Penn State will have a stacked team in 2017, and I feel like they'll make a strong run to the final four. I'd like to kick off next year's season with a post which WWC_Movement made in the Final Four thread.
They certainly will be stout. Ogle did not impress me in the U20 WC, but that doesn't mean she won't be good against collegiate competition--and with 3 defensive starters back from the WC (Elliston /was/ impressive), they are going to be very hard to score on, that's for sure.
UCLA should be tough next year. A favorite to get to the final four with all that talent. Although, don't they usually pick the national champs in the following year's preseason poll?
UCLA has a better offense They are equal in the midfield Penn State has a better defense (significantly) Penn State has the better goalkeeper (and depth at goalkeeper) - Rose Chandler may be a USWNT starter someday Coaching is about equal Slight edge = Penn State Defense wins in the NCAA Tournament more than Offense, if you have a GREAT defense. Penn State will have arguably the best defense since 2013 UCLA, and maybe equal to 2013 UCLA.
Not this year....USC loses 5-6 starters. This was their time. They have a VERY good base and a ton of young talent, but they will not be a top 5 team early on. Don't sleep on them late though as the coaching staff is exceptional
My memory says that its an NSCAA practice for the top four teams in their pre-season rankings to be the four college cup teams, in order. Maybe my memory's wrong. If it's right, the pre-season ranking, so far as the top four are concerned, doesn't mean a lot.
Penn State was preseason NSCAA #2 this year, so it isn't the exact top 4 in order - but it also is pretty worthless as everyone knew they weren't going to finish anywhere near there.
Yeah, nearly all their top players were with the U-20 team. And really, the brightest spot on the U-20 team was the (Penn State) back line. Michelle French's offenses are not exactly "intimidating" for the opponent, even with Pugh & Sanchez on the roster. The Penn State back line is the only back line in 2017 that may keep Pugh/Sanchez/Fleming/Rodriguez in check. Although, that is certainly easier said than done. Would love to see Penn State vs. UCLA in a 7-game World Series format for the National Championship next year. It would probably go to a Game 7.
Oh yes and that team was very impressive at the back line. Seriously? Pugh and Sanchez were memorizing too. They are really going to be teammates next year? How will they both walk through the same door? Who is UCLA adding to their back line to keep the ball out of the net? How well did you pick this year's finalist? You probably had WVU winning too? This isn't American football, this is soccer. What happened to Stanford? What happened to so and so? Based on your logic Real Madrid doesn't even need to walk on the field. They've won already. Its a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll and you need some breaks and some luck and even a little more. The college game has way more parity than it used to.
Well, it's soccer, and anything can and usually does happen in the tourney...and before. I put Penn State's or UCLA's chances of winning it all at 25% at best. Granted...they may be the best two teams talent-wise. Now, if all the tourney match-ups played 2 of 3 games instead of ones-and-dones starting with the round of 16, maybe I'd up the chances of PSU or UCLA winning it all to 50%. There are a lot of great teams out there for 2017.
Of course it has more parity than it used to. There are 20-40 teams each year now that are (realistically) capable of getting to the College Cup. "That shedt speaks parity with clarity". And no one is more excited about Pugh and Sanchez playing together in college than I am. I just know that great defense "usually" beats great offense in the NCAA tournament (not always, but often does). Penn State's U-20 defense has lots of chemistry together. They were the most consistent unit for the U-20 team. They held North Korea to one goal in regulation (and it was a fluke handball mishap on Katie Cousins). Otherwise, they shut out North Korea in regulation. It was the midfield that killed the US in that game. They also shut out France (0-0 draw) in the group stage. So if you exclude Katie Cousins fluke handball, then the US (led by the Penn State U-20 defense) shut out the two teams who made it to the U-20 Final (in France and North Korea) in regulation. The US only gave up one goal to Japan. In fact, they never gave up more than one goal in regulation in any of 6 matches at the U-20 WWC. And they pretty much played as tough of competition as anyone else (France, Ghana, Mexico, North Korea, Japan). Those were 5 of the Top 8 toughest teams to beat in the tournament (along with Germany, USA, and Spain). What I said in bold text above, the only other team who played 6 matches and can say that was Japan. North Korea gave up two goals in regulation to Spain in the Quarterfinal. France gave up three goals in regulation to North Korea in the Final. The U-20 (Penn State) defense was one of the Top 2 most consistent defenses in the world at the U-20 WWC. That's impressive, when it's pretty much coming from one collegiate team (Penn State).
You do realize the U20 YNT parked the bus and chased the entire tournament. It's the reason why they gave up very few goals. If Michelle French opened the game up, the team would have surrendered a lot of goals and would have lost by a larger margin.
Exactly. I can't remember if the defense was exactly the same, but I can't help but remember the 5-0 loss to Japan. I remember seeing highlights from that game. It seemed they hadn't packed it in then. Can't help but believe that that game led to the "park the bus" tactics French employed knowing she couldn't compete in a wide open game. The "defense"wasn't the penn state back line it was 9 players -the most successful of whom was often Pugh one of the forwards. Ogle was horrific in my opinion. Yet I think played every minute. Nothing can be concluded regarding Penn State's success for next year with the return of the u20s except that Dambach has a lot of influence in YNT selection.
I usually agree with your comments, but this one is totally off-the-wall. Dambach has absolutely zero influence on YNT selection; she does not pull any strings. I don't know any college coach who wants their players gone during the season. However, coach was very supportive of her players after they were selected. Coach Dambach was an assistant coach with the youth teams and met players, and I'm sure that helped them feel more comfortable in their decision to commit toPenn State. She is no longer in such a position. Having said that, there are at least a half dozen other college coaches who have benefited in the past under similar circumstances. Also, a lot of players on the U-20 looked "bad." I don't attribute that all to the players. I think the tactics and training were not good. I admit, I was disappointed at Ogle's performance at the U-20 WWC. However, if you want to see how good Ogle can be, go back and watch last years semi-final match between Rutgers and Penn State, she was phenomenal in that match. Ogle is a system player. She excels when plugged into the right system with similar minded players.
Dambach absolutely had influence in the selection. It is no coincidence that so many Penn State players were on the U20 roster when these same kids were not being selected for the higher profile YNT tournaments and events at U15 and U17 with different coaches. Sure, many of these kids were going to the ODP interregional events, and the occasional YNT camp here and there. Everything changed for many of them when Dambach got on the U20 staff.
Ok, you are right. I don't really know how this all works but statistically the whole back line from one team and the Dmid? Gotta admit that seems unbalanced and defender assets are even less clearly defined by metrics. Dambach has been tied into the ynt programs and name has come up as a potential Ellis successor. Not a huge leap to suggest a connection between her status in the ussf and a statistically huge percentage of players coming from her team to the u20s. However, as I am really not privy to how it truly works, I will accept your objection. My original point was really that it remains possible that penn state does not transform on the basis of the return of the defense. We can discuss further the relative success of that u20 defense probably under another thread. But I enjoy the banter and yes you pulled me down to reality for now.
Regarding Ogle, I appreciate the link and will watch it. I saw the game in person as my kid was one of the pony tailed girls having a ball during a chilly evening at Wake Med I do remember her some and what I remember thinking was that she had a lot of time sitting in front of the back line. That with that luxury she efficiently was able to change the point and generally distribute to begin attacks. Conversely, I remember her specifically having trouble managing the limited time and space because she wasn't quick and technical enough to handle the u20 opposition's pressure. My opinion was that I thought Cousins managed much better.
The U-20 defense improved significantly compared to their match against Japan from awhile back. Yes, it was a total team effort in protecting their net, but the back line is the last line of defense and did their job. It also helps Penn State (against UCLA) in that their defenders know Sanchez and Pugh's tendencies. And they will not be intimidated to go up against them in an NCAA Tournament (College Cup) match. They have the recipe needed to beat UCLA next year. But Pugh has the rare and uncanny "make something out of nothing ability" to score a goal against any defense. UCLA may need her to pull that off to beat Penn State's defense. And Fleming is great on set pieces. If Penn State has injuries on their back line (like they had back a few years ago in forcing Whitney Church to convert from midfield to their back line), then they are pretty much toast. They don't have a midfielder like Whitney Church who can convert to defender and not miss a beat back there. They need to keep their defenders healthy this time.
Flemming is the best player in the NCAA right now in my opinion. Granted I have a bias toward skillful creative players and Flemming beats anyone in those characteristics. I think her slightly deeper play making will be the key to unlocking Pugh and Sanchez's success..and yes she's great at set pieces, but that's a reflection of her superior technical ability. I am not nearly as impressed with Rodriguez.
Please, don't be a troll. You obviously have no clue what you're saying. The reason so many Penn State players were on the U-20 team is because Penn State won the NCAA national championship last year with a strong defensive effort in the tourney. They ended up having scored 20 goals and giving up none in the tourney. I think M. French was enamored by the possibility of having them do that at the international level. Most of the Penn State girls (who were chosen for the U-20's) were mainstays in the youth national team system long before they committed to Penn State and the Dambach would never push her own agenda with the YNT. She's an extremely respectful and supportive person of the team mentality. Other schools had better players than some of the girls chose for this U-20 squad; however, the kids who weren't on the U-20 squad either chose not to red-shirt (which was a requirement by M. French) or the schools wouldn't give them a red-shirt year (i.e., release them).
Yes, she was, as were a half dozen other college coaches. Namely, UCLA and Virginia have YNT ties. I highly doubt she will succeed Ellis. This is the first time I ever heard such a rumor. I like Dambach, but she's a defensive minded coach. I don't think she be good as head coach of the full NT.
I will be the first to admit that I think she had a bad tournament. She did not look good at all. Perhaps she won't cut it at the higher level, I don't know, but I have seen her play good college ball. My thought is that she would play better in a system where there is more quick passing. I think she's a good decision maker, but she's slow.
The guardian is fairly widely read no? https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.th...womens-soccer-team-pia-sundhage?client=safari Lest you assign me troll titles Thanks for the link. I am 2/3 through the game and agree completely with Dambachs comments regarding the first half aimless possession in the back. She pointed out a lack of penetration in the midfield. Ogle was expected and uninspired in my opinion. Not terrible but nothing special. She also was not great defensively. She gives the opposition way too much time and space on the ball Not that I think she should dive in but she needs them to feel some pressure and be able to take advantage of a bad touch if presented with the ball. As a holding midfielder she should be more stuck in. Just my opinion and maybe she has a better second half.
No disrespect meant to anyone, I get a little defensive when people make far-fetched claims without providing some evidence to back it up. Thanks for the link to the article. Although, I thought the original comment was in regards to Dambach replacing Ellis, and this article (posted 4 years ago) talks about Sundhage's replacement. The writer of the article is simply guessing (by naming various coaches who were with the USSF around that time), based on what Gulatti told him: Dambach has been head coach at Penn State for the past 10 years (since Feb. 2007). Previously she had served as an assistant or coach for the various levels of women's national teams. I can see why Jeff Kassouf thought she might be in the mix (see her USSF resume below). However, since Ellis took over, I haven't heard anything about her taking over for Ellis. I didn't even think that the USSF was looking to replace Ellis. That kind of talk is usually an unsubstantiated rumor. Here's Dambach's resume (former known as Erica Walsh) with the USSF: U.S. National Team Experience Assistant coach for the U-20 Women's National Team from December 2013-2014 Assisted the 2012 U.S. Women's Olympic squad through the qualifying stage Assistant Coach for the 2011 United States Women's National Team at the FIFA World Cup in Germany Assistant coach for the 2008 gold medalist U.S. Women's National Team at the Beijing Olympics Served as head coach for the U.S. U-17 Women's National Team from 2004-07 Assisted the U.S. U-19 Women's National Team in 2004