Beijing...and IN!

Sort of a strange game tonight in that as far as we remember, the U.S. WNT has never played a match in a dust storm before, nor against a team that sat so far back on defense that their sweeper was at the top of her own penalty area. Still, give full credit to Costa Rica for having a game plan and sticking to it...and holding the USA scoreless for a half was certainly a moral victory for Central America's top team. But at the end of the day, the USA got it done and is headed to BEIJING for the 2008 OLYMPICS! An oddity is that as many times as the USA has been to China (nine times since 1998), the team has never played in Beijing. Of course, with four venues for Olympic women's soccer in other cities than Beijing, depending on the draw, the USA may have to make it to the medal round just to get to China's capital city. For the record, Beijing, Tianjin, Qinhuangdao, Shanghai and Shenyang will host matches in the Olympic women's soccer tournament. The draw is April 20 where the USA will find out which countries are in their group and where the matches will be played. Stay tuned...