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U.S. Women post another blowout in Olympic qualifying

USAWomenGuat (ISI)

The U.S. Women's national team figured to face a tougher task against Guatemala on Sunday than it did after a 14-0 thrashing of the Dominican Republic to open CONCACAF Olympic qualifying on Friday.

The challenge was slightly tougher, but only by a goal.

Abby Wambach scored two goals to move into third place on the all-time international goals scored list, while Sydney LeRoux added five goals in a 13-0 thrashing of Guatemala in Vancouver on Sunday.

The victory, coupled with Mexico's second group stage victory, sets up an all-important final group match on Tuesday between the United States and Mexico, with the loser facing a tougher path to qualifying for the Olympics.

Wambach's goals gave her 129 career goals, moving past German legend Birgid Prinz to trail only fellow Americans Mia Hamm (158) and Kristine Lilly (130) on the all-time scoring list.

LeRoux's five goals, which came in just her second national team appearance, was a tie for the most ever scored in one game by an American player.

Here are the match highlights.

Perhaps as important as the victory was the fact that the Americans avoided any injuries, something that wasn't the case in the tournament opener against the Dominican Republic. Defender Ali Krieger suffered a torn ACL and MCL in that match, and will be sidelined 6-8 months, which means she will likely miss the Olympics.

What did you think of the U.S. Women's latest blowout? Think they will have any trouble with Mexico? Excited to see LeRoux play so well?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Agree, with Not Soony Saad, more women’s coverage-especial of meaningful games. Although I realize it is not as important as such stories as Beckham ownership rumors, Subotic investigations, and naming the host city of an MLS exhibition 😉

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  2. Yeah, I like the US Foxy Babes and I like to look at their highlights, but have not yet been able to bring myself to watch a replay of her being injured.

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  3. Your dad is Guatemalan? You should probably try to be a bit more understanding.

    Also, more women’s soccer coverage please!

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  4. Hope that Sundhage and her ladies give Jurgen Klinsman and his jumpy, nervous, mannish-boys a lesson or two in FINISHING. The art is in what the Brazilian’s call, “the little pass to the net!”

    Enough with the hesitation blues. Put the ball in the back of the net. This is how it’s done boys!

    Go on ladies, go on!

    OUT-standing, …….fine job, …..strong work!

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  5. Plus 5 of the goals were scored by LeRoux, who is a newbie trying to find playing time against the likes of Wambach and Rodriguez and Morgan. What is she supposed to do, not try to impress?

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  6. I don’t like the way this tournament is set up.

    The group stage is essentially just a formality to get the US, Mexico, Canada, and 1 other team (in this case Costa Rica) to the semis, and then the winners of the semis qualify for the Olympics and the losers don’t. It’s basically a 1-game tournament; there was never a question about which 2 teams would be getting out of the groups. (Fun fact: those 4 teams have scored 51 goals. The other 4 teams have scored ZERO).

    Why not throw in another qualifying round between the Central American and Carribean qualifiers, have 6 teams in this last stage, and do a round-robin? Best 2 teams advance. That’s a lot fairer, and might provide a little more balance in terms of scorelines.

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  7. Im sick of people getting mad bout these blowouts. I was on a horrible high school team and got blown out several times. Two 11-0 losses and several 7-0 that would have been worse if not for our league mercy rule. It never feels good to lose like that, but I would have felt disrespected had the other teams stopped putting in their best effort. I feel that if u have any respect for ur team or the other u will give them ur best effort.
    However, after a certain point there is no longer any need for a celebration beyond a nod or pat on the back between teammates.

    Also, several of these ladies are trying to solidify their spots on the NATIONAL team. They cannot and should not be expected to let off the throttle in thay situation. Would you stop trying to perform at your best in that situation?

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  8. Whats more insulting beating a team 13 or 14 to 0. Or just stop playing/trying when you are up 8 goals?????????????????????????

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  9. The dirty little secret is we probably want the players playing full tilt so they can be assessed in terms of London 2012, not so much because of GD.

    I believe they could play every game but Mexico this round foot off the pedal but I think they are playing ruthlessly so that they have the proper mentality for Mexico, and in general, this is not a friendly, it’s qualifying, you can be nice for aesthetics or future goodwill (some of these minnows become bigger fish and if you mistreat them they have a chip on their shoulder) but in the context of competitive matches nothing requires you have to back off.

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  10. With the way their qualifying is set up they really cant afford to take their foot off the pedal. Look what happened with WC qualifying, they barely qualified

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  11. First of all, everybody doesn’t hate the US. Secondly, those who do hate the US don’t hate us because our womens soccer team wins a lot of games easily.

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