Interesting. He is spreading a lot of minutes around defenders (except Dunn who is injured). But not among the young midfielders, Tymrak, Johnston, S. Mewis. I wonder if this means he has his core of midfielders ...
Wait a minute. How the hell is the player who got sent off in the last game allowed to play? That's BS.
I'm woozy from a Sochi stream binge (ahem). Russians skate nice. Dutch skate fast. Germans slide. Americans, um ... we ski off ramps Russia WNT is here for availability, not competitiveness. Weather joke of the week: Sochi is way warmer than Atlanta. I remember Russia's (then USSR's) anthem from their U-18 wvb WNT touring USA, at their Illinois stop. They whacked a bunch of NCAA top-10 teams and (we joke) never cracked a smile. More recently, the crew of Red October stand up and sing it in the galley in One Ping Only movie
Usually a red card only means suspension in the next game for official competitions (so not friendlies). That's why I was surprised Lloyd was suspended for the Canada game.
Uh ... screen scoreboard said: 46' 0-0 Russia hoof too long into right corner. Reset! 01' 0-0 USA bring it out. We're time-traveling again 01' 0-0 USA chip over box top right, Rodriguez chases down to 8m mid-right, ball slide-tackled over.
02' 0-0 USA right corner, Rapinoe curls it out to 12m left post. Russia marks poorly, USA wide-open (Lloyd?), weak header bounces down to 6-top. Brian(?), facing away, flick-lobs it -- not enough, new GK #12 catches it. (Todua got shellacked enough for one road trip ...) 04' 0-0 Rodriguez receives down to 7m wide right (way out there), crosses to 6-top low, GK sprawls on it. Nobody was making the near-post run because -- that's Rodriguez's lane
07' 0-0 Engen tries to snipe a 20m forward ground pass to Rodriguez facing her at 30m centerline. Intercepted, but that's already an interesting idea (if part of plan): A-Rod as a target forward? Lloyd was overlapping inside-out past her, so maybe it's choreographed. 09' 0-0 USA fk after Russia offside. Time warp flashback! Jump-cut to live action, Brian chases back to 6-top left, slide-and-shoots across her body -- through mouth, just wide left low. 10' 0-0 Long ball down wide right, HAO saves it in, cross got cleared?
It's FieldTurf with permanant lines, not sure what you were expecting. But it is better than the Alamodome surface at least.
11' 1-0 USA left corner, curls into a 3-Russian scrum at 4m left post, with Wambach and Rodriguez arriving but screened off. #12 Maria Zhamanakova, sliding behind her own 2 defenders, can't control ball -- only blocks it out to 5m 6-left. #6 Engen turns on ball, shoots it off left post, off #10 Elena Terekhova(?)'s shins(?), and it trickles just into goal along left ground pipe. 13' 1-0 Lloyd gets clobbered above USA's box top left. Foul, shiner.
18' 1-0 HAO intercepts a quack, taps diagonally out wide to Rodriguez lurking at 8m wide right. Rodriguez takes #18 Medved hard to box right foot, beats her, crosses to 6-top right post. Zhamanakova spills ball behind her, defender punts it into touch. Looks like Rodriguez is indeed tasked to bring some width, while USA uses the midfield to crash the goal mouth. 20' 1-0 Krieger overlaps to box top wide right, bends a cross (a bit hastily?) just in front of everybody, past the spot. Rapinoe settles it at 10m box left, cleared.
23' 1-0 Russia right throw-in from ~30m, down box right and O'Hara(?) heads it away for a corner. 23' 1-0 Russia right corner, USA clears. Decent one-touch passing almost gets a breakaway, but Rapinoe shanks a kickoff. 24' 1-0 USA passes across toward box top right, intercepted by Russia dribbling energetically into her own box. Backpass is too wide and too hard, Zhamanakova slides out and can only kick into touch.
27' 1-0 USA right throw-in at 24m, to Rodriguez. She clangs a volley-trap, Russia punts it upfield. 28' 1-0 O'Reilly beats #18 Medved through 14m box right, to 9m mid-right, cross cleared. 29' 1-0 Krieger sends a long pass up wide right to Rodriguez at box top. Backpass, USA probe left. 30' 1-0 Rapinoe pokes ball to Wambach facing away at box arc top. Wambach turns, holds a bit too cutely, lays off leftward toward Brian(?) -- intercepted by a Russian sprinting into her own box, Zhamanakova races out and sweeps clear. 31' 1-0 Solo touches a long roller.
33' 1-0 USA chips from circle back left to 40m box right, O'Reilly is alone and in past the high line. AR lets her dribble through 14m box right before flagging offside -- boo. 33' 1-0 USA subs in (1 of 6) #19 Kristie Mewis for #5 Kelley O'Hara.