Saturday, September 30, 2006

World Cup Qualifying

A huge shoutout to England's women's team, who qualified for their first World Cup since 1995 when they tied France 1-1. Ranked #12 in the world, England finishes UEFA qualifying undefeated after an extremely difficult group draw, including France (#6) and the Netherlands (#18).

England joins Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Germany as the five teams from the UEFA to go to China in 2007. Australia and Korea DPR qualified from the AFC in the summer, and Japan waits upon the third place team from CONCACAF to play for the final spot.

CONCACAF qualifying is scheduled to take place at the end of November with the United States, Canada, Mexico, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago and Panama. The United States and Canada receive a free pass through the semi finals.

on the field this weekend

This Sunday, the WNT plays Chinese Taipei at the Home Depot Center to cap off four days of the Women's Nike Friendlies, which has 3 national teams and 25 of the top club teams from around the nation participating.

USSoccer released the roster for the game this afternoon.

GOALKEEPERS (2): Briana Scurry, Hope Solo
DEFENDERS (6): Lori Chalupny, Tina Frimpong, Stephanie Lopez, Kate Markgraf, Heather Mitts, Christie Rampone
MIDFIELDERS (5): Angela Hucles, Carli Lloyd, Marci Miller, Leslie Osborne, Aly Wagner
FORWARDS (5): Danesha Adams, Kristine Lilly, Megan Rapinoe, Lindsay Tarpley, Abby Wambach.

Kudos to Danesha Adams for making the roster in her first senior WNT camp. For those who will miss Natasha Kai, I think she'll probably be back for Iceland, as UCLA can't be without Adams for too long, especially with Cal and Stanford coming into town that weekend.

On the college side, Stanford is at Santa Clara on Saturday, which I will unfortunately miss, as I will be in LA to see the WNT game! Breaks my heart that I'm going to miss it. I could have made it if it was Friday night, though. Just say NO to Saturday games, kids!

initial post

I figured it was about time I set up somewhere to talk about what I love.

You'll find a lot of women's soccer here, and plenty about the National teams, North Carolina, Santa Clara and Stanford.

As water polo season comes around in the spring, there will probably be some of that as well.