China was the worst team the USA has played in this tournament, they were not impressive in any area of the game. If Holladay and Rapinoe would have played the US would have had the same result or more and Jill knows it, that's why I don't see many major changes from the original lineup before the suspensions. The US looked better vs China but allot of it had to do with China.
excellent example of same game different eyes. to me she was a breath of fresh air. true, she messed up the best early scoring opportunity we had, but she ran judiciously to close down the chinese when they had the ball, disrupted the well organized defense a few times by making excellent runs between them, and received and passed the ball well in the middle and in the corners. china was a well organized defense. that's how they played the whole tournament.
Exactly! And Germany has NEVER lost on PKs! Solo is great but Germany has the advantage if it goes to PKs.
Hingst was saying just having her on the team is enough, such as her half time speech. Abby should be on this team and should be playing. As someone stated, her form in the last WC/Olympics with Morgan up top was amazing, but she's not close to that now and can't play those minutes. really nothing to argue about here, she's even said it. She would be a late sub for me, if we were behind. I'm also pleased we started her in some group stage games to allow the team and younger players smoothly transition into the pressure of the WC.
I agree with this..... Except the bigger problem with starting Abby is we are unable to play high pressure defense. As soon as one person steps to play high pressure, EVERYONE has to step, which is why our line-up against China was able to pressure and dominate the game. We can't do this with Abby, so we will resort to collecting the ball in our half , with the entire defense in front of us and play long balls. Abby affects our entire defensive strategy which directly relates to our offense.
I don't like the German team and think France with the way it played would have made for a more entertaining opponent. I thought France deserved to beat Germany and showed itself to be a superior technical squad. That being said, I concur completely with your assessment above.
We're going to kick their arse. Ppl were talking about Maroszan and this and that. Germany aint nothing. We dominate!
We're going to have to take it three or four notches above the best we have played in the tourney to beat Germany. If China effort was our best, and we eke out a 1 goal win against our weakest opposition, then we're in trouble.
Thanks for sharing the very interesting comment. In some aspects perhaps the eyes were different, perhaps in others the expectations? I have been through phases (as far back as the College Cup) where I have been a huge AROD fan, and other periods where I have been left scratching my head at what I have seen as unrealized potential. There has never been a time when I have not felt she was on the edge of Greatness. Sometimes she delivers! Other times she goes through extended periods where you can see the talent and energy, but the execution just refuses to click for her. For game after game. My comments may have been unduly harsh, as they are based on other historical matches where she has "gee-whiz potentialled" herself through 90 minutes and at the end of the day significantly and consistently underperformed on her chances. I do think AROD's energy and pressure were disconcerting to China, as IMO the China team was "disconcertable". Germany, not so much. In that game we need a striker who will finish any half-chance she gets (I'm not suggesting that is Abby at this point in her career). In my defense, this is the WWC and we don't get a do-over. However, if AROD gets another start, I hope she has one of her stellar games! With regard to the China defense, I thought they were frequently porous. I guess the first example I would offer to support that opinion would be AROD's 1on1 with the keeper at 30sec. into the match... I thought the seams were there to be had-- we did a poor job all match shaping our attack and providing service to exploit them (not to mention finishing!), and that, IMO is not a weakness of the US team that is in any way unique to the China game. Just my opinion. Whatever, we continue to advance, and that's what matters!
the one thing I noticed too about Neid, is that she took both her yellow cards players from the 1st half out(Goessling & Mattig) , even though they were having good games. I got the feeling is that she want's her players to sacrifice themselves and get at least one 'good yellow' and needed people with good slates. I don't think this is playing a 'dirty' game, as it is well in the confines of the rules. But look for Germany to be the most physical team than they played before
How will the grueling effect of last match be on Germany? Germany will always get the calls in any WC, men or women's. You think this will be enough to win? How will Germany's back line put up with the US speed? Can their offense break the US defense? Current injury situations, how will this effect the team overall?
I agree, physically the French just looked better especially on the attack, but I believe where the Germans will be tougher is mentally. They expect to win they have a history in the WC as good or better than the USA and they are not intimidated. Not sure France was mentally at that level in WC competition. They have played well against both Germany and the US but in crunch time the Germans have shown they are very resilient.
Ok but I don't think Germany can trot out the effort they put up against France and expect to win either. They also had to go 120 minutes which would work against them in a goal down or tie game late and into extra time. I don't think they will be able to match our hustle or break down our defense.
Krahn and Kemme were Germany's most effective players vs. France. US will have a hard time attacking Kemme's side. And Krahn will be an obstacle in the middle. As much as I like O'hara, I would start Pinoe on Kemme's side and otherwise keep the same starting lineup from the China game.
2014...Dutch won the PK shootout against Costa Rica...Dutch lost the PK shootout against Argentina... 2011...US won the PK shootout against Brazil...US lost the PK shootout against Japan... Being in the 2nd PK shootout is something Germans should be afraid of...
Kemme was getting torched by Thomis until Thomis got subbed out. Now granted pretty much everyone gets burned by Thomis, but I thought Kemme had a subpar game against France even after the sub.
That's because one team gets the chance to scout the other team's PK tendencies. If we go to PK's, my 5 in no particular order are Lloyd, Rapinoe, JJ, Holiday, and Morgan.
It was the first game we played high pressure defense as a collective unit, we didn't allow China to get itself into the game.
Necib is better than any play-maker for Germany. Thomis and Delie are faster than any forward or winger for Germany on the attack. There were more intimidating players to worry about from France.
I thought Kemme was a liability. All of France's attack seemed to go right at her. She was targeted as the weak link.
Krahn and Bartusiak are fast? Um, no. They are great positional defenders who pick their time to deny the ball, contain the attacker, win the ball and restart the offense after winning the ball.