SEPTEMBER 27, 2007

It's being called the worst day in the history of the U.S. Women's National Team. Brazil routed the U.S. 4-0 in the Word Cup semifinal in a game that was so bad for the U.S. that one commentator likened it to a Stephen King novel. Now Brazil advances to the final, where they'll play Germany for the title, and all the U.S. can hope for is a win in the 3rd place game against Norway, and many question if the U.S. can even pull that off after the nightmare that was today paired with the fact that Norway is a bogey team for the U.S.

Of course, you'd think I'd be devastated over the U.S. choking and losing the World Cup but, instead, I'm just exceedingly angry because this didn't have to happen. Or, at the very least, it didn't have to be this bad.

In what will go down as the biggest brain fart in World Cup history, U.S. coach Greg Ryan got the bright idea to bench the undefeated starting goalie, who hadn't lost a game since 2002 and had done a great job in the World Cup, and instead play the team's reserve goalie against Brazil, even though the reserve had only played 7 games in the last two years and hadn't played at all the past few months, and Ryan's reason for doing so was simply that the reserve goalie had more experience against Brazil. But, even with that being the case, no reserve goalie, regardless of how good, can come off the bench after not playing in months and stand a chance against a team as talented as Brazil.

Everyone told Ryan that changing goalies was a huge mistake. Sports analysts, soccer experts, other coaches, fans - they all warned that changing goalies at that stage of the Cup would lead to dire consequences. It would disrupt the team, throw their game off, mess up set plays, instill doubt in the players, and cost the coach credibility in the eyes of his players, but Ryan ignored it and, like an ostrich with its head stuck in the sand, said he was confident the move would work. And then the U.S. went out and played like the Three Stooges of soccer, scoring on themselves, receiving multiple yellow cards, and one U.S. player getting a red card and thrown out of the game. And that was just the first half.

But the most frustrating part is that, even after the loss, Greg Ryan was wholly unrepentant about his decisions and the epic feck up they led to. Rather than apologize or say, oops, my bad, he instead claimed he had no regrets, that he'd do the same thing again if given the chance, and that the game would have turned out the same regardless of who was in goal. Uhm, yeah. When you're the coach of a team who hadn't lost in over 50 games and had never trailed by more than one, it's easy to see how being routed 4-0 in the World Cup had nothing to do with you making a monumentally risky change in the lineup that everyone said would lead to disaster. Nope, something like that has absolutely nothing to do with coaching, so why take responsibility for it? Ahem.

But, if nothing else, good for Brazil! They are a phenomenally talented team, one of the best in the world, but they've had bad luck when it comes to major tournaments and thus have never won a World Cup. At least not yet but, with the U.S. out of contention, I'm really hoping Brazil wins this one. They're fast, tough, passionate, and a ton of fun to watch but they suffer from a lack of funding since Brazil puts most of its soccer funding into their men's team. But if the Brazilian women win a World Cup, hopefully their country will respect and fund them more, which would be a great step forward for women's soccer.

So, it sucks that the U.S. imploded but something good can still come from this World Cup if Brazil wins it. I'd love to see Brazil take their women's team more seriously and it would be great if players like Marta got the credit they deserve. I mean, Marta was discouraged from playing soccer when she was a kid, even by her family, because of her gender, but she kept with it, wouldn't give up, and now she is FIFA's Women's World Player of 2006 and in the World Cup final. That's damn impressive and the credit for such talent/success is long overdue.

If you're interested, the final day of the World Cup is Sunday. The U.S. will play Norway for third place at 5am ET and Brazil will play Germany for the World Cup title at 8am ET, both on ESPN2. You know I'll be watching... While throwing darts at a photo of U.S. coach Greg Ryan. Although I'd prefer to skip the photo and just throw darts at Grey Ryan himself. But I digress.

listening: blue october . reading: ---

walk: 0 minutes . weight lost: 12.5 pounds

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