My reaction to the Algarve victory: 1. In the Final, the referee was acting as if she was dealing with 13 years old. The long pauses for her to flap her lips just completely broke up the flow. 2. Agree with Kernal_thai that Johnston booked her ticket with her play. But with the WWC being played on turf, I think she gets a start in group play. 3. Amy Rodriguez is back -- I liked the pairing with Alex Morgan. I expect to see that in at least one group play game at the WWC. Alex is still not back to "Babyhorse" level.. confident she will raise her game 4. Hope solo looked good on the pitch -- her questions remain with off the pitch life. 5. The DM Dilemma: I didn't see enough of Boxx to see if she still has it; personally I don't think she has the legs for the WWC. Experience means little if you get beat to the ball. Lori Chalupny would be better in this role than at outside back, so I think she makes the team, but I don't see her getting a start barring injury. Ellis seems to be hellbent on converting Holliday to be the DM even though it's not her natural position 6. Call me crazy, but I always recall the best US attack method was working up the flanks with overlapping runs by the outside backs & mids followed by wicked crosses to our forwards causing havoc for opponent's backline & goalies. I know Rapinoe can do that on the left -- is it because HAO can't go 90 minutes on the right anymore? Can Press play the right attacking mid? I was bemused by Ali Krieger on an island on the right flank generally facing 2 defenders when the ball came her way. Can we give her some help? Would this be a reasonable starting 11 against Australia? Morgan - ARod Rapinoe - Lloyd - Press Holliday O'Hara - Johnston - Rampone - Krieger Solo 7. This team has to really work on possession, especially through the midfield. Better possession and France wouldn't have had a sniff at goal 8. Beating France was an important psychological victory for this team. 9. Tobin Heath, please report to the set of "Where are they Now?".
how about if the shoe was on the other foot for the US? please answer these questions 1) how would of they fared if they were in the one group with 3 of the 6 top ranked teams in the world?(and notice, not one of them got to advance to final as they were too busy beating each other up) 2) how would they fared if they were missing 4 of their top starters ala France(let's say Brunn, Lloyd, Morgan & Press) 3) how would of they fared if they came into the tourney like Japan, with only a few days of practice together?(notice; the US has been playing non stop together for the last six months via training camps, friendlies & tournaments)
Yes, the US has been playing a lot lately. We're preparing for the WC. The European players (other than Scandinavia) had the advantage of being in their professional mid-seasons.
They would have fared just like they did last year. I dont remember u saying this about Germany last year when they were in the easy group and the US had to slug it out with Japan, Sweden and Denmark.
But Germany didn't crash this year; they lost their 1st game against Sweden thanks to Neid's ill fitting style of slowing down her players to more of a control/possession game and making majority of her squad play out of position(at least from their club team spots), plus an unfit Angerer. But they won their next 3 games rather impressively(including the revenge game vs Sweden for third place). Any other major tourney, they would of gone through to the elimination rounds. How can you compare that to the US?(which ended up in last place, last year)
I dont disagree. My point was a lot of people thought one of the teams would use Algarve to establish themselves as the clear WC favorite and it didnt happen. I dont think that team is out there and that should make for a very interesting WC.