Pre/pbp/post 7/10 WWC USA vs. Brazil

Discussion in 'USA Women: News and Analysis' started by Namdynamo, Jul 6, 2011.

  1. katie14

    katie14 Member

    Apr 17, 2002
    Ohio
    That may have been one of my most favorite quotes on bigsoccer in a while. It made me laugh just about as hard as Abby saying yesterday that Hope had 2 legit PK saves. Well played :)
     
  2. philafan

    philafan Member

    Mar 20, 2010
    Club:
    Philadelphia Union
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Thanks for clarifying. I thought it was a dark ponytail coming from the right side of the back line, so I assumed it was Ali. It was well done by all four players.

    It was kind of similar to the first goal the US scored against North Korea, where Lloyd passed it to Abby down the wing, who crossed it to Cheney's head.
     
  3. MRAD12

    MRAD12 Member+

    Jun 10, 2004
    Chicago
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    Read this folks.

    Good article on how Brazilians aren't the only ones diving. Other teams are doing the same and yet Marta gets booed.

    The Title:
    If Marta were American we'd love her.

    http://espn.go.com/espnw/news-opinion/6757462/women-world-cup-marta-were-american-love-her

     
  4. hdtvfan

    hdtvfan New Member

    Jun 7, 2006
    It is not just Marta's diving, but her constant b*itching, moaning and whining that gets tiresome. But it is certainly true that her skill must be admired, if she could control her emotions better on the pitch it might actually work to her advantage.
     
  5. katie14

    katie14 Member

    Apr 17, 2002
    Ohio
    Nice find! Interesting article to read and definitely see the points raised in the article. I think it is just the nature of sports though. I mean look at all sports not just soccer where typically the best players get boo'd. Take the Yankees for example (sorry for all the yankee fans out there). People like to boo the Yankees because they are the Yankees. Not because they necessarily did anything wrong per se but just to boo them. Same can be said about many other great players. You either love or hate the New England Patriots. It's just part of being a great athlete. If you want to be the best you have to take the pressure of not always being liked.

    Personally I love seeing the emotion of it all! Remember hate is just as strong an emotion as love so the more cheering and booing there is I ultimately think it's better for the women's game. It means people are passionate about what they are watching.
     
  6. tcrawdad

    tcrawdad New Member

    Jul 31, 2005
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Marta is a nightmare to match up with for anyone on the pitch.

    Highly skilled, highly emotional, no conscience in any regard. When she starts with the ball or towards it, she has one thing on her mind and nothing or anyone will stop her and if it does happen, she blames everyone else.

    She grabs, she kicks, she scratches, she screams, she growls, she punches, she flops, she flies, she intimidates, she bullies and it's all OK because she scores a lot of goals.

    Funny, now she sits on an airplane going back home . . . . . . :p
     
  7. Morris20

    Morris20 Member

    Jul 4, 2000
    Upper 90 of nowhere
    Club:
    Washington Freedom
    equating Smith policing things on the field and calling out what she saw as gamesmanship with Marta's constant whining, cheating, hectoring and diving (although even if you think the PK call was psychotic, and I do, it didn't look like a dive either, just an honest two footed hopeless challenge for a ball) is truly comical. Kind of undermines any serious reading . . . if an American player did what Marta does, she'd be at best a pariah, probably out of the team.
     
  8. jd6885

    jd6885 Member

    Jun 30, 2001
    Tacoma
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I can't believe I'm defending Marta, but I do respect that she plays with a lot of heart.

    Since early in the game, Wambach did embellish a lot, it's understandable how this could get to Marta mentally. Too often, to my dislike, we rely a lot on set pieces, and one way we win them is with Wambach diving/embellishing fouls.

    Can you blame her for taking advantage of the same thing we are?
     
  9. FormerGermanGuy

    Mar 1, 2001
    Indianapolis
    Club:
    Fulham FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Yeah, if she can hold her emotions in check she just might become a good player some day. Anyways, Abby was just as guilty of constant moaning and whining, normally after she had just gotten done mugging someone. The impatient counting down 6 seconds to the keeper holding the ball after the way Solo spent her first half was kinda over the top as well.

    Nice goal, though.
     
  10. tcrawdad

    tcrawdad New Member

    Jul 31, 2005
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Blame? No Respect the fire, passion and skill? Of course

    But I don't have to like her :p
     
  11. rtung

    rtung Member

    Aug 20, 1999
    Chicago, IL, USA

    1. If the rest of the teams in the WC were female, yes. I'd take an English lower division men's team vs. A current women's team any day.

    2. You seem not to have noticed, but Brazilians were dribbling around the American defenders during that game.
     
  12. jackiesdad

    jackiesdad Member

    Apr 13, 2008
    You seem not to have noticed, but they really weren't.
     
  13. tcrawdad

    tcrawdad New Member

    Jul 31, 2005
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    No, more often than not, they tried to go through them, fell and flopped around, wailing and kvetching.
     
  14. rtung

    rtung Member

    Aug 20, 1999
    Chicago, IL, USA
    More than Americans were around Brazilians.
     
  15. tcrawdad

    tcrawdad New Member

    Jul 31, 2005
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    How did that work out for them, exactly?
     
  16. rtung

    rtung Member

    Aug 20, 1999
    Chicago, IL, USA
    Given their lack of stamina and tactical naivete, not so well. So how will the US do when they face an opponent that doesn't shoot itself in the foot (that is, actually has a federation that values women's soccer & a coach that isn't stupid) but has more skill? I guess we'll find out in the next game vs. France.
     
  17. tcrawdad

    tcrawdad New Member

    Jul 31, 2005
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Thanks for the laugh :D
     
  18. Morris20

    Morris20 Member

    Jul 4, 2000
    Upper 90 of nowhere
    Club:
    Washington Freedom
    Wow . . . so, it was the Brazilian federation's fault that O'Reilly went steaming past their outside backs for 100 minutes on a gimpy leg? Or that Morgan turned the corner pretty much at will? Or that the Brazilians conceded 2 clear PK's (uncalled of course) in the final hour? It must be some sort of courage/physics thing that got the US in behind the Brazilians because it clearly couldn't be skill, right?

    Whoops, almost barfed on the keyboard. :p

    I worry about the US' preparation for France and think this edition of the USWNT is the kind of team that could lay a very big egg against a team that is quite a bit weaker than Brazil/Germany - well, exactly 2 goals weaker last week. But it won't be because France is "better" in some durable way, it will be because France can bring their "A" game while the US struggles to recover from an epic match with a key player wrongly suspended. In a one-off game, the US' big concern has to be a one-off result. If the better team wins, it will be the US.
     
  19. Plxix

    Plxix BigSoccer Yellow Card

    Mar 13, 2006
    Put down that pipe.
     
  20. ForeverLOST108

    ForeverLOST108 Member+

    Jan 23, 2010
    Orlando
    Club:
    Tottenham Hotspur FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    O'Reilly went steaming past Brazil's outside backs for 100 minutes? :confused: Not sure if you saw the same game I did but I saw very, very little of O'Reilly after the first 20-30 minutes. At least, I saw very little of O'Reilly in the offensive third.
     
  21. Morris20

    Morris20 Member

    Jul 4, 2000
    Upper 90 of nowhere
    Club:
    Washington Freedom
    Visualize - O'Reilly touches the ball inside then cuts it back outside and goes endline. The only period she didn't was either side of halftime when she just didn't get the ball.

    She came off after pretty much the only time that move didn't work.
     
  22. StarCityFan

    StarCityFan BigSoccer Supporter

    Aug 2, 2001
    Greenbelt, MD
    Club:
    Washington Freedom
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    If I made a list of US starting players in order of importance, Buehler would be pretty close to the bottom. My key players would be Solo, Rampone, Krieger, Boxx, HAO, and Wambach, and that would be about it.
     
  23. CoachJon

    CoachJon Member+

    Feb 1, 2006
    Rochester, NY
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    So many soccer fans forget that HALF of the game is preventing your opponent from scoring. Defense means disrupting the flow of your opponent's game. Defense means the game gets ugly. Defense matters, and a lot of the time it ain't pretty, but without it you lose.
     
  24. Blustar

    Blustar Member

    May 30, 2006
    Club:
    Miami FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    All players know this part of the game, even Marta does her occaisional display of histrionics, when the opposing team beats you at what you are good at, now you know why she was pissed. Wambach did her part in getting under her skin and it worked, believe me, it is part of the game and Abby knew what she was doing. Marta is just too unbalanced and fiery to understand that no amount of her bitching and moaning is going to help, she's just going to make it worse by losing her cool.

    Did you see the Reggie Miller special where it was basically his job to unhinge the opponent mentally? Marta is just such an easy target, she needs to grow up mentally and be a leader instead of a cry baby. She can't expect to be petulant and arrogant the whole game and expect people to like her, I respect her talent but win something first before you bring this effing Zidanesque attitude. As great as she is, her ego is probably 10x bigger and it's not helping her win any cups or fans.

    All that being said, I think she played great, it's too bad all that great effort and play is marred by her conduct on the pitch.

    here's a response to an article, on WESPN defending Marta, from a German who was at the game:


    German_Football_Fan
    All of you US soccer fans may not forget it was a german crowd around the pitch. Ok, maybe some german based US soldiers and their families attended the match, but most of the crowd were german. They weren't either pro- nor anti-US. During the game things changed. People have a very sensible feeling when things turn wrong. And that evening (our CET) a lot of things went quiet a wrong way, at least a strange one. They simply cheered resp. whistled what they felt about the match, the refs and last but not least the players. Even me was yelling at Wambach's equalizer and Kriegers final PK. It just was what I felt at this moments. I yelled because justice and spirit won over injustice and arrogance.


    I can't say it any better than that.
     
  25. sitruc

    sitruc Member+

    Jul 25, 2006
    Virginia
    In my opinion, that article completely misses the point.
    Marta and a few other Brazilians were mentally out of it from the start. Part of that may have been the stage, but I think they were surprised by the US starting the match very physical. In past match-ups the Brazilians have been very physical (to the point that some called them dirty) with the US. The US set the match and the Brazilians didn't know how to respond. I commented in this thread or the WWC thread that Marta's caution could be a critical moment. After Wambach was fouled and Aline received a yellow card late in the first half, Marta argued with the ref that Abby went down easy. (I initially thought Abby went down soft, but the side view showed there was more contact than I realized.) From then on, I knew Marta would embellish and simulate with every opportunity. On point, she embellished on the next two plays and got the calls before the half. This continued for the rest of the match. I blame the officiating. Even before halftime, I was amazed her only caution was for dissent and was reminded of this by the FIFA package of her "highlights." Of course the officiating is at greater fault, but there is nothing admirable about the practice by players. It shouldn't be condoned at all.
     

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