And it's over. 1-0 USA. Whew. The US needs to pick it up for the next phase or they won't make it to the finals.
us team didnt look that impressive ... but hey, they did their job and qualified as group leader ... thats not nothing! ...
I keep thinking we'll see the versatile and athletic US team, that we saw leading up to this tournament. Remember that team that could chose whether they wanted to play direct or knock the ball around for a long possession setting up a great shot? We saw that team just a couple months ago. Where are they now? Will they show up? This really is pathetic.
You don't need to play well every game to remain a favourite, they did what they needed to do. Korea lost today, Germany also just did what they had to do against England and Japan without impressing much. All 3 are still big favourites, especially USA and Germany. Brazil is probably the team that has looked best in all of their games so far, but i still hold USA as bigger favourites than them.
Yeah it's strange it's like the roles of England and the USA have been reversed from what they are in Mens football.
I guess the US truly are the number 1 team. If you can play worse than complete shit and still win a group of death, its gotta mean something. Im thinking along the lines of embarrassment later on though...
I'm thinking a lot of discussion along the lines of "Revenge for 1950" will take place over the next few days. The way the US is playing, I wouldn't count England out.
maybe a question of expectations ... i think many us fans are missing a kind of "absolute dominating game" like germany or brasil had ... a firework scoring with much flow ... but i think that was not so easy to realize in a group with sweden, nigeria and prk ...
I'm looking forward to the team getting a few days to rest and practice. The problem I'm having as a spectator and fan is I'm not sure I've seen signs that would make one think the US can play well for significant amount of time. They haven't even really shown flashes of good play. The goal today was not much of a goal. If that's the case, the USWNT wins against England. That's what I'm afraid of. I still believe the US can play well, but we haven't seen it. There was probably only one sequence where I saw the US play how I expected in this match and even the set pieces haven't been what we expected.
You have the star players that can win a game even if the team doesn't play very well, that's the thing. Wambach just needs to get the ball in a good position once during the game, and that's usually a goal. It's not like Brazils male national team win tournaments because they always play beautifully, they win because they're stable and they have players like Kaka and countless others, who only need one good moment to win an even match. This fact alone means that it still looks good for you.
hard group, true. but they've underwhelmed in every game. still waiting for a performance deserving of our expectations.
It was definitely a tough group, but the US wasn't able to keep any type of possession or connect passes against any of the teams while all of the teams were able to possess against the US. I don't think it is wrong to expect some possession and control of the matches.
Control by possession isn't the only way to control a game. I thought other than the first ten minutes or so, the US did what it needed to do to control the Sweden game. And Nigeria may not always get the results, but they are always tough to get results against. Does this team need to possess the ball to control games enough to win? I'm not sure. Let the other team "possess" the ball at midfield all game if they like. But if they can't get off quality scoring chances, what does it matter unless the US is running around chasing? We usually don't - we're usually patient until the other team loses the ball and then attack. It sometimes ain't pretty, but this game ain't about aesthetics, it is about results. Do we need to possess the ball v. England? Hey, if we can, great. But give me control of the game by any means necessary. And hell, with a forward like Abby, I love the idea of playing England's Route One v. them. The irony is tasty.
Undefeated is pretty good soccer. Keep it that way and we might just have something to celebrate when this is all said and done.
I don't watch womens soccer much, but I was flipping through the channels and saw the US womens replay on, so I watched. What a disappointment. It was ok that they didn't dominate the second half, but what happened at the end of the game was BS, bush league, whatever else you want to call it. I don't care if they are the US team. To stand in the corner and shield the defender and run out the clock, the worst thing I've ever seen in mens or womens. Basically conceding the fact that if the half kept going, they would have given up a goal. I still can't believe they did that. If I was nigeria, it doesn't matter, I would have slid in so hard, red card or not, have some courage and sportsmanship to at least play and finish the game. what a load of crap, they deserve to lose for tactics like that. Thats about as cheap as it gets.
Everyone does that in mens football. It's not that hard to take the ball from someone who just stands in the corner with it unless that player is really good at it.
I have to admit that once I looked to the left and saw your handle and your club it was hard for me to take you seriously.... I don't like playing corners as the USWNT did, but it is strictly strategic and any team would do it in a tournament like the WC where goal differential matters regardless of the rankings and especially in a one goal game.
I guess all of you anti-take it to the flag folks don't like 4 corners in basketball, either. Or the quarterback taking a knee for 4 downs after getting a couple of delay of game penalties. Every sport has its version.