algrave cup

ok, here is the roster currently in camp for the algrave cup. it's a 26 woman roster that will get trimmed to 20. my question is, who are the six that get cut?? i see 2 keepers being sent home, thats 24. i think this is probably where my predjudices come in. i see 2 defenders going home which leaves 22. that's 2 more to cut. hmmmm, who's kacey white at midfield? i admit i'm not the most knowledgable soccer fan, but again??? that's 21. this is where it gets dicey. of the remaining forwards, i wouldn' cut any of them. so my question is, who is the last cut..providing i have some credibilty here, which i am pretty certain i am lacking. who are your cuts??


United States Women’s National Team Training Camp Roster
Feb. 9-17 – The Home Depot Center
GOALKEEPERS (4): Nicole Barnhart (Gilbertsville, Pa.), Kristen Luckenbill (Paoli, Pa.), Briana Scurry (Dayton, Minn.), Hope Solo (Richland, Wash.);
DEFENDERS (9): Rachel Buehler (Del Mar, Calif.), Stephanie Cox (Elk Grove, Calif.), Keeley Dowling (Carmel, Ind.), Tobin Heath (Basking Ridge, N.J.), Kate Markgraf (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.), Heather Mitts (Cincinnati, Ohio), Christie Rampone (Point Pleasant, N.J.), India Trotter (Plantation, Fla.), Cat Whitehill (Birmingham, Ala.);
MIDFIELDERS (: Shannon Boxx (Redondo Beach, Calif.), Lori Chalupny (St. Louis, Mo.), Angela Hucles (Virginia Beach, Va.), Carli Lloyd (Delran, N.J.), Leslie Osborne (Brookfield, Wis.), Lindsay Tarpley (Kalamazoo, Mich.), Kacey White (Arlington, Texas), Angie Woznuk (El Cajon, Calif.);
FORWARDS (5): Lauren Cheney (Indianapolis, Ind.), Natasha Kai (Kahuku, Hawaii), Heather O’Reilly (East Brunswick, N.J.), Amy Rodriguez (Lake Forest, Calif.), Abby Wambach (Rochester, N.Y.).

Thanks for all the work, fozzie. Lots of great players on that list. Perhaps someone with a little more knowledge of the WNT and those listed players could take a run at it and make an educated guess. Come on, guys/gals! Give it a shot...

I'll take a shot:

GK: (2) Solo and another. doesn't matter who. Scurry didn't have such a great world cup or last game, so they could be looking to the future with possibly Barnhart.

D: (7) Heath still has eligibility at UNC, and they have all stated they are staying home. She's just in camp for the future. Only two of Dowling, Trotter and Bueler will go. If Cat Whitehill is still hurt, she'll stay home and a third will go. Trotter is a converted striker, and has been trying to break in for a while. It will be interesting to see if she has progressed. Hucles is on the Mid list, but she can defend well, so she's the extra defender they may need.

M (7) Kacey White is an ex UNC distributor. Pia is looking for those, but I don't think she'll go, but if she does, Osborne or Tarpley will stay home. my guess is Tarpley.

F: (4) Cheney or AROD will stay home. I think they are fighting for that job.
IF Cheney and AND AROD both go, the extra player will come out of the defenders.

If anyone gets hurt in camp, we start over.

Re Heath, what I've heard is that the U-20s are staying home, although with some UNC players now playing for the U-20s, I wonder if there's been a change. I haven't heard that UNC players who could be on the WNT are staying home, and I doubt Heath would if she's selected since the Olympics are at the end of August. She might miss the very beginning of the college season, but she wouldn't be missing the end of the NCAA Tournament, which is the problem the U-20 World Cup causes.

I thought Heath looked good in the Four Nations tournament. But, didn't she play midfield?

In the last game of the four nations. Heath came in for Cheney in midfield to try and preserve the win. At UNC, she played the middle of the back three this year- sort of a holding mid position, maybe a bit more defensive.

Hmm, I noticed Tarpley was the leading scorer for that tournament, so I'm probably wrong about her staying home.

The US played China 1-0 in the first game of the Algarve cup.


Well, I was wrong big time about Tarpley. (see last post above)

She not only played, she scored a goal coming out of the defense.

Our two players both played, Cox came in at the 45 mark for Markgraf, and Wozzie came in in the 77th for Heather Oreilly.
I wonder if that meant that Stephanie played the middle?


Also- Denmark upset WC champ Germany 1 - 0 in their game.

Eh, it was actually 4-0, with Tobin Heath scoring two minutes after she was inserted into the game at halftime. She is quite a player. Barnhart played the entire game in nets, which was nice to see. She is a pretty darn good goalkeeper. [Edit: sorry geezer, I didn't see you had put the scoreline in the headline of your post...I was reading the body. My apologies!]

Fans of WCC soccer take note: Anna Picarelli, the Pepperdine goalkeeper who helped blemish Portland's overall season records in both the 2002 and 2005 championship runs, is playing for the Italian national team at the Algarve Cup. I think she is backing up Marchitelli, as the Italians lost to Norway 2-4 today. She was a freshman in '02 when the Waves played UP at Merlo and she managed to shut out Sinc, et al and the Waves claimed a 2-0 win; in '05, at Pepperdine, they tied 1-1, and as I was at that game, let me tell you, Sinc had to work very, very hard to get the equalizer shortly after halftime, as the Waves had gone up a goal about a half an hour in; incidentally, her goal in that game set the NCAA record for goals scored in consecutive games.

I can only attribute having the score being different in the body and header of my post to overmedication by Nurse Ratchet.
Sometimes she counts out too many. I've learned to just take the pills and keep quiet.

Steph did indeed play the middle of the defense.

found this on the wnt team blog at ussoccer.com

http://wnt-ussoccer.blogspot.com/2008/03/call-her-clutch.html

The next game is at 5:45 am tomorrow. They have something called Match Tracker on the US Soccer website - http://wnt-ussoccer.blogspot.com/search/label/2008%20Algarve%20Cup

Not sure what information it provides, but if you happen to be up at the crack of dawn tomorrow you might want to give it a try.

Good find, fozzie. Great pic of Woz and "Wambo". Neat story.

("Wambo" is an off the cuff "cute" remark meant positively for Abby's powerful scoring abilility.)

(P.S. to fozzie: Please check your PM's!)

US wins 2-0 over Italy. Stephanie played the whole game, Angie didn't get in.

Match Tracker worked pretty well.

In a Cyprus cup match, Canada walked all over Japan on a hat trick By Christine Sinclair (the 8th of her career). She scored on a PK in the 22nd, and on scores in the 42nd and 80th minutes. Christine now has 85 goals on the Senior team.

Sophie played 81 minutes in the game. It appears UofO's new recruit Julie Armstrong didn't play.


Recap

Here's a nice review of how the game went: paddocktalk.com

How it got on a nascar site, I'll never know, but there you have it....

Today's game verses Norway is on the Match Tracker at 8 am -

http://www.ussoccer.com/index.jsp.html

Angie is listed as a starter, Stephanie is on the bench to start.

US wins 4-0. There were a couple of what the person doing the Match Tracker described as "wacky" goals. Here is their description of the last goal of the game:

"Rodriguez gets behind the defense on the left side and hits the softest shot you could ever imagine with the outside of her left foot, it's bouncing right to the Norwegian goalkeeper and she somehow mishandles it and it rolls over her into the net"

I hope there is some video somewhere of that play.

Angie played the first half, Stephanie subbed in at the 76th minute. There was no score at half time. The US is in the finals vs Denmark.

I just read the ussoccer.com

I really like the dialogue going on between Pia and her players. here's some quotes

On what she told the team at halftime:
“Believe what we are doing. Believe in our roles going into (Olympic) qualification, and that means keep possession and relax a little bit. Even though Norway put on pressure in the midfield, I wanted (the U.S.) to continue to play through midfield. When you believe in something, you are also winning something.”

On starting Rachel Buehler (three caps), Angie Woznuk (five caps) and Nicole Barnhart (six caps) in a critical game:
“We need to get some answers. Look at Angie Woznuk, she hadn’t played that much, and I’m happy with her first half, the same with Buehler over 90 minutes. This is a tournament and there will be more games, but we need answers as to what kind of international level they have. The players coming off the bench, they did a great job, and that’s a strength. We will play the bench, and that’s a message I want to send.”

And Kate Markgraf On staying calm and continuing to play despite the tightness of the game:

“I really think it’s a sign of our maturity and how we are slowly adapting to the changes Pia wants us to make. In the first half, we were pressured the hardest we’ve been pressured so far this year, and we were having a hard time solving it, yet I am really proud we stayed with the game plan and we didn’t resort to long ball. We didn’t resort to just trying to solve the pressure by kicking, we actually tried to find the feet and I think that’s evident by how many goals we scored.”

Looks like they are buying into the possession game.

Apparently thats how Denmark plays. it''l be fun to see who can impose on the other

US wins the Cup with a 2-1 win over Denmark in the final. Stephanie started and had a shot and a yellow card. She came out in the 74th minute. Angie came in at the 77th minute, she had 2 shots. Good series for both Pilots!

the USA women win the Algarve by beating Denmark on goals by Kai and Wambach.

Steph got a yellow!

She played until the 74th minute.
Angie came in in the 77th.

There's a little more on the Algarve Cup Final at Soccacritics.

Seems the game got a little uh.. chippy, as they say in hockey.

The Second Half of the game started as usual with one surprise as Abby Wambach scoring a second goal with the help of Natasha Kai in the forty ninth minute of the game. After that, Denmark started attempting equalizers with substitutions while the United States attempted to maintain the momentum and the lead with substitutions. Stephanie Cox received a booking in the sixtieth minute for anti professional conduct but that did not stop the United States from showing Europe especially Denmark what they are made of football [soccer] wise. Regardless, Denmark refused to give up easily and applied pressure on the United States Women’s Soccer Team while the United States appeared to enjoy the pressure and the game.

Steph is about the most composed player I've seen on the pitch. It must have been interesting.

You can see more pictures of the match at: Tom's Place

stephanie has always struck me as being in pain the whole time she's on the pitch by the look on her face. but i agree with you geezer, she is probably the most composed player i have ever seen. i am absolutely possitive that whatever lead to the yellow was entirely unintentional. it just show steph's character that she offers her hand to the opponent after drawing the card.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuG80KaN2BY

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