I'm not all that knowledgeable but we're dominating this game everywhere but the scoreboard. Need to get one to the back of the net or we can lose on a fluke.
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Totally agree. I'm not a huge soccer fan but my girlfriend is (she used to coach HS soccer). I've been telling her for a while that I like watching the women a lot more than the men because they actually play the game tough instead of flopping and crying all the time.
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Seconded. I think almost everyone would agree that flopping and unnecessary complaining is the worst part of soccer. And the women's matches seem to have so much less of it
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Honestly, there have been a fair share of dives and flops this tournament, but women also tend to make rougher contact that is more disruptive. In general, the reason you don't see as many flops from the women is based upon the style of play with their bodies. Men initiate contact with their shoulders. Contact that high is away from their center of gravity so they have more of an ability to fight through it. Instead though, they flop and make it look more violent than the contact was. Women though typically initiate contact around the hips, where their center of gravity is. If you get thrown off there, you often are going down and it is easily called a foul. I say this as a referee of 10 years who has officiated everything from little kids to high school and adults. No matter the age, the style stays the same.
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I never said there wasn't any flopping. I said that there's been some all tournament, but the reasoning I mentioned regarding the body play is why you see LESS of it than in the men's matches.
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I'll admit that I haven't watched enough soccer (either men's or women's) to really know who plays tougher. But I have seen enough of Messi to know that dude plays through some pretty tough tackles...both high and low. There are, no doubt, tough soccer players and floppers for both genders. To argue that one gender is generally tougher than the other is probably a fool's game.
I will start this next tirade by saying I fully support Women's soccer and I'm really glad that the rest of the world is getting into it and becoming much more competitive. However, watching this tournament compared with last year has made it clear to me that there is absolutely nothing about the Women's game that is as sharp as the Men's game. The fans, the commentary, the officiating, the coaching, the fields, the passes, the shots, the goal tending, the set pieces, the throw ins....just everything. Throw sexism out of the window and look at the two objectively. You just cannot argue that any facet of the Women's game is as sharp as the Men's game.
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But I have seen enough of Messi to know that dude plays through some pretty tough tackles...both high and low.
Well that's just an unfair comparison. Messi is one of the elite because he's so skilled at making it through those challenges. I rarely have seen him flop. He's the kind of player that gets knocked down and gets right back up on the ball to continue his run. It's phenomenal to watch him play. But I'm not arguing that one is tougher than the other, just that the nature of the challenge is different which causes different results from contact.
You are right that play on the women's level is not nearly as crisp for any country compared to the men's level of play, but it is still superb. Compared to their competition though, the US is on another level in the women's field. France, Germany, and the US all play far better than any of their competition. That's why the two best games of the tournament are already behind us between France and Germany and then us and Germany.
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Messi is an exception more than the norm, and the dude is by far the best player in the world, no doubt. The U.S. players used to play through a lot of contact, but there is little to gain for it. Getting the call is more advantageous, that's the crappy part of the rules. Until FIFA starts carding floppers (for real) and adds some risk for the reward get used to diving and the rolling around like they just stepped on a landmine.
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It also depends heavily on what part of the world you're in. Southern European (Spain, Portugal) and especially South American players are the worst. Northern European players generally flop much less, although there are plenty of exceptions in both cases.
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females have always been tougher than men. they are evil.....
when i was younger my dad/coach would tell us to go out there and play like girls. he thought we were too soft at times and had us scrimmage all girls teams that were a year or 2 older than us. it worked
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I think it has to do with the women playing with a chip on their shoulder because they've been told for so long that their game is inferior because they're women. In reality, it's causing their game to be far more tough than what you see with the men with the flopping and embellishing only happening at a minimum. Watching these women fight through tackles and keep plays going is a sight to see.
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I think that's the biggest difference is fighting through the tackles. The men's teams see a much bigger advantage from getting the set piece from the penalty and in general the stronger legs of the men allow them to make more plays from distance. The women don't necessarily have that same strength and therefore don't gain much by taking the dive 30 yds from the goal. I think both flop equally inside the 18, but the women play tougher around the midline.
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Two best teams in the tourney right there. Huge win for the U.S. And a quality win at that. Good pick of formation and excellent play. Guessing Japan in the finals!
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Just kidding really - I work with some soccer folks and my neighbor and his daughter (a d1 player) took off yesterday for Canada driving from Richmond. Father/Daughter 1200 mile road trip- How cool is that!
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Deserved win, not to say germany didn't play well but we deserved that win. Alex Morgan was dangerous all day and if we get that finishing touch back LOOK OUT! Regardless I'm excited to have an excuse to get pumped for soccer again. The finals are so much more fun that a consolation game and the team has really notched it up these last two games
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I couldn't figure Alex Morgan out. Was she nervous? It seemed five or six times she had the ball at the post and couldn't decide whether to shoot or pass, so she split the difference with a wide shot nowhere near her teammate in the box. At the half I was afraid we were going to lose because of those lost opportunities.
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The girl hasn't played for months due to injury and is just coming back, that's really hard to just come back willy nilly ya know? Especially with a leg injury (major one)
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I thought the opposite, she didn't look sharp until about the 65' mark when she began to try and facilitate more plays rather than attack the net. Once she started playing with more of a possession minded game you could see her really putting a strain on he defense.
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Eh she was our only scoring threat for the first half I thought. Her and Carli Lloyd where the MVPs of the game (and Germany's keeper she played really well)
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I felt like Germany's keeper was a lot like Tim Howard from the Men's team game last year. She seemed to be yelling at her teammates and being fairly POd most of the time, which is understandable considering how dominating USA was during the first half. That keeper was having to play her ass off and got lucky with a couple terrible shots on goal.
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Most keepers are like that....trust me I was one. You shout and scream a lot because you're directing the entire field, particularly the defense and youve gotta hold players accountable. Add crowd noise to that and you have to scream A LOT. 90% of the time after a game I'd be exhausted whether I'd make 5 saves or 15 just from yelling so much
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O'Hara was standing still, then took four steps at full speed and was in the perfect place at the perfect time. Just beautiful teamwork and communication.
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This women's team reminds me of the Hokies. They play blanketing defense, and score when they need to. There is not another team in this tournament that can defend 1 on 1 better than US.
Germany's Celia Sasic is probably one of the 3 best forwards in the world, and the US defense made her look mediocre all evening.
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Watched the whole match, loved it so much more than the Chile vs Peru men's match last night where the MVP was the d-bag Chilean who flopped to the ground and got a red card on Peru's best defender after barely being touched in the back by the guy's foot on a follow thru. Men's soccer is so fake, it's worse than WWE (no offense to you wrestling fans out there) Living in Latin America, we are inundated with soccer, and I really appreciate the talent and skills, but the whining and the fake injuries ruin the beautiful game for me.
Watching the women's teams tonight was a breath of fresh air, that is what soccer should look like, not a bunch of overpaid crybabies, bellyaching to get a undeserved call out of the refs when they ought to be toughening up and playing the game like true competitors. Rant over, Go USA!!
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that's exactly your problem. South America is the absolute worst for bitchy-dive-happy soccer. I hate all of the teams from South America because they all give soccer the bad rap for diving and flopping.
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This could not be more spot on.... Those teams from CONMEBOL and non-North America CONCACAF (that is, not the US, Mexico, or Canada) really take diving to a new level and make it a major part of the game. My only hope is that with this massive shakeup of FIFA underway, whoever takes over and with the new leadership board, they take a hard-line effort to eradicate it from the game. Unfortunately, with some of the named being tossed around to replace Blatter being primarily from South America, I am not getting my hopes up.
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Cept Argentina they're not to bad about it and Messi is an absolute joy to watch. I pull for Argentina pretty often but yes south americans are pretty prone to flopping
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IMO the first half was the best half we've played this tournament. Rapinoe to me was the catalyst she just seemed like she was everywhere. Defense was challenging every pass and keeping constant pressure. We didn't finish, but had plenty of quality opportunities. The 2nd half was very frustrating as they let Germany basically reverse all momentum and play like we had in the first half. We did manage to pick up a PK, which shouldn't have been a PK, and did put one great goal in the net. I thought Alex morgan had her best game as well. She didn't finish, but she was challenging much more 1 on 1 and creating opportunities.
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That was so close. Contact began outside the box and finished inside by a yard, it all depends on the refs perception of where the contact became enough to draw a penalty. In a World cup semi-final game that probably should have been outside the box to keep the competition even rather than give a team that advantage.
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Agreed it was close, but in a game of that magnitude the refs generally error on the side of caution which is why I was surprised it was awarded as a PK. Morgan had a bad touch on the ball regardless and wasn't going to do anything with it IMO so she got bailed out. On top of that Julie Johnston probably should have gotten a red card as hers directly prevented a scoring chance. The thing that I think bailed her out was that the german initiated the contact from behind.
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I'm glad we scored that 2nd goal, because even though we were the better team... that 1st goal was kinda undeserved (foul was outside the box) and I'm of the opinion that we were lucky to have avoided a red card at that point.
The 2nd goal was a beauty though and nobody can deny we deserved the win.
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I have no problem with the US getting that PK. Honestly, sure it was an iffy call, but she was the last defender, didn't make a play on the ball, and stopped a scoring chance while they were running into the box. Not only that, but it felt like a makeup call for at least once in the first half when Morgan got hauled down in the box without a call.
Germany has nobody to blame but themselves. One shot on goal, and it was a weak one. They had their own PK and they missed the net. They were shut down by the US all game and had no answers. The US proved that they are the best team in the world and the gap might be greater than we thought. Now they just have to take care of business on Sunday and star #3 is going above that crest.
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I explicitly said we deserved to beat Germany. But we got calls to go our way more than once IMO and I'm just glad we got that 2nd goal, makes me feel better about it. That's all.
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That play on Morgan in the box was a huge missed call, the defender was holding on to her long before she went down. I assumed it was a situation where the refs "swallow the whistles" at the end of the half, but that contact was much more than what Julie Johnson got her yellow and a PK for (granted different scoring opportunities).
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they weren't shut down in the 2nd half at all. Germany had quite a few quality chances. Germany also had one of it's superstars playing injured and didn't come in until the 70th minute or so. Regardless if we play like we did in the first half the US women should bring it home.
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One (weak) shot on goal for the game. I don't care what it appeared they had going for them, the US had them locked down the entire game. We allowed them to have space around midfield through the second half, but we smothered them the second they got remotely close to a scoring chance. Thoroughly dominating effort by our defense against arguably the top offense on the planet.
And I agree, if we play our game on Sunday, we shouldn't have too much trouble regardless of the opponent.
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Just agree to disagree. Germany had some awful finishing touches, but dominated the early part of the 2nd half if not most of the 2nd half. Our play in the 2nd half was no where near the 1st half. We were not cutting off their passes and holding possession nearly as well. Can't blame rapinoe for looking gassed she was the energizer bunny in the 1st half.
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I think we did back off a bit, but that doesn't mean we played bad. To put it in football terms, I think we went from a man to man defensive scheme to an over the top zone defense where we allowed them a little bit, but smothered them once they reached a certain point. I think part of that reason is because of the pace we carried throughout that first half.
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bad was probably a poor word if I used that, which i'm not sure I did. When you are playing one of the other "elite" teams in the world there are going to be momentum changes and after our early opportunity in the 2nd half all the momentum swung to Germany. They lost it after the missed PK.
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If I misinterpreted, my bad. I think at this point, we're arguing semantics. You're saying we played well, and I'm saying we played a dominant game. Either way, we're both pleased with what happened.
I do agree that momentum was swinging towards Germany, and while watching, I was starting to get worried (in the we're letting them hang around too long, something fluky is going to kill us) but looking back, even with Germany gaining momentum, our defense never really showed any cracks outside of the PK. As Bud likes to put it, we played a solid bend but don't break defense in that 2nd half.
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....if a defender starts holding an attacker outside the penalty area but continues holding inside the penalty area, the referee shall award a penalty kick.
Food for thought....
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I agree. The foul was for "tripping" not a hold of any sort. Now whether you want to look at Morgan getting held at other points, that's a different story, but initial contact on the PK call was outside the box, not even on the line.
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Yeah, the idea that it could have been a make-up call for earlier instances may hold some weight.
Honestly though I feel like it's more likely that the refereeing just continued the trend of being sub-par this tournament. When you make it so only women can ref the games (of which there are simply fewer qualified candidates at this point) you're going to lose quality.
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I've had 2 issues with the officiating. One is a lack of consistency with issuing cards. Rapinoe was being murdered at the end of the first half. The slide tackle on her should have been a yellow. In the Germany vs France game, cards were being thrown left and right. The second is the trifling fouls that get called. Why do you need to call a foul on Alex Morgan as she's 1 foot from the endline trying to get around the defender who is shielding the ball out? It went out for a goal kick so just give the goal kick and move on. So many corners were whistled dead within seconds because of just silly things regarding contact in the box. Let them play!
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Basically it was denying a goal scoring opportunity. That is determined by 4 Ds: Direction, Distance from the Goal, Defenders between player and goal, and Distance from ball. If the player is headed to the goal, with 1 or no defenders between her and the goal, within playing distance of the ball, and within scoring range (as opposed to being at midfield), it is considered denying a goal scoring opportunity and that should always be handled by issuing a red card.
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She was the last defender, she didn't play the ball, she prevented a legitimate scoring change, and they were in the box...
In most cases, that's an automatic red card. I think part of the reason the red didn't come out is that Popp did her best to embellish the hell out of that play. They still deserved a PK, but if the ref took the embellishment into account, only bringing out a yellow makes sense.
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I think the ref called it consistently, and gave German player a yellow card in the same situation. When Morgan was taken down she had a clear path to goal and was within striking distance.
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I have said in the past that I'd rather watch fishing on TV than soccer anywhere, but the caveat is Hokies or the USA. If either is playing on TV, if I can, I'll watch and cheer and yell and root because I care about that game, but I don't care about the sport, I care about the teams. Thoroughly enjoyed last night's contest and appreciate all the comments here.
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Ok so random thought from me as I was watching the game last night, and just for the sake of debate...
Did anyone else have an issue with all the neon that is involved with our jerseys? We have neon socks, and all of the trim on the jerseys is in neon. It just seems like Nike is using neon to make it look flashy, when for me, good ol' Red White and Blue on our jerseys is what is the flashiest.
It kinda ticked me off, looking at the women representing our country running around on the pitch, looking like Oregon.
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Exactly. I kinda went on a Twitter rant about that last night. Upset that Phil Knight thinks that everything needs some kind of shade of neon green or yellow.
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Valid question after all, right? Maybe not. Soccer fans tend to be quite serious about the sport. I bet nobody here ever watches women's beach volleyball either, huh?
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And I have to point out that my residence is in Mr "Hey-we-just-won-our-1st-CCWS-Championship" ville. Have a heart. I take it seriously too. I lika da ladies. Want them to kick (no pun intended) ass.
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Used to live nearby in Afton, so, my condonlences. I, myself, don't take soccer seriously, and you'd be hard pressed to find someone more socially liberal than myself, but I was surprised at those downvotes. I've seen worse garner upvotes galore, but maybe it's time I check in for another sensitivity training. Pretty much always thought looks were fair for discussion if there were no negative connotations stated or implied in the premise.
For proof positive, how about this website's inhabitant's incredible obsession with resident hottie queen Emma Watson? I mean, she's young enough to be my granddaughter, but still I admire her visage.
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Nah, used to. Moved from Afton to Giles County back in '87 and lived there until 2012, when I retired to the Middle Peninsula at the Chesapeake Bay. If I still lived there, we'd be hitting one of those fancy new breweries they got there and sparkin' the coming season. I did live in Afton for almost ten years, though, and it was the frequent trips back to the 'burg to watch the Hokies in basketball (yeah, we actually had basketball in those days) and football games, that prompted the move back down to SWV.
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her foot was stepped on, so it was a foul. I'm not saying she didn't sell it a little bit, but it was a foul. Nothing like a dive from anyone on the entire Columbia team
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This. Everyone seems to be looking at the push to the back, which was not enough to call a PK. But the foul was not the push to the back, it was the contact to the left leg and foot.
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Japan's 2 goals were on a PK and an own goal. Offensively, they had nothing going. We just need to capitalize more often and actually hit the back of the net and we'll get our revenge.
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Well that was something. England had the better chances and was who I wanted to face in the final. Oh well, looks like we got ourselves a rematch. If we play like we have the last two games we'll have three stars to celebrate the 4th of July weekend.
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Deep down, while England would have been the easier matchup, I think the US wanted Japan in the finals badly after what happened in 2011. I think this is what they wanted before the World Cup even started. Now we have a chance for legitimate revenge. Beating them for Olympic gold in 2012 was nice, but this is personal.
Shades of the VT vs Miami game in 2003. I think the US has had this game circled for a while.
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I'll just say this, and this is something that is bugging me recently...
USWNT... USMNT... can't we just get over the whole designating whatever and call them both USA? Seems silly to go with the whole 'One Nation. One Team.' slogan, and then still call each one by a different name. And I'll take it one step further, and say that globally, World Cup stars should apply to the badge for both men and women together. Brazil already does it, with the 5 stars being a part of their official crest, and I think the US should follow suit.
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Agree with stars separate and you probably have to designate MNT vs. WNT just for clarity BUT why are there separate Twitter accounts for each? They should have the same account. US Soccer account retweeted the WNT account for the events during World Cup games but tweeted out all the events of last nights Gold Cup match themselves.
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I agree that the stars should be separate. I mean, if the Brazilian women won the World Cup, would the men add a sixth star to their jerseys? I doubt it. And would the Brazilian women start wearing six stars on their jerseys? That would be a bit misleading.
On a related note, I love the championship stars, and I wish every international competition would follow suit. Can you imagine if the US Olympic Basketball Team wore a star for every Gold Medal they won? I think it would look something like this...
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The reason I want the stars to apply to both teams is that, really you're celebrating the accomplishments of the Soccer Federation, and not the individual teams. US Soccer has won 3 World Cups. Brazil has won 5 World Cups. Germany has won 7. Its an accomplishment of the federation as a whole, and should be celebrated as such. One Nation, One Team, right?
And to condense replies, yes, I do think that Brazil should add a 6th star if the women win the World Cup. I actually think they will have to, as Brazil officially changes the crest of the national soccer program to include the new star with every title. Its why both men and women wear 5 stars.
And I absolutely love the championship stars, and I think it should be adopted across all sports, nationally and domestically. I love what the NBA has done with the gold tag on jerseys for franchises with a NBA title win. It would be awesome to see something similar migrate to other sports, and see how creatively some franchises can make do it.
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That game was glorious!! Carlie freakin Lloyd!! WOW!! I couldn't be more proud
of these women. They had the entire USA feeling like they were a part of the team.
Now I am slightly sad it's over.
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No worries, Olympics is next year as the women go for a 4th gold in a row (and 5th overall)... Slightly impressive, as this will be only the 6th time Women's Soccer has been a part of the Olympics. And our only non-gold was a silver when Norway beat us in extra time in 2000.
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Another fun fact, the Women's World Cup has only been around since 1991, meaning there have been 7 tournaments. The US has finished Top 3 in every tournament, three 1st place, one 2nd place, and three 3rd place. No other country has finished Top 3 more than 3 times.
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So what you're trying to say is the USWNT is like the Hokies for the first 7 ACC championship games (5 appearances, 3 victories, 2 anomalous years of conspicuous absence)?
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Start of the 2015 Gold Cup. Should the US win the Gold Cup, they will automatically qualify for the 2017 Confederations Cup in Russia. Should the US not win the GC, they will play the GC winner for the right to represent CONCACAF in the Confederations Cup.
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Comments
I'm not all that knowledgeable but we're dominating this game everywhere but the scoreboard. Need to get one to the back of the net or we can lose on a fluke.
Game is a lot more physical than I thought the international refs would let it be.
Is it just me or have the women seemed a lot tougher than the men last year? I mean overall, not specifically the US.
Totally agree. I'm not a huge soccer fan but my girlfriend is (she used to coach HS soccer). I've been telling her for a while that I like watching the women a lot more than the men because they actually play the game tough instead of flopping and crying all the time.
Seconded. I think almost everyone would agree that flopping and unnecessary complaining is the worst part of soccer. And the women's matches seem to have so much less of it
you obviously didn't watch the Columbia game
Honestly, there have been a fair share of dives and flops this tournament, but women also tend to make rougher contact that is more disruptive. In general, the reason you don't see as many flops from the women is based upon the style of play with their bodies. Men initiate contact with their shoulders. Contact that high is away from their center of gravity so they have more of an ability to fight through it. Instead though, they flop and make it look more violent than the contact was. Women though typically initiate contact around the hips, where their center of gravity is. If you get thrown off there, you often are going down and it is easily called a foul. I say this as a referee of 10 years who has officiated everything from little kids to high school and adults. No matter the age, the style stays the same.
There was plenty of flopping and no-calls last night.
I never said there wasn't any flopping. I said that there's been some all tournament, but the reasoning I mentioned regarding the body play is why you see LESS of it than in the men's matches.
I'll admit that I haven't watched enough soccer (either men's or women's) to really know who plays tougher. But I have seen enough of Messi to know that dude plays through some pretty tough tackles...both high and low. There are, no doubt, tough soccer players and floppers for both genders. To argue that one gender is generally tougher than the other is probably a fool's game.
I will start this next tirade by saying I fully support Women's soccer and I'm really glad that the rest of the world is getting into it and becoming much more competitive. However, watching this tournament compared with last year has made it clear to me that there is absolutely nothing about the Women's game that is as sharp as the Men's game. The fans, the commentary, the officiating, the coaching, the fields, the passes, the shots, the goal tending, the set pieces, the throw ins....just everything. Throw sexism out of the window and look at the two objectively. You just cannot argue that any facet of the Women's game is as sharp as the Men's game.
Well that's just an unfair comparison. Messi is one of the elite because he's so skilled at making it through those challenges. I rarely have seen him flop. He's the kind of player that gets knocked down and gets right back up on the ball to continue his run. It's phenomenal to watch him play. But I'm not arguing that one is tougher than the other, just that the nature of the challenge is different which causes different results from contact.
You are right that play on the women's level is not nearly as crisp for any country compared to the men's level of play, but it is still superb. Compared to their competition though, the US is on another level in the women's field. France, Germany, and the US all play far better than any of their competition. That's why the two best games of the tournament are already behind us between France and Germany and then us and Germany.
Messi is an exception more than the norm, and the dude is by far the best player in the world, no doubt. The U.S. players used to play through a lot of contact, but there is little to gain for it. Getting the call is more advantageous, that's the crappy part of the rules. Until FIFA starts carding floppers (for real) and adds some risk for the reward get used to diving and the rolling around like they just stepped on a landmine.
It also depends heavily on what part of the world you're in. Southern European (Spain, Portugal) and especially South American players are the worst. Northern European players generally flop much less, although there are plenty of exceptions in both cases.
edit: I have no idea what i'm doing
Double post
females have always been tougher than men. they are evil.....
when i was younger my dad/coach would tell us to go out there and play like girls. he thought we were too soft at times and had us scrimmage all girls teams that were a year or 2 older than us. it worked
I think it has to do with the women playing with a chip on their shoulder because they've been told for so long that their game is inferior because they're women. In reality, it's causing their game to be far more tough than what you see with the men with the flopping and embellishing only happening at a minimum. Watching these women fight through tackles and keep plays going is a sight to see.
I think that's the biggest difference is fighting through the tackles. The men's teams see a much bigger advantage from getting the set piece from the penalty and in general the stronger legs of the men allow them to make more plays from distance. The women don't necessarily have that same strength and therefore don't gain much by taking the dive 30 yds from the goal. I think both flop equally inside the 18, but the women play tougher around the midline.
Has always been true. Women's soccer and other "contact" sports are phucking brutal.
Two best teams in the tourney right there. Huge win for the U.S. And a quality win at that. Good pick of formation and excellent play. Guessing Japan in the finals!
How in the world do you miss the net on a penalty kick!?! Go USA!!!
GGGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLL
I'm fine with girls playing bit Really,,,,,,it's kick ball!
Just kidding really - I work with some soccer folks and my neighbor and his daughter (a d1 player) took off yesterday for Canada driving from Richmond. Father/Daughter 1200 mile road trip- How cool is that!
Deserved win, not to say germany didn't play well but we deserved that win. Alex Morgan was dangerous all day and if we get that finishing touch back LOOK OUT! Regardless I'm excited to have an excuse to get pumped for soccer again. The finals are so much more fun that a consolation game and the team has really notched it up these last two games
I couldn't figure Alex Morgan out. Was she nervous? It seemed five or six times she had the ball at the post and couldn't decide whether to shoot or pass, so she split the difference with a wide shot nowhere near her teammate in the box. At the half I was afraid we were going to lose because of those lost opportunities.
I thought Alex Morgan played fine. She got the PK for Lloyd, and she created several nice opportunities with her work down low.
Also, she is really, really easy to look at.
The girl hasn't played for months due to injury and is just coming back, that's really hard to just come back willy nilly ya know? Especially with a leg injury (major one)
I thought the opposite, she didn't look sharp until about the 65' mark when she began to try and facilitate more plays rather than attack the net. Once she started playing with more of a possession minded game you could see her really putting a strain on he defense.
Eh she was our only scoring threat for the first half I thought. Her and Carli Lloyd where the MVPs of the game (and Germany's keeper she played really well)
I felt like Germany's keeper was a lot like Tim Howard from the Men's team game last year. She seemed to be yelling at her teammates and being fairly POd most of the time, which is understandable considering how dominating USA was during the first half. That keeper was having to play her ass off and got lucky with a couple terrible shots on goal.
Most keepers are like that....trust me I was one. You shout and scream a lot because you're directing the entire field, particularly the defense and youve gotta hold players accountable. Add crowd noise to that and you have to scream A LOT. 90% of the time after a game I'd be exhausted whether I'd make 5 saves or 15 just from yelling so much
All true. Played sweeper for quite a while. Quiet keeper = loud sweeper.
That was one hell of a good game. Great open play with plenty of chances at both ends. The ninja kick to seal the deal was awesome.
https://vine.co/v/e1BKWlAXeAg
here ya go
O'Hara was standing still, then took four steps at full speed and was in the perfect place at the perfect time. Just beautiful teamwork and communication.
I don't care what you think about women's sports... that right there was one heck of a good soccer game.
They seem to be peaking at the right time.
Some people say soccer is boring. I was yelling at my TV for 90 minutes like the Hokies were playing.
This women's team reminds me of the Hokies. They play blanketing defense, and score when they need to. There is not another team in this tournament that can defend 1 on 1 better than US.
Germany's Celia Sasic is probably one of the 3 best forwards in the world, and the US defense made her look mediocre all evening.
USA!!! USA!!! USA!!! USA!!!
Watched the whole match, loved it so much more than the Chile vs Peru men's match last night where the MVP was the d-bag Chilean who flopped to the ground and got a red card on Peru's best defender after barely being touched in the back by the guy's foot on a follow thru. Men's soccer is so fake, it's worse than WWE (no offense to you wrestling fans out there) Living in Latin America, we are inundated with soccer, and I really appreciate the talent and skills, but the whining and the fake injuries ruin the beautiful game for me.
Watching the women's teams tonight was a breath of fresh air, that is what soccer should look like, not a bunch of overpaid crybabies, bellyaching to get a undeserved call out of the refs when they ought to be toughening up and playing the game like true competitors. Rant over, Go USA!!
that's exactly your problem. South America is the absolute worst for bitchy-dive-happy soccer. I hate all of the teams from South America because they all give soccer the bad rap for diving and flopping.
This could not be more spot on.... Those teams from CONMEBOL and non-North America CONCACAF (that is, not the US, Mexico, or Canada) really take diving to a new level and make it a major part of the game. My only hope is that with this massive shakeup of FIFA underway, whoever takes over and with the new leadership board, they take a hard-line effort to eradicate it from the game. Unfortunately, with some of the named being tossed around to replace Blatter being primarily from South America, I am not getting my hopes up.
Cept Argentina they're not to bad about it and Messi is an absolute joy to watch. I pull for Argentina pretty often but yes south americans are pretty prone to flopping
USA! USA! USA!
IMO the first half was the best half we've played this tournament. Rapinoe to me was the catalyst she just seemed like she was everywhere. Defense was challenging every pass and keeping constant pressure. We didn't finish, but had plenty of quality opportunities. The 2nd half was very frustrating as they let Germany basically reverse all momentum and play like we had in the first half. We did manage to pick up a PK, which shouldn't have been a PK, and did put one great goal in the net. I thought Alex morgan had her best game as well. She didn't finish, but she was challenging much more 1 on 1 and creating opportunities.
That was so close. Contact began outside the box and finished inside by a yard, it all depends on the refs perception of where the contact became enough to draw a penalty. In a World cup semi-final game that probably should have been outside the box to keep the competition even rather than give a team that advantage.
Agreed it was close, but in a game of that magnitude the refs generally error on the side of caution which is why I was surprised it was awarded as a PK. Morgan had a bad touch on the ball regardless and wasn't going to do anything with it IMO so she got bailed out. On top of that Julie Johnston probably should have gotten a red card as hers directly prevented a scoring chance. The thing that I think bailed her out was that the german initiated the contact from behind.
I'm glad we scored that 2nd goal, because even though we were the better team... that 1st goal was kinda undeserved (foul was outside the box) and I'm of the opinion that we were lucky to have avoided a red card at that point.
The 2nd goal was a beauty though and nobody can deny we deserved the win.
I have no problem with the US getting that PK. Honestly, sure it was an iffy call, but she was the last defender, didn't make a play on the ball, and stopped a scoring chance while they were running into the box. Not only that, but it felt like a makeup call for at least once in the first half when Morgan got hauled down in the box without a call.
Germany has nobody to blame but themselves. One shot on goal, and it was a weak one. They had their own PK and they missed the net. They were shut down by the US all game and had no answers. The US proved that they are the best team in the world and the gap might be greater than we thought. Now they just have to take care of business on Sunday and star #3 is going above that crest.
I explicitly said we deserved to beat Germany. But we got calls to go our way more than once IMO and I'm just glad we got that 2nd goal, makes me feel better about it. That's all.
That play on Morgan in the box was a huge missed call, the defender was holding on to her long before she went down. I assumed it was a situation where the refs "swallow the whistles" at the end of the half, but that contact was much more than what Julie Johnson got her yellow and a PK for (granted different scoring opportunities).
they weren't shut down in the 2nd half at all. Germany had quite a few quality chances. Germany also had one of it's superstars playing injured and didn't come in until the 70th minute or so. Regardless if we play like we did in the first half the US women should bring it home.
One (weak) shot on goal for the game. I don't care what it appeared they had going for them, the US had them locked down the entire game. We allowed them to have space around midfield through the second half, but we smothered them the second they got remotely close to a scoring chance. Thoroughly dominating effort by our defense against arguably the top offense on the planet.
And I agree, if we play our game on Sunday, we shouldn't have too much trouble regardless of the opponent.
Just agree to disagree. Germany had some awful finishing touches, but dominated the early part of the 2nd half if not most of the 2nd half. Our play in the 2nd half was no where near the 1st half. We were not cutting off their passes and holding possession nearly as well. Can't blame rapinoe for looking gassed she was the energizer bunny in the 1st half.
Agree with the agreement to disagree...
I think we did back off a bit, but that doesn't mean we played bad. To put it in football terms, I think we went from a man to man defensive scheme to an over the top zone defense where we allowed them a little bit, but smothered them once they reached a certain point. I think part of that reason is because of the pace we carried throughout that first half.
bad was probably a poor word if I used that, which i'm not sure I did. When you are playing one of the other "elite" teams in the world there are going to be momentum changes and after our early opportunity in the 2nd half all the momentum swung to Germany. They lost it after the missed PK.
If I misinterpreted, my bad. I think at this point, we're arguing semantics. You're saying we played well, and I'm saying we played a dominant game. Either way, we're both pleased with what happened.
I do agree that momentum was swinging towards Germany, and while watching, I was starting to get worried (in the we're letting them hang around too long, something fluky is going to kill us) but looking back, even with Germany gaining momentum, our defense never really showed any cracks outside of the PK. As Bud likes to put it, we played a solid bend but don't break defense in that 2nd half.
http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/afdeveloping/refereeing/law_12_fouls_mis...
....if a defender starts holding an attacker outside the penalty area but continues holding inside the penalty area, the referee shall award a penalty kick.
Food for thought....
I was curious about that. Thanks for the clarification
I didn't see that as 'holding'. I didn't see any continued contact into the box.
I agree. The foul was for "tripping" not a hold of any sort. Now whether you want to look at Morgan getting held at other points, that's a different story, but initial contact on the PK call was outside the box, not even on the line.
Yeah, the idea that it could have been a make-up call for earlier instances may hold some weight.
Honestly though I feel like it's more likely that the refereeing just continued the trend of being sub-par this tournament. When you make it so only women can ref the games (of which there are simply fewer qualified candidates at this point) you're going to lose quality.
I've had 2 issues with the officiating. One is a lack of consistency with issuing cards. Rapinoe was being murdered at the end of the first half. The slide tackle on her should have been a yellow. In the Germany vs France game, cards were being thrown left and right. The second is the trifling fouls that get called. Why do you need to call a foul on Alex Morgan as she's 1 foot from the endline trying to get around the defender who is shielding the ball out? It went out for a goal kick so just give the goal kick and move on. So many corners were whistled dead within seconds because of just silly things regarding contact in the box. Let them play!
tripping by way of body checking..
yup it was not holding that it was Julie Johnston did. it was obstruction and closer to a hip check.
Why would the U.S. have gotten a red card?
Johnston's yellow could easily have been red to many referees. I would not have been surprised in the least had it been.
So I'm a soccer novice, so your going to have to explain in more detail if you can.
Basically it was denying a goal scoring opportunity. That is determined by 4 Ds: Direction, Distance from the Goal, Defenders between player and goal, and Distance from ball. If the player is headed to the goal, with 1 or no defenders between her and the goal, within playing distance of the ball, and within scoring range (as opposed to being at midfield), it is considered denying a goal scoring opportunity and that should always be handled by issuing a red card.
She was the last defender, she didn't play the ball, she prevented a legitimate scoring change, and they were in the box...
In most cases, that's an automatic red card. I think part of the reason the red didn't come out is that Popp did her best to embellish the hell out of that play. They still deserved a PK, but if the ref took the embellishment into account, only bringing out a yellow makes sense.
Sure. Per the laws of the game:
So not only does the other team get a PK but you as a player get a red card and thrown out?
The red card puts you down a player yes, it would have been a 10 v 11 game.
I think the ref called it consistently, and gave German player a yellow card in the same situation. When Morgan was taken down she had a clear path to goal and was within striking distance.
I am really enjoying this World Cup. These women are beyond tough.
ALL of them. I want to win this cup so bad but yet I don't want it to be over!!
I have said in the past that I'd rather watch fishing on TV than soccer anywhere, but the caveat is Hokies or the USA. If either is playing on TV, if I can, I'll watch and cheer and yell and root because I care about that game, but I don't care about the sport, I care about the teams. Thoroughly enjoyed last night's contest and appreciate all the comments here.
Obama - "Scoreboard"
So who do you guys have for Japan vs England?
Japan, to technical and quick for England
I REAAAALLLY want England to win so the US can play them in the finals on Independence Weekend. Then I can be all:
But my head says it'll be Japan and be a rematch of 2011 World Cup/2012 Olympics.
Either way, this weekend is:
If its England, I am confident we'll win because it will just be a bad mismatch.
If its Japan, I am confident we'll win because we're a better team, and we're still pissed off about what happened in 2011.
Either way, Sunday night should end thusly...
El Diablo Blanco!
Japan, England, Germany the USA has beaten them ALL, war and soccer so let's go!
I would prefer England just because I think there is a real gulf in talent/ability/matchup issues between this USWNT and England.
With that said, I think the ladies themselves want Japan and want Japan hard. Never underestimate that aspect of it.
I do think Japan will defeat England however as it is, so should be a really good final.
Ok so random thought from me as I was watching the game last night, and just for the sake of debate...
Did anyone else have an issue with all the neon that is involved with our jerseys? We have neon socks, and all of the trim on the jerseys is in neon. It just seems like Nike is using neon to make it look flashy, when for me, good ol' Red White and Blue on our jerseys is what is the flashiest.
It kinda ticked me off, looking at the women representing our country running around on the pitch, looking like Oregon.
I loathe those uniforms. White, black and neon green/yellow? What about that says USA? Ridiculous.
We need to Where's Waldo uniforms back, those are by far the best kits we've played in in the past decade plus, IMO.
Exactly. I kinda went on a Twitter rant about that last night. Upset that Phil Knight thinks that everything needs some kind of shade of neon green or yellow.
Ok. Random question, which players do you think are the hottest (not meaning to put anyone down)?
Gimme a break. It's the freakin offseason. Wth else am I supposed to do?
Valid question after all, right? Maybe not. Soccer fans tend to be quite serious about the sport. I bet nobody here ever watches women's beach volleyball either, huh?
And I have to point out that my residence is in Mr "Hey-we-just-won-our-1st-CCWS-Championship" ville. Have a heart. I take it seriously too. I lika da ladies. Want them to kick (no pun intended) ass.
Used to live nearby in Afton, so, my condonlences. I, myself, don't take soccer seriously, and you'd be hard pressed to find someone more socially liberal than myself, but I was surprised at those downvotes. I've seen worse garner upvotes galore, but maybe it's time I check in for another sensitivity training. Pretty much always thought looks were fair for discussion if there were no negative connotations stated or implied in the premise.
For proof positive, how about this website's inhabitant's incredible obsession with resident hottie queen Emma Watson? I mean, she's young enough to be my granddaughter, but still I admire her visage.
Dude, you're in Afton? I'm right at the bottom of the hill in Draft.
Nah, used to. Moved from Afton to Giles County back in '87 and lived there until 2012, when I retired to the Middle Peninsula at the Chesapeake Bay. If I still lived there, we'd be hitting one of those fancy new breweries they got there and sparkin' the coming season. I did live in Afton for almost ten years, though, and it was the frequent trips back to the 'burg to watch the Hokies in basketball (yeah, we actually had basketball in those days) and football games, that prompted the move back down to SWV.
Ah, and we were just saying how women don't dive as much. England got away with one.
her foot was stepped on, so it was a foul. I'm not saying she didn't sell it a little bit, but it was a foul. Nothing like a dive from anyone on the entire Columbia team
This. Everyone seems to be looking at the push to the back, which was not enough to call a PK. But the foul was not the push to the back, it was the contact to the left leg and foot.
I feel absolutely awful for Bassett.
Ditto
England outplayed Japan almost the entire game. Japan did not deserve that win. I hope we decimate them
Japan's 2 goals were on a PK and an own goal. Offensively, they had nothing going. We just need to capitalize more often and actually hit the back of the net and we'll get our revenge.
Thank you USWNT for granting my wish on my birthday. It was greatly appreciated :D
Heart. Breaking.
Well that was something. England had the better chances and was who I wanted to face in the final. Oh well, looks like we got ourselves a rematch. If we play like we have the last two games we'll have three stars to celebrate the 4th of July weekend.
Japan it is...feel terrible for England though. I think we can handle
Japan for sure. They got incredibly lucky last night. REMATCH!!
Deep down, while England would have been the easier matchup, I think the US wanted Japan in the finals badly after what happened in 2011. I think this is what they wanted before the World Cup even started. Now we have a chance for legitimate revenge. Beating them for Olympic gold in 2012 was nice, but this is personal.
Shades of the VT vs Miami game in 2003. I think the US has had this game circled for a while.
It's exactly what I wanted. It's going to be a helluva game. I can't wait!!
I didn't see anything from Japan that we can't handle. All I see is GOLD!
....and its very cold in Canada
wasn't it like 120 degrees on the field in Edmonton?
Guys, were killing Japan...
You mean da ladies are absolutely curbstomping Japan.
It's glorious
I BELIEVE THAT WE JUST WON!
could this weekend get any more American?
Domination.
It's a beautiful thing to behold. So glad for those ladies crushing the demons of 4 years ago. Hopefully Abby Wambach has a new date to memorize.
Can I hope for a similar "curbstomping" victory by the good guys in Blacksburg on Sept 7?
What? Too soon?
just saying the last time the ladies won a world cup some good stuff went down in Blacksburg
And just like them, we've waited 16 years....
USA >>>>>
great job ladies enjoy the win!
I'll just say this, and this is something that is bugging me recently...
USWNT... USMNT... can't we just get over the whole designating whatever and call them both USA? Seems silly to go with the whole 'One Nation. One Team.' slogan, and then still call each one by a different name. And I'll take it one step further, and say that globally, World Cup stars should apply to the badge for both men and women together. Brazil already does it, with the 5 stars being a part of their official crest, and I think the US should follow suit.
I agree with you on the designations, but I like the stars separate personally.
Agree with stars separate and you probably have to designate MNT vs. WNT just for clarity BUT why are there separate Twitter accounts for each? They should have the same account. US Soccer account retweeted the WNT account for the events during World Cup games but tweeted out all the events of last nights Gold Cup match themselves.
I agree that the stars should be separate. I mean, if the Brazilian women won the World Cup, would the men add a sixth star to their jerseys? I doubt it. And would the Brazilian women start wearing six stars on their jerseys? That would be a bit misleading.
On a related note, I love the championship stars, and I wish every international competition would follow suit. Can you imagine if the US Olympic Basketball Team wore a star for every Gold Medal they won? I think it would look something like this...
The reason I want the stars to apply to both teams is that, really you're celebrating the accomplishments of the Soccer Federation, and not the individual teams. US Soccer has won 3 World Cups. Brazil has won 5 World Cups. Germany has won 7. Its an accomplishment of the federation as a whole, and should be celebrated as such. One Nation, One Team, right?
And to condense replies, yes, I do think that Brazil should add a 6th star if the women win the World Cup. I actually think they will have to, as Brazil officially changes the crest of the national soccer program to include the new star with every title. Its why both men and women wear 5 stars.
And I absolutely love the championship stars, and I think it should be adopted across all sports, nationally and domestically. I love what the NBA has done with the gold tag on jerseys for franchises with a NBA title win. It would be awesome to see something similar migrate to other sports, and see how creatively some franchises can make do it.
That game was glorious!! Carlie freakin Lloyd!! WOW!! I couldn't be more proud
of these women. They had the entire USA feeling like they were a part of the team.
Now I am slightly sad it's over.
No worries, Olympics is next year as the women go for a 4th gold in a row (and 5th overall)... Slightly impressive, as this will be only the 6th time Women's Soccer has been a part of the Olympics. And our only non-gold was a silver when Norway beat us in extra time in 2000.
Another fun fact, the Women's World Cup has only been around since 1991, meaning there have been 7 tournaments. The US has finished Top 3 in every tournament, three 1st place, one 2nd place, and three 3rd place. No other country has finished Top 3 more than 3 times.
So what you're trying to say is the USWNT is like the Hokies for the first 7 ACC championship games (5 appearances, 3 victories, 2 anomalous years of conspicuous absence)?
Also, the US men play tomorrow night.
Start of the 2015 Gold Cup. Should the US win the Gold Cup, they will automatically qualify for the 2017 Confederations Cup in Russia. Should the US not win the GC, they will play the GC winner for the right to represent CONCACAF in the Confederations Cup.
This makes me so goddamn happy
edit: it also makes me happy that 'el hat trick' is Spanish for 'the hat trick.'
Going to be honest, the only way you'd even get me to sit down and watch soccer is if the broadcast was all in Spanish.