Sports: Women's SoccerFootball: Korea's women's team wins over USA, after 21 years of competition

More later ... I cawt a moment on a brief news report about the event, with Korean fans electric with pleasure, enthusiasm, and national pride.

At these upmost levels of World Sports, I root for the USA and Canada teams — always a little further tense if I shoud have to choose between the two in a match above the Olympic level — that is, the professional football world, what in American usage of the language, we call "soccer".

More later ...

— Sportikos

———

UPDATE:

FIFA Women's World Cup

fantastic pictures of the winning team in their sheer joy over the win

FIFA.com - Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)

www.fifa.com/ - Cached

17 Jul 2011 – Japan are FIFA Women's World Cup™ champions for the first ...

— Sportikos


Frankfurt am Main, Germany

FIFA Women's World Cup

Sawa: I could never imagine this

Monday 18 July 2011

FIFA.com spoke to 

Japan's FIFA Women's World Cup hero Homare Sawa 

about winning the tournament, ...

FIFA.com - Sawa: I could never imagine this

— latest update posted July18,2k11 — 7:10 am, Toronto


In sports, its okay to let some national pride expressive itself.

Sports: Soccer World Cup: Reprise on the USA vs. Slovenia game, by David Post on Volokh Conspiracy

David Post (Jun19, 2010; 04:54 AM PDT) has a blog-entry on the Slovenia vs. USA game in the World Cup group A series that makes something comprehensible of that match (Volokh Conspiracy blog. Again, if Post's sl+tly less tentative take on the matter is correct, I'm perhaps proved wrong in my assumption that USA is just a third-rate team when functioning on the platform of global football (soccer, as we Americans like to call it).

We Wuz Robbed!

We really wuz — er, were. A truly stirring US comeback from a 2–0 deficit in its game against Slovenia was spoiled by an indefensible and inexplicable call by the Malian referee, disallowing what would have been the Americans’ third goal. Replays from every conceivable angle confirmed what most viewers thought at the time — the only possible fouls that occurred were committed by the Slovenians on the Americans, particularly one defendenr who literally wrestled US midfielder Michael Bradley to the ground as the ball was coming into the box. But Bob Bradley, the US coach, had the right attitude after the game:

“Honestly I think that the set piece, most of what took place was that Slovenia players were holding our players. One player had his arms around Michael (Bradley), Michael was trying to break loose and a foul was called. I don’t know if that’s accurate. But that’s one version. There are moments when you are frustrated because you feel that situations have not been handled 100 percent correctly or fairly. But that’s how the game works sometimes. You move on.”

Sports, by Sportikos

And speaking of moving on . . . the good news on the day for the US was that England’s dispiriting performance in its 0–0 draw with a surprisingly confident and skilled Algerian team means that the US has its fate in its hands, and is a pretty good bet to progress to the second round. The permutations are complicated but the bottom line is that the US goes through if it can beat the Algerians next week, regardless of what happens in the other game. Even if its a tie, we’d get through if (a) Slovenia beats England (which, from the looks of things so far, is eminently possible), or (b) England and Slovenia tie and England ends up with fewer total goals than the US. [Currently, we’re ahead on that measure by 3–1]. So get your vuvuzuelas out, people!

I'm still looking for a breakout lead in the overall pattern of wins, and the numbers regarding them (I'm looking for a team that musters, say, two or three wins in the neibourhood of 4 goals, 5 woud be grand, 3 woud be good too.

Permission for republication is pending.

Soccer: England vs. USA: tie score 1-1 at FIFA World Cup 2k10, South Africa

Here's the first actual results I've noticed from South Africa:

June 12, 2010, 3:31 p.m. EDT
U.S. ties England 1-1 late in first half

by William Spain, MarketWatch

The U.S. and England went into the second half of their first round World Cup match tied at 1-1. An early goal by heavily-favored England was overcome late in the half when what should have been a routine save dribbled out of the hands of English goalkeeper Robert Green and settled into the net. The U.S. had a scare of its own at about the 30-minute mark when goalie Tim Howard took a cleat to the chest and arm, stopping the game for about two minutes.

Sports, by Sportikos

I'll be looking for a YouTube vid of this one.

More results:

Nigeria vs Argentina (Argentina wins 1-0)

Sports: Some games today: Washington Post listed these events to be broadcast

Thanks to WaPo's sports coverage and provision of a daily listing of events -- Major League Baseball and the French Open tennis meet --  refWrite can signal its readers who may want to tune into widely broadcast sporting events.  If you subscribe to WaPo's daily email service, you can get notice of their Sports stories, and the viewer/listener heads-up, like today's.

Washington Post frontpage is here.  French Open tennis match news is here.  Sad, but Serena Williams had problems (the clay court clogged her tennis shoes, made her footing unsure), and she lost.  WaPo's Sports today features an article by Barry Svrluga (a most interesting name with the pile up of four consonsants at the front end of the word), the article is 3-pages long "Five years ago, the Washington Nationals were on top of the world" (June2,2k10).

Sports, by Sportikos

WaPo, of course, roots, roots, roots for the home team, "If they don't win ...."  You know the great oldtimes baseball song, don't you?   The leading newspaper in the American nation's capital roots for these major league teams:

Baseball:     Nats (Nationals)  ...  and the Orioles (Baltimore, Maryland nearby DC).

Football:     Redskins  -- "Offensive coordinator Kyle Shahanian is pretty creative, and you've got to think he'll get the most out of two pass-catching tight ends. Cooley has been spotted lined up wide at times and without a clear No. 3 receiver, both Fred Davis and Cooley could see a lot of action, especially with a quarterback who relies so heavily on the tight end," says Jason Reid, "Redskins Insider" columnist for WAPO who's wr+ting these days about the Skins in practice exhibitions to fans at DC's Redskins Park.

Hockey:     Capitals  --  Catch sports columnist Tarik El-Bashir's preview of tonite's hockey cup finals  Game 3, "Chicago [Blackhawks] at Philadelphia [Flyers], Game 3 preview" (Jun2,2k10).

Soccer:       United   --   The big story today in the USA is not the various city franchises of this sport,  but the recent  win of the USA national soccer team against Turkey (Jun2,2k10). See the pix below: May29,2k10; Jozy Altidore (r+t) battles for  the ball with Turkey's Servet Cetin.  Pix:  John McDonnell - WaPo.