by CVI's Geoff McPherson
I head off DSG park with my 3 year old daughter not knowing what to expect on a day that is hotter than the inside of well roasted marshmallow. The demographics are a lot of people in my situation with kids plus there are packs of girls in the 15,000 strong crowd. Why wasn’t this around when I was 14? Not like would have talked to any of them anyhow, the skinny, zitty kid I was back then. “Dude you say something to her”…. “No dude you say something”, …ahhhh Hi…ahhhh…I’m Geoff enjoying the game? (with the 5 tone octaves from my voice breaking) “Yes” replies the Winnie Cooper look-a-like from the ‘Wonder Years’. “Dude she said yes what do I say now?”……Before I know it she’s talking to some senior named Steve..…you pretty much know how the rest of story goes.
In woman’s soccer the nations with progressive female culture dominated the landscape in early world cups and Olympic events. In the China 2007 Word Cup we witness the changes occurring in developing countries as counties such as Brazil started to show signs of moving away from traditional male dominated societies.
The USA touch down in Denver after two impressive back to back wins in Scandinavia against Norway and Sweden, a first for US woman’s soccer, all as part of their build up for the 2008 summer Olympics is China. This game is the first time two teams have meet since the 4-0 soccer clinic put on by Brazil in Hangzhou last year, so there is more than just a little Olympic warm up here at stake.
Made it to our seats 5 minutes late due to I-70 being closed down to one lane, the US look competitive with a great work rate, surprisingly the Brazilians seemed to winning the physical battle. There were a few chances here and there but basically the teams were canceling each other out, Abby Wambach is making good runs, while Carli Lloyd if I have the name right (I wasn’t going to splash out $10 for the teen magazine looking program) was distributing the ball well from the midfield.
Both teams were playing a very limited width, definitely no room for Cooke and Clark in this formation. The number 7, Formiga for Brazil had all the skills to make most defenders look silly, but at times she just didn’t have players around her that could make the correct runs for the openings she made. It was refreshing to be watching a competitive game of soccer and not have drama queens flop around all over the place or constant verbal abuse of the officials, Mastroeni would have been red carded in the first 10 minutes if he was playing.
We go into the half at 0-0 and the US has to happy that they seemed to have regrouped themselves from last year under the coaching philosophy of Swede Pia Sundhage. Then randomly some dad three rows in front of me decides to crank up the harmonica, yep you heard me right the harmonica, I’m baffled to say the least and feel the pain of her teenage daughter.
Second half there are more substitutions than you can poke a stick at. The US offense is ignited by 5 ft 4”Amy Rodriguez a.k.a ‘A-Rod’ from USC who seems to be popping up every where and has an extra step that everyone else. The defense is playing things tight at the back resulting in the US second string keeper having little to do. Physically we are stronger in the second half and Formiga's options are being limited by the US defensive midfield. Then in the 71st minute the Brazilian defender makes a mistake which results in Rodriguez just firing a rocket into the top of the netting from 16 yards out on the left side.1-0. U.S.A-U.S.A-U.S.A.
We ride out the rest of the game to take the game 1-0, and not before a quick visit to the team store for a Rapids merchandise purchase on the way out. We are definitely looking better going to China this year than we did leaving it last year.
For my first woman’s soccer match it was great to see some open flowing soccer and a generation of girls having there own heroes in Denver that they can connect to, look up to and believe that they can be, something this 30 plus year old male took for granted as a kid.
Posted by mark at July 16, 2008 10:06 AM