After losing to Brazil in the semifinals of the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup, the U.S. women's soccer team was hoping to get its revenge in Beijing at the 2008 Olympics. It appears, however, that those hopes just took a huge hit.U.S. forward Abby Wambach suffered a broken left leg last night during a warm-up friendly against Brazil and will miss the Olympics. Wambach suffered fractures to the tibia and fibula in a collision with a Brazilian defender in the 31st minute.
Wambach has scored 99 goals in 126 caps, which ranks her fifth on the all-time U.S. women's soccer team scoring list, just one goal behind Tiffeny Milbrett. Losing her for the Olympics leaves a huge hole at forward for Pia Sundhage's squad. Natasha Kai and Amy Rodriguez will likely be called upon to pick up the scoring slack for the U.S.
On the bright side, though, the U.S. scored two 1-0 wins in its warm-up friendlies against Brazil this week. For the record, Hope Solo was in goal for both of those matches. I don't think Sundhage is going to bench her for Brianna Scurry like Greg Ryan did.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-17-2008 @ 12:12PM
Mark Hasty said...
David, do you think this will hurt the US women's chances at a medal, or do they still have to be counted among the favorites?
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7-17-2008 @ 12:21PM
Dave said...
Mark: Given that the U.S. kept Brazil from scoring for 180 minutes this week, I think they still have to be a favorite to win a medal, but I think it's much less likely to be gold without Wambach in there. Amy Rodriguez has won awards at USC, but the U.S. loses a lot of size and experience with her up front instead of Abby.
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7-17-2008 @ 5:04PM
Harrison said...
Wow, that must have been quite a "collision" to break her leg that badly! Hate to hear it; hope the US team goes all the way if only just to cheer her up
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7-18-2008 @ 12:34AM
George B Vieto said...
The USA Women's soccer team loss of Amy Wambach is a devatasing blow to the team. Coach Sundage will tell the team that the injury is only going to unite the team and make it better for the chances of winning the gold medal by uniting as a team and playing for Amy Wambach. Win one for Amy.
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7-18-2008 @ 4:09AM
PARKER said...
UUMMMMM... I KNOW 'FEMALES' OF THE SPECIES HAVE CERTAIN 'PIECES-PARTS' THAT WE MALES DON'T POSSESS, BUT, LAST I LOOKED... WE BOTH SHARE THE SAME TIBIAS AND FIBULAS; NOT, FIBIAS AND TIBULAS!
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7-18-2008 @ 8:23AM
Dave said...
Oops. Thanks for catching that Parker. It's fixed now.
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7-18-2008 @ 10:50AM
Brian Grummell said...
I saw Rodriguez play a few times during the NCAA tournament, she doesn't have great size but she's actually quite physical, absolutely nobody bumps her off her stance, sort of has that Charles Barkley in the post thing working when she's in tight spaces.
Don't forget the national team now also has Lauren Cheney as the third forward. I prefer Rodriguez, but check out the playmaking ability Cheney has in this video. That was against the best defense in all of NCAA soccer last year. She's tremendously skilled.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMn83SX7uM4
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