US determined to end title drought at Women's WCup

That 1999 title is so far in the distance, in fact, that captain Christie Rampone is the only current U.S. player who was part of the watershed tournament.

"It's been way too long — 12 years — since we brought home that trophy," goalkeeper Hope Solo said. "Twelve years is a long time."

Ending that drought is the Americans' sole objective at the Women's World Cup, which begins Sunday and runs through July 17 in nine cities across Germany. One of the four top seeds, the U.S. opens group play Tuesday against North Korea in Dresden, then faces Colombia on July 2 in Sinsheim, and Sweden on July 6 in Wolfsburg.

Two-time defending champion Germany and Brazil, silver medalist at the last two Olympics and runner-up at the 2007 World Cup, are also top seeds, as is Japan.

"Everyone has the final game on our minds, and winning it," Wambach said. "But we can't skip any steps to get there."

Despite coming up short at the last two World Cups, the Americans haven't exactly been in a slump. They've won the last two Olympic gold medals, and begin the World Cup as the No. 1 team in the world. They have the world's best goalkeeper in Solo, and one of the best goal-scorers in Wambach.

Yet the Americans aren't the juggernaut they once were.

Part of that is a credit to other countries, many of whom are seeing the results of the additional resources they poured into their programs over the last decade. But the U.S. has also been uncharacteristically inconsistent as of late, particularly over the last year.

After going more than two years without a loss, the U.S. dropped three games in five months. The Americans were stunned in the semifinals of regional World Cup qualifying by Mexico, a team that had been 0-24-1 against its northern neighbor. The U.S. had to win a home-and-home playoff with Italy just to get to Germany.

The United States lost to Sweden in the Four Nations opener, though it did go on to win the tournament, and then was beaten by England for the first time since 1988.

And now the Americans take a relatively inexperienced squad into the World Cup, where the stadiums will be loud and the pressure intense. Thirteen of the 21 players on the roster were part of the gold medal squad in Beijing, but only eight have played in a World Cup.

“Internationalism between Peoples”: Learning and Constructing with ...

By Beverly Bell

Jose Luis Patrola is a history professor, farmer, and member of the Brazilian land reform group, the Rural Landless Workers’ Movement, or MST. He has lived in Haiti for three years. There, he coordinates the MST’s program, an exchange of agricultural and technical cooperation between Haitians and Brazilians. In a departure from many international programs of “teaching” and “aiding” Haitians, Patrola speaks here about mutual learning and respect.

We are here in Haiti in an educational solidarity exchange program. We’re not here to teach. We are here to learn. In our work, there’s great respect for Haitian farmers and movements. That’s something that has been greatly lacking: respect. Not only from foreigners, but from Haitian elites who don’t acknowledge their own peoples.

The MST and the Vía Campesina [a coalition of farmers and landless people’s organizations from around the world] in Brazil have had contact with small farmers in Haiti for many years now. Since 2004, we’d been thinking about a solidarity exchange program between campesino [small farmer] movements in Brazil and Haiti. We were finally able to make this possible starting in January 2009, when the MST and other small farmers’ organizations from Brazil sent a brigade of four people to identify what the solidarity exchange would look like. The exchange now works to achieve horizontal solidarity between these farmers.

With the earthquake in January [2010], things changed a little, and movements in Haiti suggested to us the possibility of strengthening the brigade with more Brazilians. We organized a brigade of 31 people, who sleep and eat in the Haitian farmers’ homes.

There are different farmer movements from Brazil that are participating. The MST is the biggest group, but there’s also the Movement of Small-scale Agriculturalists, the Movement of Women Campesinas, the Movement of Dam-Affected People, and the Pastoral Commission of the Earth that’s part of the Catholic Church, and a representative of the Movement of Unemployed Workers.

The brigade consists of people with different skills. We have farmers. We have technical agronomists that are also children of farmers. We have veterinarians, professors, construction specialists, and two medics. We’re doing a little bit of everything; the diversity is very important. A doctor, for example, helped install a cistern for water catchment, and professors are also working the land.

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