The Group of Death

When I saw Carli Lloyd on Monday afternoon, she asked if I was going to shoot in the rain, in turn I asked her if she was going to play in the rain. “I like to play in the rain,” she responded. All I can say is that Carli must have had the time of her life in the final Group B game against Nigeria on Tuesday night. As Typhoon Wipha was beginning to move ashore, FIFA had already rescheduled Wednesday’s games and travel plans were already changed to avoid the risk.

It had been raining all afternoon, with just a few breaks. I waited for one of those breaks to go over to the stadium media center, a block from my hotel. The break didn’t last long enough for me to make it the entire block.

The team warmed up in the rain. The National Anthems were played in the rain and although the teams were under plexi shelters, they were still in the rain. On yes, the photographers were certainly in the rain. Keeping anything dry was impossible!

The US girls, who had been accused of slow starts in the first two games, were on the board with a Lori Chalupny goal near the end of the first minute.



From there field conditions continued to deteriorate, at one point Abby stopped to replace a section of turf that she had kicked up, reminiscent of a very bad golfer.

What the Nigerians lacked in style they more that made up for in the physical hard-hitting nature of their game. Hard Hitting! I just thought I should mention it at least one more time. It’s no wonder that at the media session on Monday, Kate Markgraf had referred to Group B, as the Group of Death, with the number 1, 3 and 5 ranked teams in the group, and that doesn’t include Nigeria.

The game was a rough as any game that might be played as a grudge match to settle a score on the pitch in any country.



The US has several great chances, Kristine was just a bit high twice, there was a power shot that somehow the Nigerian goal was able to get a hand on and Abby more that a few opportunities that skidded off in the rain.



The final minutes of the game were particularly rough, with Abby being knocked down hard twice within a minute.



Given the conditions, it certainly wasn’t the most elegant game of soccer, but starting in the first minute, the Team got the job done.

There as a group of young American fans to cheer on the team as they boarded the bus back to the hotel.



Thursday morning we travel to Tianjin to prepare for Saturday night’s game against England, which will be played in the brand new Olympic stadium.