Olympic Draw

[Vic]

Big day is tomorrow when we see where the dice spin out

It's live in the UK on BBC2 at 6:00am EST/3:00am PCT. Twitter will have the updates as they happen

USA/Japan/GB are seeded and apart.

[Trillium]

Big day is tomorrow when we see where the dice spin out

It's live in the UK on BBC2 at 6:00am EST/3:00am PCT. Twitter will have the updates as they happen

USA/Japan/GB are seeded and apart.

Would be great if the draw ... pits Great Britain versus Canada in opener.

[jasonm]

Canada to kick off London 2012 against champion Japan

Posted on 24 April 2012 in Women's Olympic Football Tournament

Canada will face Japan, South Africa and Sweden at the London 2012 Women's Olympic Football Tournament this July in Coventry and Newcastle. Canada will face Japan on Wednesday 25 July, South Africa on Saturday 28 July, and Sweden on Tuesday 31 July. The first two matches will be played at the City of Coventry Stadium in Coventry while the third match will be played at St. James' Park in Newcastle.

The entire London 2012 Olympic Football Draw was unveiled on Tuesday 24 April from Wembley Stadium in London, England. For the Women's Olympic Football Tournament, Japan, Canada, Sweden and South Africa make up Group F; Great Britain, New Zealand, Cameroon and Brazil make up Group E; and USA, France, Colombia and Korea DPR make up Group G.

The top-two teams from each group plus two of the three third-place teams will advance to the quarter-final phase. After the group matches from 25 July to 31 July, the quarter-final matches will be played on 3 August. Those four matches will be played in Glasgow (Hampden Park), Cardiff (Millennium Stadium), Coventry and Newcastle.

The two semi-final matches will be played on 6 August in Manchester (Old Trafford Stadium) and London (Wembley Stadium). On 9 August, the match for third place will be played in Coventry while the gold-medal final will be played in London.

"There is a bit of clarity now and that is exciting," said Canadian head coach John Herdman. "We can now start to focus on the technical blueprints and draw the route back from the gold-medal game."

[Vic]

It's a good draw for us, the groups are all relatively so-so but the route after that is a bit privileged.

Here's the line back from the final he was speaking of.

If you come first or second in our group you avoid 2/3 group winners (likely USA/Brazil) until the final. The first two in our group meet the second-place of the other two groups (likely France/Britain) in the quarters. Dispatch them and the first two of our group meet again in a semi to see who goes to the final.

Come in third in the wildcard spot and you have to take out the other two group winners to get to the final.

Our last two games against Japan were a 3-0 win in Cyprus in 2008 and a tie in Tokyo in 2007.

We've played Sweden four times in the past 14 months. A 1-0 win in China in in January 2011, a 1-0 loss in Rome a year ago, a 2-1 win in Arizona in November, and a 3-1 loss in Sweden last month.

If we're on form we can go quite far.

Japan and Sweden met in the world cup semi. Japan had 60% possession and a similar edge in shots (14-4) and corners (8-2). But the game was 1-1 on the hour with Sweden missing their captain who is one of their two strongest players. In a friendly a month before the cup they tied 1-1 last summer.

Country Rank

Great Britain 9+ (+ = all the UK)

New Zealand 24

Cameroon 52

Brazil 4

Japan 3

Canada 7

Sweden 5

South Africa 65

United States 1

France 6

Colombia 28

North Korea 8

When people think of the success in 2003 most people remember the Hollywood header, the Great Canadian Wall in the back and the stunning play of Swiatek. What few remember is we placed second in our group behind Germany and in the process beat Japan 3-1 and knocked them out of the second stage of the Cup.

Our success was no mystery. It was masterful direction from Pellerud and the entire cast played humble hardworking solid football. We also had four quality professionals (Nonen, Hooper, Latham and Burtini) who benefited from playing in unquestionably the top league in the world (not a mishmash of great players in leagues around the world like we have now).

In the decade since then we have not placed higher than third in group at a FIFA world tournament. These are the teams who placed in front of us:

2011 France, Germany

2008 China, Sweden

2007 Norway, Australia

2004 N/A

These are the teams we placed above:

2011 No one (Nigeria took 3rd, we placed last)

2008 Argentina

2007 Ghana

2004 No one (Mexico eliminated us in CONCACAF qualifying)

Godspeed to a great medal run, but if we fail in the quarters and add South Africa to that shameful list above, I wonder if anyone will actually have the eureka moment of realization that you need to focus on and support league infrastructure to develop players. Nah, never happen.

[amacpher]

I'm assuming it was not possible for Canada to be in the same group as the USA. In that case, Group "A" would've been quite a bit easier to finish in a top 2 position. Now even second place will be a huge challenge based on what I saw at the World Cup last summer.

[Trillium]

Godspeed to a great medal run, but if we fail in the quarters and add South Africa to that shameful list above, I wonder if anyone will actually have the eureka moment of realization that you need to focus on and support league infrastructure to develop players. Nah, never happen.

Vic...

Here is an idea... the CSA should approach nine nations and run a league with a 36 game season, that is 18 home games.

Approach, Honduras, Columbia, Mexico, Jamaca, Domincan Republic, Ecuador, Venzeula, Argentina.

Bring together your National Team pool in one city with a 10k plus stadia for the National Women's Team, ( I would argue Ottawa for geographic and marketing reasons ).

Pay the National team players based on carded A revenue plus added money to give each player a base of 30k per year on a group of 30 players, so 900K.

Gate receipt revenue at average of 6k at 15 =90k per game x 18 =1,620,000 revenue.

This would allow us to have our national team playing at high level consistently under the national team coach, its time realize development on the women's side in Canada will not mirror the pro side for men, lets move forward with a different model.

[ryan88]

n an effort to improve air quality, the city placed restrictions on construction sites, gas stations and on the use of commercial and passenger vehicles in Beijing. From June 20 through September 20, passenger vehicle restrictions were placed on alternate days depending on the terminal digit of the car's license plate. It was anticipated that this measure would take 45% of Beijing's 3.3 million cars off the streets. The boosted public transport network was expected to absorb the demand created by these restrictions and the influx of visitors, which was estimated at more than 4 million extra passengers per day.

[Sam]

Vic...

Here is an idea... the CSA should approach nine nations and run a league with a 36 game season, that is 18 home games.

Approach, Honduras, Columbia, Mexico, Jamaca, Domincan Republic, Ecuador, Venzeula, Argentina.

Bring together your National Team pool in one city with a 10k plus stadia for the National Women's Team, ( I would argue Ottawa for geographic and marketing reasons ).

Pay the National team players based on carded A revenue plus added money to give each player a base of 30k per year on a group of 30 players, so 900K.

Gate receipt revenue at average of 6k at 15 =90k per game x 18 =1,620,000 revenue.

This would allow us to have our national team playing at high level consistently under the national team coach, its time realize development on the women's side in Canada will not mirror the pro side for men, lets move forward with a different model.

I really like this idea, but the problem is I don't think you would get 6k out to every game down in Honduras, Columbia, Jamaica etc. where women's football is no where near Canada in terms of media and public attention.

[Guest soccer1]

Canada will have a hard time to avoid to what happened in Germany...As to the Womens "world cup" organised by CSA...Nice money making scheme...LOL

[Vic]

Sweden plays Scotland end of this month and the Americans at home June 16 followed by Japan in Göteborg on the 20th. Two great opponents and fresh home support, a pretty formidable combination going into a tournament.

Japan is also playing the Americans in Sweden on the 18th, followed by Australia in Tokyo July 11. Similar good timing to connect locally before getting down to business.

South Africa has Zambia at home in June and home/away with Nigeria.

[Vic]

Heading into GB2012 Sweden's World Cup bronze medalist central duo is in disarray. Their #2 Rohlin just blew her right knee and is gone and her central partner is trying to come back from long-term rehab and won't be 100% or firing on all cylinders. It will be interesting to see who they slot in for the Volvo Cup against the Americans and Japanese, and how they operate.

[Jcm144]

Going to be a very difficult group for Canada, with Japan and Sweden. Should be some great games tho!

[Vic]

Should be interesting to see what Japan, Sweden and the states bring to the table and reveal in their Olympic prep mini-tournament that starts in Sweden this weekend. The Americans are a potential quarter for the wildcard from our group.

[Vic]

Senior women's result was USA 3 -1 Sweden on Saturday. The Americans were three goals on three shots around 50 minutes in. They hit the woodwork a couple of times too. USA/Japan is today.

U20 yesterday was USA 0 - 1 Japan, with the winner in the 81st minute.

[Vic]

USA 4 - 1 Japan

After putting down our Olympic groupmates with ease, our game in the SLC 'burbs in a couple of weeks will be an interesting afternoon. The stands will be full of scouting so it's an interesting dilemma - load all cylinders and look for peak performance or keep some tricks up your sleeve.

The other question is what kind of poker Dennerby and Sasaki were playing.

[AlanDouglas]

Canada announced their final roster today. Christine Sinclair *did* make the team. So we caught a break there.

[StrandOne]

Did we send our best roster to London for the Olympics? Some are decrying putting Filigno on the squad and leaving Julien as an alternate. Thoughts?

[lovetoplay]

In my humble opinion Filigno is the right choice, although I have not seen her play lately. I think that she has more of that striker's whatever it is that makes a striker good. Julien has potential but I think she has choked in the high level games, whereas Filigno has more international experience and Olympics experience. I am not basing this on stats but on my personal impressions of both players.

[StrandOne]

Agreed. Agreed. Agreed !