The U.S. team will play Japan in the semifinal at Beijing Workers Stadium on Monday, August 18th. The match kicks off at 8:00 am CT and will be broadcast live on MSNBC, Universal HD and the NBC Olympic Soccer Channel.

The Americans have made the semifinal round in all nine world championships FIFA has held for women’s soccer, including the last four Olympic Games. The quarterfinals saw the elimination of the host country, 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup finalists and the world’s third-ranked team Sweden, as well as the world’s fifth ranked team, Norway. Somewhat appropriately, the Olympic semifinals contain a representative from Europe, South America, CONCACAF and Asia with Brazil facing Germany in the early game.

Japan’s run in the Olympics is its best ever in a world championship and the first time it has made a semifinal of a FIFA tournament … The USA and Japan will be playing for the second time in 10 days after the USA’s 1-0 victory in Group G play on Aug. 9 in Qinhuangdao … Carli Lloyd scored the USA’s lone goal in that match on a blast from the top of the penalty box in the 27th minute … The USA outshot Japan 18-9 in that match and had nine corner kicks to Japan’s four, but the Japanese got a fantastic game from goalkeeper Miho Fukumoto and created a number dangerous scoring chances themselves

U.S. WOMEN TO FACE NEW ZEALAND IN SHENYANG; WIN CLINCHES SPOT IN QUARTERS:
The U.S. Olympic Women’s Soccer Team will face New Zealand on Tuesday, Aug. 12, at the Shenyang Olympic Sports Center Stadium with a win guaranteeing a spot in the quarterfinals. The USA currently sits second in Group G with three points behind Norway (six points) and a win over the Kiwis will clinch the second spot in the group, earning a quarterfinal match against the winner of Group F.

The match kicks off at 6:45 am. CT and will be broadcast live on MSNBC The USA could also qualify for the quarterfinals with a tie if Norway defeats Japan. That match will take place in Shanghai concurrently with the U.S. game.

The U.S. Women’s National Team is ready to kick off their Group G Olympic opener against Norway at 7:45 p.m. local time / 6:45 a.m. CT on Wednesday, August 6th, at Qinhuangdao Olympic Sports Center Stadium. The match will be broadcast live on MSNBC and Universal HD, with the pre-game show starting at 7:30 a.m. ET, as well as on NBC Olympic Soccer Channel. All 12 teams in three groups will be in action Wednesday, including Brazil vs. Germany in Group F and China vs. Sweden in Group E. The U.S. and Norway are certainly familiar with each other having met 43 times over the years and twice already this year.

We’ve got some great games to enjoy this week to prepare ourselves for the new season. The start of the Olympic games features soccer in advance of the formal opening of the games. There is also a Friendly between Red Bull NY and Barcelona. Here’s the lineup:

Wednesday – 6:30 am – US WNT vs Norway (MSNBC/UHD)
Wednesday – 6:00 pm – Barcelona vs Red Bull NY (ESPN2)
Thursday – 4:00 am – US MNT vs. Japan (MSNBC)
There will also be games between Honduras vs Italy as well as Argentina vs Ivory Coast
Saturday – 04:00 am – US WNT vs Japan (USA)
as well as Nigeria vs Germany (W – MSNBC), Brazil vs N Korea (W – MSNBC)
Sunday – 6:45 am – U.S. MNT vs. Netherlands (USA)
as well as Italy vs S Korea (MSNBC) and Argentina vs Australia (Telemundo)

Other opportunities this week include the USYSA National Championship Highlights Show that will be shown on Fox Soccer Channel at noon on Saturday. See the highlights of the games that were played in Little Rock two weeks ago.

In addition, the PDL Championship will be shown Saturday evening, at a time to be determined. The Thunder Bay Chill, regular visitors to Springfield as members of the Heartland Conference, will face the Laredo Heat. If I hear of a viewing party, I’ll let you know!

And if you’re looking for a final road trip, the KC Wizards will host Chivas USA on Saturday at 7:00 pm. Both teams lost this weekend and are stuck in the bottom half of the table in their respective Conference with 22 points each. Not a ringing endorsement of course but with only 12 games remaining there are only a few opportunities remaining to see our regional team and for them to begin moving up the table.

Sacha Kljestan, captain of Team USA during Olympic qualifying, is also a lock to be named Thursday to the U.S. squad for the 2008 Olympic Games, the first major international tournament in a young career that promises to be full of them. In Kljestan, many in American soccer see the playmaker Team USA has missed since Claudio Reyna’s retirement from the international game. Kljestan is one of the top passers in MLS but his real gifts are his vision and imagination, what U.S. national team coach Bob Bradley calls his “Soccer IQ.”

Check out the complete story in the Orange County Register, describing Sacha’s background and his father’s journey from Serbia, to Canada, and then into the US 28 years ago with an athletic bag and $150. Immigrants rule!

First the good news – I’ve updated the SGFsoccer.com calendar to reflect ALL of the games that I found on the TV schedule at the NBColympics.com website. Click on the link to be taken to the soccer page where you can localize the schedule depending on your TV access – Mediacom, Dish or DirecTV. I used Dish for my scheduling effort but the schedule should be pretty accurate given the channels that are going to be used – NBC, USA, MSNBC, CNBC, Oxygen, Telemundo and Universal HD, as well as NBColympics.com (I’ll come back to that later). Soccer will primarily be shown on USA, MSNCB and Telemundo, beginning with the US Women vs Norway (skol!) on Wednesday August 6th (MSNBC) and ending with the Men’s final being broadcast on CNBC on Friday night August 22nd.

In addition, NBC Universal is also providing coverage of the entire men’s and women’s soccer and basketball tournaments through Soccer (58 games) and Basketball (76 games) NBC Olympics specialty channels. Only Comcast and Cox have signed on to broadcast these channels according to this site. I can’t find a thing on Mediacom’s website although I’ve contacted them via their Investor Relations site. Feel free to reach out and let them know your interest as well!

There will also be an online option. NBCOlympics.com will feature approximately 2,200 total hours of live streaming Olympic broadband video coverage, the first live online Olympic coverage in the United States. No indication of special requirements although this site notes Vista and Microsoft Silverlight. I think the only part they got right is probably the Silverlight piece. I’ve downloaded it (a cross-browser cross-platform plug-in according to Microsoft’s site) and I’ll do some testing on my Mac and PC. It’s optimized for HD and streaming it appears but it’s also in Beta so we’ll see what’s ready on August 6th.

OK, that’s probably plenty for now. Updates to come on the Men’s and Women’s teams. For now, the best be it to join us tonight and make your own decisions on the ladies! Facebook event – Join us at Coester’s for the broadcast!

The final between the US and Honduras will kick off at 4 p.m. CT at LP Field and will be televised live on Fox Soccer Channel and ESPN Deportes.

The victory marks the 13th time the U.S. will get the chance to compete for a medal at the Olympic Games on the men’s side. The 2008 Beijing Olympics will be played from Aug. 8-24 in five venues, and will mark the USA’s first trip to the Men’s Olympic Football Tournament since 2000.

More details can be found on the US Soccer website and Soccer by Ives, who provided a game report.

FINAL GROUP MATCHES ON TAP: The U.S. Under-23 Men’s National Team will be playing for first place in Group A and a spot in the all-important semifinals when they take on Honduras this Saturday, March 15 in Tampa. The USA’s final first-round match will kick off at 7 p.m. ET at Raymond James Stadium, and fans can follow live on Fox Soccer Channel, ESPN Deportes and ussoccer.com’s MatchTracker.

THREE WAYS IN: The U.S. could advance to the semifinals in Nashville and be one game away from qualifying for the 2008 Beijing Olympics with a win, loss or draw against Honduras. With a win, the U.S. would finish atop Group A and guarantee a spot in the semifinals, where they would face the second place team in Group B. With a draw, the U.S. would also book a spot in the semifinals, but would finish in second place in Group A and have to take on the top team in Group B. If Panama defeats Cuba in the opening match of the doubleheader on Saturday night in Tampa, the U.S. would also finish in second place and move on to the semifinals even if they were to lose to Honduras.

HONDURAS ALREADY IN: Honduras stayed atop Group A after picking up their second win in as many games on Thursday night, and with six points, the Los Catrachos became the first team to book a spot in the semifinal round. With their first victory in group play, the U.S. moved into sole possession of second place, while Cuba moved to third place and Panama stayed in last place.

And for some of the interesting things going on in Group B, check out Mexico’s results so far.