Japan and France have technical skill in spades. US less so. If the US has so much skill, why play conservative? I don't think you support your argument well. Desire, comraderie, teamwork, athleticism, are all important attributes too. But we don't have the skill thing quite down yet.
To anyone who thinks Arod is better than Morgan: Morgan and Abby combine nicely with each other. Morgan's two best goals to date, vs. China and vs. Italy, both came off Wambach flicks. They read each other really well. Morgan during Concacaf qualifying seemed calm under pressure, can score many different ways. Arod can be sitting in front of an empty goal an miss. I think it's unfair to say "Morgan hasn't done much" when she doesn't get to play even 1/4 the minutes Arod gets.
Credit where credit is due, I liked the fact that she let the play flow without interjecting herself into the game except as needed.
i shat bricks when Krieger went down. Pleading for her to be ok, and to please god let mitts stay on the bench. I think i have to got to church and court now for having my requests granted.
If you say this with a German accent, it sounds like something I've heard before in this tournament....
I can only guess, the answer to that has to come from her. The comment was more about Pia's decisions for forward ne way...
haha, very true. they have a great combination of youth and experience and are very smart on the ball. will be a lot of fun...especially if Lloyd doesn't start and we hold the ball and build an attack.
My mom is watching the game now. She wasn't able to watch live. She's yelling at the tv. I <3 my mom. eta: also. about 45 sec b/f France scored, she said "I think France is about to score."
Just some observations about the USA France match. USA central midfield is getting outrun. The Boxx and Lloyd duo is just not working. If you look at France and Japan's midfield, they are fluid, creative and they work quite well together. Lloyd is clearly out of form. It seems like every time she has the ball, she gets dispossessed. She also holds on to the ball too long instead of releasing it quickly. She relies heavily on back passes. Lloyd needs to step up and play better. I don't think she is the playmaker USA is looking at the moment, not at her current form. Would you start Lloyd Sunday? USA couldn't string passes together from about mid 1st half until about the time when Krieger momentarily left the pitch due to an ankle knack 20 minutes into the 2nd half. Boxx had to drop back to play central defender for a minute or two. With USA with just 10 players (Krieger being attended in the sideline) USA was able to string a few passes together and relieve the unrelenting pressure by France, and USA began to have some a semblance of an attack that has been missing for nearly an hour. In my opinion, having Boxx and Lloyd in the middle of the midfield is the biggest weakness in USA lineup. Both players kill practically every possession the USA has. Boxx is excellent in winning balls, but her distribution is lacking. With Lloyd and Boxx being ineffective at moving the ball, the US midfield will continue to be outplayed. Expect Japan to get most of the possession in the Final with Boxx and Lloyd in the middle. I would rather have Cheney play with Boxx in central midfield for the Final. After the tournament, Pia should consider moving Boxx back to central defense, and start looking for a pair of central midfielders, and a playmaker.
It seems to me that the USWNT should apologize to the French for winning this athletic competition by being in superior physical condition.
Sauerbrunn earned the right to start in Sunday's final. How much of a hero is Abby Wambach? What incredible clutch dependability. If she scores the winning goal in the final, isn't she a logical candidate for Sportsperson of the Year in SI? Lloyd was weak in midfield and after 25 minutes O'Reilly was not a major factor, either. Given Japan's possession, there has to be serious consideration for having Cheney play in the middle and having either Rapinoe or Morgan replace Rodriguez up front.
but it was lloyd's holding the ball all the way across the field and then passing it to rapinoe that set up sunday's crucial tying goal. and it was lloyd's killer backheel no look pass to hao that set up today's first goal. cheney might hold the ball better. but she does not switch fields with her left as well as lloyd, so i'll let pia decide who she wants starting out next to boxx. i'm fine with the admittedly annoying lloyd. there's technical skill in defending too, and we have demonstrated that in spades. so it's smart tactically to play conservatively. especially today, when we predictably lost our legs. offensive skill looks better, and i wish we had more. but defensive skill wins games. no. they were both 2-0 wins. but that was not the same japan team we'll see on sunday. they are now able to pass rings around us if we don't do a better job in the midfield. i still think that hope and the defense can win that game for us tho. but i would not at all be surprised by a japanese win. i really like the way they play.
Just watched the sequence on the Morgan goal. Great team play on that. Rampone steps in and puts a great ball right on Abby's head. Abby gives Rapinoe a great, soft headed pass. Rapinoe knocks a great ball behind the D for Morgan to run onto. Which she does and puts the ball in the back of the net. Team work. America. F#ck Yeah.
Interesting quote from pia On Megan Rapinoe coming off the bench: “Megan and other players coming off the bench have made the difference. That’s something that doesn’t just happen but we work on it. In fact, a couple of months ago she was in the starting lineup. Lauren Cheney has played well every single practice and eventually we made the change just before the World Cup. (Her success of the bench) is a little bit of her character, it’s a little bit of her reading the game and a little bit of coaching as well. It’s the same thing with Alex Morgan coming off the bench. There’s a reason why she’s good and part of that is Amy Rodriguez (tiring out the defense with her running). There’s a reason why these players come off the bench and make a difference because this is 21 players and I’m very proud. At times we didn’t play well today, however we found a way to win. Credit to the player’s heart and that’s what makes it so wonderful to coach for this team.”
Overall not the prettiest of games but the team got it done. I completely agree with Foudy when she said that the team just seems to know that they will win. I mean even today when France tied it up I just thought this team would find a way to win. Wambach is showing why she is a leader and one of the best forwards in my opinion. Phenomenal match by her. In my honest opinion if she scores again in the final she could quite possibly be a shoe-in for FIFA female player of the year. I was happily surprised by our defense today. I thoroughly enjoyed Becky out there. Unfortunately I do not think that she will start against Japan. I feel like Pia will put Beuhler back in the line up. Lloyd was clearly having an off day. She looked worse than she normally does which is saying quite a bit. She was slow and her paces looked tired. But let's be honest, Pia is going to start her against Japan so let's just hope that the 3 days is enough time for her to recover. Morgan finally produced which was nice to see! I knew she had it in her! She had much better runs than I think she has had in previous games and I thought she looked more effective out there. I disagree with all the harsh criticism against ARod today. I actually thought she looked pretty good. She made some nice defensive plays and had some good runs that stretched the French defense but unfortunately she just couldn't put anything away. Today's game was further proof in my mind that she ultimately is a better fit for the midfield because I just don't think she has that sixth sense for the goal that Wambach and Morgan do. LOVED the move of Cheney into center mid and loved bringing Rapinoe off the bench. Originally I agreed with someone who posted that we should start the Japan game with the team that finished today and now I changed my mind. Rapinoe is much better coming in off the bench. I find her similar to Morgan where she is just a spark plug out there but does not have the consistency to play like that for 90 minutes yet. And the goal today I cannot blame Hope for. I think it was a little bit of bad positioning by our defense and Hope didn't really have much of a choice. Only thing she could have done differently was come out to challenge for the cross but having watched the goal a few more times I don't think she would have won the challenge. Overall not the best game in the records book but this team got it done! I'm confident this team can win the gold. I know we on bigsoccer love to critique the girls and Pia but this team just finds a way to pull out wins and that is something intangible about this group. I'm excited for Sunday's game!
WC's goals are hard to come by for many players. How about this: ARod have scored in all 3 games against Japan this year. Is that good enough for you?
Well, another very entertaining game, another game where we got outplayed for long stretches, but the subs made the difference. No way Pia will do it, but I'd go like this: ---------------Solo-------------- Krieger--Sauerbrunn--Rampone--Amy L --------------Boxx--------------- O'Reilly-------Cheney-------Rapinoe --------Wambach---Morgan------- Call me crazy, but I think you should start the game with your best players on the pitch. Heck, I might even start Lindsey. Still, although Pia (thankfully) didn't try any of my weird lineup changes after the Sweden loss, we have seen them from time to time. Which makes me think I wasn't so crazy. Boxx did spend some time in the back (when we went down to 10 against Brazil, and when Krieger was briefly out today), and Cheney did replace Lloyd at CAM. And we looked a HECK of a lot better. Pia will go with Buehler, Lloyd, and A-Rod. There is some wisdom in, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" as well.