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 play the following morning, 4am Tuesday, Sept. 11, against North Korea. The U.S. also plays Sweden, Fri., 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 at austinchronicle.com/soccer. And yes, WC breakfasts are in order; menus TBA.

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.

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 – who’s going to step up and join Kelsey Carpenter in attack? – seems to have been answered, as freshmen Brooke Lee, Kirsten Birkhold, and Alisha Ortiz all made major contributions. On defense, the UCLA game was a huge test – strength on strength – and the very experienced Longhorn back four pretty much shut down the best attacking trio in the country, holding them to just two shots in the decisive second half. That’s a statement; as I noted last week, this defense could be scary good.

This article appears in September 7 • 2007.

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