It's just about time for the kinda-sorta "rematch"!
USA women's national team head coach Tom Sermanni has released the roster of 21 players who'll travel to Toronto for training ahead of the friendly on June 2 -- of which 18 will make the game day roster.
And while 11 of the 14 players who took part in last summer's epic Olympic semifinal will be part of that squad -- including Abby Wambach, Alex Morgan and Brett Lawrie's ex-girlfriend -- there will be some very notable exceptions, including Hope Solo (injury) and Megan Rapinoe (club commitments).
Still, this is an American squad that comes into town with a whole lot of depth and a ridiculously one-sided all-time record against Canada (44 wins in 52 matches) -- so any thoughts of Canada being on a clear path to an upset should be immediately put aside.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
The USA, after all, has played 15 matches since the Olympics and lost... let's check here... oh yeah, none of them, despite using a largely experimental lineup in a few. Among those newcomers is Christen Press, 24, who's racked up her first seven U.S. senior caps in 2013 and has tallied... let's count here... six goals.
And she'll probably be the Americans' fourth choice striker on June 2. Crap.
Now, this isn't meant to be doom and gloom. And none of this is news to anyone who's followed the women's games for any length of time, or with any degree of depth. The Americans are good. They've pretty much always been good. They're #1 in the world, and they have been for a large share of the time that FIFA's had world rankings for women's soccer.
This is, maybe, an attempt to put things in perspective. Even without their first-choice goalkeeper and the woman who scored a brace in that Olympic semifinal, the USA is a very, very strong team. The Olympic semifinal was remarkable not just because it was a thrilling game, but because a Canadian win would have truly run against the momentum of history between these two teams (another case in point: the last two matches on Canadian soil have both ended in 4-0 wins for the Yanks).
We still don't know what Canada's lineup will be, but we will on Wednesday. From all indications, it'll be more or less a cut-and-paste of the roster from that Olympic semifinal, with maybe a few spots carved out for promising youngsters (defender Kadeisha Buchanan and striker Adriana Leon would be the most likely, from where I sit).
Of course, that would be the same team that authored that thrilling semifinal (and a rather spirited one-goal loss in Utah just prior to their departure for London). So, who knows, perhaps those familiar faces will be able to cook up some more magic in front of what should be a loud and one-sided crowd at BMO Field.
We know now that the Americans are taking this match seriously.
But then, so are we.
.