Analyzing the Games: Semis Review; Gold Medal Game Preview

By Graham Hays | Special to fans.womensprosoccer.com

(Aug. 19, 2008) -- Four is a number seared into a lot of memories after last fall's World Cup, making it fitting that a little less than a year after Brazil's 4-0 win against the United States, both teams put a quartet of goals on the scoreboard to make the rematch a golden attraction.

Looking back at the semifinals

United States 4, Japan 2
The United States National Team lives in a results-driven world. If it wins the World Cup or Olympic title, it's successful. If it doesn't, it's assumed to have done something wrong rather than simply suffered defeat. So before even getting to a final against Brazil that includes enough extra baggage to ensure any airline's solvency for the next decade, the current team's performance in China deserves a fair label: an unqualified success.

This isn't to suggest that beating New Zealand, Canada in extra time and Japan twice is a feat for the ages, or that the product on the field from Pia Sundhage's side has been perfect soccer. To the contrary, it has been occasionally frantic and often overly hopeful, but it has also been energized and opportunistic. And with every game, this team looks more and more comfortable with itself, which may have been true during the 2004 Olympics but certainly was far from the case during either the 2003 or 2007 World Cups.

No player personifies that better than Angela Hucles. Monday's star with a pair of goals in the 4-2 victory after missing a number of opportunities against Canada in the quarterfinals, she was an afterthought on past World Cup rosters and rarely saw much time at her natural midfield position. But as what amounted to Abby Wambach's replacement in the starting 11, she moved up top and formed a productive partnership with Amy Rodriguez almost immediately after the latter joined her in the starting lineup for the second game.

It's a familiar litany by now, but this team lost Leslie Osborne and Cat Whitehill to injuries early in its preparations, lost Abby Wambach on the eve of its trip to China, lost its opener to Norway after allowing two goals in the first five minutes and went down a goal in the semifinals. And yet here it is in the Gold Medal Match after scoring 11 goals in its last four games, the program's most prolific four-game stretch in major competition since the first four games of the 2003 World Cup.

Given everything else going on in the Olympics (hello, Mr. Phelps), a large number of people may turn their attention to this team for the first time when it plays for the gold. That's just the way it works, and it means the difference between gold and silver will still drive perceptions. But whatever happens, it's much easier to get excited about learning where these players are headed in the WPS than it would have been last October.

WPS scouting: It's fitting that someone who played her college soccer in flyover country at Notre Dame now toils largely in the vast expanse between the two 18-yard boxes. And Shannon Boxx has been toiling pretty well in recent games. Whether supporting the back line with a good clearance in front of net during the opening minute against Japan or coming back with an extra burst to meet Kate Markgraf's pass on the possession that ultimately produced Lori Chalupny's highlight-reel goal, she was outstanding all day. That Homare Sawa threatened as little as she did had a lot to do with Boxx's presence.

Brazil 4, Germany 1
Brazil had just started to show signs of emerging from the funk that handed Germany the opening goal and several other chances during the opening minutes of Monday's semifinal. With the ball in Brazil's half but her team's advance stymied for the moment, veteran German midfielder Renate Lingor pointedly ran over Formiga as her counterpart gathered the ball near the sideline. It seemed like a cagey move at the time – with no consequences beyond a restart 70 yards from goal, Lingor's physical play sent a message and offered temptation for Brazil to fall out of rhythm in pursuit of retribution.

In hindsight, it just looked like a deckhand on the Titanic taking a swing at the iceberg.
Nearly duplicating its performance in the World Cup semifinals – and at least the United States played most of that match down a player – Brazil unleashed another attacking masterpiece in a 4-1 win to reach the gold-medal match for the second Olympics in a row.

Germany wasted little time reaffirming that Brazil's back line is an unorganized adventure, but even that seems to be working in the South American side's favor these days. When Marta, Cristiane and Daniela weren't playing keep away by maintaining possession in Germany's half, they were sprinting out in counterattacks after Silvia Neid's side committed too many players too far forward at the sight of all the openings.

WPS scouting: Tania's athleticism and work rate make her a compelling presence on defense, but at 33 and serving as captain in the Olympics with Aline out of action due to injury, she hasn't shown a lot of organizational skill in the center. Her speed can stymie attacks and break down an opponent's midfield when she pushes forward, but it also means her own team needs to have another mobile and heady center back alongside her to cover extra ground and improvise when opponents counter. Germany should have been up by at least two goals in the opening half hour, and while not all of the opportunities given away can be pinned on Tania, the pressure only subsided when Marta, Cristiane and Daniela made sure the ball stayed well removed from their own back line.

Pick a German and it's pretty easy to find fault based on Monday's showing, but Simone Laudehr had an especially disappointing day in what has been an up-and-down tournament for the young midfielder. Laudehr has tremendous two-way potential as a finisher who can track back, but she was invisible for stretches against Brazil and visible for all the wrong reasons on ill-advised tackles and spotty passes the rest of the time.

Looking ahead to the Gold Medal Match (9am EST/6am PST on USA)
Germany's back line plays as well together as any group in the world, but it couldn't stop from disintegrating into four individual scrambling parts the second time around against Marta, Cristiane and Daniela. But before things get to Mitts, Rampone, Markgraf and Chalupny for the United States, Boxx will have a lot to do with attempting to slow at least Daniela. Losing Boxx to a red card as early in the 2007 World Cup semifinal as the United States did was a double blow, putting the team a player down, obviously, but also taking that player from the field's biggest pressure point in any game involving Brazil. With the way Brazil was playing that night, it might not have mattered, but it didn't help.

In Thursday’s Olympic Final, Boxx is not going to win a footrace against any of the Big Three but neither will they be able to maneuver with impunity if trying to draw fouls instead of dancing with the ball.

Another key spot on what the Americans hope isn't their version of the Maginot Line should emerge when Marta tries to stake a claim to Heather Mitts' side of the field. Mitts is the surest tackler the United States has at the moment, and she has the team's fastest player in Christie Rampone next to her. No team has yet prevented Marta and Cristiane from controlling the entire width of the field, but Mitts, who wasn't around for the game last fall, and Rampone, who was playing outside, have a chance to shrink their half.

That the most obvious questions entering the final relate to how the United States will react to Brazil's three best players says a lot about where the teams are right now. Whatever the world rankings say, every team is now forced to react to the Brazilians. But this isn't David vs. Goliath, and there are weak spots for the Americans to probe.

Even without Wambach and Osborne, Sundhage's team is still decent in the air. Against a defense that is frequently a step or two out of optimal position and against a young ‘keeper who has looked very shaky, the crosses that Heather O'Reilly and Lindsay Tarpley love to send offer good paths by which to create either chances in the air or scrambles in front of goal.

Graham Hays is an ESPN columnist and a contributor to womensprosoccer.com. He can be reached at moonlighthays@gmail.com. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author's, and not necessarily those of Women’s Professional Soccer or womensprosoccer.com.