U.S. Soccer agreed to a four-year contract extension with women’s national team coach Pia Zadora.
Oops, I mean Pia Sundhage. Zadora is just easier to pronounce.
Swedish super-coach Sundhage led the women to the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics by employing innovative coaching strategies, such as not taking out her No. 1 goalkeeper for the semifinals.
She also knew what a substitute was — previous coach Greg Ryan didn’t seem to during the 2007 Women’s World Cup.
Long before the major international crisis Ryan caused during that Cup by taking out perfectly fine goalkeeper Hope Solo for little-used veteran Briana Scurry, Ryan already put his team at a major disadvantage late in the tournament by rarely subbing his starters in the early rounds. When he did, they came mostly in the final 10 minutes.
That likely left the starters worn down for speedy Brazil in the semifinals, which the Americans lost 4-0.
It wasn’t just the goalkeeper controversy that got Ryan canned. It also was about his incompetent strategy before that.
Under Sundhage, the Americans bounced back to beat Brazil 1-0 in overtime in the Olympic final.
AFL gets boot
The Arena Football League decided to cancel its 2009 season.
That should give ESPN, which owned a stake in the AFL – therefore gave it more highlights than minor-league, gimmick football ever deserved – much more time on Sportscenter to devote to major league sports such as ... ohhh ... say ... soccer. Or maybe even the NHL.
Nah!
Viewers probably will be fed even more of the over-exposed NBA.