yeah, there was nothing in that foul on the Spaniard in the middle of the park. Look downthread. did you even watch the game? did you notice the first half sub Spain has to make or was that just some unfortunate "lady gaga" Iberian make-up job? SRLY?
the #9 in the US implementation of 433 is a hold up, poacher position. That is not Morgans game. never has been. She is not strong and physical enough to deal with the physicality of CBs and not quick enough to get in behind consistently anymore. Go look at the youth teams. Go look at Swanson UVA teams. Seems to prefer a more physical #9. Ive always felt that Horan would be ideal for the #9 role.
They did say that would be a point of emphasis and people would be carded for even slight contact to the face, didn't they? And there have been several cards given out for pretty much the same thing in other games. So y'know, just keep your hands away from people's faces...
And it is entirely possible in such a collision to punch yourself in the face that hard-- I've done it. Unless and until we get to see video of an actual foul, I'm gonna assume that VAR did check it and cleared it.
This is not unusual, for either of them. It's always been an issue for Rapinoe (even back in college), she doesn't pace herself.
I actually think Morgan is generally strong and physical enough, and Horan goes down plenty as well. We'll probably just disagree there.
I thought IFAB had player representation. All indications seem to contradict that. Incidental contact happens. This is as poorly conceived as the experiment during a U-20 WC where touching the ball AT ALL after the whistle was an automatic yellow.
not true. they did show a replay. the spanish player and mewis were both going for the ball. looks like the spanish player fell and got a mewis knee in the eye. var apparently thought it was just an unfortunate collision but not a foul.
Two things: It looked to me early in the game like the ref was not going to call a lot. I thought that would be good for the US, as I thought they would be the more physical team, but I was wrong on that. It also looked to me like Spain had instructions not to let Morgan, Heath, or Rapinoe to get possession of the ball in the box. Rather, foul them outside the box if necessary, to avoid it. Thus those 3 seemed to run into a lot of physical play. Spain, though, didn't always turn it off at the boundary of the box. They paid the price. Other than that, the US played poorly. Naeher and Bruun massively screwed up one play. Mewis played really well, but in defense of Rapinoe Mewis through passes to her were too hard a number of times. She doesn't have, for example, Horan's touch. And, the US seemed to have the strategy of playing the ball up the left side of the field. Heath got very few balls notwithstanding she was open a lot. That had to have been the game plan. Finally, O'Hara did a great job. Every Spain goal kick went to a defender she had to defend, and she did a great job of containing.
Neither PK had anything to do with hackery, or not allowing x, y, or z posession (which usually manifests as fouls from behind and chopping down players on the turn). Heath had space, and cut back intelligently, and a Spanish player stepped on her. The other was a missed clearance on a bouncing ball.
I understand. Rather I meant to suggest that their fouling strategy resulted in them being "loose" -- i.e., sloppy -- in the box.
the spanish coach likely scrutinised all the tons of video available, and took instruction from the last couple chinese games against us where the normally ball controlling chinese ceeded possession, outfouled us and almost won. so the normally ball controlling spanish ceeded possession, outfouled us with particular emphasis on morgan, and almost pulled it off. good game for the u.s. to go through on the journey. france will be more athletic and more clinical. we've been put on notice.
Yellow card? 🧐 Megan Rapinoe gets booked for making slight contact with Marta Corredera's face. #FIFAWWCThe two have a fun little exchange in the end 😅 pic.twitter.com/0UCzrYUwF2— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) June 24, 2019 A light slap on the face. Why are her hands up at all?
If you run like that unintentionally, you might have neurological damage. Just sayin'. This is how people run.
You do understand that the upper body is important in staying upright under pressure, right? Even the limbs are necessary, right?