Problem? You can leave the personal attacks at the door. We aren't talking about whether she can kick my butt.
Our center mids haven't gotten rest this tournament and have looked worse as the tournament has progressed. Coincidence? I think not. These two teams know each other very well. Canada has looked pretty darn good in their last two games. It is going to be a knock down/drag out kind of match. Rampone and Solo have (quietly) had subpar for them tournaments. Both making mistakes they usually don't. That's not going to cut it vs Sinc. And for the love of the game, please do not give Sinc a free kick w/in 30 yards. Scott/Schmidt vs Cheney/Lloyd? Based on the last game? Toss up. We can't expect to have much success going straight up the middle. And Lloyd/Cheney best track the two Canadian mids (especially Schmidt) making runs in the box. We need to pound the wings, follow shots/crosses (McLeod will come out after every cross but she'll fumble at least one or two), make sure to put crosses outside the 6 so there isn't a repeat of the '03 Germany game.
I disagree. She has been playmaking when she hasnt been scoring. 3 assists so far, eac of them spectacular. She doesn't have to score but given her performances against Canada this year, she probably will. Carli is dangerous from distance, Heath and Rapinoe are as well. Abby is unstoppable.
I was told it by an old keeper coach a long time ago. You can get the gist of what he said here: http://www.askasoccerreferee.com/?p=2689
Oh, I've posted Morgan is our Player of the Tournament so far. Only point is she's not finishing what should be pretty easy chances for her. She's just not having a good run right now, but if anybody can break out with a big match v. Canada, she can. Carli dangerous?, Heath dangerous?, Rapinoe dangerous? Not really. Abby has lived off some very nice Morgan set-ups and weak matching on the corner kick. Dangerous, yes. Unstoppable, no.
I wasn't joking.No insult no apologies. GK made herself large in a dangerous position against a player with high momentum. She exposed herself to that knee and should have been lower to the ground or higher up. I have freedom of speech. Nothing you can do about it except make empty threats and personal attacks. And to avoid any confusion I do hope GK Bindon is OK.
Bindon did what we expect any of our top US 'keepers to do, lay it all on the line. That's why we love 'em. No surprise to see Bindon do it as well - she's actually American and was born and played here until marrying the former captain of the Kiwi Volleyball team. At 39 she's the second-oldest soccer player at the Olympics, I think. She says she's fine, by the way. From a nice little article on FIFA's website:
Which speaks to fair challenges on the keeper. The old keeper coach I know tells his keepers to be aggressive and make themselves big, and to alway be certain you will win the ball if you make the challenge. He doesn't tell them to commit sepiku.
Thanks, that is good to hear kolabear.On your point though, I hope we don't encourage our keepers to purposefully expose themselves to kicks and knees to the face. I give her the utmost respect for her toughness but I do not respect dangerous play. She didn't even make a play on the ball. She could have ended both of their careers making a play like that.
Once the keeper's out of the box, she is like any other field player. But the Binden/Morgan collision is old, quarterfinal news. We've got a very tough semifinal match up w/ Canada to think about, eh.
As Christine Sinclair once said when asked a similar question. It might be instructive to see what the best keeper in the world did in a similar situation. ( about 1:20 into this video) She doesn't rush at a ball she couldn't get to, she just cut down angles and stayed big, and she went for the ball, not studs up on the player. You will also see Canada's keeper going down early and getting beat.
Last words - keepers go down in their box to smother all the time. They get beat 1v1 because players school them. If you want to see real intent google Bouhaddi/Ljungberg. As semi's go I think most people would have preferred Canada to France ir Japan. When I looked earlier today the U.S. was even money, France and Japan were about 5-1 and Canada was 12-1.
Great play by Solo but it's a different play. There's no way she's getting to that ball before the attacker - weighted ball, shorter pass. In the play with Alex and Jenny Bindon, that's more of a bang-bang play, no way to really know if the ball will skid or hold up a little - the GK has to instantly react.
You missed the part where my coach said you only go for balls are 100% sure you can get to. That play was set up when Binden came out. Now she has to keep going, because she can't use her hands, the angles suck, and she can get chipped. She should have protected her goal.
Unfortunately, I have to work tomorrow and I have multiple bosses walking by my work area throughout the day to keep me from sneaking a peak of the live feed. I'll have to take restroom breaks just to check the score (and hopefully read a couple of pages of posts on Big Soccer ). I probably owe most of you reps for helping to keep me informed. I've just got a feeling about this match. I'm hoping the USWNT can jump on top early and put the Canadians back on their heels. But I'm kind of leaning toward PK's if I had to make a prediction. Canada has had to overcome some adversity and play some tough matches. Except for the opening minutes of the game against France, the USWNT has had a cakewalk relatively speaking.
Breaks just mean I'm watching the match on my phone instead of my computer... I haven't been very productive the past week and a half.
"If Lloyd plays that deep, I think that is the perfect matchup for Canada because Lloyd takes risks," said Pellerud. "She dribbles in risky areas and she passes flat in risky areas. That's what Sinclair loves. She's so smart with those passes. She just reads the ball and the ball goes to her feet. It's full speed ahead after that." http://espn.go.com/olympics/summer/...ope-history-repeating-vs-canada-jeff-carlisle AND, does anyone have a steaming link (not nbc, can't access that at work)
It's going to a tough grind. Canada has made the most of the limited chances--their conversion rate is very high. I still think the US will prevail--especially if Erin is in goal today. In the run of play, Sinclair is playing so far away from the goal and her teammates are doing a great job of holding up the ball. That to me is the difference in this touranment--not to mention Sinclair has not been crushed by numerous, vicious German tackles. While Sinclair's free kick against GB was very effective, she just exploited the wall that Bardsley and her defense set up. They were 2 or 3 yard to far to the left--knowing that Sinclair is a righty. It was a great finish. Bardsley proverbially loaded the gun, Sinclair just shot it.