasional grunts and other miscellaneous noises on my part).

First off, the U.S. Women defeated Japan 1-0 overnight at the Olympics.

USC's Amy Rodriguez got her surprise first start of the Olympics over Natasha Kai. Here's Coach Pia Sundhage on why she made the move:

"The reason for A-Rod instead of Kai was her speed. That was crucial when we looked at the way Japan plays.

To my mind, this was one of the finest moments in quite a collection of 'em over the past couple of days.  Bill came through last night, too. The historic milestone that Obama's nomination represents is both cause for celebration and cause for sadness ... because in 2008 we should be well beyond celebrating this [.

Boston Head Coach Tony DiCicco (far left) and WPS Part Owner and two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash (far right) pose with the Breakers three allocated players: Heather Mitts, Angela Hucles and Kristine Lilly. (Women's Professional Soccer) September 16, 2008 - Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) announced the allocations of the U.

U.S. Coach Pia Sundhage announced today her 18-player roster for the Olympics (with college, caps and goals in parentheses):

goalkeepers: Nicole Barnhart (Stanford, 9), Hope Solo (Washington, 64); defenders Rachel Buehler (Stanford, 11/0), Lori Chalupny (North Carolina, 70/6), Stephanie Cox (Portland, 42/0), Kate Markgraf (Notre Dame, 181/0), Heather Mitts (Florida, 78/2), Christie Rampone (Monmouth, 193/4); midfielders Shannon Boxx (Notre Dame, 92/18), Tobin Heath (North Carolina, 12/2), Angela Hucles (Virginia, 84/7), Carli Lloyd (Rutgers, 62/15), Heather O'Reilly (North Carolina, 90/19), Lindsay Tarpley (North Carolina, 96/26), Aly Wagner (Santa Clara, 121/21); forwards Natasha Kai (Hawaii, 48/19), Amy Rodriguez (USC, 19/4), Abby Wambach (Florida, 123/98).

Tonight's full moon will look unusually large. Apparently that is a big fat moon illusion - and one that is particularly pronounced in June. Speaking of June and moons ... what was that movie with Cher that had the word moon in the title? Anybody know? Maybe it'll come to me [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "June Moon Looms", url: "http://www.

USA 2-1 Canada Angela Hucles gave the US a lead in the 12th minute, but Christine Sinclair tied it up with a brilliant 22-meter shot in the 30th minute.  After a 2 hour suspension (due to lightning), Natasha Kai headed in an extra time winner to give the USA a spot ...

The U.S. women fell behind to Japan early, but an Angela Hucles goal started a comeback, with the U.S. kicking off the second half of their semifinal ahead 2-1 Lori Chalupny scored in the 44th minute to send the Americans...

The United States women's team celebrate their victory over Brazil for the Gold medal in 2008 Olympic Games. The Olympic team included Hope Solo, Heather Mitts, Christie Rampone, Lindsay Tarpley, Shannon Boxx, Amy Rodriguez, Heather O'Reilly, Carli Loyd, Kate Margraf, Angela Hucles, and Lori Chalupny.