by Greg Mayer
No, it’s not a headline from the summer of 1945, but this weekend’s soccer news: the U.S. women’s national team beat Japan 5-2 to win the World Cup, while England bested Germany 1-0 to finish third in the tournament standings. The U.S., the sport’s traditional powerhouse, reasserted itself against Japan and, earlier in the tournament, Germany, who have become themselves powerhouses in women’s soccer. Germany was ranked #1 coming into the World Cup tournament, while Japan were the defending Cup holders. Japan has become a fierce (though usually friendly) rival to the Americans, the two teams having a history of winning and losing championships to one another. England had their best result ever, and should have made it to the final (really, it’s not just me: the numbers don’t lie), losing their semifinal last week on a heartbreaking own goal in extra time. England might also take some pride in that the American coach, Jill Ellis, is English.
The story of the Cup final (and, for the American team, of the tournament) was the phenomenal play of midfielder Carli Lloyd. Ellis moved Lloyd into a more attacking position in the knockout stages, moving the team from a 4-4-2 formation to more of a 4-3-2-1 (Lloyd being one of the 2). As an attacking, rather than defensive, midfielder, Lloyd exploded offensively, and scored three goals in the final by the 16th minute. The first two were well executed set plays, with a fine back heel assist from Julie Johnston for the second goal. The third, pictured above, was a stunning 54-yarder, after a quick change of possession at midfield caught the Japanese keeper (the talented Ayumi Kaihori, who had an uncharacteristically poor game) too far forward off her line; the shot went in over her head. I tried to find an embeddable video of the third goal, but couldn’t. Click on the link below to see all of Lloyd’s goals, including her first three from earlier games; the goals from the final are shown starting at about 24 seconds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GufTwt8KJc4
Here, from one reader, are all the goals:
In other news with world historical headline echoes, the apparently outnumbered Greek people, led by Leonidas…er… Tsipras, say to the supranational state at their border that is demanding earth and water, “Molon labe.”
Ellis may be English, but PCC can claim her as a fellow alumnus.
Carli Lloyd scores 54 yard goal
Seeing how small the goal is from 50 yards out, makes it even more amazing. She was on FIRE!
Sub. To overawed to comment!
I loved the whole competition. Great to see footballers genuinely in love with the game in an amateurish way. And where was Blatter? Immured in his office in Switzerland dodging the coppers.
Online is a video of a Norwegian footballer scoring from beyond the half line – with his head! x
…yes – he scored it against my team!!! 🙁
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/15144508
…sigh…
The England team was pretty gutted by that own goal – sympathy for them, but they all count – & I wanted Norway to win!
I watched it live. By the 16th minute I expected a repeat of Germany – Brasil in the world cup for men. Amazing match, hopefully women soccer will get as much attention and financial support as the male teams.
Amazing what you can do if you start playing the game at 5 years old. Credit all the soccer moms
Well, it’s the lenders earth and water. Conversely I read today that reinstating the drachma will by itself cost the greeks 70 % of their capital. And the corruption can continue unabated.
The two winners are democracy and tourists.
Lender’s.
I thought Lenders just had bagels… in the frozen food aisle…
just think, if Greece were an international bank or a sketchy securities trader, we’d have given them everything and more. Too bad 11.12 million people don’t matter as much as a handful of greedy, corrupt bankers.
At this stage the best thing the Greeks can do is repudiate the debt. It’s not their fault that the EU, and especially Merkel and her cronies, have converted originally private debt to public debt and made it the responsibility of taxpayers. And if they submit to the required austerity AND privatisation (one of the targets in the sights of the IMF is the port of Piraeus) they’ll lose every public asset that could produce value while retaining the public money sinks and they’ll never get out of debt.
Perhaps if enough countries resist the prescriptions of the IMF and the arrogant germans the banksters will learn not to make such risky loans.
Repudiation worked well long term for Iceland and will probably work well for Greece too. And I wouldn’t put much stock in EU alarmist tales about how much Greece would lose by reintroducing the drachma – not unless some convincing evidence is forthcoming
It should be pointed out that the Greeks did submit to the required austerity, but it caused the economy to collapse, an outcome that really should have been foreseen by everybody involved.
Nobody comes out of this looking good. Greece should never have been allowed into the Euro. The politicians that let them in bear a large proportion of the blame. Some of the Greeks themselves caused some of the problems by not paying their due tax. The people negotiating from the IMF and the ECB are asking for concessions that cannot be met.
The Greeks simply cannot pay their debt. They can’t generate enough revenue because the economy is too depressed and the economy is too depressed because of the debt. The only option, as far as I can see, is to default on their debt, probably leaving the Euro as a result. It will be a disaster, but one they have a chance of recovering from.
“It should be pointed out that the Greeks did submit to the required austerity,…”
Indeed they did. It should be perfectly obvious that more austerity will only make the situation worse for the greeks. They cannot pay and that’s that! – and more austerity will only make the nation and the people poorer and even less able to pay.
If Greece defaults and quits the Eurozone and reintroduces the Drachma, and I see no other course open to them, they will recover much more quickly than if they are foolish enough to try to satisfy Merkel and the IMF who only want to privatize greek public assets for the enrichment of their bankster cronies. It would be a disaster for the Eurozone but not for Greece I’m thinking.
For those still enamoured of IMF solutions the Ghanaian electric power generation and distribution industry is an interesting study.
I’m inclined to agree with you. I abhor the practice of forcing austerity measures down people’s throats when their economy is on fire, but Greece admitted to misrepresenting the amount of debt they were carrying, which is what set their economy spiraling back when Lehman Bros crashed. The Greeks don’t need an austerity blitz necessarily, but it does seem as though they do need a thorough overhaul of fiscal policy.
Maybe Greece need to start over. Just write off or forgive the huge debt and start from scratch.
Paul Krugman, a pretty good economist thinks they should bail out. Easy to say if you don’t live there.
I paid attention to nearly all of the games in the last 3 weeks and feel that the US team had an absolutely brilliant game against the Germans in the semi-final. Until then they had looked rather blah. Happy to see them win it all, but the final was no where as near as well executed as the semi-final.
They fond an extra gear in the semi-finals and final. They were best against Germany, but they were in much better form all-around in the final two matches.
From what I’ve seen the French where by far the best team.
“The U.S., the sport’s traditional powerhouse…”
Oh, dear. You better not say such a thing in England, or Brazil, or Spain, or, well, a lot of other places! We have been at it quite a bit longer (my grandfather played for Aston Villa – but that was in 1910!)
MCMXIV – Larkin
Those long uneven lines
Standing as patiently
As if they were stretched outside
The Oval or Villa Park,
The crowns of hats, the sun
On moustached archaic faces
Grinning as if it were all
An August Bank Holiday lark;
And the shut shops, the bleached
Established names on the sunblinds,
The farthings and sovereigns,
And dark-clothed children at play
Called after kings and queens,
The tin advertisements
For cocoa and twist, and the pubs
Wide open all day;
And the countryside not caring:
The place-names all hazed over
With flowering grasses, and fields
Shadowing Domesday lines
Under wheat’s restless silence;
The differently-dressed servants
With tiny rooms in huge houses,
The dust behind limousines;
Never such innocence,
Never before or since,
As changed itself to past
Without a word – the men
Leaving the gardens tidy,
The thousands of marriages,
Lasting a little while longer:
Never such innocence again.
Chelsea, City and United have their billionaires, but hey, we’ve got Larkin! x
1914. That poem is so poignant in hindsight. A way of life about to be destroyed. The part about the countryside reminds me so much of my early childhood in a small Hertfordshire village. Thankyou.
I believe he was referring to the women’s game.
A few years more before he leaves the first team then?