A Near Disaster, Turns into a Confidence Boosting Win

Not the way the USWNT wanted to start their first Olympic match, but it was the way they wanted to end it: with a win. The U.S. came-back from an early 2-0 deficit against France to beat them 4-2. 

The USWNT looked apprehensive to start the match. The game was being played at a hectic pace and the U.S. was unable to maintain a rhythm. Each team was enacting counter-attack after counter-attack and not gaining possession. Then, France was able to score two goals within two minutes of each other. Gaetane Thiney scored the first goal in the 12th minute. She rocketed a shot from outside the 18 and Solo had no chance to save it. France's next goal came from the U.S.'s inability to clear the ball in front of net. A scramble ensued and Marie-Laurie Delie was in the right place to score in the 13th minute. The ball landed right in front of her and she nailed it into the net.

It was shocking that the USWNT were down by two this early in the game and to make matters worse, Shannon Boxx had to leave the game due to an injury. Carli Lloyd replaced her in the 17th minute, who recently lost her starting position to Lauren Cheney. However, the USWNT can never be counted out; the team has great depth and a dynamic striker due in Abby Wambach and Alex Morgan. These two are capable of scoring multiple goals and scoring them quickly, which they proved before the half was over. Wambach headed the ball home off a corner from Megan Rapinoe in the 18th minute of play. This put the U.S. right back in it and gave them renewed energy. Morgan evened play at 2-2 in the 31st minute. It looked as though Wambach flicked it on for her, but she actually did not touch the ball and it bounced into great position for Morgan. If the ball had been flicked by Wambach, the goal would have been called offside, but she didn't, so it counted. Morgan had a defender on her back and the keeper coming out: she lobed it over the keepers head for the goal. It was two excellent goals from Wambach and Morgan, which both showed their different styles and ability.      

The final 15 minutes of the first half saw some dangerous opportunities for France and a controversial non-call in the box. In the 37th minute, Delie had the ball in the box once again, but sailed it over the crossbar. A minute later, Thiney was all alone on the right side of the six-yard box, Solo came out, which made Thiney adjust and hit the ball out. For the third time, Delie had a chance in the box, though this one was all her doing and not the defenses fault. She was marked well, but managed to head the ball on goal when her back was facing that same goal. However, it was hit right to Solo and she grabbed the easy save. A few minutes later, Morgan showed her speed and was pushing for a goal in the box when taken down. The referee did not call a foul, though it is questionable whether the play deserved one or not.

It was a crazy first half, but after the tough first 15 minutes, the play was fairly even and the U.S. fought back to make the score indicate that.

The U.S. did not make any substitutions to begin the second half. France took out Ophelie Meilleroux and Louisa Necib for Eugenie Le Sommer and Laura Georges. The USWNT's first chance on goal in the second half was cleared off the line. Rapinoe sent in a corner that Lloyd headed down, and Wambach got a hit on, but the France defender was in the right position. Lloyd came up big in the 55th minute by scoring the go-ahead goal. She blasted a shot from well outside the 18-yard box that went into the upper left of the goal. It was a deja vu moment for Lloyd, who hit the gold medal-winning goal in the 2008 Olympics from similar distance.  


The U.S. looked much more in control after going up 3-2, but France had plenty of chances. Morgan again was taken down in the box in the 60th minute and again no call was made. She got the first touch on the ball, but it was a shoulder-to-shoulder tackle. France was lucky that both takedowns were not called. France looked dangerous in the 66th minute, they got in front of goal, but Kelley O'Hara defended the play well and Solo stepped up to end the play. Right after this play, the U.S. gained some breathing room by scoring a fourth goal: it was Morgan's second of the match. Rapinoe had great vision to get the ball wide to Tobin Heath on the right flank. She had plenty of space and went to goal, with Morgan streaking to the back post and Wambach hustling to the near. Heath slipped a pass across the face of the goal and Morgan touched it into a wide-open net.    


The 4-2 score line did not squash France's effort. They continued to press and had good looks. The USWNT had trouble clearing the ball during a France corner kick and it almost resulted in another goal. The ball pin-balled around creating chaos, but the final attempt was tame. The U.S. made some changes at the end of the second half, bringing in Amy Rodriguez for Morgan and Sydney Leroux for Rapinoe. Then with only minutes left to play, France had a breakaway after a U.S. free kick. France's counter-attack was saved by Solo, who came out and fell on the ball when Elodie Thomas took too long of a touch. 


The first Olympic match for the USWNT was certainly exciting. Most importantly, they came away with a win against their toughest opponent in group play. They scored four high quality goals and did not allow France to maintain the majority of possession. They had some scary moments on defense and did allow two goals, but showed their resiliency and fought for the victory.    


Photo Credit: Tumblr

Media Roundup: NBC Olympics

NBC is the American broadcaster of the 2012 Olympics and they have been heavily promoting their upcoming coverage of the events. They have been running commercials that showcase the most exciting moments from the 2008 Olympics, and Carli Lloyd's goal against Brazil in the gold medal game is included. NBC created a website (nbcolympics.com) solely dedicated to the Olympic Games. An abundance of content has been released on the website featuring U.S. athletes. The videos were shot at the Olympic Media Summit, which occurred in mid-May. The videos are fun and focus on connecting the public to the athletes' personalities. NBC has a vested interest in building the profiles of the U.S. athletes competing at the Olympics: more people will tune in if they care about the athletes. Many of these videos feature USWNT players, specifically Alex Morgan, Abby Wambach, Christie Rampone, and Megan Rapinoe. 

This is great exposure for the USWNT. Women's soccer has to compete against popular Olympic sports like gymnastics, track and field, and swimming, but NBC taking an interest in the team is a positive sign. NBC coverage will provide a boost in public recognition for the team and can translate into a boost in popularity. NBC sees the USWNT as marketable for the networks Olympic efforts, which is great news for U.S. Soccer.


NBC Video: How Do You Celebrate a Goal
Note: Unable to embed NBC video

Sponsorship Roundup: Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan is the most marketable member of the USWNT because of the mix of youth, talent, and looks that she possesses. She busted into the public spotlight at last summer's Women's World Cup and her fame continues to grow. At 22, Morgan was the youngest member of the Women's World Cup squad. Now 23, she is no longer the youngest on the team, but is still called "Baby Horse" for her age and gallop-like running style. Morgan was the super-sub in 2011, coming into the game with 10 to 15 minutes left and making an impact. She impacted the game with her speed and finishing abilities: scoring clutch goals for the team in qualing and during the Women's World Cup. In 2012, Morgan earned a starting position and has had an unprecedented scoring run.
To top everything off, Morgan is attractive. Girls want to look like her and guys want to marry her. Many young soccer players have copied Morgan's signature look on the pitch: a pink per-wrap headband. She received hundreds of proposals on Twitter and approval of her photo shoot for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in which she posed in body paint. With this combination of attributes, not to mention her personality and ease in front of camera, it is unsurprising that companies have taken notice.

Morgan's list sponsors includes: Nike, Bank of America, GNC, Mueller, AT&T, GE, Panasonic, and Coca Cola. Morgan was a Nike athlete before the Women's World Cup and the athletic apparel company outfitted the striker in cleats throughout the competition. She had also done one photo shoot prior to the Women's World Cup. After the tournament, Nike used Morgan much more to promote Nike Soccer and she was even featured in a online video game. In the build up to the Olympics, Nike has released a video and more images of Morgan for Nike Women. Nike is always at the forefront of sports. They are represented by some of the best athletes and they handle their marketing superbly. Nike has made a big push of late to market Nike Women and female athletes. They showcase in their marketing the perfect mix of envious, sexy bodies with hard-core athletic ability and this is the brand that Morgan should project. 


            

Bank of America enlisted Morgan, Abby Wambach, and Hope Solo to promote the Chicago Marathon in July of 2011. They attended the Marathon and ran small portions of it with thirteen selected runners for charity. Morgan is known for her amazing speed on the pitch, so the running aspect of this sponsorship makes sense. Also, it is good for her brand to be associated with charitable efforts. This was the first major sponsorship signing after the Women's World Cup.

GNC, the nutrition product retailer, signed Morgan and USWNT teammate, Heather Mitts, in January of 2012. Fitness and nutrition are important to Morgan's career. It is fitting that she represents nutritional products. GNC is a well-known company and have the capabilities to extend Morgan's reach with the public. They have begun to do so, with a large billboard in NYC with Morgan's image. 

   
In June of 2012, Morgan became an ambassador for Mueller Sports Medicine, which sells pre-wrap. Morgan is known for wearing a pink pre-wrap headband during every training and every game. This partnership fits perfectly because a lot of young girls have since copied her pink styling. Morgan is certainly not the first athlete to wear pre-wrap headbands, but she is the first to make it famous. Female athletes of all ages- youth, high school, college, and professional-have been wearing pre-wrap for years, but Mueller is looking for those athletes to buy their products because of its connection with Morgan. An official campaign featuring Morgan has not yet been released, but Mueller gave a sneak-peak through twitter of the upcoming ads. 

AT&T is listed as a sponsor of Morgan on her official website and in Sports Business Daily. There are no advertisements available featuring Morgan, but expect ones to be released during the Olympics.
   
GE, Panasonic, and Coca-Cola have two things in common: they have a sponsorship deal with Alex Morgan and they are Top Olympic Partners. This commonality is good news for Morgan. To be a Top Olympic Partner, companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars to tie their brand directly with the Olympics. There are only 11 Top sponsors, so Morgan representing three of these companies is a big deal. For women's soccer, there are only two major tournaments-Women's World Cup and Olympics-to make an impact. These tournaments are in successive years, so there is a two-year lull when women's soccer does not have the opportunity to gain the publics attention. Morgan needs to take advantage of the limited time she has to build her brand and public recognition. It is harder for women's soccer to gain attention during the Olympics because of the amount of other sports competing at the same time. Gymnastics, track and field, and swimming, usually are the big events and the winning athletes become stars. Morgan's partnership with three TOP sponsors will aid her tremendously in raising her profile during the Olympics. These sponsorship deals ensure Morgan will not be lost in the thousands of athletes at the London Games, but will be in the forefront of advertising efforts. It was an extremely smart move by her representatives to team her up with GE, Panasonic, and Coca-Cola because of the amount of advertising these companies do around the Olympics. GE is promoting a health care record keeping system that Morgan has been called on to do numerous interviews about. Panasonic features her in a commercial that started running on NBC during the NHL playoffs. Morgan is one of Coca-Cola's 8-pack of athletes. Her silhouette is on a Coke can and they have released multiple videos online that allow viewers to get to know her better. Advertising will reach its peak during the two and a half week span of the London Games and it will be interesting to see how Morgan is used. 

Morgan certainly is capitalizing on her rise since the Women's World Cup and a gold medal at the Olympics will elevate her status even higher, which will make her even more marketable.    

USA v. Canada

The U.S. Women's National Team beat Canada 2-1 in their Olympic send-off match in Sandy, Utah on June 30. The match was played in front of 16,805 fans and was televised on NBC.

NBC's coverage of the match was excellent, as is all of their coverage of the Olympics. NBC is heavily promoting the Olympic Games and for the past week has been airing the Olympic trials, the USWNT match is encompassed in this effort. Arlo White and Kyle Martino provided analyses and play-by-play coverage. They conducted a pre-game interview with Alex Morgan and a half-time interview with Megan Rapinoe, which is something new to the coverage of USWNT matches. They were knowledgeable and added insight for the viewers. White and Martino relayed a conversation they had with head coach Pia Sundhage, in which she said the starting line-up against Canada is the team's best line-up.

The starters of the match were: Solo; LePeilbet; Rampone (c); Buehler; O'Hara; Rapinoe; Boxx; Cheney; Heath; Morgan; Wambach

This starting line-up is interesting because of the recent changes in the midfield. Lauren Cheney has replaced Carli Lloyd, Rapinoe has replaced Heather O'Reilly, and with Cheney moving to the center, Tobin Heath has moved into that spot. White and Martino indicated that this would be the starting line-up in London. I really like Cheney in the middle, but I would like to see O'Reilly keep her starting spot.

The play between the U.S. and Canada was very physical. There were multiple times USWNT players went down in the box and nothing was called. Also, O'Hara and Boxx picked up a yellow yard within a minute of each other. O'Hara had a high challenge on a Canadian player and kicked her in the thigh. A few seconds later, Christine Sinclair had a late challenge on Christy Rampone, but was not called for the foul. Boxx, about 30 seconds after Sinclair's challenge, committed her own late slide-tackle and was given a yellow card for it. The tough plays did not ease up; in the second half two Canadian players received yellow cards.

The play was physical, but the USWNT looked in control. The connection between the defense, midfield, and forwards was the best it has been in awhile. The U.S. looked to attack right from the beginning and Canada conceded an own goal in the 15th minute of play. Rapinoe controlled the right flank throughout the match. She was taking opponents on and showing her flair to beat them. She did have trouble picking players out on her crosses, so her fancy footwork did not result in any goals. Rapinoe was on target off her free kicks and it is interesting to note that she took all of them instead of Cheney. Wambach missed wide left twice in the first half off of great free kicks from Rapinoe, which is very unlike Wambach.

Hope Solo had a spectacular save at the end of the first half. The ball took a deflection and Solo had to completely change her momentum to get a hand on it. Then she used all her strength to hold onto the ball as a Canadian player had a second attempt on it. She barely kept it off the line. Solo showed why she is the best goalie in the game on that play.


At the start of the half, Carli Lloyd came on for Boxx, Becky Sauerbrunn for Rampone, Heather Mitts for Amy LePeilbett, and O'Reilly for Heath. The second half began with a near disaster; Morgan went down in the 49th minute with a knee injury. She walked off by herself and was later shown on the bench icing her knee. Amy Rodriguez replaced Morgan at forward.She suffered a twist to her knee, so nothing serious and she calmed her fans with a tweet after the game saying she was fine. 


The Canadians looked sharper in the second half and were able to maintain possession. The midfield looked flat with the pairing of Cheney and Lloyd and the defense was less organized without Rampone. This led to Canada equalizing in the 57th minute. A ball was passed behind Mitts, Melissa Tancredi rocketed a shot that hit the inside of the crossbar and bounced down into the goal. 


The U.S. had a few good chances in the second half that were just off. Rapinoe sent a ball low and hard from the left side of the field that Wambach tried to slightly touch to the far post. She nearly missed it and the ball went across the face of the goal untouched. Later in the 71st minute, O'Reilly kicked a great ball from her position 30 yards out and near the right sideline. Wambach was on the back post, but the keeper did well to grab it out of the air. 


The U.S. put the pressure on in the final 15 minutes of the match. Sydney Leroux came on for O'Hara, changing the formation from a 4-4-2 to a 3-4-3. The extra forward worked and the U.S. got the game-winning goal in the 85th minute. There was a scramble in front of the net, with the ball taking multiple deflections. Somehow the ball ended up in front of Rodriguez and she nailed it home. The USWNT paid homage to the last game that was played in Utah, in which the field was covered in snow. They ran to the corner and made "snow angels" on the ground.    


Photo credit: John Todd/isiphoto.com from ussoccer.com