Goal Blog: Cards Could Hold U.S. Women’s Fate

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By Jeré Longman

Tags: US womens team, Womens World Cup

The United States’ chances of winning Group B in the Women’s World Cup may be decided not by points collected or goals scored, but by the arcane tiebreaker of yellow cards.

After two matches, the Americans and the North Koreans, which drew 2-2 in the opening game, sit atop Group B, tied in points (4), goals for (4) and goals against (2). If they post identical scores in their group matches on Tuesday - the United States versus Nigeria in Shanghai, and North Korea versus Sweden in Tianjin, China †the group winner will be decided on the matter of Fair Play. The team that received the fewest yellow and red cards would win the group.

Thus far, North Korea has been issued two yellow cards, while the United States has received one. If both teams end up with identical scores and the same number of cards after Tuesday’s matches, the group winner will be decided by drawing lots.

A draw against Nigeria would secure advancement for the United States. But the Americans would much prefer to win the group, therefore facing England in the quarterfinals rather than defending champion Germany.

Rain from a typhoon is expected in Shanghai, which will no doubt leave the already deteriorating field an even sloppier mess. Nigeria (0-1-1) needs, at minimum, a 3-0 victory over the Americans to advance, which means the African champions will have to attack even more urgently than usual. It could make for a combative game.

Nigeria lost to the United States 7-1 and 5-0 in the previous two World Cups. This team is more disciplined than previous Nigerian squads, but its goalkeeping is vulnerable, particularly on set pieces. North Korea scored both goals off corner kicks in its 2-0 win against Nigeria last Friday. In 2003, the United States scored 4 of its 5 goals on set pieces. This is another game in which Abby Wambach could be dominant in the air.

Nigeria has scored only one goal so far. Still, the Americans have started slowly in both matches and have struggled to maintain possession. And Hope Solo’s shaky start in the rain against North Korea does not lend complete confidence in her ability. Coach Greg Ryan has also been what some believe is too cute shifting between 3-4-3 and 4-3-3 formations. If he goes with three forwards against Nigeria, Heather O’Reilly has been much more threatening than Lindsay Tarpley playing upfront with Wambach and Kristine Lilly.

Will the game still be played as scheduled, in spite of the typhoon? I must know. I want to see this game live.

NYT ed.: Tommy, as of 9:30 pm Eastern time, Monday night, the game was still to be played as scheduled.

†Posted by Tommy Brown

Game Haiku -

Typhoon comes. Is it Weather or Wambach’s foot? Goals rain down for win.

†Posted by Helen

I’m sitting in my office on the 19th floor about a mile from the stadium. At noon local time (8 hours before kickoff) it’s raining steadily but not too windy. We have upper deck tickets - hope the partial roof keeps the rain away.

If it gets nasty this afternoon, I’ll post an update.

†Posted by Dave

I think Its unfair to consider Hope’s start agaist N. Korea “shakey” She made a number of good, if not great saves, in the first half and despite her mistake on the first goal, came back and looked very good in the rest of the match. If the rest of the team and been able to controll the ball, instead of just giving it away, the pressure on Hope would have been greatly reduced. Who knows, controlling the ball leads to more shots on goal whoch leads to… oh yeah goals. Remember those?

Come on Ladies show the world what you are made of !!!

†Posted by Peyton

Women football is out of this world and I’m a big fan of sport.

†Posted by Henrietta

Weather update: It’s been raining steadily in Shanghai all day long. The lawn outside my office where the foreigners throw Frisbees has transformed into a series of lakes. The wind hasn’t picked up much, but the field at HongKou is going to be a mess. It already looked chewed up after the opening game - tonight it’s going to be ugly.

†Posted by Dave

From the FIFA website:

>Tonight’s games in Shanghai (Match 19, Nigeria-USA) and Tianjin (Match 20, Korea DPR-Sweden) will kick off at 20:00 local time as originally planned.

They’ve postponed two of the other games that were supposed to be played on the 19th. That will make it so that Groups C & D don’t play simultaneous final matches. Denmark and Norway will know what they have to do to qualify. Interesting, eh?

BTW, a very dark band of clouds passed over Shanghai an hour ago. It’s lightened up a bit but the rain just keeps coming. Looks to be almost a food of water standing in the road out front. Crazy conditions for a soccer match.

†Posted by Dave

My opinion is that the old traditional rules should be respected; after all, those are the rules which have made soccer the most popular sport in the world.

†Posted by William in Arizona

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Goal, The New York Times soccer blog, will report on news and features from the world of soccer and around the Web. Times editors and reporters will follow international tournaments, such as the FIFA Womens World Cup taking place in China, and provide analysis of games. There will be interviews with players, coaches and notable soccer fans, including a weekly blog column by Red Bulls forward Jozy Altidore. Readers can discuss Major League Soccer, foreign leagues and other issues with fellow soccer fans.

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