The U.S. women’s soccer team has done it again and fulfilled all the predictions: they beat Canada in the semifinals in the “Theater of Dreams” from Manchester and will fight for the gold medal in the final game against Japan.

The finalist was not decided until the last minute of extra time. During the 90 minutes, Canada went ahead on the scoreboard three different times, but the Americans managed to tie the game every time Canada scored.

The first Canadian advantage came with Christine Sinclair, who made the first goal of the night. In the second half, the Americans managed a draw thanks to Megan Rapinoe.

However, Sinclair again put his team ahead three minutes before Rapinoe drilled on goal again. In their particular duel to become the best player in the game, Sinclair scored a hat-trick, but when the game seemed already over, Abby Wambach tied it in the 80th minute with a penalty kick.

With the score at 3-3, the semi-final went to over time and it was not until the second part of the extension in the third minute of injury time, when Alex Morgan put the U.S. into the final, avoiding penalties with an agonizing goal.

Canadians have complained that the fourth goal came when the game should have been over. They have also showed their disagreement with the American’s third goal, which came after a penalty preceded by an indirect free kick that was indicated when Canadian goalkeeper, Erin McLeod, was called for time wasting, something that is rarely whistled.

“Obviously, we’re disappointed and upset. We felt that the referee took it away from us, so, yes, we are disappointed,” Canada captain Sinclair said. “We feel like we didn’t lose, we feel like it was taken from us. It’s a shame in a game like that, which is so important, that the ref decided the result before the game started.”

Canadian coach John Herdman also showed his anger: “It felt like it was America and the referee against us.”

On the other hand, American players refused to talk about the polemic, as they were celebrating going into the final. “I’m still in shock,” Morgan told NBC following the game. “I was saying the whole time, ‘I don’t care who scores as long as we freaking score, as long as we win. I just got my head on it in the end and I didn’t see it go on.”

“Even when they scored their third goal, there was something in me that knew that we had more, that we could give more,” Wambach said. “I don’t know what that means, quite honestly. I don’t know if it’s just confidence until the end, but this team has a belief in itself, even when the going gets rough.”

Now the final against Japan is on the horizon, and will take place on Thursday at London’s Wembley Stadium. Americans will have the chance to seek revenge against the Japanese, who defeated them in last year’s World Cup final. American Morgan has not forgotten about this game: “We wanted the rematch with Japan, and we got it.”

Image Courtesy of   fstockfoto / Shutterstock.com

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The Olympic Games started on Wednesday 25 with women soccer games despite the inauguration will not take place until Friday 27. And it did not start off on the right foot. The organization confused the Korean national flag with the one from their South Korean neighbors during the pre-match ceremonies.

When the North Korean players came out the tunnel to play against Colombia and realized the mistake, they refused to jump onto the field. Tension arose and the Koreans players were adamant on not playing the game. They accused the organization of having made the mistake intentionally.

Finally, after a public apology was made and the flag changed, the Colombian players asked for 30 extra minutes to perform their exercises needed to warmup. Therefore the game started one hour later than it was scheduled, constituting the first bump of this year’s London Olympic Games.

The final score for the controversial match was 2-0 for North Korea, with two goals scored by Song Hui.

During the post game press conference, Gun Sin Ui North Korean coach showed his irritation about the flag issue and was skeptical about the committee apologies: “I will ask the Organizing Committee if this was premeditated. We consider this incident as something impossible to forget”.

Very serious throughout his appearance, he remembered that he could have boycotted the game, and also showed their rivalry with his Southern neighbors: “It was clear that we would not have played if the incident was not resolved. We do not want our players to go with other flags, especially the South Korea one.”

Not even the 2-0 victory seemed to calm down the North Korean coach: “Winning the game can not compensate for what happened. They are two different things,” said Gun Sin Ui.

The representative of the Organizing Committee Andy Mitchel apologized about what happened and promised that nothing similar will happen during the Olympics: “We have apologized to the team and to the Olympic Committee. It was a mistake and we have taken measures to prevent more similar cases.”

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Even though the Opening Ceremony for the 2012 Olympics takes place on Friday 27 when 10,000 athletes from 205 countries will make the inauguration, the Games already started on Wednesday July 25 with a women’s soccer match between the host nation Great Britain and visiting New Zealand.

A goal-kick from Stephanie Houghton, Arsenal player, handed the victory to Britain 1-0 in the first Olympic match, played at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.

A solitary goal of Houghton, with a precise shooting in a fault that came to the right of goalkeeper Jenny Bindon. Coach Hope Powell was, as would be expected, pleased.

The host team, who alongside Brazil are the favorites to dominate in Group E, was evidently superior to New Zealand.

However, the game between Great Britain and New Zealand was not the only premature match. The national U.S. women’s soccer team started in the best possible way with a 4-2 victory against France at Glasgow’s Hampden Park stadium. The beginning was not easy and France took advantage of the first minutes. By minute 14, France was already winning 0-2 and playing comfortably. But the U.S. did not give up; Abby Wambach in minute 19 shortened the distance, and a pair of goals from Alex Morgan and one from Carli Lloyd secured victory to the U.S.

Other games played on Wednesday 25 were Japan’s victory against Canada (2-1), Brazil showing their superiority against Cameroon (0-5) and Sweden defeating South Africa (4-1).

The medals will be in play between 12 teams divided into three groups of four teams each. The United States is in Group G, along with Colombia, Korea DPR, and France. The next game for the U.S. team will be against Colombia on Saturday 28.

U.S. is favorite for winning the gold medal, but they will have to take care of the other potential aspirants such as Brazil with veteran Marta, or the recent world champions Japan, with the illustrious Homare Sawa (player of the year for FIFA). France and Britain are also prime contenders for the gold.

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The question now is do we coddle our female athletes? Very simply, the answer is yes; but don’t take this as necessarily a bad thing- after all, all athletes are not created equal.

This notion that in order for females to be taken seriously in a particular sport means that we should treat them like we treat men is ridiculous.  The idea of women’s sports is a relatively new idea and the acceptance of women in sports doing what we do as men is still in the ground stages, so it doesn’t make sense to react or overreact to individual games or failures.

This topic has been highly debated as of late due to the treatment of women’s soccer players upon their return state side. There has been a lot of criticism but those critiques have taken a backseat to the amount of fanfare they have received; in a sense, celebrating a second place finish. Yes it is entirely up to you if you want to approach it that way, but it is a mistake if you compare that to the reaction given to the men upon their return after numerous loses.  Women’s soccer is winning in America which is the most important thing; that is what is being celebrated- not losing.

The criticism is legitimate in terms of the way in which they lost the game and there has been ample criticism about that; but we must celebrate what is being accomplished.  Most importantly, we must remember the lack of interest that lies on the men’s side of things in terms of soccer in America; there is a lot more good will for the women’s soccer team while the patience is wearing thin for the men who have way more to prove at this point.

The women have won, the men haven’t…we must remember that.

As evident from media today, the sports world as a whole is dominated by men.  With men setting the agenda, it only makes sense that the focus is placed on the physical aspect or the aesthetics involved in attracting viewers (men). It is nothing new that men love to watch beautiful women and the US team is loaded with beautiful women. Why should that not be discussed or why shouldn’t they be seen throughout the media networks doing interviews?  In the long run, the sport will only benefit, not suffer.

There is nothing sexist about stating the facts and in this case, the facts are helping the bottom line of the sport as a whole.

As long as the skills of the players aren’t lost in the overall appreciation of the sport, the focus of the sports world should remain on them; they deserve that.

Hearing a player like Hope Solo talk about her role in this equation shows me that she views and understands the bigger picture. Yes maybe men will be drawn in by what they see, but they will stay and bring their daughters and mothers will bring their daughters as well exposing a new generation of girls to the sport. After they come to watch, only then will they fall in love with skill involved and sport as a hole; or maybe inspiring young girls to want involvement in sports altogether which could have an even greater impact in the world of sports.

Women’s sports can’t sustain themselves at this point; that is evident in the lack of money they are making. But as I’ve stated many times before, Americans love events.  We are an event driven society, so every chance or event they get to market Women will likely be welcomed and celebrated.

It is not coddling to celebrate effort and the development of a great sport in American society.  There are many things wrong with the way we approach the sports that both women and men play; looking forward though, we should definitely stop comparing men and women in world of sports—it’s simply not productive nor does it advance the conversation in a way that is fair or balance.

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