You can shove your 'pretty football' up your arse.

All I hear from certain people is: 'WAAAAH WAAAAAH, USA doesn't play beautiful football!!!' OK, sure the US can't string 4 consecutive passes together to save their lives. Sure it's frustrating watching them continue to turn over the ball again and again. Sure it would be great to have a Marta or a Necib on our team.

However, I'd rather see them have less possession and actually score, then watch these teams that certain posters fawn over dominate possession but can't do shit in the last 15 yards of the pitch versus any team with a decent defense. I'd rather see them give 110% on the pitch and run their asses off like they did against Brazil and France. Wambach and O'Reilly running themselves into the ground always trumps Marta's or Necib's little twinkle-toed touches.

If the US wins against Japan, it won't be pretty. I'll just let you know now in case you were hoping for a miracle that even Hope Solo can't give. It will be the hard-nosed, adrenaline-lased, fists-in-the-air type of play our team always does. Or "ugly football" as many of you call it.

Why? Because that's who we are. We'll never be like a Brazil or a France or a Japan. Why? Because we're not them. They play their game, we play ours. To play another way would simply be Un-American. Waiting for our women, or even our men, to become a jogo bonito team is like waiting for the Titanic to come in. Or for MLS to have promotion/relegation.

So for those of you who simply MUST have "beautiful football," I suggest you just go jump on a bandwagon of another team because it's tiring watching the same people bitch over and over again.

Now, that being said. It would be nice for us to do better with possession.

Mauriñhio is that you?

Nope, it's the one and only yank bastard. Often imitated, never duplicated.

Nice post!

"Hey everybody, you're either with us, or against us!"

"If you're against us, go away."

"Actually, I'm a little against us myself."

Eh. Defense is half the game. If you watch some of the recent USWNT videos, they make a point of saying that they noticed that France was bad at keeping track of their marks in the box when defending and so structured their attacks around that. The Abby goal looks remarkably like one spectacular breakdown of defense in the box and the Cheney goal is similar in that the defender is a full step behind her.

It might not be as glamorous as a well running offense but it's an important, necessary, and large part of winning games.

+1. US played the best defense they've played all tournament.

This post fits your avatar extremely well, YankBastard. And I agree!

Possession without penetration is just masturbation, and in this forum a lot of people just love to play with themselves.

Really? That sounds more like possession with finishing if you ask me!!

I wouldn't say the US will never play possession football. I also wouldn't say a particular style is un-american (ugh). In fact, the 1999ers are often credited with playing way more possession than the NT does now.

Abby is a great player, the team should be built around her. If we had better possession and service, she'd have twice the goals she does now. As it is, our forwards are often stranded.

It's fine to praise another team's style; it doesn't mean you hate your team. I think you're reading praise for other teams as an attack on the US team.

And it's fine to criticize your own team. Do you follow any team where you disagree with certain roster decisions? Doesn't that show you care?

Did you watch the USA -china game after the Brasil game last Sunday?

I had come to believe that the older teams were better at passing, too.

But in that game, at least, they were only average. China had the better possession. There were long stretches where the USA couldn't put 3 passes together with Hamm, Milbrett, Akers, Foudy, and the rest on the field.

I guess I'm going to have to look at more of the old games again.

I don't have those games, would love to watch them, let me know where they can be found (other than the snippets from "Dare to Dream," etc.)

There's this:
http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=103/edition=4644/overview.html

"Fighting their way into the final with five victories, which included a come-from-behind 3:2 victory over Germany in the quarterfinals and a nail-biting 2:0 victory over Brazil in the semifinals, the U.S. dominated the midfield play and controlled the possession, but was unable to break down a spirited Chinese defense."

If WPS teams comprised mostly of USWNT players can play beautiful football, then so can the USWNT. When you think about it, a WPS all star team should be beating teams like North Korea, Colombia, Sweden and France easily. The only other countries in the WC that have anything close to a WPS all star team are Germany and Brazil. Somehow in the World Cup though there's always this aura of a level playing field and respect for your opponents, so it ends up being like the England men's team- a Premier League all star team that plays down to their opponents in the WC and draws 0-0 with Algeria.

That said, the result is always what counts. If Pia beings home a WC trophy I could really care less how it happens. The USWNT's greatest assets are fitness, strength and stamina and that's why they will be champions on Sunday.

No you don't. We've never been very good at possession, it's just that in 99 we had clearly superior athletes and players. The 2007 loss to Brazil was painful to watch as we got the ball and just kicked and kicked and kicked. We still kick and run too much, but we're getting better, but it'll be years before we can knock around 10 passes in a row. There are too many people in football here in the US that consider that skill to be ugly, or as in the case of too many posters here, negative.

Soccer Mom Advice - American Style
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gETP14z515Q"]‪Soccer Mom - Some Friendly Advice‬‏ - YouTube[/ame]

it is a bad, bad thing you did.

beer went up my nose with the first "stop that".

That vid iis rediculously hilarious.

tee-hee. This thread could've (and perhaps should've) been in Rivalry. Good fun.

Ok, WPS all star teams have always had Marta, Sinclair, and Christiane.

Wake up from your dream, sleepyhead.

It's negative if all you do is pass it around at the back with no intention to go forward unless there's a Pacific Ocean sized hole in the opponent's defense.

Kolabear, haven't checked out rivalry yet - I'll take a look.

well if you have a one goal lead and you do it, it makes perfect sense. the other team can't score with the ball.

the object is to win, right?

Hush your mouth, stop talking about Japan like that. It worked against Germany.

In '99, you had Michelle Akers, the greatest American player ever, imo. She had superior technique unmatched by any other American. Then there's mia Hamm, super fast and can maneuver on the ball in full stride. And there were quality supporting players. Against China, however, they were still not able to possess much, and were pressured throughout. That generation of Chinese team is probably the most technically sound and complete team I've ever seen. There was no weakness anywhere. They were extremely unlucky not to score, as they created the most threatening chances in regulation and in overtime. It took Briana's great penalty sense to beat China. Though some say She jumped early on the penalty save.

Everybody wants to complete the passes and maintain possession. If you don't, you're not playing football. Possession is really a facade over what in reality is a testament to players' skill, technique, vision. So far in the history of women's world cup, the US have succeeded on early development, tremendous physical fitness, good tactical plan, and amazing goalkeeping. The ultimate source of their success is due to an incredibly large talent pool to choose from. The best female athletes in the US often choose soccer over any other sport. The same can't be said for the other nations. However, the world is taking notice. The US still has the best female athletes competing for the national team. But the gap is closing. And it's not because the best female athletes in other countries are jumping on the wagon. It's because they have emphasized technique rather than physicality. And technique is trumping physicality in this tournament. Give it a little more time, I think the US dominance will end for good. American prowess will be undone by international finesse. Just like the way Detroit auto has been relegated by Japanese and European competition.

I suppose the US physicality didn't beat 2 very technical teams, Brazil and France?

If the US win against the techincal Japan this Sunday, the world should stop taking notice and just stfu.