43' 0-1 Japan ping in the back, pass across midfield up mid-right, switch left to box top left. Shot blocked into far touch. 44' 0-1 Japan left throw-in at 24m, hurled back to circle left. Japan resume medium-boil ping at circle top -- delicate passes up centerline, backshield, across-body pass to #7 Takarada open through box top right. Takarada drives to 5m mid-right, cross blocked over by a sliding body. 45' 0-1 Japan right ck, Pickett(?) clears. Japan circulates ccw, pass down wide right for Takarada to 14m, ground cross toward 15m right post deflects rightward -- Pinto settles and clears. Japan dump it to box right foot, sprint chase and cross blocked by another slide -- again Pinto is there and calmly stops it, has time to turn and dribble. HT 0-1. Japan seem content to keep probing with their non-sprinting possession game -- they know they're still in the QFs regardless, so it's not do-or-die for them yet. USA consistently cedes ground in midfield, but we compensate by flying around in our own box, disrupting Japan's final cross with body blocks. USA is more direct and quick in attack, with decent longballs into diagonal runs away from pressure. Japan wins possession 66%-34%, but USA has 6(3)-3(0) shots(sog). That's soccer
[Paraguay-Ghana] HT 0-0. Already some carnage throughout, as each team has received at least one hard-driven ball in the solar plexus (whoof, thud). There have been at least a few other stoppages for shin-on-shin collisions, or similar. No goals, one yellow card (on Paraguay's #3 Vecca).
46' 0-1 kicks off at 61:21. 52' 0-1 USA right throw-in at circle back, lost. Japan pass inside-out to #8 Miyazawa down wide left to 8m, Pickett wins ball and clears. Japan regain, chip to 8m 8-left, Miyazawa(?) flicks right-outstep half-volley -- Ivory claws ball straight down to a dead stop on the ground, spins around it and eventually returns to it and smothers. 53' 0-1 Japan ping down to #20 Kitamura at box left foot, cross blocked over. 54' 1-1 Japan left ck, to 6m 1/4 right, #9 Ueki heads to right post, Canniff clears off the line -- but it floats back to Ueki, 2nd header across mouth into back left, with Ivory down at right post after she dove for the first ball. 56' 1-1 #10(c) Nagano shoots right instep from ~arc top left, sidespin bends away, Ivory dives left and catches. 56' 1-1 Off that restart, USA longball to Kuhlmann chasing to 14m mid-right, sliding one-touch chip across mouth, Tanaka catches.
57' 1-1 USA long ground pass from midfield box left through Japan's backline at 30m, but Kuhlmann can't chase that. 58' 1-1 Japan pass to arc top left, Pinto(?) or Girma clears into near touch. 59' 1-1 Japan left throw-in, pass down wide left, cross from box left foot blocked over by Rodriguez. 60' 1-1 Japan left ck, short, backpass to 18m box left, bending serve headed away. Japan drive down wide left to box left foot, Sánchez slide-tackles over. 60' 1-1 Japan left ck, short, dumped into box mid-left and USA clears. Japan regain at 25m left touch, resume the probing water torture. Off-balance lunge-poke at box top left, USA intercepts and sends Kuhlmann 1-v-3 past circle top right -- lost. Japan pass to 14m mid-right, Ivory falls on it. 61' 1-1 Japan pass up wide left, #20 Kitamura offside before she crosses. 62' 1-1 Japan subs in (1 of 3) #14 Seira Kojima for #3 Reina Wakisaka. 63' 1-1 USA subs in (1 of 3) #20 Francesca Tagliaferri for #2 Jordan Canniff.
U.S. goal incorrectly ruled offside. EDIT: On more replays, it looks like it might have been a good call. Certainly very close.
65' 1-1 #10(c) Nagano leads a 3-v-3 counter to 24m center, simple diagonal pass finds #21 Nojima unmarked through box top mid-left. Nojima cuts correctly to her left foot at 10m mid-left, opens a clear shot window, shoots hard low into Ivory. 66' 1-1 USA chip to box top left post, Tagliaferri jumps centerward and lands upon #20 Kitamura, chases into box -- foul on her. 66' 1-1 USA chip over box top center, Tagliaferri 2m offside behind the CBs, runs on at 14m left post and passes ball across mouth into back right low. Doesn't count. 68' 1-1 Japan cross from the left to 6m right post, jumping leaning-back header goes wide left and high. 69' 1-1 Japan cut inside to circle top box left, long ground pass springs #21 Nojima down box left. She wins race at 2m, bends through box left to endline mid-left, floats a cross to 6m center-ish. #8 Miyazawa jump-volleys behind 1, wide left. Whew. 69' 1-1 USA subs in (2 of 3) #3 Sophia Smith for #18 Jaelin Howell. [Paraguay-Ghana] 68' 0-1 #9 Acheampong flicks waist-high at box top center rightward, #10(c) Owusu-Ansah lobs(?) #12 Benkenstein, drops through right 90 into back right low. Now Ghana are on 6 points, and we need a goal for us (or for Paraguay).
oy, that's two blown offside calls against the US for goal scoring opportunities. Sanches is playing the Morgan role. she's fast and composed.
75' 2-1 Japan siege at 6m box right, 2-v-3, USA finally dig it away and hoof clear. RB #7 Takarada simple square pass to #8 at arc top center, one-touch ground pass to 12m right post for #17 Kanno spinning perfectly through disorganized pedestrians. Composed turn to 11m, left foot chip across mouth into back left. 77' 3-1 Japan counter across circle top, simple pass into space to #8 Miyazawa unmarked at 25m box left. Miyazawa dribbles to arc top mid-left, blasts right instep golaaaaaaaazo just inside left post 1/2 high, past (or through) Ivory's fingertips. Well, Chalupny did it to Japan's WNT, so we know that shot, too. 78' 3-1 USA subs in (3 of 3) #19 Adrianne Richardson for #5 Isabel Rodriguez. 82' 3-1 Japan subs in (2 of 3) #13 Mayu Karahashi for #21 Sakura Nojima.
84' 3-1 #8 Miyazawa holds up at arc top box left, passes down wide left for LB(?) #20 Kitamura unmarked to 6m. Fast cross over 5m just misses #17 Kanno's head, #9 Ueki slides at 4m right post and volleys just wide right low. We're suicidally high looking for pressure, and four players beat our gassed backline. 84' 3-1 #9 Ueki 1-v-1 at 5m mid-right, cross/shot blocked over. 85' 3-1 Japan right ck, cleared? USA foul at arc top box right. 86' 3-1 #13 Karahashi fk at arc top box right, shoots left instep bend over wall, just wide right. 87' 3-1 Japan subs in (3 of 3) #15 Remina Chiba for RB #7 Saori Takarada. 87' 3-1 Japan spring #13 Karahashi behind everybody to box top arc right, she shoots to center low, Ivory smothers. 88' 3-1 Japan pop free at circle back, 2-v-1 past circle top. Long ground pass toward arc top right, Ivory comes way out and sweeps clear. 89' 3-1 USA fk at midfield box right, sailed high to 8m center, Tanak catches. 89' 3-1 Off the restart, Japan hit #9 Ueki 1-v-1 on Girma(?) through arc top box right. Girma sprawls down at box top right, Ueki stays up and creeps to 7m 8-right, shoots right instep low, Ivory kick-saves.
90+1' (of +3') 3-1 Sánchez touches through box top left post, hops a leg and trips. Foul, pk. 90+1' (of +3') 3-2 Sánchez pk, right instep into back left low (Tanaka dove wrong). 90+2' (of +3') 3-2 #20 Kitamura shakes free at box top mid-left, shoots right instep bend, juust wide right -- hits the back right support pole and bounces along the back of the net on the outside. 90+3' (of +3') 3-2 Japan cross from ~arc top wide left to 6-top right post, Ivory dives on it in front of 2 pulling up. FT 3-2. Congratulations to Japan and Ghana. Our youth system is still struggling to figure things out.
The US's outside defenders have no idea how to play possession. I mean the rest of the team is bad at it, but the outside defenders don't even try. It's particularly frustrating because the past couple cycles the USWNT has really tried to possess and attack from the outside of the defensive line (O'Hara, Klingenberg etc.), but there's a big strategic disconnect between what the senior team tries to do and what this U-17 team is having their wingbacks/outside defenders do.
We talked on this thread about how the point of the youth teams is to build to the Senior team. On the Senior team you'll see the outside backs dribbling around in their own corner and attempting to combine with midfielders and even the central defenders. Meanwhile, the youth team coaches are telling the outside backs to clear the ball out of bounds every time there's the slightest amount of pressure. That's negative football that doesn't prepare the youth for the next level. So what if those girls don't have the technical skills to do it perfectly every time? They'll never get there if they are told to just kick up and out it every game...I mean it's not like playing it safe worked out for the US U-17s anyways.
Maybe the deeper issue is that top youth clubs aren't teaching calm possession, either. So even the YNT's selection of the best of those players doesn't have any strong possession options to choose from. Once they're in camp, it's way too late to teach them something new that they aren't already doing year-round. Partially, I agree that Snow hasn't shown any great ability to teach new skills, to anybody, in any of his stints. USSoccer's long investment in Kuhlmann, Canniff, et al. (two cycles) could still pay off later, so it might still prove to be worthwhile. Other teams at this age level are just more of a team than our collection of individuals.
Yikes is right. We now have the pray that the U20s somehow, someway can find a way. Please at least be respectable. Otherwise, this could get quite depressing. Oh I forgot, this is all about development, and winning doesn't matter. And for the USWNT, now that we finally won the WC in 2015, the WC is the real deal and the OG don't really matter. I'm not sure what to think.
The development ploy only works if they play really well but just get beat. Not really the case here. The 2012 the 17s had that as an excuse as they lost out when the two eventual finalists were in their group and they earned a draw against each. Not seeing a moral high ground here.
It seemed like our best offensive play was for the GK to roll the ball out and blast a kick almost into their 18 and hope for the best. The back 4 had no possession capability. It looked like the US was bunkering and just trying to counter like Sweden. What did Solo say about that? And still we couldn't hold them off. Japan could have had 6 or 7.
Well the 20s dont seem to have as good an offense so take from that what u will. They do have a better defense tho. Maybe Kuhlman joins Sanchez on a move to the 20s.