Soccer Watch

The U.S. Women won an absolutely astounding Olympic semifinal on Monday, 4-3 over Canada – coming from behind three times, overcoming Christine Sin­clair's hat trick, scoring directly on a corner kick, and on a controversial penalty that came from a time-wasting call against the Canadian goalie that no one had ever seen called before (but that was absolutely correct nonetheless), and finally, on a looping header by Alex Morgan in the third and last minute of extra time in the second overtime. It was as good a game as I've ever seen, and you can read more about it at austinchronicle/thescore. Now the Amer­icans take on Japan in the gold med­al match (today, Thursday, Aug. 9, 1:45pm), in a rematch of last year's scintillating World Cup final. Set your DVR, and stay away from spoilers (damn you, Google headline news!)... On the Men's side, the bronze medal game (Japan-Honduras) is Friday at 8am; the gold medal match is Saturday, 9am, and it should be a barn burner between Mexico and Brazil, clearly the Top 2 teams all tournament.

The UT students aren't back in town yet, but the Longhorn soccer team is – they take on Texas State in an exhibition match this Friday, Aug. 10, 7pm, at Mike Myers Stadium. Free admission for this one; the regular season starts the next Friday against Dayton. It's something of a new era for the Horns, with new head coach Angela Kelly bringing in a fresh system, 11 newcomers on the roster, and just four returning regular starters from last year. One of the top new players – freshman goalkeeper Abby Smith from Plano – won't be with the team for the first few games; she's with the U.S. Under-20 National Team, at the U-20 World Cup in Japan, Aug. 18-Sept. 8.