wait a minute. you can't have it both ways. you can't lambast and castigate pia for stale football and then query and criticize her attempts to provide variety and improve other areas of play for the uswnt.
Nasty little gash on O'Hara's thigh. http://www.ussoccer.com/Social/WNT-Blog.aspx No word on the US soccer site about any injury to Barnhart. Does anyone have any information on the nature of her injury?
Nothing on twitter either. I expected Harris to get minutes at the Algarve (Pia would be an idiot not to considering Solo's status), so perhaps they got word she would start and made an assumption that Barnhart was injured. Or maybe she took a knock in practice. Obviously it would be bad news if true, but I'm glad to see Harris get some time.
Yeah, I believe the Sundhage 4-4-2 is an eventual lame duck, so why is she still asking her wide players to do things they can't, or won't ever produce. Yeah, I get confused with talk of total football, only to see players she picks struggle to produce anything she talks about. Is this really that random a thought process? I can still see what works within the U.S. limitations of a 4-4-2 though, and crossing from out wide is not one of them. If or when the wide players actually produce an end product with a cross, it's hard and low. They just about get that right, and now Sundhage wants to give players more tasks they can't complete . The U.S. Playing with dedicated wide players as the main points of attack is bad enough. Now asking them to stop doing the one thing they seem to have learnt to do well, and replace it with an accurate whipped in cross, or high ball, will just confuse struggling players even more. Nobody seems to be producing the flowing football she want's, but with what there given the girls seem to be doing well enough to compete if not fly. Sundhage needs a little K.I.S.S. (Keep.It.Simple.Stupid), if she wants anything positive from the flanks.
would it unconfuse you if i said that it's not rocket science to require your wide players to work on sending in good crosses? i don't know how much more K.I.S.S. one can be in that regard. it just seems that you're damning the coach if she does and damning her if she doesn't.
Well moaning your wide players can't do their jobs right when there's no real genuine wingers in your player pool is just as confusing then. Wide players continue to struggle in the 4-4-2 system, but Sundhage asks them to do more? It may not be rocket science to do what the roles within a 4-4-2 obviously require, so why is Sundhage picking at a scab that won't heal. The gaping wound of the center midfield still needs the most attention.
yeah, whomever posted that at women's soccer united had no idea what they were talking about. However, should Barnhart get injured, we would have no other keepers with any experience in goal. She'd better play at least some during the match against Finland - and I mean, there are 6 substitutes allowed per game...
Pia had the players who played the full 90 sit out practice yesterday (as tweeted by ussoccer_wnt i believe) and I think with Barnhart included in that group of players some assumptions were made. That being said, I'm glad Barnie is not injured and with US having clinched a spot in the final I hope Harris *finally* earns her first cap against Finland.
It's the first time I have taken any serious notice of the Algarve tournament, but is it me or did USA get to the Algarve wayyyyy ahead of time? It just occurred to me how much serious prep time the U.S. must be putting into this tournament. Other teams seemed to just turn up and start playing instantly . Are they going to do this for run up to the WC too? Would the WPS clubs allow players to go off to the NT camp for so long before the tournament even starts in Germany?
the USWNT will be training in Florida during the week and then going to their clubs for hte weekend game. I imagine WPS would give a catty "your country can do this too" answer. However, with all the timezone rest that they're supposed to do, and cost, it doesn't seem feasible. Last World Cup the USWNT was in residency for some 6 months beforehand.
6 months! , that worked well . Wouldn't it be better to relax, train, and play with clubs teams this time? What else do the starting line up need to learn about one another . Seems FC USA have the final say, even with WPS around. Didn't the 07 side complain about being too tired or over worked?
That used to be the standard. It certainly worked well in 1996, 1999, and 2004... 2000 was a year with more matches than any real residency and 2003 they jumped right into WWC prep before WUSA had really even finished. I'm assuming they also had a long residency before the 2008 Olympics, but I was admittedly not paying that much attention to the WNT at the time.
Third place isn't that terrible. I mean its a poor showing for the US, but I'm sure England, for example, would love to have finished third.
Yeah considering how bad performances were in each game, 3rd place was excellent. I guess it shows the U.S. had a good core to it's side to get a 3rd place finish in 07. I doubt another team could have pulled that trick off. Even if England's ladies were overdosing on Ben Johnson's drug of choice they couldn't have pulled a 3rd place out of the bag in 07. Compared to other nations I'm surprised how seriously USA take this tournament though. I don't know what USA accomplished in 2004 to validate any Algarve cup success, but based on what I can gather, I don't see it confirming anything more than rank from now on.
the early arrival has little to do with the algarve cup. this is a wc year. so it was simply a change of training venue, which is sometimes a good thing after continuous hard training. i admittedly haven't paid attention to this, but the uswnt doesn't seem to go to the algarve cup this early as a matter of course.
Plus if you are actually trying to keep "fatigue accumulation" down this year, getting adjusted to a radically different time zone before playing in it might be the thing to do. With a truly young team I'm not sure I'd be concerned about it, but with a team whose physical rhythms are well established, it would seem like a thing to try anyway... And thinking about it-- isn't it possible that its actually cheaper for them to be in Portugal than in the US?
I believe that the Algarve has, since at least last year, been held earlier than in the years prior to the startup of the WPS. I went in '06 (my niece is on the team) and the final was held on in the middle of the month.
My memory is that this a common comment on BS every year for the Algarve; that the US comes with the regular "same old team", while other countries play younger players, etc. I suspect that since the US players get a bonus for each win, and possible a bonus for winning the Algarve, the WNT contract players want to come.
??? we were discussing how much earlier than the start of the event the uswnt got there. not the actual timing of the event.
Oh, Ok, thank you for clearing that up. I was originally in the thinking that the U.S. got there early simply to win the tournament. Others say they got there early as a more efficient form of prep for the WC. The lack of player turnover would suggest that even with WPS around, the Algarve cup will continue to remain a high U.S. priority. Due to the nature of a bonus system for success in this tournament, it is totally understandable the team would always be at full strength. I don't imagine seeing many changes in friendlies after the Algarve due to the WC kick off being so close. So all the experimentation must have happend allready, and everybody missed it.
limited tweaking IS going on. just not the experimentation that the bs cognoscenti was sure was needed. nothing accomplished yet tho.
Hmmmm, all Sundhage's tweaking so far has been due to injury/retirement not choice. From 08 up to now. Wambach comes back from injury and resumes starting up top with the two young forwards who got true big game experience. All thanks of course to Wambach not being around. Morgan replaces the retired Hucles, thus becoming the new bright spark, but she's already resigned to a super sub role come WWC. The midfield is exactly the same as 08, and would have been closer to 07 if evergreen Lilly had decided to hang around. No one player between Rapinoe, Heath, or O'Hara can pin down true roles, while the other mid options have little to no chance for game time. Lepeilbet and Buehler make a great start, but one of the two vets they replace comes back from injury/pregnancy to put a halt to a promising duo. The U.S. programs best all round player starts seeing stars, and now the left side is a on going project again. The regular Injury vet Mitts still owns the right hand side, splitting her playing time when sick with a much improved Krieger. Solo has a career threatening break down, giving Barnhart a possible starting job come WC time. Solo then Barnhart or nothing as far as Keepers go. A few formation alterations to get the best from Llyod tactically, with a promise of yet unknown levels of improvement in ball retention. For 3 years of a new coach that's not overly radical, nor is it total stagnation. Just a lot of predictable decisions, all based on simple situations of cause and effect. Sundhage has not put too many marks of her coaching style/personality on to this current team. It's actually still a side with all of what Greg Ryan built around 07's WC quest.
arod, cheney, morgan, heath, rapinoe, and buehler are key parts to this team that were not on greg's 2007 team. lindsey and averbuch as key subs were not on greg's 2007 team as well. so you're making my point for me. bs experts want radical change when we come in third in the wc. she changes only what is needed, but we win the olympics. yes, you and me both hate that it was not flowing football, but they won. now they struggle in wc qualifying, and the expert coaches on this board want radical change again. my thinking is that pia knows the game better than most of us football typists, and she sees the players compete up close and personal. if they couldn't improve to win the wc again, she'd be making radical changes. her take is apparently that the team is good enough - it just needs small changes and this time before the big games to ramp it up. like i said, she hasn't proven anything yet, but what she's doing is not unreasonable for a good coach. other coaches would do it differently, of course. but that doesn't make what pia is doing the wrong approach.