Ah, thanks, I was wondering why Solo didn't play.... So this girl was flown in and missed out on why she was flown in? That stinks. As does the fact that Solo's sick. Congrats to LegBreaker, I guess.... Wish I coulda seen the match. Thanks for all the PBPs and match reports, everyone!
Agree - I'm glad I'm not a Canada fan. Seeing them play 11 behind the ball was pretty disappointing. Of course, being a USWNT fan in disappointing, too - 3 games in 3 months against the same team is not much to get excited about.
It was actually a good "100" day for University of Florida fans. Mitts got to wear the Captain's arm band because she reached 100 games and Abby scored her 100th goal.
I was thinking the same thing: the ball would repeatedly go off-camera left (or right), but the camera wouldn't follow it. Then it would come tearing back in without our knowing who kicked it.
Wow. I know she was recovering from slicing open her knee about a month ago, I was wondering if maybe she did something to that again. Or maybe she just sat the bench lol. Thanks for the info!
Just a few thoughts... Were lucky to have two excellent goalkeepers. I feel comfortable with either Solo or Barnhardt in there against anyone. Who the hell is our #3 right now? I can't remember the last time anyone but these two played in a game (at least since the Scurry debacle). Whitehill: eh, she played well enough. But this was Canada, a team who she matches up perfectly against. She is exposed against quicker teams. If someone else learns how to properly strike a long ball, her days could be numbered. Beuhler: I'm not totally on board with her yet. I thought she made some fairly simple plays looks more difficult than they should have been. Things she has in her favor: tough as nails, work ethic, tenacity. It's just when she has the ball under pressure, I worry sometimes. LePeilbet: the opposite of Beuhler, she makes tough plays look very easy. I love her composure, and she uses her body well to compensate for being not the fleetest of foot. Has been a rock all year for Boston, and I hope she continues to get called up. Chupa: Excellent as always. I wish she had taken more risks going forward. Boxx: I was about ready to call it a career for Shannon after the 2007-2008 cycle. Too slow, too many turnovers, stupid long balls, and bad tackles. But now I'm starting to think it was a combination of poor coaching and recovering from the ACL/MCL injuries that hampered her form. Given time, and a consistent role with the Sol, she has blossomed back into what she once was. Great, hard nosed performance. Needs to make sure her passes in the middle third find their targets, though. Hucles: composed, solid, if not flashy performance. Just what you would expect. I wish Pia would experiment a little more with these otherwise pretty meaningless games. That's what they are for. O'Reilly: I've said recently that her game has suffered with Sky Blue because she has been stuck out wide, and cannot impact the game as much. But maybe that's where she is supposed to be after all, at least with the national team. Early on, we all wanted her to be the next Mia Hamm, but Heather has different skills. She's not a great finisher, but is probably the fastest player on the team, and therefore is better suited to be a wide player. She had a solid outing. Rapinoe: I love her game. One thing that very few women's players can do is accurately pass with the outside of their feet. It allows them to make quicker decisions and not have to be perfectly set in order to make passes. Leslie Osborne is a player who is a good passer, if she has no pressure on her. She needs time to set herself up to make the pass first. Rapinoe can do this with both feet, and it makes her unpredictable. Wambach: Congratulations to Abby. It was a well taken goal, and a nice moment to remember. I agree with whoever said that she isn't totally back yet. It has shown in WPS, and it showed here. She looks a step slow and tentative. I'm confident she will return to her old self with time, like Boxx has done. A-Rod: She is good in tight spaces, but has no clue how to make runs that her midfielders can spot. She's fast, but doesn't use it well. And she shoots like my grandmother. I'm not giving up on her (she's 22 years old), but she is a work in progress and not the prodigy we all expected her to be right off the bat. Right now, I actually think that someone like Tiffeny Milbrett (who we all compared her to early on) would bring more to the table. If she's going to be there in the long term, A-Rod needs to sort herself out and find a coach that can teach her how to run off the ball. Tony DiCicco is a good coach, so I'm surprised he hasn't addressed this. Mitts: Was hardly tested. She got drawn too far inside on that ball over the top, but she recovered well (and the Canadian forward was slow to react). Better teams will not be so forgiving. Heath: her double nutmeg was classic Tobin. She needs more games against world class teams to figure out when she can be tricky and when she needs to play simple. Cheney: It's nice to have a second target forward who is good with her feet. I've thought in the past that she was a little one dimensional, a little slow and plodding. But she showed good skill yesterday, and combined better with Abby in 30 minutes than A-Rod did for the first 60. Emma Hayes must be pissed that Tarpley and Lloyd were called away from Chicago only to sit on the bench. The Red Stars could really have used them against Sky Blue. So, not the most exciting game, but Abby got the monkey off her back. Now, Pia, can we please experiment on Wednesday?
haha... yes, it was. and agreed-- she needs a lot more experience to be as good as most people know she can be. IMHO, the Olympics were a fluke for her-- she played okay, but not like she can.