SB Nation article featuring McCall Zerboni: http://www.dynamotheory.com/2017/4/...l-continues-to-be-about-more-than-just-soccer
Kawamura has stepped in to the spot vacated by Kennedy almost seamlessly, both on the back line and on set pieces. The only scary moment was the open net shot that Stengel totally shanked. Kawamura and Dahlkemper were way too far apart and Stengel perfectly exploited that space.
I want to thank the 6,298 fans that attended the opener, and I'm happy they got an exciting game to see with the home team coming out on top. I felt the game was played with championship-like intensity.
I enjoyed being on of those 6298 fans. A good game overall with, indeed, coach, a lot of intensity. I was impressed with a number of things, this being my first live view of a women's professional game. First and foremost, lots of direct soccer. Both offenses were geared to move it up quickly, although the Thorns did have more nice passing sequences than the home team. For the Courage it was mostly about springing McDonald or Williams loose to out run everybody. The few times the Courage tried to work it through the middle it seemed that Debrinha would cough it up more often than not. Sam Mewis impressed me with her speed and savvy. (Yup, I guess there is a reason she is on the national team.) But McDonald is the strongest on the field for the Courage IMO. She plays smart and under control, she uses her athleticism for much more than out running defenders, and her engine is unstopable - a six-foot Energizer Bunny that keeps on running and sprinting for 90 minutes. (I'd like to see the GPS readouts for her tonight.) Sure, she's paid to prowl in the offensive end and she does so like a large agile caged tiger... always moving, but she goes beyond that assignment, frequently sprinting back on defense --especially notable about 15 minutes into the game when she covered 70 yards from her forward position to intercept a breakaway as the last defender. And I just loved her assist for the score when she took the ball to the end line, delayed a bit toying with the left back as the runners caught up with the play, and then neatly chipped the ball over the her defender's leg, floated it over another defender just inside the 6 in front of the goal to hit the running Debinha for the score. Player of the game for sure.
Couldn't watch the game live (it won't happen often: games use to be at night for me in Europe ), but I'll wait for video-replay or just highlights. I see Courage keep winning by the minimal margin, but looks like they're anyway convincing, judging from what I hear you say, guys. I see from the score-borad that Kawamura played the whole match and earned a Yellow Card: was it legit? Does anyone remember the foul? I ask because it's quite unusual for Japanese players to get YCs: normally Nadeshiko Japan scoops all Fair Play awards in any competition.
It was a legit yellow. Very hard two-footed tackle from straight on the front - very close to "studs up" and she got way more of the opponents leg than she did the ball. Sports fans might say it was a "statement" tackle saying 'I'm as tough as anybody in this league, so don't think you can come in here and mess with me."
Stop what you're doing and go see my #ISIphotos from the #NWSL @ThornsFC vs @TheNCCourage game https://t.co/iBDfcWt4H0 pic.twitter.com/NmoXC5YzVh— Andy Mead (@theAndyMead) April 23, 2017
I did earlier and now I see you have some post-game shots added. Thanks for sharing. The one I really liked was Sabrina D'Aangelo, standing square between the pipes and hollering out to the field. http://isiphotos.photoshelter.com/g...6Wlk1mjJQpI/I00003km6xMkgA9g/C0000U4PKcqT3fy8
That's ridiculous. Are we using stereotypes for analysis now? Players are players. Professional players only more so. The biggest diver I ever saw? Mia Hamm - that's who. Here's your yellow card: http://isiphotos.photoshelter.com/g...6Wlk1mjJQpI/I0000mJYmcx8Yvt8/C0000U4PKcqT3fy8
No, we aren't using stereotypes, we are using statistics: these are different metrics, you know? If you had followed Japanese soccer as much as I did, you would know that the number of fouls and of Yellow/Red Cards the players get is significantly lower than the average of women's soccer (that's also waaaaay lower than the average of men's soccer, if you noticed: or is it a stereotype? ). The FIFA Fair Play award, in tournaments, isn't given based on "stereotypes" but "according to the points system and criteria established by the FIFA Fair Play Committee": Japan won it in three editions out of eight of U-20 WWC, in three editions out of five (last three ones) of U-17 WWC, and in the same edition of Senior WWC when they also won the title (plus countless minor competitions when Japanese players use to distinguish themselves for Fair Play and get other awards). This is called a trend. You are are free to disagree, but please with solid statistical arguments, not by calling "stereotypes".
I think that Lynn Williams needs to go back to the Paul Riley Finishing School for a refresher; with a little more accuracy, she could have had 3 goals vs Portland. I think attendance was mandatory for Lynn, Jess and a couple others after the second or third game last year, and it worked.
I re-watched the NC-POR game and wanted to share this about NC Possession & Passing: The buildup to Debinha’s bike attempt was not unusual on the day. Free Kick from 5 yards into NC attacking half: Kurasawa back to Erceg -1 Erceg back to D’Angelo -2 D”Angelo forward to Kurasawa at about 35 yards out -3 Kurasawa back to D’Angelo outside the Penalty Area “D” - 4 D’Angelo left to Kurasawa about 30 yards out -5 Kurasawa to Hinkle about 15 yards into defensive half near touch line -6 Hinkle One Touch to Debinha at centerline -7 Debinha turns and finds Williams breaking about 35 yards from goal -8 Williams endline cross to Doniak -9 Doniak one touch shot wide left McDonald blocks endline and keeps shot in play Debinha tries her bike at about 10yds from goal. Yeah, yeah, back and forth passes among defense and goalkeeper inflate the possession stats. However, what impressed me were the Kurasawa-Hinkle –Debinha- Williams passing connections that made the transition from defending third to attacking end line. I think what many people saw was the same old: hoof-the-ball-to-Williams-on-the-run direct play; but it was much more than that.
My apologies to Yuri Kawamura. It is too late to fix my post. It was a mistake I should not have made.
NP; also, I was in hurry when I made my remark and I forgot to praise your otherwise excellent analysis: if you ever watched Japan NT play (and if you're a US fan you sure did ), you should know that building up play starting with a smooth circulation of the ball among defenders is a typical trademark of Nadeshiko players. So it makes sense that a team that somehow wants to implement this style of possession-oriented game signs a Japanese DF. I am anyway curious about where the typo came from: I don't think there ever were a player called Kurasawa in Japanese women's football. Maybe a mismatch with renowned Japanese director Akira Kurosawa?
Here is a GIF of the last four passes in the sequence above: 857380498926166017 is not a valid tweet id
This week's photos Head over to #ISIphotos to see my photos from #NCvORL #NWSL #nccourage #filledwithpride @TheNCCourage @ORLPride https://t.co/zqZsuOq1ud pic.twitter.com/2AX7Y2ex6E— Andy Mead (@theAndyMead) April 30, 2017
Paul Riley post-game, with some interesting comments on game strategy and adjustments: http://www.wralsportsfan.com/soccer/video/16673254/ Lynn Williams post-game: http://www.wralsportsfan.com/soccer/video/16673255/
http://www.wralsportsfan.com/soccer/asset_gallery/15514282/ WRAL's Neil Morris (Raleigh, NC) has a podcast. I just listened to his interviews of Jess McDonald and Lynn Williams. I enjoyed both. He induces them to talk plainly and frankly about their journeys, their families, their motivations, and aspirations. His questions did not lend themselves to athlete-speak cliché responses. He also interviewed Paul Riley, but I haven't listened to that one yet.
Morris is doing a great job with his coverage of the Courage so far. It's a nice change from the once in a blue moon stuff we got from DiVeronica the last couple years.
Relax. All the photos from #NCvCHI are at #ISIphotos #RedStars #NCCourage #NWSL https://t.co/uiEYmMCfLU pic.twitter.com/DrFYXvl4Mf— Andy Mead (@theAndyMead) May 22, 2017
Well, I guess the last two losses vs Orlando and Chicago quite shut up the conversation here. What's the main problem of the team, guys, in your opinion? (Well, apart from a falling apart defense that was too much foul-prone vs ORL and then, without Erceg, was deployed with three in the back vs CHI, one of them being MacDonald? ) (I made some observations in the Week 6 thread, but maybe here we can be more specific).
Problems? 4-2 and in first place 1/3rd of the way through the season? There was never any real conversation to "shut up". To be honest, there's been about as much Courage conversation on BigSoccer as I expected when I suggested it might be a bit premature to go creating a new subforum. If I were a fan, I'd likely be 99% of the traffic, but as someone who is a contractor, I tend to be a bit more circumspect. Plus I realized the WNT/dregs of the pro women's boards on BigSoccer were a scary place to be over a decade ago. It'll never go back to what it was during the WUSA. Twitter/Instragram and whatever other social media outlets the kids use has killed off most message boards like BigSoccer.
Problems seemed clear enough. Don't do what they did in the first half. Do what they did in the second.