Sporting Madness

Photo: Karina LeBlanc makes a save while training with the Canadian women's team in 2007 [Photo from CTV.ca]. In what may perhaps be a big step forward for women's soccer in the United States, a Canadian played a key role. Karina LeBlanc , the long-serving Canadian international (69 caps at the senior level according to the CSA site ), made several impressive saves [ The Canadian Press ] to preserve a 2-0 victory for the Los Angeles Sol over the Washington Freedom in the first-ever game in the new Women's Professional Soccer league. It's been a long road to this point for LeBlanc. According to her bio page , she was born in Atlanta but moved to Maple Ridge, B.C. with her family at a young age. She went to Maple Ridge Secondary, where she didn't play high school soccer (as they didn't have a team at that point) but starred in basketball, track and field hockey. She then spent four very successful years playing soccer at the University of Nebraska, finishing wi...

Photo: Natasha Kai celebrates her game-winning goal against Canada with teammate Amy Rodriguez (left). [Photo from the New York Daily News ]. I've already posted a more thorough recap of this morning's Canada-U.S. Olympic soccer match over at Out of Left Field , but I figured I'd do a quick GBU breakdown here. The Score: United States 2, Canada 1 in extra time. How I Saw It: On the tube. The Good: -Karina LeBlanc: LeBlanc has been the backup keeper to Erin McLeod for quite some time now, but she showed no rust when called upon after McLeod was injured early on. LeBlanc made several tremendous saves for Canada, including at least two on breakaways and one diving one-handed stop right in front of the goal line. Given the amount of quality chances the Americans had, LeBlanc was a huge reason that the Canadians were even able to take the game to extra time. She only allowed one goal, which came on a six-yard Natasha Kai header that was unstoppable by any mortal keeper...