2016 Olympic Women's Soccer

The Game Room
1

The Olympics are coming up, and one of my favorite sports to watch is Women’s Soccer. Unlike Men’s Soccer, in which the Olympics are just an afterthought with a weird mostly-under-23 team, for the women, it’s the second biggest tournament in the world (after the WWC). The USA have won three straight gold medals, but there have been some exciting matches along the way, particularly the semifinal against Canada four years ago.

The first matches are a week from today (Wednesday Aug. 3), actually before the opening ceremonies.

There are twelve teams, divided into three groups, along with the current FIFA rankings for each team (which don’t mean all THAT much):
Group E:
Brazil (#8), China (#12), Sweden (#6), South Africa (not in the top 50)

Group F:
Canada (#10), Australia (#5), Germany (#2), Zimbabwe (not in the top 50)

Group G:
USA (#1), New Zealand (#17), France (#3), Colombia (#24)
Top two teams from each group, plus the best two third place teams, advance to the knockout stage.

Group G is the most predictable. Any result other than USA and France advancing would be a shock, although France upsetting USA to be the #1 seed is certainly possible.

Groups E and F both have a punching bag (sorry, African teams) and three strong contenders. Brazil are a historical powerhouse who has looked weak recently, but of course they’re the hosts.

2

What happened to Japan?

3

Didn’t qualify.

4

I’d be extremely surprised if the US doesn’t win gold. I expect big things from Pugh.

Hopefully not a lot of soapboxing, but we’ll see.

5

Yes, the U.S.A. are obvious favorites again in Rio.

6

What happened to groups A through D?

7

Used for the men’s teams. No idea why they did it this way…

8

So there can be no confusion for people who buy tickets to E1 v E3 thinking they’re getting the Brazilian men.

9

You’d think the words “Men’s Soccer” or “Women’s Soccer” at the top of the ticket would be enough of a clue, as it usually is for things like track and field, gymnastics, etc., but maybe not.

10

Reminder: first round of matches are all tomorrow. In the US, matches are on NBCSN and USA, starting at 8:30 a.m. Pacific. (Full schedule here.)

Four of the matches are unlikely to be close (Sweden vs. South Africa, Germany vs. Zimbabwe, USA vs. New Zealand, France vs. Colombia). I expect Brazil, playing at home, to take care of China. The match of the day should be Australia vs. Canada, both strong teams looking to stake their claim to being in the top tier.

11

Sweden takes care of a stubborn South Africa 1-0 in the opening match… but not in particularly impressive style.

Australia vs. Canada is all sorts of exciting, however. Canada scored on a defensive giveaway just 20 seconds in, but Australia has been counterattacking like mad, and now Canada is down to 10 players after a straight red. But still Canada 1 Australia 0 about 25 minutes in.

12

Australia pile on the pressure, take a zillion shots, and come up blank. Meanwhile Canada get a very questionable PK, and miss it. Then get a shot through the keeper’s legs, which gets cleared off the line. And then finally break through on a beautiful clearance, and win a deserved 2-0. Australia didn’t look bad, but they couldn’t finish.

Brazil up 1-0 over China at the half.

13

Neither team could finish, really. Canada had the two point-blank chances you mentioned and put both right at the keeper.

On the penalty I thought the ball clearly hit the defender’s left arm after her chest, but I only saw it once on the replay, so maybe it wasn’t so clear.

14

USA easily handling New Zealand, up 2-0 at 66 minutes.

I’m a bit puzzled by something, though. The schedule called for NBCSN to show Germany v. Zimbabwe. But not only did they not show it (they replayed USA vs Canada from four years ago instead), they have refused to even mention the existence of that game in any of the halftime discussions. At one point it was shown on screen that Germany was winning 6-1 in the second half, but it seems like there’s an embargo on that game or something… which makes no sense at all. Probably just first-day-of-broadcast hiccups.

15

The Brazilian crowds are chanting “Zika” at Hope Solo. Stay classy, Brazil.

16

Hmm, why don’t the men compete with their regular players? :dubious:

17

Two possibly stupid questions:

How do we know it is Brazilians doing the chanting and not visitors to the Olympics from other countries?

How do we know it was aimed specifically at Solo? I guess there are points in the game when the goalie is the only player on her third or so of the field, but still… Are they shouting “Zika, Hope”? or is it something else?

Thanks

18

It was on live on USA Network.

19

I assume because there are already so many prestigious high level international soccer tournaments that no one would care, and it would suck to have The Olympics not be the highest level of a sport. Kind of like how Olympic tennis is kinda lame.
But there are far fewer high level tournaments for women.

20

The chanting would start whenever Hope had the ball. The theory is that it’s a response to her tweets about Zika.