Hope Solo

On the field, they’re all business. Off the field, hilarity ensues.

Exhibit A: Sand castle competition in Albufeira, Portugal.
Scenario: As a team building exercise for the ‘09 Algarve Cup, the team is divided into fours, grouped by position (poor goalkeepers).
Best moment: Angie Woznuk and Megan Rapinoe unintentionally making a kid weep.
Best line: “The mermaid wasn’t even original!”-Amy Rodriguez exclaims in the background while Head Coach Pia Sundhage tells the camera her favorite is the goalkeepers’ mermaid.
Runner-up: “A small overdressed.” Heather O’Reilly while Heather Mitts shows off her beach dress

Exhibit B: Stephanie Cox’s birthday party
Scenario: The team surprises Cox on her 22nd birthday in a hotel in Juarez, Mexico.
Best moment: Heather O’Reilly trying, unsuccessfully, to push Tobin Heath into the pool. Hope Solo sees an opportunity and pushes both of them to the pool (goalkeepers are powerful ninjas).
Runner-up: Natasha Kai hitting herself instead of the pinata.
Best line: “It’s my first…I didn’t know what was going on.” Swede fitness coach Helena Andersson on all the pinata madness

Exhibit C: Funnel match
Scenario: Heather Mitts and Natasha Kai team up to pull a prank on a few of their teammates
Best moment: Abby Wambach laughing at Heather O’Reilly (you gotta hear it to appreciate it).
Best line: “I knew you were gonna do something! It was against my better judgement!” Kacey White.

Exhibit D: Bus wave-back match
Scenario: Always competitive, even on a bus ride during the Olympics, the team starts a contest of which side of the bus will get the most waves.
Best moment: Picture this: Baby-faced Lori Chalupny, in a bus, with a lollipop, waving.
Best lines: “The back of the bus doesn’t count.” “Yes it does!” “Dude they’re gonna… they could get a lot.”

This week, women’s soccer has a matchup any sports promoter want to make.

The USA is ranked No. 1. Germany is No. 2.

The USA won the 2008 Olympics. Germany has won the last two World Cups and the 2009 European championship.

The USA has a well-established college match and a new professional league, WPS. Germany is the only major European country to keep its players home in its domestic league, the Bundesliga, which has three of the final 16 teams in Europe’s new Champions League.

Thursday’s match (1 p.m. ET) has no Olympic or World Cup ramifications but is nevertheless a clash of superpowers in Impuls Arena in Augsburg, Germany, one of the venues for the 2011 World Cup.

“I wouldn’t say it’s friendly,” U.S. coach Pia Sundhage says. “It is really an vital match for all of us.”

“The buildup to this match feels different,” goalkeeper Hope Solo says. “We’re having more meetings, we’re watching film on Germany. They just got done winning the Euros, putting on quite a performance in the final (6-2 over England). Everybody knows they’re on top of their match right now.

“We’re getting the opportunity not only to play one of the best teams in the world, as prepared as they could be at this point in time, but also in a stadium with 30,000-plus people. You really can’t beat that.”

The U.S. team has noticed excitement in Germany. The match is sold out and will be on live television in Germany, though not in the USA.

Solo says she has seen signs all over town and some animated ads in the subway, and a group of players traveling in Munich attracted some curiosity.

“You can tell there’s a sense of pride for their women’s football team,” Solo says. “The last World Cup, they brought home the trophy to thousands and thousands of fans waiting for them when they stepped off that plane. To this day, seeing that, it gave me hope for something so much larger for what football for women could be.”

Small wonder Germany is placing such an emphasis on its World Cup defense on home soil. The players are remaining in the Bundesliga to be closer together heading into the tournament.

“Some of the games and some of the teams in the Bundesliga are as excellent as WPS,” Sundhage says. “The largest difference — all the players are professional in WPS. Every single match is competitive. I wouldn’t say that’s the same thing in Germany or Sweden or Norway. That is unique for WPS.”

With WPS’ first season completed, this match is the first chance to answer a couple of questions: How much has that sort of week-to-week pressure helped the U.S. players? And how will WPS play change the talent pool?

Ella Masar (Chicago) and Brittany Bock (Los Angeles) are looking for their first international appearances, and WPS play has helped Amy LePeilbet (Boston), Lori Lindsey (Washington/Philadelphia) and Yael Averbuch (Sky Blue) emerge or re-emerge with the team.

“We’re a very different team right now, no doubt about that,” Hope Solo says.

Lori Chalupny and goalie Hope Solo of the St. Louis Athletica helped lead the United States Women’s National Soccer team to a 1-0 win over Germany in an international friendly match Thursday in Augsburg, Bavaria in front of more than 30,000 at a sold-out Impuls Arena. Solo kept a shutout for the U.S. in a match between the two top-rated countries in the FIFA world rankings. The U.S. came into the match ranked first in the world, just 35 points ahead of Germany.

Hope Solo helped set the tone early in what would become a frustrating day for the Germans. Hope Solo’s diving stop in just the fourth minute of play denied Germany the early opener. Solo punched clear a perilous ball from the left corner, fully laying out to reach it, and stopped what would be the best German chance of the first half.

Chalupny and Solo teamed up in the 15th minute. This time Chalupny cleared away a loose ball on the edge of the six-yard box. Solo had gotten a hand to the ball, just enough so that Chalupny could come in and relieve the pressure. Later, in the 29th minute, Germany’s Kim Kullig volleyed an 18-yard shot right at Solo who saved comfortably.

Abby Wambach, from the Washington Freedom, place the U.S. ahead in the 34th minute when she headed in a goal from 12 yards. Wambach was on the end of a cross from Sky Blue FC’s Yael Averbuch that deflected off a German defender. Wambach rose to meet it with a solid header, getting over the top of the German defender and goalkeeper.

The second half started with Chalupny right back in the middle of the action. Chalupny’s 46th minute clearance halted an early German attack. Chalupny dug out the ball from a scrum inside the goal box, sending it out of the penalty area and into midfield.

Hope Solo found herself with some more work to handle in the second half. She raced to the edge of the penalty area to prevent a chance from materializing in the 57th minute. One minute later, she easily handled a cross from the right that could have become problematic.

Germany had two excellent chances during the rest of the second half, but Solo stopped each. In the 69th minute Anja Mittag found herself with some space at the edge of the penalty area, but her resulting shot was no test for Solo. Germany’s last excellent effort came in the 87th minute on a lofted ball straight into the goalmouth. Solo, taking no chances, punched it away. Afterwards Solo had high praise for the Germans.

“I have never seen a team so patient in their attack,” Solo said. “They attack with so many numbers, and they keep possession in the final third of the field. They are just plain excellent.”

The match in Augsburg was played at the new Impuls Arena, which will be a venue during the 2011 Women’s World Cup which will be played in Germany. The win by the U.S. will keep it ranked first in the FIFA world rankings.