USA MNT – Eliminated [Updated]

Well, the US men’s squad was eliminated from group play at 2008 Summer Olympics today. It was a well-played game that ended in a tough 2-1 defeat by Nigeria. If any one thing had gone differently, if a header hadn’t bounced off the cross-bar, if the Netherlands hadn’t gotten a PK against Japan…we would still be in the Olympics. But, in searching for a silver lining, we can look forward to our Olympians returning to MLS a week or so earlier.

USA MNT Olympic match v. Nigeria – 1st Half

Shel and I are watching together on this one! (She’s back, YAY!!!)

In the first three minutes of the game Orozco got the most bogus red card of the entire Olympics! It maybe should have been a called foul, a yellow max! But definitely NOT a red.

Types of Hot: Olympic Hot

Clearly this category only really comes up every 4 years; so I thought it deserved a nod. And as I’m trying to decide whether I should go to sleep and get up early for the US game against Nigeria or just stay up, I decided to post this instead. The first to fill this category was REALLY hard to pick; so expect more.  I was originally thinking Stuart Holden (who gave a “insider’s” description of life in the Olympic Village), because we here at NHB love our Dynamo/Olympic Hottie (see the many posts below), and he has been doing well (minus that yellow in the game against the Netherlands that I have just about blocked from my mind). But then I remembered the video I saw recently

Meet The Press: Holden

 

Stuart Holden holds post-game press conference after his Olympic-game-winning goal

 

 

US Soccer Olympian Stuart Holden (Photos: USSoccer.com/isiphotos)

 

 

Click here to hear Stuart Holden and Coach Peter Nowak’s post-game press conference

Also, click below to watch Holden, Guzan, Wynne and McBride (but mostly Holden) on the 1-0 win over Japan in their first match of the olympics, as well as looking forward to our game against The Netherlands this weekend.

US Olympic Team vs Japan

Watching the first half of the US Olympic squad on TiVo delay…so this is like live blogging a game except it’s only the blogging that’s live, not the game. I’ve a few thoughts.

1st impression: this US squad looks STRONG. Despite some scary things we’d heard since our boys headed to Asia, they look like a strong team. (Phew!)

2nd thought: Rogers is hot today! By that I mean he’s playing very well and he is looking GOOD. I mean clearly Holden’s the hottest player on the field (he always is the hottest player on any field). But I’m enjoying Rogers this morning also.

3rd thought: thank god we brought Guzan! He’s had some great saves (particularly aprox 21:00 if you watch online; great teamwork with Edu at aprox 27:40).

4th thought: I really hate Marcello Balboa (one of the two commentators). It’s not just because he spews stupid shit, constantly tokenizes himself, sounds like nails on chalkboard or has the vocabulary of a twelve year old. I can’t quite put my finger on it. Luckily JP’s doing more of the play-by-play.

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Writen on my iPhone; please excuse typos, brevity and lack of photos.

What exactly IS the Japanese player reaching for???

Olympians Experience Hong Kong, Kinda

The US Soccer team is training in Hong Kong before their match against the Ivory Coast. They decided to experience the local culture…at Starbucks? At least they saw the harbor before being sucked in by the coffee mogul (which I frequent daily btw).

 

Olympians experiencing Hong Kong, at Starbucks. (USSoccer YNT-blog)

Olympians Took My Advice, Kinda

I mentioned in a previous post that the US Men’s Olympic Team was in route to Hong Kong, and that they shared the flight with about half the US Swim Team.  One might hope the two teams could share training tips, and that the end result would be barely-there shorts for the soccer team. Turns out they did learn something, but it involves the long tights rather than the short shorts. Sigh. [Really, they are compression pants to reduce swelling in flight; so they had them on before meeting the swimmers. But I fear the swimmers might have validated the style, and that would be unfortunate for all.]

 

Stuart Holden and Brad Guzan rockin' (yes, I'm sometimes delusional) the...um...leggings. (Photo: USSoccer YNT-blog)

Can’t Afford Shoes?

Olympic team at training before leaving for China. (Photo: USSoccer YNT-Blog)

I was cruising around the US YNT blog when I saw this picture.  My first thought: Cute soccer players running is always nice.  Second thought: Is Freddy Adu barefoot?  Which led to: Why are several of them, including Coach Nowak, barefoot?  Is this a fun way to run?  Did they lose a shooting contest?  Any other ideas?

BREAKING: McCarty Is USA’s Newest Olympian

Dax McCarty has been called up to replace the injured Nate Sturgis on US Men’s Olympic squad.  Rumors that the understudy was involved Sturgis’s demise remain unsubstantiated (although not beyond realm of possibilities from an FC Dallas player) and we wish him and the entire Olympic squad the best of luck as they represent the Red, White and Blue in Beijing.

Dax McCarty, america's newest Olympian (photo: USSoccer.com)