Lopez gets stapled

Stephanie played perhaps her best game yet for the National Team. They beat England 3-0 this morning in a game that was tougher than the score shows.

Gritty defense, one on one coverage, serving corners, pushing forward and settling passing. She was everywhere.

On one service into the box, she went into the air against an English player and knocked heads, requiring some staples(!!) to close the wound. (actually, they were both steamrollered by Hope Solo as she went for the service). Later in the game she was sent to the sidelines by the ref for further treatment and more staples. Tough woman.

Rumor has it that there are endorsement opportunities for the Swingline™ corp.

edit: There were 5 staples, which were replaced after the game with 3 stitches. She'll be fine

TDS has a nice article on the game, with kudos to Steph.

http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/articles.aspx?article=2687

Abby Wambaugh said after the game that she had to take her hat off to Lopez... "She's now officially tougher than me, I had to go to the locker room to get stitches, she got staples on the sidelines".

Has anyone else noticed that Stephanie is really the only US player who consistently puts her passes directly on the foot of her team mate rather than to the other team's players? Now the rest of the world is seeing the wonderful skills of this remarkable Pilot. It the rest of the Americans could find her accuracy and composure on the ball, none of these games would be so close. Keep it up, Stephanie!

This is a great lesson for the other Pilot players who await her return.

Here's the actual photo of our girl getting creamed. You need to go to the site to play the highlight.





you can see the highlights at:
http://www.fifa.com/womenworldcup/video/videolist.html

Here's another account of what went on-- Pretty graphic--Did they really have to paint the "kerchunk" image?


http://wnt-ussoccer.blogspot.com/2007_09_16_archive.html#1784103674919335311

for you out of town folks, this was in the Oregonian this Morning.
(click on the image for full size)

Ussoccer.com has a podcast interview with Abbie Wambach, Stephanie Lopez, and Leslie Osborne about the developing Physical nature of the women's game. Also a bit about what to expect from the Brasil side.

Listen to the interview

www.ussoccer.com has a section called studio 90 where they do interviews. Last night was Stephanie's turn (sept25), and it's a lot of fun to watch.

They did a couple of Pilot questions in their "back four Quiz" section, where, of course, they have Pilots flying around. Stephanie set 'em strait. Lotsa fun.