According to the online bookies (a trustworthy source if ever there was one), the safest bets to make the final four of the World Cup are:
• The United States
• Germany
• Brazil
• Japan
If it worked out that way — not that these things typically go the way the odds suggest — those could be some fantastic semifinal and final matchups.
The World Cup begins on June 6 — just 26 days from now.
Here are five oddities, curiosities or (possibly) interesting facts about the American roster:
Crystal Dunn didn’t make the roster, but she’s temporarily training with the team while Tobin Heath rests a strained hamstring. Heath is expected to miss today’s game against Ireland and the game against Mexico in one week.
Four games into the NWSL season, Crystal Dunn leads the Washington Spirit with three goals. (Tony Quinn/Icon SMI)
Dunn, who plays for the Washington Spirit, is not expected to miss any National Women’s Soccer League games as a result of her filling in for Heath at training sessions of the national team.
The speedy, versatile defender won the 2012 Hermann Trophy as a junior at the University of North Carolina. She was one of the last players cut as coach Jill Ellis whittled her roster down to 23 for the World Cup.
Dunn may have been edged out by Shannon Boxx, who, at 37, is making an improbable comeback. At one time, she may have been the best holding midfielder ever to wear the red, white and blue. But she was gone from the team for nearly two years because of injuries and the birth of a daughter .
Or she may have been edged out by Julie Johnston, a young defender who blossomed earlier this year when she was thrust into a starting role because of an injury to Christie Rampone.
After Dunn learned that she wasn’t going to the World Cup, this is part of what she had to say on Instagram:
It saddens me to fall short of a dream that I have worked so hard for. We ALL have a story … Mine
consists of numerous disappointments from injuries and doubt. … My objective in 2015 was to regain my
health and confidence.While competing at the highest level, I’ve always strived to be the best person I could be, through both
the good times and bad. … I stepped out of this process with a clearer image of who I am as a player.I believe in the future of this sport, and I am excited to be a part of it! Good Luck to my ladies heading
into the WC and bring home the gold!!
In the first six World Cups, 61 Americans made it onto the pitch. In Canada, eight players hope to join that exclusive sorority.
Heading to their first World Cup are Morgan Brian, Whitney Engen, Ashlyn Harris, Julie Johnston, Meghan Klingenberg, Sydney Leroux, Alyssa Naeher, and Christen Press.
Brian, Johnston, Klingenberg, Leroux, and Press are locks to get playing time. Indeed, any of them could be starters, especially if Ellis does a lot of shuffling of her lineups to help keep players fresh through what could be — what she hopes will be — a seven-game marathon in less than a month (with all of the matches taking place on plastic turf).
Engen could be iffy, but only because of her health. A hamstring injury limited her playing time through much of the first quarter of 2015. Lately, however, she’s been an anchor for her club, the Western New York Flash. In three outings with the Flash, she has three starts and three complete games.
It’s unlikely that Harris and Naeher, the backup goalkeepers, will see action unless Hope Solo is injured or falls ill. Solo typically plays every minute of every match in major tournaments (as well she should).
Hope Solo. (Jeff Curry/USA Today Sports)
The average age on the U.S. team is 28 — which is just about perfect.
Tobin Heath, Kelley O’Hara, and Christen Press (all 26); Lauren Holiday and Whitney Engen (27);
Amy Rodriguez (28); Megan Rapinoe and Becky Sauerbrunn (29) … these are all gifted players in their prime.
And around them, Jill Ellis has done a brilliant job of blending tough, experienced veterans (Christie Rampone, 39; Shannon Boxx, 37; Abby Wambach, 34; Hope Solo, 33; Carli Lloyd, 32) with speedy, tireless youngsters (Alex Morgan and Sydney Leroux, 25; Julie Johnston, 23; Morgan Brian, 22).
It’s a potent recipe.
Old pros: Hope Solo and Christie Rampone. (AP)
Alex Morgan, Sydney Leroux. (Armando Franca/AP)
The NWSL teams with the most players on the U.S. roster (four each) are the Chicago Red Stars (Shannon Boxx, Lori Chalupny, Julie Johnston, and Christen Press) and FC Kansas City (Lauren Holiday, Heather O’Reilly, Amy Rodriguez, Becky Sauerbrunn).
Thirteen Americans played in the 2012 Olympic gold medal game, a 2-1 victory over Japan: Shannon Boxx, Rachel Buehler (now Rachel Van Hollebeke), Lauren Cheney (now Lauren Holiday), Tobin Heath, Amy LePeilbet, Carli Lloyd, Alex Morgan, Kelley O’Hara, Christie Rampone, Megan Rapinoe, Becky Sauerbrunn, Hope Solo, and Abby Wambach.
Eleven of them, all but LePeilbet and Van Hollebeke, are on the current World Cup team.
Megan Rapinoe and teammates after winning gold at the 2012 London Olympics. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)
The U.S. women play Ireland in the first of their three games this month, their final tuneups before the World Cup. The ‘Send-Off Series,’ as it’s being billed, begins at 1 p.m. CT at Avaya Stadium in San Jose, Calif. The game is on Fox Sports 1.
The 18,000-seat stadium, home to the San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer, is brand new; it opened on March 22 with a sold-out game between the Quakes and the Chicago Fire.
Avaya Stadium, San Jose, Calif. (San Jose Earthquakes)
The Americans won 2-0 the last time they played Ireland, on Dec. 1, 2012, in Glendale, Arizona. Expect no different outcome this time around. The United States is ranked No. 2 in the world; Ireland is No. 31. The Irish women have never qualified for a World Cup or a European Championship.
The United States and its rival to the south meet at 8:30 p.m. CT at StubHub Center in Carson, Calif. This game, too, will be on Fox Sports 1.
Team USA played Mexico three times last year. Three times, Team USA won. The combined score of those games: 15-0.
Abby Wambach vs. Mexico, Sept. 13, 2014. (Rick Bowmer/AP)
Jill Ellis, of course, has already announced her World Cup roster. But the list isn’t officially due to FIFA until 10 working days before the start of the World Cup. In theory, Ellis could still make a change — in the event, say, of an injury.
FIFA is holding what it calls an election. In truth, it’s a hollow ceremony to renew the tenure of world soccer’s clown prince.
The Americans’ last stop before heading to Canada is at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J., for a match against South Korea. The game, at 3:30 p.m. CT, will be on ESPN.
The U.S. record against Korea is 9-0-1
When you wake up, that’s how long you’ll have until the World Cup.
Jeff Roberson/AP
May 7 – Sydney Leroux (below) turns 25
May 29 – Tobin Heath turns 27
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The storied ’99ers, after winning the World Cup before a packed house in the Rose Bowl. (Hector Mata/Getty Images)
As everyone knows, the American women haven’t won the World Cup since 1999. That’s a 16-year absence from the winners’ platform.
Still, according to an analysis by FIFA, the United States is the most successful team in the history of the Women’s World Cup.
| WORLD CUP FINISHERS | ||||
| Champion | Runner-up | 3rd place | 4th place | |
| 1991 | USA | Norway | Sweden | Germany |
| 1995 | Norway | Germany | USA | China |
| 1999 | USA | China | Brazil | Norway |
| 2003 | Germany | Sweden | USA | Canada |
| 2007 | Germany | Brazil | USA | Norway |
| 2011 | Japan | USA | Sweden | France |
There have been six World Cups. The United States has won two. In addition to its 1999 championship, Team USA was victorious in the inaugural World Cup, in 1991.
The only other repeat winner is Germany, which won in 2003 and 2007.
Hope Spolo after the 2011 World Cup final. (Getty Images)
The two powerhouses are also tied in second-place finishes, with one each. Germany was runner-up in 1995, losing 2-0 to Norway in the final. The United States was runner-up in 2011, losing to Japan on penalty kicks.
The United States has the edge in third-place finishes. Three times — in 1995, 2003, and 2007 — the Americans won the consolation match between the two ‘final four’ teams that failed to move on to the title game. Germany has never won that match for third place.
So in every Women’s World Cup that’s been played — every one — the Americans have either won the championship, finished second, or finished third. No other nation matches that record.
Overall, the United States has won the most World Cup games, and it has the greatest winning percentage.
The U.S. women have played in 36 World Cup games and won 27, for a .750 winning percentage. That’s better than Germany’s 23 wins in 32 games, a .719 percentage.
Japan, the reigning champion, has a surprisingly weak overall record: 7 wins in 22 games, for a .318 winning percentage.
There was much to celebrate in the 4-0 win over New Zealand. But it was New Zealand. (Jeff Curry/USA Today Sports)
In the world of international women’s soccer, there are a bunch of New Zealands — pretty good teams (many of them getting better with each passing year), each with a couple of outstanding players, each capable of giving the U.S. team a scare every once in a while.
But they’re still New Zealands (or Koreas or Icelands or Colombias or Mexicos), and 95 times out of 100, they’re no match for the United States.
The U.S. women can have an off day and still beat the New Zealands. They can miss open shots, get careless on crosses, nap on defense, fritter away possessions, squander corner kicks, take one too many touches, make one too few passes … and still beat the New Zealands. (This is particularly true when Hope Solo is in goal. Off the field, the woman has made her share of mistakes. But on the field, she cleans up a lot of her teammates’ mistakes.)
Hell, the U.S. bench can beat the New Zealands. (Abby Wambach has often said that the United States’ second team would be among the top five starting sides in the world.)
But beating the New Zealands isn’t going to win the World Cup.
In the world of international women’s soccer, there are a bunch of New Zealands.
And a tiny number of fast, fearless, skillful, confident teams (Germany, France, Japan, Sweden, maybe Brazil, maybe Canada) that will cut the Americans into little pieces if the Americans give them that chance.
Liviu Bird of SI.com writes — in the wake of the United States’ breezy 4-0 victory over New Zealand — that while Jill Ellis’ team is coming together, it isn’t there yet. Flaws that New Zealand couldn’t exploit — the wayward shots by Christen Press, Alex Morgan, and Amy Rodriguez, the inefficient play in front of the goal, the leaky seams in midfield — could be troublesome against an elite opponent.
Against the sort of opponent that Team USA will encounter in the knockout rounds of the World Cup.
The sort of opponent who will still stand in the way after the New Zealands have packed up and left Canada.
The U.S. women have only one match this month. They play New Zealand on April 4 in Busch Stadium in St. Louis. The game, at 2:30 p.m. CT, will be televised on Fox Sports 1.
Ticket sales have been extraordinary. Initially, only 23,500 seats were being offered — just those in the lower levels. But when they went on sale on Jan. 30, they sold out in just two hours. So the rest of Busch was opened up, and now nearly every seat in the stadium is sold.
Busch Stadium, home of the St, Louis Cardinals, seats 43,975 for baseball.
A couple of days ago, I checked to see what’s still available for the USA-New Zealand match, and the only sections that weren’t sold out were a few at the very top top of the stadium — in all, fewer than 3,000 seats.
The final attendance could be the largest for a home game since 1999, when the World Cup was played in stadiums across the United States, and the Americans won.
The National Women’s Soccer League opens what many believe is its critically important Season 3 when the Washington Spirit visit the Houston Dash at 7:30 p.m. CT on Friday, April 10.
Two earlier women’s leagues — the Women’s United Soccer Association and Women’s Professional Soccer — both folded after their third seasons. So far, the NWSL has been on more stable footing than either of those two previous ventures, thanks largely to salary subsidies from U.S. Soccer and the soccer federations of Canada and Mexico.
Still, the league is far from a roaring success. Crowds are often sparse. It’s not uncommon for fewer than 2,500 fans to show up.
Randy Waldrum, coach of the Dash, told the Houston Chronicle that ticket sales for the April 10 opener are lagging far behind what the team had hoped for. Season-ticket and group sales are down from a year ago.
Randy Waldrum. (Houston Dash)
“Quite frankly, I’m disappointed,” Waldrum said. “With a soccer community of over 100,000 people here in South Texas, there’s no excuse for that. We should be putting 7 or 8,000 into the stands every weekend to watch this team play.”
He warned that if fans don’t start buying more tickets, “in a couple of years when this team is no longer around, then we as a fan base will have no one but ourselves to blame.”
In 2014, the league title was won by FC Kansas City, a terrific team that featured, among others, Lauren Holiday, Amy Rodriguez, Becky Sauerbrunn, Erika Tymrak, Leigh Ann Robinson, Jen Buczkowski and Nicole Barnhart. The team averaged just 2,018 fans for home games, a drop of more than 56 percent from the inaugural 2013 season.
FC Kansas City players hoist the NWSL championship trophy after beating the Seattle Reign 2-1 on Aug. 31, 2014. (Elaine Thompson/AP)
Only the Portland Thorns consistently draw well, averaging 13,362 fans at home last year. In all, the Thorns sold more than 160,000 regular-season tickets. That accounted for more than 36 percent of all ticket sales in the nine-team league.
That’s great if you’re the Portland Thorns. But in many ways, the team’s success just serves to highlight how feebly the rest of the league is doing at the gate.
The average attendance throughout the NWSL last year was 4,121. Take out the Thorns’ 12 home games, and that average drops to 2,966.
The Portland Thorns routinely pack thousands of fans into Providence Park for their home games. (Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Thorns FC)
And thanks to the World Cup in Canada, there’s every reason to believe that 2015 will be even worse.
To accommodate the World Cup, which runs from June 6 to July 5, the NWSL is trimming its regular season to 20 games, down from 24 last year, and it’s taking a 13-day break in early June.
It’s hard to see how either the reduced schedule or the June hiatus will do anything but hurt attendance.
Many of the league’s biggest stars will miss chunks of the season because they’re either getting ready for the World Cup or playing in it — and not just Americans, but also members of the national teams of Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, Spain, and Japan.
USA Today Sports
Abby Wambach already made headlines by announcing that she’ll skip the 2015 season altogether to concentrate solely on the World Cup. She played for the Western New York Flash in her hometown of Rochester, where she’s a beloved figure. Western New York subsequently traded the future rights to Wambach to the Seattle Reign for Sydney Leroux.)
Her decision probably won’t have a huge impact on how well the Flash do on the field, notes Jeff Kassouf of The Equalizer. Even last year, Wambach wasn’t much of a factor. Injuries and national team obligations limited her to 10 appearances for Western New York. She had six goals and four assists. The team, which had the league’s best record in 2013 (10-4-8), slipped to seventh place in 2014 (8-12-4).
The impact of her absence may be greater at the box office, however. No player has been more closely identified with a market than Wambach has with Rochester, Kassouf writes, “and losing Wambach can only serve to keep fans away.”
However sensible it may have been for Wambach to conclude that, at 34, she should conserve her energy and preserve her body for the World Cup — and however convincingly her admirers may argue that she has more than earned the right to make that decision — the blunt interpretation is that she quit on her club team. Fans of the Flash, and, by extension, the NWSL, have to feel slighted. One of soccer’s greatest stars has made it clear that in the grand scheme of things, neither the team nor the league is all that important to her. And if Abby Wambach feels that way, why should the ticket-buying public feel any different?
That might not be fair. It isn’t fair. But if fans believe it, and if more seats go unsold as a result, it hardly matters whether it’s fair or not.
In theory, other national team players — unless they join Wambach and formally quit — should be available for NWSL games until the World Cup begins. But that availability will be spotty. There will be times when they’re called away for training camps or for tune-up friendlies. There may be times when they’ll want to rest small injuries or just take a break from the travel schedule.
Paul Riley, the coach of the Thorns, said months ago that he would prepare for the 2015 season by assuming that none of his players who are participating in the World Cup would be available until after that tournament ends. For Portland, that could mean up to nine players, including Alex Morgan, Tobin Heath and Rachel Van Hollebeke of the United States; Christine Sinclair, Kaylyn Kyle, and Rhian Wilkinson of Canada; Nadine Angerer of Germany; and Vero Boquete of Spain.
That’s not only a lot of football talent — it’s a whole lot of drawing power at the turnstiles.
April 6 – Julie Johnston turns 23
April 9 – Anson Dorrance turns 64; Vero Boquete turns 28
April 20 – Alyssa Naeher turns 27
Julie Johnston (right) and Eugenie Le Sommer of France, Algarve Cup final, March 11, 2015. (Francisco Seco/AP)
The New York Times has a story about the strange dismissal of Homare Sawa, “the most famous Japanese women’s player and one of the country’s most beloved athletes.”
Sawa was cut from the Japanese team by coach Norio Sasaki. Neither coach nor player has offered an explanation.
She could still rejoin the roster in time for Japan’s defense of its World Cup title, but Sasaki has not indicated that he plans to bring her back. Sawa, meanwhile, has not announced her retirement and continues to play for her club team.
She is 36, and she injured a knee in December, so it’s possible that time simply caught up with her. But the lack of a formal announcement leaves things “murky,” as The Times put it.
Homare Sawa after scoring in Japan’s victory over the United States in the 2011 World Cup final.
(Daniel Roland/AFP/Getty Images)
It would not be inaccurate to call Sawa the Mia Hamm of Japanese women’s football.
She joined the national team when she was 15, scoring four goals in her first game. She has since been to five World Cups and four Olympics.
In 2011, when Japan defeated the United States to win its first World Cup, it was Sawa who scored in extra time to tie the game, sending it to a penalty-kick shootout, which Japan easily won.
Sawa retired once before, after the 2012 London Olympics. But she returned two years later, helping Japan to first place in the 2014 Asian Games.
“I have my silver medal in my closet and I see it very often. It’s a reminder of what I didn’t get.”
– Abby Wambach, on the U.S. team’s coming up just short against Japan in the 2011 World Cup final. She was quoted by FIFA.com.
Abby Wambach and Hope Solo after losing to Japan in the 2011 World Cup final. (Getty Images)
ESPN’s ‘experts’ say Marta is one of the favorites to win top scorer, but Brazil was a distant third as the team most likely to win the World Cup. (Eraldo Peres/AP)
This ESPN “poll” is about as scientific as those election predictions based on whether 7-Eleven customers buy their coffee in a red or a blue cup.
7-Eleven
ESPN asked 19 unidentified “experts” (which probably means ESPN writers) for their World Cup predictions. You can read details at the bottom of this ESPNW story looking ahead to the World Cup.
It’s safe to assume that most if not all of these “experts” are American. If so, that would explain why the results seem heavily skewed in favor of the United States.
And even if the “experts” are legitimate, 19 is a very small sample from which to draw statistical conclusions.
And the “poll” was taken some time in February, which means it was before the just-completed Algarve Cup.
So take the findings with a large grain of salt.
If nothing else, they gave me a chance to work on my chart-creating skills.
Only three teams in the 24-team field received votes: the United States was the favorite at 47 percent, followed closely by Germany (42 percent), with Brazil at 11 percent.
The predictions for the semifinalists were much more competitive, with seven teams getting at least 32 percent.
The United States led with 94 percent — meaning one of ESPN’s 19 “experts” didn’t think the Americans would last until the round of four. Team USA was followed by France (74 percent), Germany (58), Canada (42), Brazil (37), and Japan and Sweden (tied at 32 percent).
Twenty-one percent said France is most likely to emerge as a dark horse. Sixteen percent chose Canada, followed by China, the Netherlands, Nigeria and Sweden at 11 percent each.
When asked how much artificial turf will affect the quality of play, 53 percent said it will be a small factor, 32 percent said it will be a major factor, and 15 percent said it will affect only those teams unaccustomed to the unnatural surface.
Not one of ESPN’s 19 panelists said the turf will not be a factor.
Abby Wambach, Marta of Brazil and France’s Eugenie Le Sommer each got 21 percent of the vote as the player most likely to win the Golden Boot. Alex Morgan was next at 18 percent.
France’s Gaetane Thiney and American Amy Rodriguez each received one vote.
Alex Morgan celebrates with Ali Krieger and Lauren Holiday after scoring against Switzerland on Friday (March 6) in the Algarve Cup. The United States won 3-0. (Cristina Quicler/AFP/Getty Images)
If the U.S. women beat Iceland on Monday, they’re in the Algarve Cup final.
Here’s why:
There are three groups of four teams each in the tournament. The top two group winners play for the championship on Wednesday (March 11).
In Group A, no team can finish 3-0. Brazil already has a draw, and the others each have a loss.
With a win over Iceland, the United States would win Group B with a 3-0 record.
So whatever else happens, the Americans would finish with a better record than the Group A winner — meaning the Americans would be in the title game.
Their possible opponents (I think) are France or Japan from Group C, or Brazil, Sweden or Germany from Group A.
I think.
But whatever else happens, if they beat Iceland — which should be a relatively easy task — the Americans are in.
The standings through the first two rounds of group play:
finishers 