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Hooraaah!! We are in business! Thank you Lunatica for bringing the U17WNT promo code thing up 6 weeks ago. I just entered the promo code "U20WNT" on my FoxSoccer2Go account by chance and it worked! Looks like I now have an active subscription from Nov 14, 2016 to Nov 28, 2016 to: http://www.foxsoccer2go.com/
2016/11/14 Mon (or 11/13 Sun late night in USA) C05.France - USA (I do USA pbp in the USA forum -- see you there )
USA vs France 0-0 FT NZ vs Ghana 2-0 FT What? New Zealand beat Ghana? That was a surprise to me, and probably to the Ghanaians.
I saw the first half, not second--but thought the USA played a solid defensive game against an obviously talented, athletic France squad. We were on the back foot for most of the match, as France controlled possession, but the USA stayed well organized and kept their good chances to a small number, and Elliston saved the game with an outstanding block that saved the game for us. We did little in attack--France completely bottled up the midfield--but were dangerous on quick counters with Pugh, mainly, who had a couple of good chances, one in each half, but didn't have the finishing touch. I think a tie was a good result in this game for the USA and the team can work to build on it.
I saw the first half of this game, and the USA put in a solid defensive performance against a good, athletic France team despite being on the back foot for most of the match. We stayed well organized and kept their good chances to a minimum, and Elliston save the match with an outstanding block in the second half. We did little in attack as France completely bottled up the midfield, but the USA looked dangerous with some quick counters featuring Pugh, who had a good chance in each half but did not have the finishing touch. I think this might be our template against the top competition--stay solid in the back and look for the counter. Overall, I think this was a good result for us and something the team can build on.
Yeah, I amazed by the result, I really thought NZL were the weakest side in the Group. Regarding the France v USA, we were solid defensively but made little mistakes with no consequences. Our coach preferred to add a midfielder Garbino to a forward Leger or Gauvin for some reasons. Both forwards came on in the second half but with no real impact. If Cascarino could cross the ball as well as she beat a defender, we would have surely managed to score, because she wasted so many of them. USA v NZL and France v Ghana on Thursday will be interesting. Ghana cannot afford to lose and really need a win.
Ghana has always been much better at the U-17 level than at the U-20 level. New Zealand made the knockout round at the last U-20 WWC, and Ghana did not. Ghana was always going to have more chances, but New Zealand is the more efficient and disciplined team at this age level.
I guess the big question now is: can Ghana beat USA? If they'd have some kind of a lifeline after the match vs France (if it ended in a draw, for instance), who knows?
USA should slaughter Ghana at this age level, but with Michelle French as your coach, who knows what'll happen.
I thought Garbino was pretty decent actually. When the two forwards were subbed in, I thought your level dropped. The most dangerous positions for you was your wing play. #7 and #3 were very good. Ashley Sanchez from the US had to help out a lot on that side as their wide defenders couldn't handle your wingers 1v1. Garbino had some nice turns in and around the box that created some half chances. The US as a whole defended pretty well in their defensive third but they had absolutely no idea what to do going forward except to try and find Pugh and let her try to do something magic.
I thought some of the commentary on FS1 was interesting -- that a lot of the French players have been playing professionally for quite a while, as compared to the US players. I don't know much about what goes on in France. Can anyone offer some information?
If it is like in Spain, then the French would be done with their equivalent of high school by the age of 16. And even before that age if you are involved in Academies (such as La Masia) then you'll be educated there while training and playing. Which could mean potentially playing professionally at an even younger age. This is the boys structure but I'm sure it is the same with the girls. That is how you get European players playing professionally while their counterparts in the US are still playing in High Schools.
From what I've gathered, from other posters on the international forum, most countries don't have a college program. Therefore, many U-20 (even some U-17) players on other countries rosters are actually playing on club teams professionally (on their 1st tier, 2nd tier or junior teams).
Here are the numbers, taken from the website www.footdelles.com GK DF MF FW In our system, the players play through the age groups with their clubs. The best players go from 15 to 19 to the centers where they regroup the best players during the whole week and then come back to play on Sundays with their club team. Once they reach 19, they either go to play for the first team if they good enough, the reserves if they are not very good or they move to smaller clubs ( if they play at a big club). In term of professional football, there are 3 full time teams OL, PSG and Montpellier and a semi-pro team Juvisy. Although the landscape might have changed with Bordeaux and Marseille coming up who are huge names in men's footie. The full time teams train morning/afternoon, the semi-pro amateurs train in the evening after work or their studies. As it is a U20 squad most of those players are still students with I think only 8 out 21 are real full time pros. If you do wonder why Lyon scores 100 goals every season, it is mainly because they have an exceptional squad and they play against 8 semi-pro / amateurs sides.
Thanks, Shlj: It's clear that a lot of the players on non-USA teams are pros, or semi-professional, and at the least playing more high-level football than the American girls play. That's certainly seems true in Eur0pe, and maybe too with Brazil--not sure, and I don't know anything about the Japanese system. Players from top college programs are not getting as much high-level training and games as most of these French players. The systems are different. American kids start playing at a young age--but we don't really have a system of segregating and developing the best players from a young age. Our best club system is pretty good but it is pay to play and not associated with professional teams. A lot of potentially good U.S. players drop out along the way or are not discovered at all, and college soccer, which is pretty solid and steadily getting better, doesn't match the intensity of being in a pro development program. I thought France looked like a pro team (or collection of pros/semi-pros). Should be an interesting tournament.
From what I have witnessed the NCAA produces very athletic and powerful players plus it gives them mental strentgh. There were two girls who were at the Arsenal Ladies academy before moving to DePaul and now they are back in England the improvement they have made in the US was impressive on that side. I think it is all down to the kind of players you want to produce, all the countries/continent have a traditional model and it is not easy to shift it towards something different.
Sweden's sr. women's team has the best record against the US sr. women's team recently, but until the most recent Olympics has never actually stopped the US sr. women's team from getting a major prize. Ghanan teams, though, have stood in the way of US teams at multiple levels of WCs for both genders, so that's the running joke I was trying to invoke there. =edit= For the record, Ghana has directly bested the US in: 1997 Mu20WC 1999 Mu17WC 2006 MWC 2010 MWC 2013 Mu20WC 2016 Wu17WC Conversely, the US has directly beaten Ghana just twice, at the 2012 Wu20WC and 2014 MWC (the 2010 Wu20WC match was a draw) TBD: 2016 Wu20WC
The 2010 U-20 WNT team also lost to Nigeria in the Quarterfinal (Sydney Leroux was on that team). These African teams are running circles around them at the youth levels. And these ignorant coaches don't know how to coach against these teams.
Just went back and reviewed the 2008 team: F - Alex Morgan, Sydney Leroux MF - Christine Nairn, Meghan Klingenberg, Becky Edwards, Keelin Winters D - Elli Reed, Nikki Marshall, Lauren Fowlkes GK - Alyssa Naeher Lots of future USWNT players and WPS / NWSL starters. Kelley O'Hara should have been on that team. The defenders on that team did not make the USWNT, as Klingenberg used to be a midfielder in college. Julie Johnston (as a defender) from the 2012 team made it to the USWNT however. And look who Tony DiCicco started vs. his substitutes against Germany that year. He certainly knew what he was doing ............. http://www.fifa.com/u20womensworldc...0/match=300066384/index.html#lineups#nosticky Back when Morgan was Broke-as-a-Joke (financially): (just a broke college kid eating mac n' cheese) *Now she's a multi-millionaire (thank you McDonald's, Nike, Panasonic, and Coca-Cola) *She just bought a $900 outfit today online, and paid for it out of interest from one of her smaller accounts