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Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
With a record.of winning the World Cup 3x and the Olympic gold 2x, the U.S. Women's.team has a record.that would be the envy.of any men's team.
Amen to that BIB.

Lloyd scored her first goal in the 3rd minute of the game, and by 16 minutes had scored three!

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NY Times said:
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The Women’s World Cup began uncertainly for midfielder Carli Lloyd. But it quickly built toward predatory dependability, then concluded Sunday in a display of startling deliverance.

Lloyd scored the quickest goal in a Women’s World Cup final, slicing a shot with the outside of her left foot from a corner kick in the third minute of a 5-2 victory over Japan, as the United States became the first team to win the tournament three times.

Lloyd was far from done, becoming the first player to score three goals in the final of this tournament. All came in the first 16 minutes, before an ecstatic announced crowd of 53,341 at BC Place Stadium, including Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

The United States built a 4-0 lead, was never really threatened as Japan closed the gap to 4-2, and found redemption after losing to Japan in a penalty shootout in the final of the 2011 Women’s World Cup.
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In the fifth minute, Lloyd ran onto a back-heel pass from Julie Johnston after a free kick and placed a shot between the legs of a Japanese defender. And in the 16th minute, in an act of great audacity and accuracy, Lloyd launched a shot from midfield

Ayumi Kaihori, the Japanese goalkeeper, was caught off her line. Backpedaling furiously, Kaihori could only reach futilely with her right hand as the ball deflected off the left post into the net, giving the United States a 4-0 lead.

“When you’re feeling good mentally and physically, those plays are just instincts,” Lloyd said. “It just happens.”

While training alone before the tournament, Lloyd, who relies often on visualization techniques, saw herself scoring four goals in the World Cup final, she said. She came up just short but said that she was so intent as the game opened, “I feel like I blacked out for the first 30 minutes or so.”

Norio Sasaki, Japan’s coach, quickly got a sinking feeling as his highly organized team was left in tatters. He had seen this before. At the 2012 London Olympics, Lloyd scored both American goals against Japan in a 2-1 victory in the gold medal game.

“She always does this to us,” Sasaki said after the game. “We are a bit embarrassed. She is an excellent player. I really respect and admire her.”

As the World Cup began, though, Lloyd had faced critical remarks from Pia Sundhage, a Swede who coached the United States at the 2011 World Cup and to gold medals at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.

Lloyd had also been ineffective playing a more defensive role in midfield. But Coach Jill Ellis changed her tactics in the knockout rounds, and Lloyd pushed into the attack with freedom and inventiveness.

Lloyd had called for the team to take more chances, and Ellis had assured her: “Don’t stress it. We’re going to find a way to get you going.”

Lloyd said before the final, “I knew my time was going to come.”

Her three goals Sunday gave her six in the final four games for the Americans. Lloyd was awarded the Golden Ball as the World Cup’s most outstanding player.
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These are the moments she lives for, said Lloyd, who will be 33 next week and has overcome a lack of fitness earlier in her career. “I’ve dedicated my whole life to this,” she said. “The mental game is an absolute huge thing.”

Sunday’s victory also provided a valedictory moment for Abby Wambach, 35, who is international soccer’s leading career scorer with 183 goals but had never won a World Cup. Wambach accepted a lesser role as the tournament progressed, and Lloyd became more assertive and productive.

The United States conceded its first goals on Sunday since its opening match, including an own goal by Johnston in the 52nd minute that drew Japan to 4-2. But Hope Solo reasserted herself in this tournament as perhaps the world’s best goalkeeper, despite a lingering domestic abuse scandal.

This team possessed the same qualities as the American champions from the 1991 and 1999 World Cups: depth, confidence, selflessness, athleticism, stamina, indefatigable spirit.

In 1999, the Americans prevailed in a penalty shootout against China as 90,000 fans crammed into the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. That tournament was as much a movement as a sporting event as women’s soccer came into the mainstream.

The United States, which also received goals from Lauren Holiday and Tobin Heath on Sunday, entered the championship match with assurance tempered by the despair of the World Cup outcome four years ago.

On July 17, 2011, in Frankfurt, the Americans twice held a lead against Japan only to lose on penalty kicks. A victory over Japan to win a gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics did not provide full restitution.

“Heartbreak never goes away,” Wambach said Friday.

As the tournament opened, Lloyd faced stinging comments from Sundhage, the former American coach. Sundhage told The New York Times that if Lloyd felt the coaching staff had faith in her, she could be one of the best players on the team. If not, Sundhage said, Lloyd could be “one of the worst.”

Lloyd called the remarks untrue. And Sundhage, who now coaches Sweden, later clarified her comments, calling Lloyd “one of the most important players I’ve ever had.”

Lloyd did not always listen to what she was told, Sundhage said, but that was not necessarily a bad thing.

“Some players are very challenging,” Sundhage said, “and those players create gold.”

After the semifinals, Lloyd said she no longer thought about Sundhage’s remarks, adding, “I’m not sure what she would say now after all these games; it’d be a good question to ask her.”

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Equation

Lieutenant General

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Don't forget to give credit to US coach Jill Ellis for her strategy and putting the right player and plays at the right time. I think she is one the best coaches in women's soccer.
I agree completely, Equation.

And her record supports it as far as the current coaches are concerned. As Head Coach, here record is 28 wins, 8 draws, and 2 losses. And of course, there is the world Cup torunamanet and ultimate victory.

Those last two matches pitted her against the favorite to take the Cup this year in Germany, which they beat 2-0, and last year's World Cup winner, Japan, which they beat 5-2.
 

kwaigonegin

Colonel
I didn't watch the match however I think from a team sports perspective, I'll be hard pressed to think of any other national team both men or women of any sport at the world stage that is as great and dominant as the US women's soccer team.

These women and their coaches are truly great. If you ask me I think a big part of the success in women's soccer stems from the fact that unlike men, in girls/women sports there are not much football, baseball, hockey to saturate the talents. Basketball does somewhat but nowhere close to boys/men's league.

It all starts from the elementary/middle school stage. A lot of young boys start playing soccer but as they get older many transition to basketball, baseball, football, hockey etc. Many girls however continue on with soccer.
 

bd popeye

The Last Jedi
VIP Professional
I'm happy the USA won the Women's World Cup. Congratulations to Team USA!

I do not intend to insult anyone...I must state.... To me soccer is a crashing bore..it is....And I know it's not boring to most of the World. And I know it is, hands down, the most popular sport on this planet...that is a fact.
 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
I do not intend to insult anyone...I must state.... To me soccer is a crashing bore..it is....And I know it's not boring to most of the World.
Well, I have to say, in the first 16 minutes of this women's World Cup, with Lloyd making those three goals...and the first one before 3 minutes were done...that was about as exciting as it gets.
 

B.I.B.

Captain
I didn't watch the match however I think from a team sports perspective, I'll be hard pressed to think of any other national team both men or women of any sport at the world stage that is as great and dominant as the US women's soccer team.

These women and their coaches are truly great. If you ask me I think a big part of the success in women's soccer stems from the fact that unlike men, in girls/women sports there are not much football, baseball, hockey to saturate the talents. Basketball does somewhat but nowhere close to boys/men's league.

It all starts from the elementary/middle school stage. A lot of young boys start playing soccer but as they get older many transition to basketball, baseball, football, hockey etc. Many girls however continue on with soccer.

If two people can be regarded as a team, then how about China and the doubles in table tennis?
 

Equation

Lieutenant General
More than 25 million people watched the
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earn their third
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title on Sunday.


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-- was the most-viewed soccer game in U.S. history.


When it comes to money, though, the ladies fall far short.

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The website
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reports the average salary in the U.S. men’s soccer league,
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, is $305,000. For women, the average salary is $14,000,
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.

As for prize money,
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the total for the men’s
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is $576 million, while it’s about $15 million for the women,
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.

Last year, the U.S. men’s national soccer team, which failed in its bid to make it to the finals of the World Cup, was paid $9 million in prize money, according to Reuters. The American women -- the 2015 World Cup champions -- will earn $2 million, reports Business Insider.

In addition to compensation inequality, female soccer players are also fighting battles on other fronts.

On Monday, England’s soccer federation tweeted that its own women’s team – which lost to
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in the semi-final round of this year’s World Cup – would “go back to being mothers, partners and daughters ... ." The tweet has since been deleted.

Female soccer players may not be playing on a level field, but they are still scoring some financial wins.

After their triumphant victory at the World Cup, sales of U.S. women’s team jerseys rocketed by 3,000 percent, according to online retailer Fanatics.com.

Experts predict that more female players could secure high-profile endorsement deals, much like
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,
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and Christen Press have done.

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This is totally unacceptable.:mad::( They get paid far less than the Chinese women's national team who got paid 1 million yuan ($160,000) for their effort. ;)

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Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Unacceptable? Well, IMHO, not really.

It's market driven. So in the end, the people watching are the ones who decide.

Women's Soccer, like Women's Basketball, is just not driving the markets like the Men's sports. As a result, the advertising is not nearly as high, and those advertising contracts drive the rest in the end.

But then, they have not been going as long as the men's sports either. As time goes on, they will get there.

Meanwhile, I bet you the really good players are making a ton of denero in endorsement income. I have to believe that Lloyd will have some amazing endorsement contracts.
 
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