New Zealand ran out of gas early. Not much to learn from minute 30 onwards but beautiful goal from Lavelle.
Tonight's turnout represented the best attendance at a USWNT match since August 16, 2015 (home friendly vs. Costa Rica, 44,028) which was incidentally the team's first match after winning the 2015 World Cup. 35,761 ‼️ St. Louis, you know how to SHOW UP to a game. Thank you for being the best fans in the world! pic.twitter.com/A1w55l1Kwi— U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (@USWNT) May 17, 2019
I continue to wonder what people are seeing-- I had Dunn as the player of the match before Ian ever brought it up, and I thought Morgan played well enough, and Pinoe, well, they just let her go and she killed them for it. And Kreiger certainly was able to get into the offense in this match, anyway... I think Press needs to warn up harder-- she seems to get a prime chance early in every appearance, and she always over hits it, be it pass or shot. Not sure how much was jetlag and St Louis in May and how much was conditioning-- but the Ferns did wilt at halftime, Even allowing for that I came away feeling like Riley is no longer really a 90 minute player, though. And Lloyd needs to write a book on training to reach choice physical shape at the exact right time in a four year cycle...
I thought the US speed of play was a notch better today than I've seen previously. It slowed down some towards the end, but for most of the game it seemed quite high. Did anyone else think that?
They got 35,817 in St Louis (Busch Stadium) on April 4, 2015... coincidentally against New Zealand also, right before the World Cup. Those are the two largest attendances when you exclude WC/OG, WC/OG qualifiers, and a couple games from the 2015 Victory Tour. Yeah, I'm questioning what you're seeing if you thought Dunn was player of the match. She had double-digit turnovers, completely whiffed 2 or 3 shots, and didn't create much against a tomato can. I thought it was her worst game I've ever seen.
Horan seems to be too slow to me. Even against NZ, she had trouble separating from the nearest defender. Mewis is fast and has better vision. She is also a distance scoring threat. The question is will Ellis make the obvious change for Mewis or stick with her fav Horan?
I believe I see the problem. Our definitions of "turnover" "Completely whiffed" and "tomato can" appear to be very different.
Horan is not fast, although she is giving me the impression that she is just a tiny bit faster each time out these days. But she's not gonna run away from most folks. It is her eyes and quickness and accuracy of her passing that make her special. It is kinda of the classic conundrum. Mewis is the more impressive individually, but the team is more impressive with Horan. We all kind of thought Horan might be the replacement for Abby, and she's not actually that sort of player at all. It has taken some time to see what sort she is. She's not really a finisher, she sets up other people, often at one remove...
Great Hi-Bye trip if you don't count the 2-hour frantic pre-match call to Major League Baseball because I couldn't get their ticket app to work...(Previously check it 10 times to confirm I could get to my ticket)....oh well. Hey, how about the Mid-west representing!!!! They stuffed fans into every nook and cranny of that place. Wow 35K+.......this only reinforces the fact that the United States Women's National Team can go anywhere, anyplace, anytime and create their brand of Utopia. Had a vvvvvvvery impromptu pre-match 90 second convo with Tom Sermanni. I said hello and this joker just walks over and starts gabbing...really friendly dude. I wished him luck in the Tournament and he also said his ladies thought the pitch was fine....if so then hats off to the Cardinals ground crew. I wonder how USSoc got so comfy with the procedures and conditions so we didn't have another Honolulu on our hands??? Have the Men played there recently???? Soooooooo, this was the dress rehearsal.....right????? Hard to imagine that this isn't Jill's starting 11. On to Jersey then.........now what comes after that????
Thing is, will they actually start, given that our opening match is likely to be the easiest of the whole tournament?
Dunn's struggle was having to sprint to the endline and hope to get a cross off before the balls played well ahead of her went out for a goalkick.
They are really quite different and it is hard to choose because of what the bring. Lloyd is the better finisher and quite good at winning the 1v1 battles. Morgan is quite good at drawing 2-4 players to her and making it easier for the rest of the team to open up. I believe the rotation where Morgan starts and wears the other players down and maybe grinds out a goal or two and Lloyd subs in somewhat after half may be the best rotation for those two. I do wish that when I coached I had kind of problem the US faces at most positions: Which of my really really good players do I start? It may cause sleepless nights but it is one of the best problems a coaching staff can have.
I would contend that Carli Lloyd is not a 90 minute World Cup level player at this point, and most certainly not a 120 minute player. Ask yourself this. Would you rather have Carli Lloyd on the field at the beginning of the game against fresh players, or at the end of the game playing against at least 8 players who haven't been subbed off? Especially with the compact schedule of games during the World Cup, I'd leave Carli on the bench until needed.
I agree that she has looked better some games. But the question is twofold... (1) is she more effective because she's coming in late against tired players and (2) can she do this against an actual top team. I'm not sure of either answer.
I had been wondering on the last thread about why Dunn doesn't get involved. It might have been jet lag and humidity that turned things after 30 minutes, but I think it was Dunn pushing up. With both Dunn and O'Hara pushed up very high, they found scoring chances they really didn't have in the first third of the game. Another thing I've wanted is more professional fouls. Even in this friendly, the USA committed several to thwart counter attacks. If you are going to push people forward, it is a good idea to foul and stop the other team when you lose the ball. I thought Krieger was below average in her run out. Again, like against Belgium, against a team that we are running over, she just looks ok or a notch below ok.
Chris Henderson @chris_awk · 2h Replying to @chris_awk USA-New Zealand - inStat Top Rated 1. Tobin Heath (USA) 2. Crystal Dunn (USA) 3. Carli Lloyd (USA) 4. Megan Rapinoe (USA) 5. Samantha Mewis (USA)
Let me know when she gets to the top of that list. I'll be waiting at the door to welcome you to the club.
You're old. But seriously. I don't know if we'll ever see what she did ever again. Some players, like O'Reilly and Lloyd, or even Casey Nogueira Loyd, have a way of showing up in championship games, but none of them come close to matching what she did game after game.
Your question got me thinking which is dangerous for everyone. Seems like Jill's recent comments go on and on about cohesion and chemistry. I thought a look back to the most recent qualifying Tournament would be interesting - - had to remind myself that Jill flipped the lineup in Match 2. But in the end, the two Tournaments present such glaring differences that negate any meaningful comparison. Roster 20 vs. 23 Competition, competition, competition Time between matches is very similar considering the extra travel days in France (given the most likely scenario) Maybe we can say that Jill rides a certain lineup?? Of course when you are getting these kinds of results....why change. Again, I provide no answers, just more questions - however, I can still prepare a spreadsheet. BWTHDIK
1. Thanks-- I was too lazy-- or maybe too arrogant-- to do that myself. Arrogant because I was sure that was what it would show; that was what I thought she'd done in the past. But in qualifying I think folks generally expected Mexico would be better than Panama, it just didn't turn out to be so; plus there was a certain revenge and caution factor from past events. 2. But in this case, despite the rankings I would think on recent showing Chile is somewhat the more dangerous of the first two? So do you start the preferred team in game one to keep them tuned, or do you rest them in game one to spend the battery life against the tougher opponent? Or do you assume you can handle both routinely and rest the preferred team in the second game to have them as fresh as possible against your nemesis?