2007 FIFA Women's World Cup Running Diary: Brazil 4, US 0

Immediate disclaimer: forgive me, but I cannot watch the entire match as I’d love to, as work calls at 8:30am. I know, it sucks, but I just wanted to warn you of the situation. All I’ve got is 30 minutes of viewing time before I become a mindless corporate drone. For this I apologize. I will be doomed to track the remainder of the match via EspnSoccernet Gamecast...So with that, LET’S GO LADIES! I wanna see a World Cup-performance!

As an aside, I watched the replay of the Germany-Norway match the night before, and wow, when I watch the Germans, it reminds me of that scene in Terminator 2: Judgment Day when Schwarzenegger is walking down that hallway at the mall firing off his shotgun. The dramatic pause as repeatedly cocks the gun before blasting the lethal shots – that’s what Germany was against Norway, en route to their 3-0 win. Amazing club.

7:55 –Star Spangled banner….shot of Briana Scurry…she’s ready for this. Though I do like hope a lot, I’m absolutely confident that Bri’s got this.

7:57 – Brazilian national anthem

Brazil in a 3-5-2. USA in a 4-3-3

8:01: “What’s at stake?” graphic – oh I dunno…maybe the World Cup!??

1- USA immediately comes out and puts a shot on the keeper

2- USA is 19-1-2 vs. Brazil all-time

4-Christiane gets past Rampone and the Brazilian falls in the box. No penalty…play on…dangerous, dangerous sequence.

5-foudy states that the Brazilian didn’t get the call because she oversold it, as she wildly flailed her arms as she hit the pitch.

6- USA free kick from beyond the box….Chalupny heads it right on net, saved.

7-shot of Hope Solo…she can’t be pleased at all. She belongs out there.

7-Free kick from#2 Brazil and tests Scurry with a shot that Brianna misplays…this could get bad.

8-this is definitely not the same Brazil that that Americans faced back in June at Giants Stadium.

10-With so many singular-named Brazilians, what kinda singular names would be good for the USA? Ramponinho? Abbao? Carlinho? Solao?

13- Whitehill free kick, parried by Andréia

14- Physical, physical match…Boxxy just carded for a hard tackle near midfield.

15-Nice catch save for Briana….need to keep it up.

16-Elaine down after Lori Chalupny challenges her for the ball. She stays down for a little while.

18-crowd definitely pro-Brazil

19 CK for Brazil…although it appears that no one deflects it, another CK for Brazil

20- What??? What was that??? Own goal for Brazil. Osborne tried to head it out, but goes right into the corner of the net. Weird, weird goal. Lilly rallies the troops, trying to get them focused. Ugh…what a bad goal.

Side note: just noticed it’s cloudy out this morning

22- Wambach sends a ball wide of goal, deflects off of Brazilian player.

23- CK high, high balloon of a ball. It goes to Abby, but the whole sequence looked outta whack.

26- First 99 reference by Foudy, in reference to Brandi Chastain’s own goal vs. Germany in the semis

27-USA just struggling to attack…Chalupny carded.

27- Marta dances into the box and sends a skipping shot toward the near post and goal number two for the Brazilians. Oh man, this is not good. Would Hope have gotten that one? I dunno.

29-Foudy questioning the Scurry move. As am I…

30- Now readers I apologize, but I must now go to work. I tried to get the morning off, but to no avail. This is heart wrenching for me, with our gals down 0-2 and me left to my devices and Gamecast, which is like tracking bachelor party via dots and four-line analysis…in other words, it sucks a lot.

(Now stationed in front of the PC at work)

And you know what hell is? Hell is watching any important soccer match on Gamecast. I suppose it's maybe a rung up from being completely uninformed if you're not within a mile of a TV, but ugh...it's horrible.

So here we go into halftime down 0-2. Though I’m not currently privy to any first hand information, but I’m positive there's already alot of armchair quarterbacking going on, or Sunday Morning Striking if you will, of Greg Ryan’s decision to start Scurry. Granted, you can't anticipate Osborne's own goal, but Marta's goal was just a rocket that Scurry was supposed to stop according to Ryan’s hypothesis.

Now...I've second-guessed Greg Ryan on more than one occasion, but this decision, at this point in time, is perhaps one of his most troubling. It’s like Bill Belichick going into the playoffs, and starting Vinny Testaverde in favor of Tom Brady against the Colts in the AFC Championship game because Vinny's got better career lifetime stats against the horseshoes. But Belichick would never do this because YOU DANCE WITH THE ONE WHO BRUNG YA!

Greg Ryan should have realized this. I love Briana Scurry, she's a great keeper, but you always go with the hot hand, and that would be Hope Solo, she of a current 290-minute shutout streak. And if he pulls a Grady Little and leaves Scurry in for the second half, it's gonna be de ja vu all over again for me.

According to the Gamecast demon, the second half is underway. Scurry’s apparently still in. The only sub made is Carli Lloyd.

56 - According to Gamecast…Christiane scores a wicked shot from the heart of the box, coldly beating Scurry, 3-0 Brazil...ARE YOU GOING TO TAKE HER OUT NOW??? Greg Ryan is going to lose his job. This is a nightmare. This is...a nightmare...

Another goal at minute 79…this sucks…

9:56am ET: Now the game’s over…Ugh...talk about the wind being knocked right out of your sails. I was anticipating one more early morning of fun come Sunday, but alas, that will not come to pass. I just feel empty right now. I was gonna go to the gym after work, inspired and energetic, because I thought for sure there'd be the final come Sunday. There will be, it just won’t involve the Americans. Not anymore. Is it too late to get a Hope Solo jersey? Damned gold jerseys...arrogant in their own little way. Maybe I'll pick one up for the third place match against Norway, if only to remind me of what could have been...

It was fun while it lasted. The 5am wakeup calls, though mind-numbingly tiresome, were well worth it. I had a blast watching all the games, with one more to go. My heart hurts…I may just end Up TiVo’ing the third-place match against Norway.

I remember interviewing them back in April and July when they played in Foxboro and Hartford, respectively, and hearing from Abby, Carli, and Hope about how badly they wanted to win this for Kristine Lilly. Send her off with one last World Cup championship. Sigh...even though they came up short, I still love this team.