Association Football
The United States earned spots in Beijing for both men's and women's soccer by advancing to the finals of the CONCACAF Pre-Olympic Tournaments in March and April 2008. For the Olympic tournament, the full women's national team and the men's under-23 team (including three players over the age of 23) participated. The 18-player roster for the 2008 U.S. Olympic women's soccer team was announced on June 23, 2008. In the final match before the Olympics on July 16, the women's team lost leading scorer Abby Wambach after she broke her left leg in a collision with Brazilian defender Andréia Rosa. Lauren Cheney, originally selected as an alternate, replaced Wambach on the roster. The 18-player roster for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Men's Soccer Team was announced on July 17, 2008. After aggravating a hamstring injury, defender Nathan Sturgis was replaced by midfielder Dax McCarty on the Olympic roster July 24, 2008.
Despite playing without Wambach and an early first-round loss to Norway, the women's soccer team successfully defended their 2004 gold medal against Brazil in overtime; it was the third gold medal overall for the United States in women's soccer. The team had lost its previous match against Brazil 4–0 in the semifinals of the 2007 Women's World Cup.
Read more about this topic: United States At The 2008 Summer Olympics
Famous quotes containing the words association and/or football:
“They that have grown old in a single state are generally found to be morose, fretful and captious; tenacious of their own practices and maxims; soon offended by contradiction or negligence; and impatient of any association but with those that will watch their nod, and submit themselves to unlimited authority.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“People stress the violence. That’s the smallest part of it. Football is brutal only from a distance. In the middle of it there’s a calm, a tranquility. The players accept pain. There’s a sense of order even at the end of a running play with bodies stewn everywhere. When the systems interlock, there’s a satisfaction to the game that can’t be duplicated. There’s a harmony.”
—Don Delillo (b. 1926)