Me=dumb.
I guess I was very much expecting what you always get during World Cup or Euro broadcasts, in which scores from the other games are reported whenever they happen and pop up in a little window, etc. There was none of that, and no mention at all during the halftime reports, which was a little odd.
It is the Olympic coverage by the NBC family of networks. This is not the time to expect good or logical sports coverage. You will, however, know every competitor who had a relative die in the last year, usually via a 5 minute up close and personal segment.
I normally like watching the US Women play but man that game against NZ just felt boring and uninspired. They won but I didn’t think anyone looked good. Lots of bad touches everywhere, very little creativity, etc. If they keep playing like this I think they get knocked off at some point.
One thing about the US Women… they never seem to play much better than they have to. Look at the World Cup last year… Scraping for goals throughout the group stages, including a 0-0 draw against Sweden. Then beat Germany 2-0 and then crushed Japan in the finals. They never seem to rout the weak teams the way other top teams like Germany can.
USA over France 1-0. USA looked shaky in the first half, but were clearly the stronger team.
Brazil destroys Sweden. They’re my most hated team, but I kind of want to face them, for a rematch of The Best Game Ever.
Australia was up 2-0 over Germany, and missed a ton of chances to get a third, then has to settle for a draw.
Some surprising individual game results today… Canada rests three starters and still beats Germany, SA ties Brazil 0-0, and Colombia ties USA 2-2 (including the worst mistake I’ve ever seen from Hope Solo). Possible USA vs Brazil grudge match in the semifinals, assuming Brazil gets past the tough Aussies.
We had a couple posts about it in the general Olympics thread. The draw seems a bit unkind to the Canadians, as there was no way for them to get a #3 team from another group in their quarterfinals. Their reward for sweeping the group stage is that they’ll likely draw France, Germany, and the US, who are the top 3 teams by FIFA rankings.
The other goal was also a serious mistake from Solo, trying to punch-clear a fast ball curving at the net instead of getting fingers on it. The Columbia keeper, on the other hand, played amazingly with some magical saves. Time to bench Solo and bring on a backup, IMO.
It’s a shame that Australia didn’t manage to punish the Germans by overtaking them on goal differential.
Sweden up 1-0 on the USA.
Yeah, got caught cheating up. Not sure why the US defense didn’t opt for a professional foul when Sweden was 40 yards from goal.
Equalizer. Sweden will be pissed for the US not playing it out. Too bad, that’s the ref’s job to stop play.
1-1.
Rapinoe is putting too much mustard on those corners.
Bullshit offsides call.
Sweden just got completely fucked on that goal.
…
That wasn’t even close to offside. I don’t know soccer well enough to say whether the foul that cancelled out the American goal was legit, but Sweden was clearly onside on theirs.
Hell of a save by Solo. I’ll be conflicted if the US wins.
Karma for the shitty call earlier. The US was clearly the better team though. Don’t feel bad at all for Solo, but what a disappointment for the rest of the team.
Pugh might have 4 more Olympics in her; she’ll get at least one gold.
And the US is out on PKs, 4-3. First time in any major tourney we’ve ever failed to make the semis, I believe. Extra frustrating because our 5th kicker kicked it over the bar. Come on, gotta force them to at least make a save.