There is nothing in sports quite as clearly named as the "knockout round" in World Cup soccer.
Win and you go on. Lose and you go home.
That’s what faces the United States women’s team when they meet Colombia Monday night in a tournament that has seen some fairly big upsets, not the least of which is the victory by Australia over Brazil on Sunday. It was the first-ever knockout round victory for Australia.
Colombia was one of the architects of another major upset in the cup when it beat France, one of the pre-tournament favorites, 2-0, in the group stage.
The Americans are 2-0 against Colombia all-time.
Proving that the women can match the men when it comes to trash talking, Colombia star forward Lady Andrade started it.
"They belittle us," Andrade told Fox Sports. "They think we're a team they're going to walk all over and it will be an easy game for them. We're going to beat them since they like to talk so much."
Nobody on the American side seemed to know what Andrade was talking about since they couldn’t find a single place where anybody had said anything about the Colombian side.
The Americans are the second-ranked team in the world and are big favorites to advance to the quarterfinals, where they can be expected to meet either China or Cameroon, neither of which is ranked inside the top 10 in the world.
If the U.S. gets to the semifinals it will most likely face either Germany or France, both top contenders.
The American side has been one of the most feared and dominant sides in women’s soccer, but thus far the performance in the tournament has been both lackluster and surprising to most experts.
The United States’ strength has always been a dominating force of its front line, led by Abby Wambach, the all-time goal leader in women’s soccer. But this year that attack has been largely absent.
Instead, this squad has seemed to be driven to keep the opponent’s side out of the attacking area. In soccer terms the U.S. team is defending two-thirds of the field, the middle and the back, while not mounting much in the other third. In plain language the U.S. is playing defense, committing to not allowing any goals or even shots on goal.
Answers will start to come for the U.S. Monday night. The game will be televised at 7 p.m., on FoxSports 1.
With a history in Milwaukee stretching back decades, Dave tries to bring a unique perspective to his writing, whether it's sports, politics, theater or any other issue.
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