Sydney LeRoux was a more lethal U20 striker and was neck and neck with Morgan. Up until the most recent cup, she had 2 caps. Jill sits on the bench next to Pia, and Sydney has 18 caps since. Yeah, that's just a coincidence. They weren't going to give Sydney caps in the cup. Press has been more lethal than Morgan at all levels, given her game is a bit more diverse. She is stranded at ZERO caps. how in the world do you end up on an olympic reserve roster with your squad beating banana republic opponents 13-0, but you don't even get one trash minute prior to the olympics? so, just before the olympics, pia said, we have to get that elite forward, how did we miss her all these months? it's more like her scouts were reading boards and said fans were up in arms about top players, not getting caps, so she throws her in the olympic mix as a cover up. if she was a reserve for the olympics, i see no reason why she isn't on the tour, getting dog minutes in this circus tour. the crowds just know the starters, don't pay much attention to the last woman coming off of the bench in the final minutes. Sydney 2008–2010 United States U2039(24)2011– United States 20(9) Honours[show Leroux National team‡2008 United States U20 10(5)2010– United States 50(32) They have played her past her two chief competitors, have suppressed the other two to make her the star. The difference between the three is one is getting of the BIG playing time thanks to Pia and her staff. I made the Delie comparison one year ago, because if the USA was spreading playing time across the board to their talent, then Morgan would still be a couple of caps behind Delie. I mean Delie doesn't have the likes of Press, Sydney or even Henderson playing against her for international time. That's why she is more or less the lone striker for France. I vote for Jill, as the new USWNT coach!
I'm really hoping that Ali Krieger will get a chance to play in a couple of games during the U.S. Olympic tour. I realize that she wasn't on the 18 person roster (or the alternates), but she did compete in qualifying (albeit 1 game). I doubt if any of the current coaches or players would object to this, especially if they play near her home town in Virginia.
There are plenty of holding mids not used by Pia during her time as coach. There no need to develop players for that spot there there.
Back in the Hamm era you couldn't GET anything else through normal merchandising; not that I could find anyway. I didn't check back every month so there may have been a window I missed. I wanted a Pearce jersey. would have settled for an Akers or Lilly or Milbrett; Hamm or generic was all I could find, even at an actual game. And only in women's sizes. I was still skinny back then, but I have shoulders, and even an XL was too small. No women's XXL. At the same game I could have gotten a Maribel Dominguez jersey from the Mexican federation-- but no one else. You could get T-shirts in various names at times, but even then not all the names. Wound up settling for a NY Power "Pearce" T-Shirt.
I realize that I will be blamed for derailing another thread, but I think this one has already been somewhat derailed. All I can say is that you've been a walking and talking contradiction since I joined these boards. However, I can certainly understand your stance since you do hate the US team. If you were a US fan, then the following things would have been a lot more perplexing. 1.) I can certainly understand your request to give other forwards caps and develope them for the future. I think you'll find that a lot of us also agree since the WC and Olympics are behind us now and we have 3 years to develope new talent before the next round. What I find disingenous in your request is that you had zero interest in developing new talent when A-Rod was starting every single match for the USWNT last year. Most of us USA fans were begging to give Morgan a chance, but all you kept saying was no, no, no let's keep A-Rod! There was no mention of Leroux, Press or for that matter anyone else to be given a chance for future development. Since you hate the US women's national team, I can certainly understand your stance since you were hoping to keep a weaker team on the field to give other teams like France and Brazil a better chance to beat them. 2.) You've talked about how giving Alex Morgan all the caps will just create a bigger separation between her skills and the other forwards. My reply to this statement is fantastic!! This is exactly what the team is hoping for when they develop new talent, especially before major tournaments. I think everyone can agree that Morgan is a much better player this year (with her 22 goals and 13 assists) than last year, and it's all due to getting the additional caps and being able to compete against the best in the world. It makes zero sense to develop 5 young forwards within a major competition year, since none of them will get enough caps individually to mesh with the rest of the team. By getting all the caps this year, Alex Morgan has been transformed into the next great striker that any team in the world would love to have in their starting line-up. Also, it was Diccico that recommended that Pia try out Morgan for the national team. He had coached both her and Leroux in the 2008 U20 WC, but it was Morgan that he recommended first. Hmmm, that's very interesting! It was also Press's falt that she didn't want to play on the U20 teams to get more recognition. Morgan and Leroux's stats were greatly reduced in college play since they were playing on the U20 national teams. Same thing with Morgan last year in the WPS, while Press was going up against weaker competition since all the superstars had left for the WC. 3.) I will agree that playing against high school teams like Costa Rica or Guatemala is below the level of play for our national team. However, I didn't see Germany resting Mbabi against Khazakistan when they clobbered them 7-0. Plus, letting Press or Henderson play against these weaker teams would result in zero development in their games. They're better off playing against stronger competition in European leagues. These players should be brought in only if they get to compete against decent opponents. That being said I know why you want this to happen. If Abby Wambach plays against Germany, Japan and France and score 2 goals, but Press scores 6 goals against Guatemala, Antigua and Netherland Antiles, then you can come on these boards to post statistics to make your point just like you do with Delie.
I enjoyed the game and was pleasantly surprised to see a good crowd of nearly 20,000 there*. (*with no advance coverage that I saw by the LA Times) It was a lot of fun. I also like a lot of the comments about the game here. I thought it was good for a friendly, especially considering it's coming after the World Cup/Olympics cycle and there isn't a big tournament right in front of us that they're preparing for. It was a bit of an ugly start to the game from the US perspective but I couldn't see exactly what was going on there (opposite end of field). Australia is a good team, though, and played well, definitely deserving that halftime lead (and it could've been more). They're not a joke team at all - I'm not sure why someone implied that earlier. I agree with those who said Boxx had an amazing game in the half she played. In the first half, everyone was a little rusty but I like Alex Morgan's strikes even though she was just missing. But the quality of her shots is high relative to the difficulty of shots she takes. And her ability to turn semi-chances into a good chance is also high. Her ability to do certain things at pace makes her stand out. She doesn't need the perfect ball to make something out of it. She doesn't necessarily play it to perfection herself but she's so quick to adapt on the fly. And she's strong - she has that ability to get an angle on the defender and her strength allows her to shield the ball -- all this again at pace. Interesting comparison with Lisa DeVanna -- I can't see Morgan scoring that same goal - that same horserace/sprint with the ball against a defender as fast as Christie Rampone. That was just a superb goal. Cheney - in that ragged part of the half where the US was having a hard time generating any offense, at times Cheney appeared to be playing forward and made, I thought, some superb runs that were ignored by the others (Morgan guilty of one in particular). I'm not a sophisticated enough observer to say with any certainty - but the way Australia was pressuring Wambach and Morgan immediately and relatively high, and the midfield getting clogged, made me think of what Sundhage said about Cheney's ability to read the game. I wondered whether that was a tactical response on her part to what Australia was doing but the rest of the team never linked up with her while she was playing advanced. Sauerbrunn - as others have said, she appears to be the most composed of our defenders with the ball and playing it out of the back. But I didn't see who was guilty of a couple awful clearances in the early going -- but it looked to be on the side opposite her. It was hot. I was surprised Sauerbrunn didn't have one sleeve rolled up over her shoulder. She's one of my favorites in the sleeve-rolled-up brigade. This is NOT to be confused with BigSoccer's demented fascination over the madness of inside-out shorts...
based on your analogy, the nfl shouldn't play rookies and borderline players in preseason games, so they can make the full 45 man roster for the regular season. the starters should play every game. so, how do the up and comers get experience. they play in the games against the DR, Costa and Haiti in front of large international crowds in tournaments. Cap is cap when you don't even have ONE, so if press dropped 5 goals on Costa in front of 15000 in Canada, how do you not call that international experience? A rookie has to get caps to get experience. Do you see peyton manning playing in the 1st preseason game against scrubs. No, his #2 gets the snaps and throws 3 TDs but he is still getting valuable pro experience, especially if he is right out of college. some of you do anything to cover up the scams going on with that squad. no one in their right mind would think press, not having one cap at 24 yrs old or whatever on the uswnt olympic roster was fine when they were blowing teams out in prep tournaments before the olympics. pia won't be missed. i'd like to welcome jill, as the new uswnt coach.
Thanks for the information Kolabear! I was wondering what happened to Abby in the game. Was she making her runs and helping out the midfield, or did she just seem a bit out of it yesterday. Thanks.
I was merely pointing out that Abby had a chance to pad her stats if she wanted it. As co-captain she surely could have taken it herself. Many people seem to believe that the whole USWNT is currently constituted just to get Abby the goal record.
I also wanted to point out that the reason why A-Rod came in so early (before Leroux) because I believe she's from California as well.
Not sure. Combination of things - Australia's game plan, bit of rust... By the way, it was nice to see a section of US supporters with drums, chants. Not sure if it was American Outlaws, Sam's Army, or what, does anyone know? They deserve some credit for being there.
I thought that this was an interesting snippet from a WP Sports article: "The remaining five matches this year are likely to be played between late November and late December, presumably at warm-weather locations. One is on the brink of being finalized. Tentatively, all of the games will be against two opponents (three games with one, two with the other)". I wonder what teams the games will be against.
I'm really hoping that one of the teams that recently qualified for the 2013 European Cup would come here for a couple of games against the US. It'll certainly be good preparation for them.
I would say worse. You mentioned failed negotiations, was there an article on this somewhere that I missed?
I think I just remember a passing line or tweet by Goff. I'll look for it later when I'm not pretending to be working.
American Outlaws were there and I think Angels Brigade which are the supporters group for LA Galaxy I think. I really liked their energy they brought at the stadium. I never thought Home Depot Center could beat the University of Phoenix Stadium Arizona experience last year since LA people tend to be stuck up and interested in "better things" than women's soccer. But HDC really was cool after-all and if they ever have a game up in northern california, nevada or arizona, ROAD TRIP PART 2!
De Vanna vs. Rampone 1-v-1 from midfield!! That's ... legend Fans got their money's worth! Boxx has added about 1/2 a post of elevation on her rightward PKs. Still, every gk knows she's going to her right ...
I think ever since that PK Shannon Boxx took during the Brazil game and Japan game, I haven't recovered from the sweat that starts developing when she takes them. I don't know anything about being a professional soccer coach in the international game but... With the same US players the past several years, I wonder if it came down to other team coaches having a book called "What each US player does" that profiled Abby Wambach, Christie Rampone, Shannon Boxx, Carli Lloyd, Heather O'Reilly,Hope Solo, Heather Mitts, and whoever has been on the national team since like 2004... I know Japan had every US player's PK kick down since they saw them during the Brazil game. With all the US predictability they still managed to remain dominant however.
I hope it wasn't that bad or at least that the game in Colorado won't be that way. It seems like it will be pretty close to a full house.