Clan-Members » He also knew that the long run to a championship was both

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Track and field events in these Olympics take place a few miles away from the Maracana at the Olympic Stadium. But the first semifinal of the womens soccer tournament between Sweden and Brazil felt as much like a race against time as anything else.Sweden tried to outlast the clock for 120 minutes and take its chances in a shootout.Marta tried to outlast a lifetime of minutes to come up with a defining moment of glory for Brazil.For both, the clock finally ran out.Which goes a long way to explaining why Sweden will play for gold after edging Brazil 4-3 in a penalty shootout that followed 120 minutes of scoreless soccer. In front of 70,544 people in the Maracana, a voice vote suggesting almost all of them rooting for the host, Sweden absorbed, managed, dulled and finally escaped the Brazilian attack.For the second game in a row, frustration reigned. For the second game in a row, following a quarterfinal shootout win against the reigning Olympic champion United States, Sweden ceded possession, soaked up shots and let what most will call a better team run itself out.Although the language barrier makes it difficult to confirm, it didnt sound like anyone from Brazil called the Swedes covardes after the Europeans replicated their earlier stunner, right down to the Lisa Dahlkvist penalty that clinched it.It is a very different way of playing, I have to say that, allowed Sweden coach Pia Sundhage of the contrast with her past jobs, including the United States. With the U.S. team it was attacking football, great personalities in the box. Now its the other way around. If I mentioned Abby Wambach, to give an example, I will now mention Linda Sembrant and Nilla Fischer.Those two defenders anchored the middle of a back line that was under siege from the outset, pressed by 11 Brazilian players and deafened by tens of thousands in the stands. They were stars on this day, if you cared to appreciate their work.Take one sequence with a little more than half an hour gone. With the right back next to her threatened by one of Brazils endless diagonal long passes that sought to slip behind the defense, Fischer had to step out to stop the advance. As if connected by a rope, Sembrant slid inside and was in position to deflect the ball then played toward what had a second earlier been open space.Perhaps a minute later, as another wave of Brazilian possession washed over Sweden, it was Sembrant pulled wide to assist the left back vulnerable next to her. When Brazils Beatriz then beat Sembrant, Fischer came across and timed a tackle to perfection to force a goal kick. The 32-year-old defender stayed down for a minute, then got up and limped on, a new attack surely imminent.If this isnt the kind of soccer people think will sell the sport -- a team advancing with 35 percent of possession and 27 fewer shots than its opponent -- then so be it. But it ought to be the kind of athletic effort that is appreciated. There is no margin for error, no room for anything but collective effort.When I started coaching, I wanted to play attacking football and take a lot of chances, said Sundhage, noting that this included her time with the United States. Now whatever team I have in front of me, I adjust my way of playing and try to coach that way because we need to get out the most of the players. If its a lot of attacking, defending -- four in the back or five in the middle -- it doesnt matter. My job is to make sure that they want me to lead the team, to be the coach, and trust what were doing. And in order to do that, I need to know the players.For all of that effort expended, there was still a moment that seemed fit for the setting. After a foul on Brazils Beatriz, Marta stood over a free kick in the 118th minute. A little more than 20 yards from goal, she had an opportunity to shake Brazils most famous stadium with the kind of noise no woman ever generated on a soccer field in this soccer-mad country.At 30, Marta is not the player she was even a few years ago, there are simply too many games on her legs. But she is still Marta, still able to show in bursts things that few if any other players can do. So many times Tuesday it felt like she was close to making it happen.She swung her foot at history, but Swedens organization left her with room only to bounce a shot into the waiting arms of goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl. Marta made her final kick on the day count, burying the opening shot of the shootout, but even that noise was quickly dulled when Lotta Schelin, another star with more career behind her than ahead, answered in kind.So Brazil, which drew nearly 150,000 fans to its final three games in three different cities, will play for bronze in Sao Paulo. But even with that game to play, and a medal in its own Olympics no insignificant prize, it felt like the end of a run Tuesday afternoon. Brazil coach Vadao was asked whether the next generation was ready if those 30 or older like Marta, Cristiane and the indomitable Formiga, playing in her sixth and final Olympics, will soon be gone.Theyre needed in order to pass this on to the new generation, especially considering there is little support in Brazil for womens football. Vadao said. So this makes the replenishment a bit slow. So if you lose five, six, seven players, of course, this is going to affect the new generation. And a lot of hard work and effort will have to be put in to replacing them. Its not easy to replace the women, as opposed to the men, where the structure and the support is all there.The Brazilian team should be judged by results. Pity support, a condescending pat on the head, is barely better than no support at all in any push for equality. At some point, it would oddly say more about the health of the womens game in Brazil if instead of cheers, the team left the field after a game like this to a chorus of boos. Or at least the background noise of grumbling.But the team should also be judged based on its circumstances. Context does matter. And there was something inspirational about what this team tried to do. The starting lineup in the semifinal included players based in seven countries. The 33 players who started for the other semifinal teams were spread across just five countries. Granted, thats true for the Brazilian men, too, but they go abroad to seek their fortunes. The women do because its their only choice to play.This loss wont take away from all that we have done to get here, Marta said in Portuguese. We have the match for the bronze medal now, and we will fight until the end to get that medal. We have to pick up the pieces to try to win this medal.Swedens Sofia Jakobsson, who played her own role in the tactical success by stretching the field with fresh legs as a second-half substitute, counts several Brazilian players as close friends from her time on pro teams in Russia and now France.They are playing for home and in front of so many people out there, Jakobsson said. Im happy for our team, but I feel for them. But soccer is like that. One team wins and one team loses. Im happy for us, but Im sad for them.A lot of people will be sad Brazil is out of the running for gold.Yet the reasons to celebrate Brazil share common root with the reason to celebrate Sweden.Take what you have and make something of it. And dont worry what anyone else says. 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At a news conference Tuesday where it was thought that the fiery Schallibaum may be shown the door after a dismal finish to the Major League Soccer season, team president Joey Saputo said no decision has been made on whether the Swiss Volcano will be back in 2014. For almost as long as she can remember, Callie duPerier Apffel was bouncing from rodeo to rodeo across the U.S. and Canada, chasing a dream. DuPerier Apffel, 23, grew up on trail horses and began barrel racing when she was 13. For her, riding and racing fit like boots and jeans -- despite the fact shes allergic to both horses and hay and has to take medication because of it.I probably went to thousands of races as kid, she says. I cant even count how many times Ive gone to a barrel race or how many times Ive ridden around barrels.From the moment she was introduced, she was hooked. I love horses, so being able to do that on your horse, I thought it was really cool, she says. The adrenaline rush she felt was more intense than from any other sport.Racers go as fast as possible in a cloverleaf pattern through three barrels -- trying hard not to knock over a barrel (a five-second penalty). Races usually last between 13 and 20 seconds.DuPerier Apffel started a few years later than most girls but learned quickly. As a high school senior she won the Womens Professional Rodeo Association junior world title. After three years in college, she set her sights on one goal: to win the National Finals Rodeo world title.Trip duPerier has traveled the country with his daughter, helped her strategize before races and bought her the horses -- a wide variety -- that helped teach her to ride. He says Callie is humble and calm -- but shes also extremely competitive and athletic. She dont look it on the outside, but she and me both, we do not like to lose, he says, laughing.He recalls how she played volleyball, basketball, ran track and was a cheerleader at little Medina High School outside San Antonio. He says in one hurdles race, she fell down on the second-to-last hurdle, but got back up and won. At one point, when she injured her knee and couldnt run, she entered the shot put -- and made the state championship. She went out for basketball for the first time as a senior, scored a bunch of points and even pulled off a reverse layup without ever having practiced the shot.Everybody was saying, Where did she come up with that? Trip says.At the same time, she was competing in high school rodeo. With her dad in her corner, many weekends were a blur. There would be times when he would pick me up from school or pick me up from a volleyball tournament and Id sleep the whole way to the rodeo, and then hed wake me up and Id hop on and run.She was torn between playing college volleyball and going on the rodeo circuit after high school, but decided to play volleyball at Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas. The 5-foot-10 outside hitter did well -- she ranks No. 3 on the schools list for most points in a season -- but suffered a shoulder injury that prompted her to leave college and pursue rodeo after three seasons.Her quest became to qualify for National Finals Rodeo and win the world title. To do that, shed have to crisscross the country, entering rodeos here, there and everywhere to earn enough money to be among the top 15 earners invited to the annual NFR event in Las Vegas.Its a tough and expensive task, but Callie and Trip were committed to it. It meant long drives and plane rides, sometimes trailering two horses at a time (they hired a driver) so theyd have horses at different venues at the same time, and the support of shoers, veterinarians, other riders and the whole duPerier family.dddddddddddd Callie might have to be in Oakdale, Utah, one night and St. Paul, Oregon, the next. A victory could be worth a few hundred dollars or several thousand. It was a marathon.Wed be like in Tupelo, Mississippi, and in 16 hours youve got to be at the southern tip of Florida, and youre driving 75, 80 the whole way and you step out of your trailer, you saddle your horse and theyre calling your name, Trip recalls.Her first full season of 2014 she competed in 85 events and finished 25th in earnings. But she was No. 3 among Womens Pro Rodeo Association rookies. In 2015, she entered 100 events and was No. 1 in money earned -- and qualified for Vegas.Going into the 10-round, three-day NFR competition, Callie and Trip had a plan: be consistent, dont hit barrels and keep advancing and winning money. She decided to focus on each race without thinking about cumulative times or earnings. I was like, Yeah, I can make 10 clean runs on [my horse] Dillon. And thank goodness it happened, she says.At the end of 10 runs, her aggregate time was 140.41 seconds, .34 less than the next rider. That gave her the average title for that competition and $67,269 in prize money, which vaulted her to the top of the season money list at $303,846. She had become world champion.I got to do a victory lap because I had won the average, but I had no idea that I had won the world, she says. So I did my victory lap and was waving and got off and they were talking to me and telling me congratulations, and I still thought Id just won the average. Then when I was about to do an interview, they said something about winning the world, and I was like, Wait, I won? ... I started crying and said, I have to tell my dad. Being a numbers guy, Trip already knew, even if she didnt. He also knew that the long run to a championship was both satisfying and expensive. I bet it cost us about 150 [thousand dollars] to make 300, he says.After winning that title last year, duPerier Apffel decided 2016 would be the perfect time to rein in the pro career. She had a wedding to plan in May and moved to Galveston, Texas, where her husband, Kaleb, operates a lumber yard. Instead of spending months on the road and galloping around barrels, shes organizing and decorating their home and hunting and fishing with Kaleb. For once, she has free time.She has competed in several events of the new Elite Rodeo Athletes (ERA) League of Rodeo Champions, even winning the first one in Oregon in April and taking second at the next stop in Idaho. Yet she admits shes not all-in the way she has been in the past. She has other priorities, like staying close to home and maybe starting a family. She has no desire to live out of a suitcase anymore. But its hard to keep a world champion barrel racer out of the saddle.When shes asked if rodeo -- perhaps on a smaller scale -- might always be a part of her life, she says yes. I dont plan on fully quitting, because its fun, she says. I love it. I like the rush of riding. ' ' '