USA vs. Canada: American Women Must Be Anything but Friendly

The United States women’s national soccer team is finally back in action after their heartbreaking loss to Japan in the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

You know what they say; the best thing to do after taking a spill is to get right back on and keep riding, so hopefully it will do well for the team to get back into game action.

The Americans are squaring off against a young Canadian team at Livestrong Sporting Park in Kansas City.

As a friendly it may not seem like a huge match, but there is a lot at stake for a game that doesn’t really mean anything.

One, the United States has to get their swagger back after the shootout loss to Japan. There is nothing better than winning to forget a loss, so even though it doesn’t count towards anything I believe it would still be a big psychological boost.

Not only that, but the team needs to start preparing for the Olympics, which is second only to the World Cup in prestige. This is an important game for United States head coach Pia Sundhage to get her team back on the same page and start working out some of the kinks.

It’s a friendly and I expect it to be played as so, but the point I am trying to make is that this match is actually important.

The Americans can go out and play a vanilla game against Canada and will probably get an easy win. Or, they can go out and legitimately prepare for the Olympics, and soon enough another shot at the World Cup.

This team is the future of women’s soccer. They showed us how good they can be, and with young stars on the rise like Alex Morgan and keeper Hope Solo at the helm, there is no telling how good they can be.

It’s time for the United States to take soccer a bit more seriously, and believe it or not I think it starts with this friendly against Canada.