The Dutch frontline will be younger than the US' currently is in four years, especially Miedema and Beerensteyn. They weren't at their best this tournament, but I'd be a bit surprised if the Netherlands bring a significantly different frontline next World Cup.
What do we have in our talent pool other than Pugh? Also can we get a new LB and put Dunn on the front? Or let Horan play the 2nd striker role?
I don't know. Maybe Lynn Williams gets another crack. Don't know what's going on with Ashley Sanchez. Dunn and Horan are potential future options for the front line.
Let's face it. Next year in the Olympics it will be a contest among these four semi finalists plus Japan.
Which is exactly my point. What you see today isn’t what MOST teams will look like in four years. While the USA will look different, what I saw in this cup suggests everyone else will have to retool or get left behind. That includes the Dutch. In four years the US front line will be younger that the US are now or probably the Dutch might be. There isn’t any indication there will be a drop off. And the USA has traditionally gotten a fair share of its goals from converted mids, including everyone but Morgan this cup. There are 2-3 players including Lavelle who will just be hitting their stride from the current squad and a half dozen still wet behind the ears who will running up their backs.
I'm not supporting your point. The Dutch are a top 10 team, and I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't look all that different in four years. None of their current forwards are what I would call aging yet.
I'm saying the current Dutch frontline will be younger in four years than the US frontline was this tournament. Not making any comment about potential new players.
they will have to get past the group stage, won’t they? South Korea, Mexico, and Sweden wasn’t exactly the group of Death.
Lavelle, Ertz or Dunn. I continue to be astonished that a player who (a) did not play all seven games and (b) was not among the four best players on the winning team in the final won the Golden Ball.
....and singlehandedly scored every goal in two KO round matches. And they award the golden Ball to the player with the most goals. If you think kicks from the Mark are easy, ask England, Australia, and Canada.
No, they award the Golden Boot to the player with the most goals. That one Rapinoe won according to the rules.
Four stars. Flying with the Americans is going to be as much hell as flying with the Germans. Lufthansa!? We're flying with the Germans?!
[ Same way that you missed she had game winners ( and only goals) two of the KO matches. AND the game winner in the final ., so 3 out of the four KO round matches. There isn’t another player in the Cup that came close. And she got the Golden Boot precisely because the had 3 more assists than White and had 6 goals and three assist in 62 fewer minutes than Morgan. It probably helped that the fourth tiebreaker with Morgan was goals not scored against Thailand
None of the players you mentioned played all 7 games. They all sat at least one. The only field players to play in all 7 games were Dahlkemper and the two players who mostly came in as subs, Lloyd and Press.
And all the credits to coach Jill Ellis, US did struggle a bit in a period but she really got them on track this year and for the World Cup
Number of games scored in would actually make a pretty nice tiebreaker, and slightly reduce the impact of scoring lots against one not so good team.