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Olympic Soccer: USA women vs. Norway (result after the jump)

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The US women’s Olympic team faced Norway in the opening match of the tournament for both teams. If you want to read about the game and discuss it, then go to the jump. If you are still waiting to see the match, then feel free to return here after you have watched the match.

USA women fall to Norway in Olympic opener

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                                                                                 Photo by ISIphotos.com

Four minutes, two goals, one stunning loss.

The U.S. women’s Olympic team got off to a terrible start on Wednesday, giving up two goals in the first four minutes as Norway shut down the Americans, 2-0, in the opening match of the tournament.

The loss, coupled with the Japan’s tie with New Zealand, means the Americans are in last place in Group G after the first round of games.

The Americans are still favored to advance to the quarterfinals, but the loss certainly sets off alarm bells for a team that is trying to win without star striker Abby Wambach.

What did you think of today’s performance? Just a slow start? An overall bad performance?

Share your thoughts below (and let me know what you think about this alternative method of posting in order to protect those who haven’t seen the match yet).

Comments

  1. “Four is for Cat Whitehill, 20 for Abby (Wambach) and 12 for Leslie Osborne. They got injured this year and they are a big part of our team. I just wanted to give them a shout so I got there numbers on my headband.”

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  2. Kai’s headband didn’t say 4/20. Here’s her quote after the game:

    “Four is for Cat Whitehill, 20 for Abby (Wambach) and 12 for Leslie Osborne. They got injured this year and they are a big part of our team. I just wanted to give them a shout so I got there numbers on my headband.”

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  3. Ok 10 things

    1. Brianna Scurry- YOU ARE KILLING ME lol

    2. I can’t tell you what how disheartening it was to watch OUR WOMENS TEAM get pushed around the pitch.

    3. If this is ANY indication of what is to come tomoro @ 4:50am I must be a glutton for punishment

    4.I was just sitting there watching the game and 60 minutes in I realised the only thing I accomplished was officially naming Heather Mitts as “Hottest on pitch”

    5. WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH CHALUPNY PIA SUBBER FOR HER THE FIRST LIKE 20 MINUTES I dont care how good your team is, that hurts you for the rest of the match. (She was getting blown out of the water & I totally agree with the sub)

    6.Heather Mitts has a sweet website…

    7. And I need to hate on Kai for one minute, she had the ball in the box, would have been a nice goal…IF SHE WOULD HAVE KICKED IT, but instead she swung and missed like a helpless batter who was completely fooled by a curveball.

    8. She still has nice tatoos tho

    9. WHY DO I KNOW THIS IS AN OMEN FOR WHAT WILL BE A MUCH WORSE SHOWING FROM THE MEN? (I’m truly praying it isn’t)

    10. ohhhhh yeah…Nowak

    ps. I’m really looking forward to waking up tomoro to immediately be pissed off by some crazy lineup this ‘tard throws out there.

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  4. Re Kai’s headband. Ok, makes sense and a fine tribute. I only saw the first 2/3rds and made a judgment based on incomplete information. Chill out.

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  5. I watched the match while doing things around the house, so I missed long stretches, but the impression I got was that the team just couldn’t settle down after the initial shock, and the game had a lot of sloppy play, with many panicked passes, kicks and shots. There was so much time left after they went down 2, but the players just seemed rattled. There were some flashes of good play, but overall they just appeared a little bit scared to me.

    It’s disappointing, but no matter what happens, I hope that Pia is kept on. I really didn’t like the past 2 head coaches the women’s team has had, but I really like Pia, and I find her a refreshing change from the previous 2.

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  6. Thanks for the change in format. I’ve kept away from this site in the past when I didn’t want to know the results of MLS and Nat games.

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  7. “You know the kind of team that does nothing but bad things and wonders why the team sucks, well thats team usa. Everytime something good happened to them, somethin bad was always waiting around the corner. Karma. Thats when they realized they had to change. So they made a list of everything bad they ever done to Hope Solo and one by one they are gonna make up for their mistakes. They’re just trying to be a better team.

    My name Earl Wambach.”

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  8. Thom, I agree with most of what you’re saying, except about McBride. At 36, he brings crucial international experience to the table. He was playing quite capably for Fulham before returning to Chicago.

    As for Japan, they are tough, and always play with a great deal of national pride. You’re right in that the U.S. men had better come prepared for that one.

    As for the WNT, though yesterday’s performance was poor, my strong suspicion is they will win the next 2 and easily advance out of the group.

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  9. Let’s hope they get it together because the men have zero chance of advancing.

    Pundits call Japan “the most win game” as if Japan is patsy in youth soccer. I got news for the pundits- Japan is one of the top 10 teams in the world in U17, U21 and U23 soccer. Check the records of past tournaments/competitions if you don’t believe me. Fact is- with the way we have played in qualification, Toulon and in the exhibitions before the Olympics in China we don’t have a snowballs chance in hell. Our U23 has talent but it is woefully unbalanced, the coaching is abysmal as like most USSF selected coaching is, tactically we have been just embarrassing and are over 23 additions are nice but underwhelming. (McBride has not played regular competitive matches since May 10th and IS 36 YEARS OLD)

    I hope I am dead wrong about all of the above.

    That is why all of us predominantly U.S. men’s fans should really hope the women straighten out what happened today vs. a normally very good Norwegian side as well as overcome their host of critical injuries up front.

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  10. As I said on the other thread regarding this game, I can’t believe they’ve regressed back to the long ball style. Hopefully it was just a bad day. They had recently been playing a lot better midfield soccer, developing scoring chances from good passing and off-the-ball runs. The only reason the longball has worked for them in the past is because Wambach, at 6’0″, is bigger than most of her opponents. Of her 99 career goals, 40+ have come on headers. Without her, the WNT has no business trying that.

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  11. I also watched the match before work and was disappointed with the how our ladies played. There were way too many long balls out of the back. There were way too many goal kicks that went straight to the other keeper. Where was the possession, the link ups, a pass to your feet or a good buildup once Norway packed it in? I thought Pia was all about changing the mentality of attack by stressing a good buildup as opposed to launching long balls.

    I thought Norway looked really good. They seemed a step faster then us, made good passes, great crosses, and created a lot of dangerous chances. Meanwhile the US kept trying to send long balls up forward or were taking shots from 25-30 yards out.

    I know this is only one match and does not signal the end of the tournament but the ladies better get it figured out quick or they will not advancing very far.

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  12. I don’t watch a lot of the women’s matches, but I do try to follow them in the big tourney’s, and this game was just plain bad. Norway took advantage of two mistakes, and did little else the rest of the game. And the US had a couple of chances, but couldn’t finish. Lots of bad passing in this one. Hopefully the men will do a little better.

    And the Norwegians are hot. Inappropriate of me to objectify them in that way, but I can’t help myself.

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  13. Ives,

    Thanks for the change in headline. I can now feed my SBI addiction without concern.

    Now can you change the actual result?

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  14. 4 = Cat Whitehill – Torn ACL

    20 = Abby Wambach – Broken Leg

    12 = Leslie Osborne – Torn ACL

    Explain why you see numbers on a headband and immediately decide to interpret the message as inapppropriate. I’m sure it has nothing to do with her tatoos. I take it that it is inappropriate to show some sort of remembrance to injured teammates that could not be part of the team due to injury.

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  15. Hahahaha, awesome. What a tool. Not only too stupid to realize she was shouting out her teammates, but too stupid to understand the existence of a little thing called free speech.

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  16. I watched the first half before I had to go to work. They looked awful in the first half. Even the Norwegians showed a lot of nervousness, but the USA was on another plane entirely. The way the USA was trying to play was ugly and ineffective.

    Kai’s headband said 4-20-12. Don’t know what it refers to.

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  17. In a lot of ways the opening play kind of reminded me of Chivas-Barcelona with the shoddy passing in the back. You just cannot play half-way when you’re at this level, because the other team will capitalize. You certainly didn’t see Norway play that way.

    Still, the U.S. seemed to control play for most of the game, it was only too bad that the prefered weapon of attack is send it over the top from the back and hope that the forwards can chase it down. Don’t get me wrong, when those passes are perfect, it works great, but when it doesn’t, you see a lot of what you see today with Natasha Kai trying to reel in balls that were sent straight into the area and the keepers hands. I’d love to believe that this style was dictated by the early deficit, but the ladies played this way a lot against Brazil in the final two freindlies.

    What needs to happen is more play up through the mid-field and more meaningful possession. In this game, especially, once they had the lead Norway was content to put eleven players behind the ball and defend whenever the US had the ball and seemed to try and take their chances more on breaks and counter attacks. Why is it, when the US saw that they were going to have to go through eleven Norse women, did we continue throwing it over the top? Also, I’m in my 30’s and never played competively, so it’s understandable that I have trouble passing it to feet, but how is it that these women have that issue?

    Most importantly, let no post about the woman’s team go by without mentioning that Heather Mitts is SMOKING hot!

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  18. Was it just me or did Natasha Kai’s headband say “4-20” on it. At the risk of sounding like an old fogey, I thought that was inappropriate.

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  19. I didn’t watch the game yet, but I have been concerned by sloppiness by the defense in games I’ve watched recently. They’ve been playing beautiful attacking soccer, but against Australia, they gave up 2 own goals, plus 2 more (I think).

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  20. I think I need to avoid this site until after the Olympics. Curse the time difference and my inability to come to this site before viewing the match.

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