Oh, Canada...your defense is not good

I went to the US Women's Saturday night friendly versus Canada at RFK. The announced crowd was about 9,000 - not bad for a game that was almost completely unpromoted. Too bad there weren't more though, the US women are incredible athletes and there were an awful lot of goals scored.

The lineups

The US thrashed Canada by a score of 6-0. Lindsey Tarpley had the first and winning goal, assisted nicely by Abby Wambach (three total assists). In the second half, Natasha Kai - easy to pick out of a crowd for her tatoos - had a hat trick. She celebrates like crazy; not a shy girl. Carli Lloyd had a breakaway goal and second-half substitute Lesley Osbourne scored the final goal on a nice run all the way to the end line by Amy Rodriguez who was born when I was in seventh grade.

First goal

What did I learn?

• Drama queens. They love to waive and celebrate like they're in a school play.
• As a group, they are quite tall and fit. Hope Solo is a freak athlete.

Hope Solo is Back

Lori Chalupny, who plays left defensive back, is my new favorite female player. She's the quintessential player - she moves up/back/laterally, has great vision and good ball skills.

Chalupny