Women's World Cup, Euro Qualifying, and More
By Nick Barbaro, 9:37PM, Wed. Sep. 5, 2007
The Women's World Cup kicks off this Monday in China with a 7am game between Argentina and Germany. The top-ranked U.S. Women open play the following morning, 4am Tuesday, Sept. 10, against North Korea. The U.S. also plays Sweden, Friday, Sept. 14, 4am, and Nigeria, Tue., Sept. 18, 7am. Every game in the tournament will be shown live on ESPN2 or ESPN; they're all at 4am or 7am, our time, and a full schedule is here. And yes, WC breakfasts are in order; menus TK.
It's international week on the men's side as well, highlighted by full schedules of Euro2008 qualifiers on Saturday and Wednesday. Among other things, it's make-or-break time for troubled England, fourth in their group, and hosting host Russia and Israel, the two teams ahead of them. The marquee game is Italy-France on Saturday in the "Group of Death," with Ukraine and Scotland hoping to pick up the pieces. On Wednesday, Italy goes to Ukraine, while France is at Scotland. Pity the Scots, who are playing quite well, but are stuck in a group with three of the World Cup final eight. Only two advance.
Sunday, Sept. 9 brings a TV doubleheader on ESPN2, with the Under-17 World Cup final at 1pm (Spain vs. Germany or Nigeria), followed by the U.S. Men vs. Brazil in a friendly in Chicago at 3pm. (The U.S. U-17s, by the way, lost to Germany in the Round of 16.)
On the local front, the Austin Men's, Women's, and Co-Ed soccer leagues all kick off their fall seasons this weekend (weather permitting).
The UT Lady Longhorns got off to a flying start last weekend, beating TCU 3-1, and coming from behind to beat second-ranked UCLA, 2-1, in Houston. That's the highest-ranked team UT has ever beaten, and overall, there was excellent news for the Horns on both ends of the field.
On offense, the question mark on this team was, who's going to step up and join Kelsey Carpenter as an attacking threat? That seems to have been answered, as three different freshmen made major contributions on the weekend – Kirsten Birkhold assisting against TCU, Brooke Lee scoring the winning goal against UCLA, and Alisha Ortiz looking dangerous throughout both games, and drawing a penalty to set up the tying goal against UCLA.On defense, the UCLA game was a huge test -- strength on strength, as the very experienced Longhorn back four took on probably the best attacking trio in the country and pretty much shut them down. The Bruins' Danesha Adams, Lauren Chaney, and Christina DiMartino all have extensive national team experience, but Kasey Moore, Stephanie Logterman, et al., held them to nine shots for the game, and just two in the decisive second half. That's a statement; as I noted last week, this defense could be scary good.
The Horns are on the road this weekend, at Arizona State and Arizona.
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A seven-team women's pro soccer league will launch in the Spring of 2009, the Women's Soccer LLC announced Tuesday. Teams – several of them affiliated with MLS franchises – will be based in Boston, New York, Washington, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and St. Louis.
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The Champions League groups were announced Friday. And the rich get richer? My crystal ball shows 12 of the final 16 coming from England, Spain, and Italy. Play begins Sept. 18.
Speaking of which, AC Milan beat Sevilla, 3-1 on Friday to lift the UEFA Super Cup.
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