US U-20 Women

Pros V. Joes

...So To Speak

The US women's U-20 national team survived to advance to the quarterfinals early Monday morning in Japan.  The German team that stomped them 3-0 were far more polished, ruthless and effective as a group.  Steve Swanson, a terrific coach, was outcoached by his counterpart, Meinart.  Their quarterfinal game against Korea DPR will be on ESPN3.com at 6.20 AM (available around 9.30AM on replay) FRIDAY the 31st of August.  Bouncing back from a thrashing like the Germany game will not be easy under the pressure of an elimination-stage match.



One to watch (if she survives to start another game) is left winger #9, Ubogagu (Stanford).  Removed in the second half, she was once or twice dangerous, but repeatedly cost possession, failed to create easy chances either for herself or others when she ought to have, and generally looked the shakiest of the US players.  Maya Hayes (Penn State), the number 5 right winger was completely isolated from her team by the German defense, and clearly was not able to make the game on her own.  The midfield will need to offer her much more help and service in future.

The whole US roster is here...an impressive list of colleges and universities as well as 3 club players not yet in school.  The Germans, by comparison, have players at Bayern Munich, Frankfort, Bayer Leverkusen & Hoffenheim, to name a few of the well-known German clubs supporting women's teams.  This should be cause for concern in American women's soccer: our players must have pro teams here in the US that match the quality and support of rivals such as Germany, or start heading to Europe, Sweden or even China to play at the professional level, particularly after the college option is used up.  Anything less and we will see, one suspects, a sad drop in competitive success for the US women.  This would be a shame if the nation that codified gender equality (or women's "right" to sport...though there's very little about athletics in the bill itself) (Title IX...read up here & here if you want a more layman's terms version) and launched the modern era of women's athletics were to become a second-tier competitor.

Interesting matchup with the always cantankerous North Koreans...football and geopolitics merge once again!