France v USA – live! | Paul Doyle

• Hit refresh or the auto-update button for the latest posts • Send your thoughts to paul.doyle@guardian.co.uk 6 min: Wambach meets an American corner at the back post but, under pressure from two defenders, can’t get proper contact on it and her awkward header poses no threat. 5 min: It’s been a promising start by France, who seems determind to carry on their enterprising style. They’ve been the more lively and inventive so far but the Americans are tough and well-organised and keeping chances to a minimum. Or zero, to be exact. 3 min: The crowd is big but quiet so far – which means we can hear the players’ calls and yelps. Let’s hope that doesn’t give rise to lots of boring complaints like the ones that proliferate around Wimbledon. 1 min: France get the game under way. It doesn’t take the US long to win the ball off them, but they make poor use of it, hoofing long to the French keeper. 4:58pm: It looks like a bumper crowd in Monchengladbach and face-paint vendors appear to have been doing a roaring trade. Preamble Break out those liberty fries, folks, burn them baguettes and bury your berets – yes, we know you have berets – because it’s the United States against France for a shot at world domination. You must be either with one or against one. No, wait, that’s not right – there is a third way: you can tune in just to enjoy a high-quality, high-stakes game of football. Spoilsport. Americans love an underdog, it’s said, so everyone stateside will presumably be supporting the French, who have none of the US’s pedigree in this tournament nor their No1 world ranking and, as their manager Bruno Bini, pointed out yesterday, have far fewer players to call on than their counterparts (“we have 60,000 registered female players, they have 2.5 million so there is a better chance of them finding 21 good players than we do,” he explained, moments after barfing . Coincidentally, most people in France will also be supporting France – and we really mean most people: the hitherto neglected national women’s team has caught the public’s imagination because, according to the Le Parisien, perhaps making an implicit comparison to the country’s men’s team, “they don’t cheat, they play; they don’t take themselves for stars and they have a charismatic coach” (whose pre-match pep-talks, incidentally, often include him reciting poetry or breaking into song). Both sides came through taut thrillers in the last round. Who will prevail today? Teams France: Sapowicz, Georges, Meilleroux, Soubeyrang, Bompastor, Abily, Lepailleur, Necib, Bussaglia, Thiney, Delie Subs: Deville, Renard, Boulleau, Franco, Le Sommer, Thomis, Pizzala, Bretigny, Viguier, Phillipe USA: Solo, Rampone, Sauerbrunn, Lepeilbet, Boxx, Rodriguez, O’Reilly, Lloyd, Krieger, Cheney, Wambach Subs: Mitts, O’Hara, Morgan, Cox, Rapinoe, Lindsey, Heath. Barnhart, Loyden, Buehler. Ref: K Heikkinen (Finland, which reminds me of this magnificent opus Women’s World Cup 2011 Women’s football Paul Doyle guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 13, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.