My (other) Football Thoughts of the Week:

U.S. Women's National Team:

The US Women's National Team, who came one score away in a shoot out from winning the World Cup this last summer, is back to domination as they begin the group round of Olympic Qualifying matches in Vancouver B.C.

The Women's Team has played two games against the Dominican Republic and Guatemala in the qualifying tournament and won by a combined score of 27-0.

Hope Solo continued her mastery of the goal-keeping position by posting two shutouts and the USWNT's offense had a lot of practice finding the back of the net. Abby Wombach, the team's captain, was substituted early in both games after taking a large halftime lead. Sydney Leroux took her place and quickly scored four goals in the second half.

The US Women will face their toughest challenge in the qualifying matches against Mexico on Tuesday January 24th. Mexico has also beaten the Dominican Republic and Guatemala...but only by a combined score of 12-0. The US lost to Mexico in their previous qualifying tournament.

"We understand that 14-, 13-goal games can be looked down upon by some of our viewers, our fans, by fans of other countries," said Abby Wambach, who scored twice in the first half. "But the truth is we didn't get our job done the last qualifying tournament, and this is a statement that we're making to the rest of the world, we're making to our region, and we can't take any game for granted. We have to play hard, play physical and respect the game. That's why the results are the results you've seen."

U.S. Men's National Team:


The Men's National team played a friendly in Phoenix against Venezuela. It was a hard fought match going into extratime at the end of the game, and the score was tied at 0-0. The US Men had played a great game, with many chances to score but couldn't ever finish their opportunities. In the 97th minute though, Ricardo Clark scored on a header in front of the goal off a corner kick from Jeremiah Jones.

With both sides playing their "B" teams because starters were playing with their regular clubs, the US was able to come away with an exciting victory.

"Ricardo came in and you could see that he was struggling because he hasn't played for many months," Klinsmann, the US coach said. "He was trying hard to catch up with the group and still not there because of that long stretch. But once on the field he is a player that is technically very gifted."