The United States Women's National soccer team needed only a draw against Sweden, a few days ago, to win their group in the 2011 Women's World Cup. They ended up losing that match 2-1 to the Swedes setting up a very unfortunate match with the Samba Queens of Brazil.
So on Sunday at about 10:30am local time these two power houses and tournament favorites will face off with each other. A match up between these ladies of the United States and the ladies of Brazil is always a marquee match up, no matter if it is just a international friendly or a World Cup quarterfinal match.
Lets look at what is at stake here in the 2011 quarterfinal match. This is the knockout stage of the tournament, so its win and move on to the semi finals. In the quarterfinals, if you lose you go home. The United States have never finished worse then 3rd in a World Cup, so a loss here would definitely end that streak. The ladies from Brazil, as good as they always are, have never won a World Cup, so a loss here for them would end their chance to capture their first title.
This match on Sunday marks the 4th major tournament in a row that these two teams will meet in the knock out stages. The United States has won 2 of the last 3 meetings, including the last Olympic Gold medal. The winner of Sunday's match will face the winner of the match between England and France being played as we are writing this. One thing both Brazil and the United States can look forward to is that they will not have to face crowd favorite Germany until the finals, if either team were to make it that far.
The United States will counter Brazil's unorthodox 3-4-3 formation with a standard 4-4-2 formation. The United States must build their attack through their central midfielders Shannon Box and Carlie Lloyd. These two ladies cannot push to far forward and get caught up inside the 18, for Brazil's quick counter attacks will make them pay for doing that. The United States must also use Lauren Chaney and Heather O'Reily wide with their pace and creative play. Playing these two ladies wide will provide the US with width and pace and spread that compact Brazil defense. Chaney has probably had more shots on goal in this tournament then any other player.
If the focal point of the United States team remains Abby Wombach they will lose this game. They need to feature more of Amy Rodriguez and Alex Morgan up top. These two ladies provide so much more pace then Wombach and can put more pressure on the defenders of Brazil. Another reason to feature more of Rodriguez and Morgan, even Chaney plays wonderful up top, is that Wombach is in a severe scoring slump. This can cause a confidence problem inside a player, they will start thinking that no matter what they do nothing will go in. You don't want a player thinking like that playing up top, you want the play that believes she can score with any and every touch of the ball.
Whoever plays up top, the United States will need to finish its scoring chances against Brazil. Their opportunities will be far less then they have been in the previous matches, so finishing will be extremely important.
Defensively is where the United States struggles, especially on the left side. Amy Lepeilbet, who is normally a central defender has looked anything but comfortable playing in the left back position. The United States would be better off starting Stephanie Cox at left back instead. Her pace will be needed to keep up with the Brazilian strikers and her pace will be needed when she pushes forward in the offense as well. You can expect that Marta, arguably the best female soccer player in the world, will be attacking from the left side if Lepeilbet is there.
The one main advantage the United States have in this game is, Hope Solo, their goalkeeper. She is one of, if not the, best female goalkeepers in the world today. She has allowed only 2 goals this tournament and one was a fluke deflection and the other was a penalty kick. Her shoulder is completely healed, you could tell that from the dive she made against that penalty kick, which she actually got her finger tips on, her arms were completely stretched out. She wouldn't be able to do that if it wasn't completely healed. Plus Solo has something else to prove in this game. The last time Brazil and the United States met in the World Cup she was benched for Briana Scurry, who had not played in months. The United States lost that game 4-0 and Solo was actually removed from the team for a short period of time due to the remarks she made after the match. So yes she wants to prove that she would have and could have been the difference in that match as well as this match.
Who will win? We believe that United States will win 1-0. Go USA
Who do you think will win? Do you think either of these teams will make to the finals?
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