great stuff. I agree with your observation about the technical skills improving, and I really respect their courage too. At Muhlenberg we played Temple which went to the NCAA finals with St. Louis, ( we Lost 7-0). It is hard to compare, but I think today's US women are better, but my heart may be speaking.

George, thanks for your compassion. I had a similar experience against Haverford. I was matched against a center halfback who was at least 6'6, probably more, who was supposedly a Nigerian Prince. He could handle the ball with his feet better than I could with my hands. Any attempt at heading resulted in my elevating to his navel. The coach took me out, furious. I said, "What do you expect me to do?". He replied, "you could have kicked him in the leg- or something."

Alan, I graduated from Berg in 53, and naturally, the moral climate deteriorated. A new coach, Jeff Tipping was appointed a year or so after, replacing the coach I had, so depending on when your game was, it might have been the old coach. Berg got much better under Tipping, getting to the NCAA division 3 several times, and to the new Centennial Conference championship playoffs pretty regularly. Lehigh and the Patriot conference was a big step up, Muhlenberg had under 1000 students. Our games were always more important to us than to Lehigh, little man stuff.
About CCNY, in 1950 Muhlenberg was still playing LIU, CCNY and Seton Hall plus the big five in Philly in basketball. CCNY beat Muhlenberg by more than 20 points as I recall, and they were probably shaving.

Sadly, you didn't hear that US Soccer was creating a new Womens Pro League this morning. Kinda makes your whole point moot. But still good article and great points. Well except the one that there is no showcase, because there is. If viewers only care every 4 years, thats their problem.

An entertaining and exciting game, for sure. But I can't help wondering what the reaction would have been in this country if it were the USA, rather than Japan, that was denied not one, but TWO, clear penalty kicks by the ref and ended up with silver. The Japanese team handled the situation with absolute class and grace, not the first two words that came to my mind when I saw the USA girls rushing to don those tacky Nike-created t-shirts which proclaimed their "greatness"..

Hi, how cool is that. Yes, I remember DeWitt., Please say hello if you see him again. Great to hear Hilty is still going strong. I have a friend younger than me who played for Van Buren against Hilty's Jamaica teams. Now the Pol Pots of NYC Education have decimated Jamaica High. What a travesty. GV

George

The US women’s victory over China was well played and well deserved. However, they were very lucky to get past Canada, who played very tough and probably should have won.

I believe that referee Christina Pedersen made the correct call on McLeod’s delay of game penalty. Players in all sports continually push things to the edge. After McLeod was warned several times during the game about stalling, she continued playing on the edge, ultimately putting her tieam at risk.

Amy Wamback showed her experience and leadership by counting for the referee throughout the game. A goalie's delay becomes more important in the later stages of a game with her team protecting a one goal lead.

However, Christina Pedersen’s hand ball call was incorrect and a gift to the Americans. The ball played the defender, whose arms were against her body, after bouncing off another defender. A penalty should be called only if the player influences the path of the ball with their arm or hand away from their body.

I came to these conclusions while watching the game, but the soccerusareferee web site later posted the same opinion.

http://soccerrefereeusa.com/index.php/entry/45-six-second-rule-violation-pivotal-in-the-u-s-defeat-of-canada-at-the-olympics

I’ve extracted some of their comments in case the above link does not work.

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soccerreffereeusa blog comments:

However, in this blog we wanted to highlight one critical decision by the match referee Christina Pedersen. In the 78th minute of the game, Ms. Pedersen penalized Canadian goalkeeper Erin McLeod for holding the ball in her hands for longer than 6 seconds and awarded the U.S. an indirect free kick.


In penalizing McLeod, the referee followed Law 12. Indeed, according to Law 12, “an indirect free kick is awarded to the opposing team if a goalkeeper, inside his own penalty area, … controls the ball with his hands for more than six seconds before releasing it from his possession.” In its Interpretation of the Laws of the Game and Guidelines for Referees, the International Football Association Board further explained that “a goalkeeper is not permitted to keep control of the ball in his hands for more than six seconds [and] a goalkeeper is considered to be in control of the ball: (i) while the ball is between his hands or between his hand and any surface (e.g. ground, own body), (ii) while holding the ball in his outstretched open hand, (iii) while in the act of bouncing it on the ground or tossing it into the air.”


By our count, the Canadian goalkeeper held/controlled the ball in her hands for approximately 11-12 seconds (almost double the time during which she is required to release the ball from her possession). Therefore, the referee correctly penalized her with an indirect free kick inside the penalty area where the offence occurred.

We are highlighting this decision not because it was controversial but because it was courageous. Despite the six second rule’s clear directions to referees to penalize goalkeepers for maintaining possession of the ball for longer than six seconds, you hardly ever see referees enforcing the rule. For this, we applaud Ms. Pederson. Moreover, it was reported in the media that McLeod conceded that before the second half started she was warned by one of the assistant referees "not to slow down play" and Abby Wambach was reported as saying that she saw the referee warning McLeod previously about time-wasting. While not required, it is customary, and in our opinion a good practice, for referee to warn a goalkeeper about taking too much time before releasing the ball. Having received explicit warnings -- one from the referee and one from the assistant referee -- McLeod should have no reason to complain about the referee's decision.


Wambach also said that she started counting aloud whenever McLeod held the ball because she thought that the Canadian goalkeeper was purposefully wasting time. She also counted when McLeod was penalized and said that when "I had gotten to 10 seconds counting out loud next to the referee, [the referee] blew the whistle, and I think it was a good call."

We also highlight this decision because subsequent game events that stemmed from this decision proved critical. At the time the referee penalized the Canadian goalkeeper for violating the six second rule and awarded the U.S. an indirect free kick inside Canada’s penalty area, the U.S. trailed Canada 2:3 and only 12 minutes remained on the game clock. Tobin Heath of the U.S. took the indirect free kick and passed the ball to her right to Carli Lloyd who took a right-footed shot. The ball flew through the crowd of players in the penalty area and ricocheted off the first Canadian defender and then hit another defender, Marie-Eve Nault, on her arm/elbow. The U.S. team screamed “penalty” and Ms. Ped

Since there has been considerable comment on two rules relating to the third US goal against Canada, I want to question another one.

In the 2010 world cup game between Ghana and Uruguay, Ghana was awarded a penalty kick late in the game when a defender blocked a sure goal with his hand. Ghana missed the PK and ultimately lost in a shootout.

Ghana was actually the team that was penalized since they were denied a sure, probably winning, goal.

This is like goal tending in basketball.

I agree with you George about the need for common sense in the application of the rules. The best referees, like Collina and others we could name, are known for their intelligent and skillful game management and strong verbal communication with players. Good referees want to protect the players and help them to stay in the game if possible. Unless it's a straight red card offense for something like violent play, the best refs will almost always have a word with a player first before going to a card. We see it every week on TV in Italy, England, Germany, Spain, Brazil and everywhere else. Given that the Canada keeper was continually taking too much time it is surprising then that Pederson didn't say anything to her earlier, before giving the USA a very good scoring opportunity by making what was a surprising call.

John

You and George are absolutely correct about using common sense.

My friend's son is a professional referee who also qualified as an assistant in MLS and the professional women's leagues. He gave a lecture on refereeing in one of the sessions of the "Understanding Soccer" adult education course that I teach.

I learned a lot about refereeing, but his underlying theme was "using common sense".

Referees are instructed to keep the red card in the back pants pocket and the yellow in the shirt pocket. He often changed his mind on a red card by the time he reached the back pocket.

Also, the penalty must fit the crime. A second yellow card is often not given if the foul would not normally draw a red card.

A player explained to a top level international referee that the foul was accidental. He replied, I know-if you had meant it you would have received a red card.

When I was in college in the 50's, goalies were allowed three dribbles and four steps to the dribble, but no time limit. It was a pain to keep track, so I usually asked the referees how they enforced the rule. All answered the same; as long as I was moving forward and not slowing down, don't worry about it. It made sense.

just a note about Canada 1-0 over France. Fence had 25 shots on goal to Canada's 4. The winning goal came at the 92 nd minute. the futbal fates that turned away from Canada in the US game smiled this time.
Christine Sinclair, who scored six goals in the Olympics, three against the U S did not score in this one. She is tied with Abby Wambaugh for second in scoring after Mia Hamm. Sinclair, the Captain, overcame some tough personal losses- her mother and her coach at Portland U, where they won the national championship in the dying coach's last game. I never was aware of her until this summer. I believe the bronze was Canada's first team medal in the Summer Olympic competitions. Cheers to our neighbors to the north.

Alan, I was writing a lot about WUSA in the day. There was a lot of money spent, but sponsors and fans were in short supply. Some backers put a lot of money in it, but knew when to back off. The salaries and sights were too high. MLS is a perfect model for growing slowly, but I believe the demographis show that men will watch sports more than women, and they were quite pragmatic about women's soccer. A decade later, that could change. But people really did try. GV

We've got the World Cup up here in 2015. Everyone welcome, so c'mon up. We even have a spare room, though sadly, but understandably (a rail link to the airport, and other improvements, is too much to give up), Toronto is taking a pass in favour of hosting the 2015 Pan Am Games.
As for the tournament in London, and the 50-50 loss for our women vs USA, hey, that's football. Hated the timing of the decision, hated the injustice, but those are the scars you take from being an active part of the world's most popular and important game. Ed is spot on - the gods that smite you one day, smile the next. Be thankful you're in the same room.
At the end of this day, USA won and all the respect to them (I could have done without those shirts). Meantime, Canada's women's team have carved out a spot next to our greatest of sporting heroes, and Christine Sinclair is this generation's Phil Esposito - the brilliant workhorse wearing her emotions on her sleeve - to Diana Matheson's Paul Henderson (and it really is that big up here).

George,
I never had the opportunity to become a soccer fan, but the four trips I made to Europe in the last ten years found me occasionally watching soccer on the hotel TV. Soccer was the best thing on, so I enjoyed giving it a chance. That led to watching a few World Cup finals. Last year I discovered the USA Women's Team and I found that I followed them to the Championship game. While I hoped that they would win, Japan also had my respect and I wasn't disappointed that they could bring that Medal home to their country.

Which brings us to 2012 and the Olympics. Again I followed them and hoped that this was their year. On August 6, I had my best soccer experience ever. There were strong indications that Canada might deny them. Another worthy opponent stood tall and in their way. Please not another shootout. I didn't believe the clock had enough time. A figure appeared on the right hand side of my screen - the ball didn't appear to be going towards the net. All of a sudden one of the most beautiful poetic moments of athletic sports I have ever seen was set in motion. The figure caught up to the ball and without breaking stride redirected it in a breathtaking arc, that seemed like winged flight, to the head of a teammate who was immovable, front and center of the goal. Again redirection - this time into the net for victory.
Alex Morgan was the name on everyone's lips and the crowd roared. She had scored the winning goal and of course deserved every word of praise. In all the excitement, I couldn't remember another name. Eventually, I learned the name of Heather O'Reilly, the figure who had appeared on the right side of my screen. She was the Alpha of that athletic poem and Alex Morgan the Omega. Heather O'Reilly deserves more praise and recognition than I have heard to date. They both have my deepest gratitude.

August 9 was the Gold Medal game with Japan. It was special game to watch, with both teams giving us another memorable battle. For me, the highlight was seeing Carli Lloyd go from having Melissa Trancredi (Canada) step so casually on her face in the August 6 game to her scoring two great goals for the Gold Medal win. Carli Lloyd also deserved all the praise she received.

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