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USA vs. Norway: Your Running Commentary

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Good morning folks. The U.S. women’s Olympic team has kicked off its Olympic Tournament this morning against Norway as it attempts to overcome the loss of Abby Wambach on its way to gold.

If you will be watching the match, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.

You can follow the action on MSNBC and also on the NBC Olympic website, which has live streaming video and live commentary of the match.

Enjoy the match.

Comments

  1. It should be no surprise that this team is struggling. Simply stated, they are not a skilled group. US Soccer’s emphasis for the past 5 years has been on building a big, physical team at the expense of foot skill and creative passing. Sundhage should be praised for trying to put American soccer back on the right track, but it isn’t going to happen at this Olympics. This is a problem that is pervasive in American soccer from the top right down to the ODP level. Coaches aren’t looking for “skill” players anymore; they want the big player who is going to be a physical force. Too bad. There are no Mia Hamms or Tiffany Milbretts on the pitch for America anymore; and the US squad won’t go anywhere until players of that caliber return to the national team.

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  2. Well, after the two Brazil games, it looked as though the WNT had started to develop more midfield ball movement. However, against Norway, they reverted back to their old “send it long over the top” style, which was questionable strategy WITH Wambach, and simply stupid without her.

    I hope we see changes in the next game. They have too much talent at many positions to be so one dimensional.

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  3. does anyone know what channels this NBC Olympic soccer channel on in NYC? i see it everywhere but no one says what channel it is

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  4. Chalupny wasn’t at fault on either goal so she had to be hurt.

    1st goal is on Solo. If you’re a goalie and you come you better get there and she wasn’t close. If she stands on her line she can catch that flat footed.

    2nd goal the back pass / thru ball to the Nowegian striker was by Margraft (sp) not Chalupny AND IT WAS TERRIBLE!!!!

    They’ll advance but based on that performance I don’t thinkthey’ll be able to score against Brazil or Germany. Out in the quarters.

    Oh yeah, and at least 50% of that Norwegian team was smoking hot!

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  5. Turned on the game while having my breakfast, what a disastrous first four minutes.

    2nd minute: sloppy clearance leaves Norway with the ball near the corner of the penalty area with room to spare. Floated cross to the no-man’s land between Solo, a Norwegian, and Chalupny. All three collide, and the Norwegian got enough of a touch on the ball to get it to dribble into the net.

    4th minute: US defender on the left side (Chalupny again?) does a lazy backpass to Solo intercepted by a Norwegian player. Solo did about all she could, but the Norwegian managed a nice far post finish.

    Chalupny was subbed after 15 mins. The announcers were doing their best to imply an injury, but it seemed like that was a nonperformance sub.

    With our group it’s hard to imagine us not making it to the quarters, but a second place finish would imply a Brazil/Germany quarterfinal and a Germany/Brazil Semi. This team is going to have to play a lot better to win a medal.

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  6. To me, it looked like the women panicked. You know Norway is going to play direct soccer. We gave up the early lead and what the USWNT ended up doing was going back to old habits–playing direct, flailing away from outside. None of the focus on possession, overlapping runs from midfield, movement off the ball that Sundhage has been preaching. Stupid, panicked soccer.

    I think our women spend so much time beating up on people in off-years that we just don’t have that many games under real pressure while we’re down. Even great teams sometimes get into games when the run of play goes against them or they give up an early goal. But our team (regardless of the personnel because this seemed true of the side with Mia and Co. against Birgit Prinz in the WC) seems to tighten their sphincters and panic when the usual control and dominance of the match isn’t there. I can think of only two matches I know of in 6, maybe 8 years where the USWNT had the run of play go against them yet stayed cool, went to “plan B” and pulled out a good result.

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  7. Tough, tough game. We looked terrible. Midfield not playing well and providing service to fowards although Boxx good in the air. No attack threat without Abby. I see changes for next game. We’ll see how good Pia is and whether she can adjust.

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  8. Wow, a pathetic showing by our women. Easily the worst performance since Pia took over – WAAAYYY too much long ball over the top for us. We need to quit that now.

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  9. Missed the start and wanted to know about the goals. When MSNBC TV showed the summary it just said

    Smithsen – Goal

    Jonessen – Goal

    Now that’s a lot of help. I figured they had goals, but in what minute? Has nobody at NBC seen a soccer scoreline?

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  10. Missed the start and wanted to know about the goals. When MSNBC TV showed the summary it just said

    Smithsen – Goal

    Jonessen – Goal

    Now that’s a lot of help. I figured they had goals, but in what minute? Has nobody at NBC seen a soccer scoreline?

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  11. man i tried to watch this game it was horrible . they were just getting the ball an seein how far up foeld they could kick it. The game was disjointed an had no flow . all that being said had they added brian mcbride they would have been dangerous on set pieces

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  12. Listening to Chastain call this game reminds me of Giorgio Chinaglia – the whole time has been spent saying what the players should be doing.

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  13. 2 shots in the 1st half for Norway. Both went in the net.

    I don’t watch a lot of women’s soccer, but man… talk about frustrating. Zero movement. USA just taking 30 yard blasts at the net… c’mon… work the ball around. We’re so much better than these Vikings.

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  14. Talk about coming out flat…its a good thing almost every team goes on to the knockout stage in the women tournament or there might be a problem. It is evident that they miss Wambach, still only going with one striker as of halftime that should change in the 2nd. Glad to hear that JP Delacamera came over to NBC for the olympics

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