I've just seen the vid on US Soccer and Pia's enthusiasm looks infectious. The player's look well up for it. The singing at the beginning made laugh though

Pia Calls First 2008 USWNT Camp

2007-12-29 21:02:21


U.S. head coach Pia Sundhage has called 27 players to a six-day training camp at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., that will run from Jan. 3-8, 2008 in the USA’s first action of the new year.
Sundhage will then select a 20-player roster to travel to China for the 2008 Four Nations Tournament being held from Jan. 16-20 at the Foshan Sports Center Stadium, in Foshan, China.

Canada, Finland and host China round out the field for the annual competition to be played less than seven months before Beijing hosts the 2008 Olympics. The USA opens the competition against Canada on Jan. 16 before facing Finland on Jan. 18 and China on Jan. 20. These will mark the first-ever matches under Sundhage, who was hired in late November.

This will be the ninth trip to China for the U.S. women since 1998 and serves as continuing preparation for the 2008 Olympics, for which the Americans will have to qualify from the CONCACAF Final Women’s Olympic Qualifying tournament being held April 2-13 in Mexico.

“This is an exciting tournament as they will be the first games with the new coaching staff,” said Sundhage. “”We want to continue to play with passion and start our change in attacking style. We want to try to dictate the tempo of the matches in the attack and while staying true to the principles in defending. The injuries we have to some veterans will most likely give some young players a chance (during the Four Nations), and it's important to find a good mix of young inspiration with experience.”

This will be the seventh time the USA has participated in the Four Nations Tournament in China. The U.S. team also traveled to China for a pair of matches against China in 2001 when the tournament was not held. Should the USA qualify for the Olympics, this Four Nations Tournament will be the final time the team will travel to China before heading back to Beijing in August.

In January of 2007, the U.S. went to the Four Nations Tournament with a young squad as veterans Kristine Lilly, Abby Wambach, Christie Rampone and Aly Wagner were not on the roster. The USA tied full-strength teams from Germany and England before defeating China, 2-0, to win the championship.

The USA won the Four Nations Tournament in 1998, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007, failing to take top honors only in 2002. All the matches in the 2007 Four Nations Tournament will be played in Foshan, which is just south of Guangzhou in the Guangdong Province in the southeast part of the country.

Sundhage has called in 16 members of the USA’s 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup Team including Wambach, who was recently named 2007 U.S. Soccer Female Athlete of the Year. Defenders Kate Markgraf and Heather Mitts, and midfielder Aly Wagner were not named to the training camp roster as they continue to rehabilitate injuries. Lilly has not yet decided if she will pursue a spot on the roster for what would be her fourth Olympic games.

The additional 11 invitees range from numerous players with extensive Youth National Team experience to players getting their first-ever call-ups to the full National Team as Sundhage continues to evaluate the player pool.

Sundhage called in seven players who recently finished their college seasons, including former University of Portland defender Stephanie Cox, a starter for the USA at the 2007 Women’s World Cup who missed the mini-camp in December, in part due to her wedding (she was formerly Stephanie Lopez).

Also called in were 2007 U.S. Soccer Young Female Athlete of the Year Lauren Cheney and midfielder Tina DiMartino, both from UCLA, as well as forward Amy Rodriguez from the newly minted NCAA champion University of Southern California. Rodriguez, who scored twice in the NCAA semifinal, played for the USA at the 2004 FIFA U-19 Women’s World Championship in Thailand, and along with Cheney, DiMartino and Tobin Heath, at the 2006 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Championship in Russia. Rodriguez has five senior team caps, but did not play for the USA in 2007.

This is the first call-up to the full National Team for DiMartino, while Cheney participated in Residency Training Camp last year and has two caps and one goal. Heath will be participating in her third full National Team training camp.

University of Virginia defender Becky Sauerbrunn, a co-captain of the U.S. squad in Thailand, gets her first call-up to the full National Team, as does midfielder Ali Krieger, who has played several years for the U.S. U-21s, but missed a year with a broken leg suffered during her junior season. She finished her college career at Penn State in 2006.

Defender Amy LePeilbet, who has 23 caps for the USA, returns to the squad for the first time since recovering from ACL surgery which knocked her out of competition all of last year.

The USA played Canada just once in 2007, a 6-2 victory in Frisco, Texas, but has faced their northern neighbor a total of 39 times, the second most of any team in the world behind Norway. The USA is 33-3-3 all-time against Canada. The USA played Finland twice last year, battling to a 1-0 win at the Algarve Cup and a 4-0 win in the final match before leaving for the 2007 Women’s World Cup. The USA is 12-0-0 all-time vs. the Finns.

The USA played China three times in 2007, the first two in back-to-back games that finished the Four Nations Tournament in late January (2-0 win) and started the Algarve Cup in March (2-1 win). The USA also played China in June on the road to the Women’s World Cup, a 2-0 win in Cleveland, Ohio, over a Chinese team on which Sundhage served as an assistant coach. The USA is 19-8-11 all-time against the Chinese. Since 2000, the USA has gone 3-2-2 against China in China, always a difficult game for a visiting team.

“It will be good to be back to China and once more feel that environment,” said Sundhage. “It will be a unique feeling and I'm happy that I’m getting the chance to experience that. It will be great to see the Chinese players and people I worked with when I was over there.”

GOALKEEPERS (3): Nicole Barnhart (Gilbertsville, Pa.), Briana Scurry (Dayton, Minn.), Hope Solo (Richland, Wash.);

DEFENDERS (: Stephanie Cox (Elk Grove, Calif.), Marian Dalmy (Lakewood, Colo.), Keeley Dowling (Carmel, Ind.), Amy LePeilbet (Crystal Lake, Ill.), Christie Rampone (Point Pleasant, N.J.), Becky Sauerbrunn (St. Louis, Mo.), India Trotter (Plantation, Fla.), Cat Whitehill (Birmingham, Ala.);

MIDFIELDERS (10): Shannon Boxx (Redondo Beach, Calif.), Lori Chalupny (St. Louis, Mo.), Tina DiMartino (Massapequa Park, N.Y.), Tobin Heath (Basking Ridge, N.J.), Angela Hucles (Virginia Beach, Va.), Ali Krieger (Dumfries, Va.), Carli Lloyd (Delran, N.J.), Joanna Lohman (Silver Spring, Md.), Leslie Osborne (Brookfield, Wis.), Angie Woznuk (El Cajon, Calif.);

FORWARDS (6): Lauren Cheney (Indianapolis, Ind.), Natasha Kai (Kahuku, Hawaii), Heather O’Reilly (East Brunswick, N.J.), Amy Rodriguez (Lake Forest, Calif.), Lindsay Tarpley (Kalamazoo, Mich.), Abby Wambach (Rochester, N.Y.)

A lot of newbies in this camp I still see we have to put up with Scurry

MASSIVE NEWS:


Jan 7, 2008
Kristine Lilly pregnant: Former Wilton soccer star will skip Olympics

By Tim Murphy



Kristine Lilly
Kristine Lilly, the former standout soccer star at Wilton High School who later went on to Olympic and World Cup soccer fame, has announced that she is pregnant and will not play in the upcoming Olympics.

In an exclusive interview with The Bulletin on Monday, Ms. Lilly said she found out she was pregnant in November, and is expected to give birth in July.

While she said she would not play in the Olympics, Ms. Lilly, who is 36, said she did not plan to retire from the sport.

“It’s going to be a little bit of a transition, but I’d like to play again when the women’s pro league returns next April,” said Ms. Lilly. “I would also consider playing for the national team if I get called up again.”

Ms. Lilly said a press release would be coming out later today.

Ms. Lilly graduated from Wilton High School in 1989, playing on three state champion and three FCIAC champion teams. She won four straight NCAA titles at the University of North Carolina and has played for the U.S. national team since 1987.

Ms. Lilly has won two World Cup titles and two Olympic gold medals with U.S. team. She holds the record for the most international appearances by a man or woman with more than 300 caps. Ms. Lilly played for the Boston Breakers in the Women’s United Soccer Association.

Ms. Lilly is married to Dave Heavey, a firefighter in Brookline, Mass., where the couple lives.

The complete interview will appear in this week’s edition of The Wilton Bulletin.


Congrats and all that, but I find it funny because I just read someone a couple of days ago speculating that she was trying to get knocked up so that she could keep her contract without having to deal with the rest of it. I'm not saying I think its true, but I find it funny that she's preggo now.

Anyway, the 20 person roster for the 4 nations should be announced today in a couple of hours. People who will not be on it besides Lilly, Ellerton:pregnant, Mitts:still rehabilitating knee, Kai: brochitis (sp?), Jobson:retired. I also believe Wagner still has injury issues, but this means there are a lot of openings. Also, like the Olympics, they will probably only take two goalies, so Scurry may still be cut if Barhart looks like she's exceeding her in practice. Also she may just want to give Barney some actual experience, which is what the 4 nations tournament has traditionally been about.

Oh, and that stuff about Solo was great, I knew a lot of it from before hand, but I think people should appreciate that she said what she said because she was way TOO emotionally involved and give her a break for that. I still personally think the bottom line was that she was right and although the truth may hurt, sometimes you desperately need to hear it. But Pia seems to have the team focused on moving on so that's good. Unfortunately, apparently Gregg Ryan is on Football Fone In tonight. This should be both fascinating and irritating at the same time watching a desperate man pick at an old scab. No matter what he says, I'm pretty confident Pia's over it and unless Hope does something stupid she's back in her starting spot.

We shall see...

Greg said on the Parkinson show he is not pregnant

(Only j/k)

At least Lilly is out now I can't see her ever coming back to play , but congratulations to her anyway. Interesting what you say there Weipeng , about her trying to get preggers so she wouldn't lose her cotract , naughty , naughty

I'm hoping Barnhart gets a chance as the number two , and I'll be glad when I see Solo reinstated as number one.

haha i had the same thought smithy least she wont be there , but congrats on the pregnancy

Oh god I can't believe this we get rid of one old timer and the other ones stays

Pia has named Scurry as one of the two keepers to go to China in a couple of weeks. Hope Solo is the other. Not happy one little bit Barnhart should of been given a chance.

For those who haven't seen the list for the 4 nations hear it is. And yes Scurry is still on it, and therefor probably on it for the Olympics if Pia didn't see fit to give Barney a chance in a tourney that doesn't mean much. Because there are a lot of knowns out, this gives a lot of young people a chance to prove themselves which should make it a fun tournament.

The naughty, naughty from Lilly is purely a theory I read from someone else. I'm not saying I believe it's true in anyway, but if it was it would be brillant way of getting out of things because she'll get to keep 50% of her contract while out, which runs through 2009. Nothing big comes up after the Olympics for years so I don't think she'll comeback to the Nats either, except for maybe an official retirement game or tour. But after the WWC she took a lot of flak for her lack of leadership skills as captain, which is something that she has never ever had to deal with, and probably found absolutely shocking, so I don't expect her back. I think she just wants a serious chance to play for the Boston team of the new women's league for a year or two.


Boxx, Shannon M
Chalupny, Lori M
Cheney, Lauren F
Cox, Stephanie D
DiMartino, Tina M
Heath, Tobin M
Hucles, Angela M
Krieger, Ali M
Lloyd, Carli M
O'Reilly, Heather f
Osborne, Leslie M
Rampone, Christie D
Rodriguez, Amy F
Sauerbrunn, Becky D
Scurry, Briana GK
Solo, HopeGK
Tarpley, Lindsay F
Wambach, Abby F
Whitehill, Cat D
Woznuk, Angie M

Oh and Phil Wheddon has been retained as gk coach.

I'm glad Phil has been kept , he's a good coach

Pia has announced that Christie Rampone is the new WNT captain. Considering who it could of been it's a good choice.

Agreed. Hopefully she's more vocal than Lilly, but I'm confident she has better people skills than Wambach.

Unfortunately the 4 Nations isn't on t.v so beyond the highlights on the US Soccer website we won't get a good impression of how things have changed. I think the first game is in a couple of hours vs. Canada which should be a good first test.

Well normally I don't have a problem with this tournament as it's always shown on Eurosport but this time It isn't on at all , and I'm not happy about it. I was looking forward to seeing how they play under Pia I swear they've brought the tournament froward this year.

Highlights up on youtube thanks to Martynnny:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QrkfBAH5OE

Thanks for that

no problem guys

and...

USA vs CANADA

YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QrkfBAH5OE
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5-Qy9qWmfg


FULL MATCH

1th and 2nd half

http://www.sendspace.com/file/8l6617

2nd half

http://download.yousendit.com/793BDF1E2B692BB9
or
http://www.mininova.org/tor/1110306 [torrent]

USA vs FINLAND

YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXwbyP-1FrA


FULL MATCH [I prefer vid from sendspaces's links - better quality]

1st half

http://www.gigasize.com/get.php?d=b9fc1tpmdmb
or
http://www.sendspace.com/file/8lbaod

2nd half

http://www.gigasize.com/get.php?d=8v5cjnndblb
or
http://www.sendspace.com/file/ql07wz

Great job as always Martynnny.

Get another post in Martynnny, then your avatar will show, and you deserve it for your invaluable assistance here

"Pia Sundhage has called 37 players to the next U.S. Women’s National Team training camp that begins on Feb. 1 at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. The camp is part of preparations for the CONCACAF Olympic Women’s Qualifying Tournament, being held April 2-13 in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
After a week of training and evaluation, Sundhage will release some players and focus on the remainder of the group to pick a 20-player roster for the 2008 Algarve Cup, which will be held from March 5-12 in Portugal."

U.S. Women’s National Team Roster by Position:
GOALKEEPERS (4): Cori Alexander (Martinez, Calif.), Kristen Luckenbill (Paoli, Pa.), Briana Scurry (Dayton, Minn.), Hope Solo (Richland, Wash.);

DEFENDERS (12): Stephanie Cox (Elk Grove, Calif.), Marian Dalmy (Lakewood, Colo.), Keeley Dowling (Carmel, Ind.), Tobin Heath (Basking Ridge, N.J.), Amy LePeilbet (Crystal Lake, Ill.), Kate Markgraf (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.), Heather Mitts (Cincinnati, Ohio), Christie Rampone (Point Pleasant, N.J.), Becky Sauerbrunn (St. Louis, Mo.), Brittany Taylor (Campbell Hall, N.Y.), India Trotter (Plantation, Fla.), Cat Whitehill (Birmingham, Ala.);

MIDFIELDERS (13): Shannon Boxx (Redondo Beach, Calif.), Jen Buczkowski (Elk Grove Village, Ill.), Lori Chalupny (St. Louis, Mo.), Tina DiMartino (Massapequa Park, N.Y.), Angela Hucles (Virginia Beach, Va.), Lindsay Huie (Mission Viejo, Calif.), Sarah Huffman (Flower Mound, Texas), Noelle Keselica (Gaithersburg, Md.), Carli Lloyd (Delran, N.J.), Joanna Lohman (Silver Spring, Md.), Manya Makoski (Trumbull, Conn.), Leslie Osborne (Brookfield, Wis.), Angie Woznuk (El Cajon, Calif.);

FORWARDS (: Lauren Cheney (Indianapolis, Ind.), Natasha Kai (Kahuku, Hawaii), Heather O’Reilly (East Brunswick, N.J.), Amy Rodriguez (Lake Forest, Calif.), Lindsay Tarpley (Kalamazoo, Mich.), Abby Wambach (Rochester, N.Y.). Tiffany Weimer (North Haven, Conn.), Christie Welsh (Massapequa Park, N.Y.).



As you will probably notice it appears that Barney may have been dropped at GK, but Pia brought in two new people. Cori Alexander was a very good keeper at Portland and graduated in 2006, and has played for the U-23's. Luckenbill was a backup for Bri in the 2004 Olympics and no one has really heard from her in awhile so we'll see.