Last night, TS1 and I were in the bleachers to see the American women thrash Japan; the game was closer than the 4-1 score. Shannon Boxx had a sweet header from a Stephanie Lopez cross for the first goal in the 17th minute and the second (41st) was an own goal by center back Yukari Kinga, who misdirected a Lindsay Tarpley glancing header off Chrissie Rampone’s cross from deep in the Japanese end.
I took some shot with my phone’s camera and made a small Flickr set of the (relatively speaking) best ones, here’s a sample with USA on the attack right in front of us in the second half:
The second half started with five minutes of domination by the visitors, the only really threatening patch they had until just before the end, but USA weathered the storm and took back the initiative. They got a third goal in the 55th when Santa Clara University grad Leslie Osborne crossed from the right to Lori Chalupny in the box and Chalupny tapped it to captain Kristine Lilly, who one touched it past Miho Fukumoto for her 124th national team goal and closed out their account in the 74nd when Abby Wambach went net from the penalty spot after Kinga, having a terrible game, handled the ball in the box. The Japanese finally got on the scoring list in the 79th on an unassisted shot by Yuki Nagasato.
Abby’s goal, her 75th, tied her for fifth on the all time USA list with Cindy Parlow; Lilly remains 35 behind Mia Hamm for the top spot but extended her lead atop the caps list to 329 with Rampone the nearest active player to her at only at 166.
We had pretty good seats, first row at the edge of the East 18 yard box, but the setting sun was blinding us until half time and made it very difficult to see the action on the far side, which was the offensive zone for USA. I understand now why the Earthquakes (old and new) wanted another place to play: the pitch is allegedly 68 yards wide, narrow enough compared to the European norm of 80, but the reality seems to be several yards less, and the space between the sidelines and the wall is less than two yards for most of the length, meaning very little room to avoid injury.
BillSaysThis 