Lots of people are pretty critical of Boxx in this tournament. I have never been a big fan of hers, but she is what she is and seemed to do what she was expected of her. Lloyd, on the other hand, is the player that bugs me the most and I think it's because she makes really poor decisions on the field, not least of which is sending the ball long to nobody. Then there have been times that she has gotten in the way of her own teammates, even stripping them of the ball on occasion. Am I missing something in this player?
I think that Lloyd has too many tools and too much potential to give up on. I agree that she hasn't played her best soccer in Bejjing, but we've seen flashes of brilliance in the past. Lloyd has such a powerful leg and is such a physical presence, that you have to have her out there. I also agree with you that she seems to do a lot of 'hopeful passing'. That is, she just seems to boot it away, without really having an intended target. Hopefully, that is something that Pia will correct.
Hence, the verb lloyd. My daughter have adopted it whenever Carly hits her powerful shot that goes in and takes the keeper with it. Usage examples: The keeper got lloyded on that one. That was a near-lloyding; good thing the defender got there.
System of play. Lloyd (even Boxx) would be far more effective in a different system of play. Neither is being used properly. Heck, I would consider moving Boxx to the center of the defense if either Rampone or Markgraff got hurt. Lloyd is a true attacking mid. Forcing her to play in a flat 4 midfield hurts her chances to be effective because she does not play defensively that well. Same with Wagner. Both have not been positioned correctly by recent coaches.
I think Lloyd is a huge kiss ass (combined with hard worker) and that's why she's a starter. I know it's silly, but i've read many comments from Pia and Ryan on how hard she works and what a great kid she is, how lucky they are to have her, bla bla bla. I've also heard Lloyd complement Pia over and over again. But when you simply look at her performance on the field, it doesn't match up.
I agree with the assessments about Lloyd, and Boxx for that matter. Many times, we play a possesion game, knocking the ball around, 1, 2 touches, going from our backs to outside mids, even forwards and then the ball get to Lloyd or Boxx, they either stop the ball, lose it or boot it away. Very frustrating. Lloyd is strong on defense, yet has a good finishing kick. Not enough speed to play outside. Not enough skills to make play from the middle. Boxx is strong on defense, good on defending/ attacking headers. Not enough speed to play outside. Not enough skills to make play in the middle. They would probably fit better in a diamond mid field with Lloyd the attacking mid and Boxx the defensive mid but that is still not enough since we lack a playmaker.
I saw her a couple/few times when she was in college after hearing about her from knowledgeable people and I wondered what I was missing. Even then she never saw a shot that she did not like and did not pass. I eventually realized it was likely due to the abilities of teammates at Rutgers, but it seems to continue even after then.
That comment is soooo way off line, it's almost laughable. Lloyd was the only player with the stones to go against the flow at last year's WWC. She had the guts to support Solo when "Ryan and the bitches" decided Solo was to be treated by EVERYONE like she was public enemy #1. Lloyd stood up to Ryan then, and would stand up to Pia now if the situation warranted. Maybe she IS just a great kid, and you're having a hard time accepting that.
You know what, I am getting pretty tired of all these threads where people just sit their and bash players. Its one thing to analyze, but people here seem to be doing a whole lot more tearing them down more then anything else. It's getting old.
Very and true and most of the time the posters have no idea what they are talking about. Welcome to Big Soccer.
Hahah. Since when did being a kiss ass be a bad thing? (maybe you didn't like that I used "kiss and ass" together?) I'm saying she is a favorite, a teacher's pet. Not that she's a bad kid. Clearly she is smart and has talent. 85 percent of you are all confused why she is playing so much (only person to start every game - played more minutes than anyone else.) and most of you think she's the weakest link. The point being, the question asked was: I CAN'T FIGURE OUT LLOYD. I gave an option, that's all. And if you think Coaches do not pick favorites, then you're delusional. The point is why is she playing so much. Pia has stated its very important to her that her players are passionate about soccer and that they want to be the best they can be. Kai said she almost got cut because she wasn't passionate enough at the begining of the year. Lloyd has LOTS of passion. But perhaps not the skill. The coaches seem to respond to that more than the actual ability. In fact if you read the articles and watched the video's you can hear all three talk about this. There is another element at work here besides her actual soccer play. So, yes, mum and htide, this was based on fact and believe it or not, i'm not having a hard time with Lloyd being a good kid! (women's soccer is exhausting)
To me, on the international stage, flashes of brilliance deserve flashes of play--not full 90s all the time. Lloyd is very, very, very inconsistent. If she's off, she's really off. Part of my question is that she didn't show well in the WWC and now she isn't showing well in the Olys. She's had a moment or two but overall, eh. The goal vs Japan in the group game was excellent. The bad giveaways and poor tracking/defensive balance have caused her team big problems. And given me heartburn. She has had great 4 Nations/Algarve (by reports, I've not actually seen the games) but the big stage is the most important. The poster that said it is the system might be partially correct. The partnership btwn Boxx and Lloyd is not working like I (and others) think it should. Personally, I think there is more to Lloyd's bad play than just the system.The communication btwn Boxx and Lloyd on who stays & who goes (or how to cover when Boxx goes) is getting slightly better but has been poor. Also, she gives the ball away too, too much but that has been a general problem. I don't see good defense from her. I see lazy defense and poor tracking but again, maybe that's just me. To the poster that says we only tear down players and bit@h and moan, possibly true for some but I've never been a rah, rah type. I cheer my team(s) on and I want the best for them. I do notice when players do well but I don't pull punches, either. And different posters see different games sometimes (or just notice/care about different aspects of the game). I learn from that.
Wow, Brooklyn! That was the most elaborate case of backpedaling I've ever seen. "... and so, when I say someone is a 'huge kiss ass', it's not necessarily a bad thing. Tomorrow, I'm going to explain how when I call someone a 'baby raper', I'm actually giving them a compliment..."
I think she does have moments of brilliance and should definitely play. start though? start every game? I'd love to see Wagner play. I wish we would have tried numerous other formations in the center. Too late though, too late now. I believe the new WPS league will naturally develop a player to take this role. Perhaps even Wagner back into top shape. We just need to wait a year or two. Again, I think Lloyd is probably a huge ass-kisser and she and Pia get along famously. (I'm not being mean or cruel, so let's focus.) We all remember some of the best players on our National team quit or get cut, because they did not see eye to eye with the coach, such as Millbret. Ryan disliked a 3 time world champion enough not to even invite her to try out. Kai also said she was almost cut because she also didn't get along with Pia when the training camps started. This happens so often and on soo many teams. It's silly to ignore it. It is very VERY important to get along very well with the coach. And, maybe it's your job as a player to make sure you do. NOT BACK PEDDLING, at all. (But for the record, we all have the right to bitch and we ALL do bitch about our National Team. It is our team after all and these are professional athletes.)
Actually, that's one of the few things I give Ryan credit for. After April got canned, Ryan invited Tiff back on the team just so she could get her 100th goal and 200th cap. I saw her get both. That was a classy thing to do, I thought. Something April wasn't capable of....
I'm sorry, since when are athletes different from any other employee? Where I work (and all the places I've worked in the past 25+ years), if you don't know what skills and attitude your boss values, and what type of performance will get you ahead, you won't be very successful. As an athlete, that means you'd better adapt to what your coach wants, or you're on the bench or off the team. I'd say that Lloyd is pretty smart to have figured it out, rather than saying she's a kiss-ass. Kai took a little longer but figured it out, too. You can be an effective employee without being a suck-up. Pia couldn't exactly come in and clean house, with less than a year remaining between when she started and the Olympics. She took the players she liked best from the existing pool, added a few more, and put them together in the way that she thought worked best for the style she thought the team needed to play. Then she gave them time to try and grow into the roles where she put them. Again, if you take it out of the context of athletics and put it into any job situation, that's good management. And, like in any other job situation, if her team doesn't reach the level of performance that was expected by HER management, she'll get canned. Are they perfect? Hell, no. I get as frustrated as everyone else watching a nice buildup that ends in an errant pass, or a poor shot selection. But you know what? I'm no longer throwing pillows at the television and screaming, 'Do something different, dammit! You're too predictable!' That's a good thing. The other thing to remember is that when Pia coached in Boston, she had Maren Meinert as her attacking midfielder, who is one of the best I've ever seen at that position. And when Meinert retired, Pia traded Hucles to get Wagner as Meinert's replacement. Now, five years later, she has Wagner, whom she obviously liked previously, and Lloyd to choose from (and others, but we'll keep this simple). She chooses to play Lloyd there. So either Wagner's skills are not what they used to be (hard to tell since we haven't seen her much), or she likes the overall package that Lloyd brings to the table, more. And she doesn't have to justify her decisions to us. Is Lloyd effective as a distributing midfielder? Sometimes. She's a lot better at it now than she was 6 months ago. She's a howitzer, pure and simple. She's fit, and she's physical, and she has cannons for legs. And apparently she learns pretty fast. Call her a work in progress. Two years in the league with the right coach, she could be a pretty incredible player. The thing I agree with you on is that the league will be key to developing players. It will be interesting to see who else gets hired as head coaches. If they all play 'route 1' soccer, we won't see the development of the creative midfielders that are so fun to watch. The other question is whether teams will try to develop those players, or if those slots will be filled with foreign players who already have those skill sets. I'm inclined to think they'll lean towards the latter at first-- bringing in skill players from outside the US, because they'll have an attractive product sooner. But if they're smart, they'll find talented youngsters that can learn from those players, because you can get a lot of mileage out of producing hometown heroes. And with a larger group of US players competing regularly at a high level where we can see them, instead of being the best US player in Germany we've never heard of (hello, Lewandowski), new stars will emerge and work their way into the national team spotlight, just like Boxx and Abby did. They exemplified the style of soccer that the national team valued at the time. Maybe the next ones to emerge will play the beautiful game, only time will tell. And you know what? I'm going to get a kick out of watching it happen.
Kai wasn't almost cut because she didn't get along with Pia. She almost got cut because she was lazy, out of shape and not playing with any heart. She ponied up and put the work in and got her chance.
I'd like to borrow that verb Carli Lloyd is the best attacking mid-fielder in the world right now. She does have some problems, like being intercepted quite easily once in a while. (Actually she lost the ball to the Canadian in the quarter-final and that caused the lost goal directly.) But she's such a good all-round player that even she makes mistakes, she's irreplaceable to this team. The reason that Wagner is forced to sit the bench is partly because she had injury, partly because of the rising of Lloyd. In the recently games, Lloyd didn't shot that much like she used to do, but she did help the a lote, like sending quite a few nice balls. So what Wagner can do, Lloyd all can do. But definitely Lloyd can do more. So Carli Lloyd is the very core of team now. She still needs improvement, though.
Carli Loyd is inconsistant. I caught all the Algarve Cup games where she was voted Player of the Tournament. In addition to her goal scoring, her one touch passing and ability to be open for the ball was phenomenal. There has been quite a drop off from that tournament since and I have not seen any good explaination.
How long before James "It's All About Me" Galanis again steps up to take all credit for Carli's success and, by extension, the U.S.' gold medal. Wanna start a pool?