Just a short rant on the TV coverage during the game. I don't care who is sitting in the stands and I don't want to see multiple shots of the crowd. It's one thing to show the crowd for a few seconds if something spectacular happens but to show the crowd instead of the action, even if it is just a throw-in is just lazy coverage because you did not research the story between the two teams and, thus, not aware of who to keep the camera on. I was surprised by Dunn's dramatic "dive" and I think we were just lucky the coverage happened to be there. I still don't know what happened to Carpenter (and they had two sideline reporters!). And at the time, I thought the Thorns did not replace her because I never heard the announcers say that Purce had subbed in. I'm pretty sure the announcing crew said the 4th official was Christina Unkel and it was actually Karen Abt. Okay, I have that out of my system.
Oh, ok, so it's not just me: I had missed Carpenter's injury (and subsequent substitution) too. When I had seen her distressed face on Portland's bench, I had figured that I probably had missed the moment of her injury because I had been distracted, maybe because I was posting something here... But if you said that actually no-one saw what happened and the announcers said nothing about it, that's really poor coverage! You're right that they had at least two reporters on the sideline, one of them being Kate Markgraf who was making the interviews with coaches.
In the US we have two classes of TV coverage, bad and horrible. The coverage here keeps trying to cover soccer in the same manner they cover sports like baseball, basketball and American football all sports where there is absolutely nothing happening for much of the game. They try to squeeze replays and commentary and shots of the crowd into the supposedly uninteresting parts of a match like preparing for a free kick or goal kick or during other stoppages. Unfortunately for many fans the soccer gaps in play are totally unpredictable and sometimes, in fact quite often, there are interesting and even important sections of action that happen during those gaps but the media thinks that their babble and shots of the crowd and replays of failure are more important than what is actually happening. That style of TV coverage is even beginning to peculate to other countries like Germany, Italy, Spain and England. I was watching an EPL match on Saturday and they kept showing the crowd and replays over and over even when the ball was in play. I have also seen the same thing in many other top leagues and it even attacked the men's WC this summer. I do not have any idea what can be done to get the coverage of the game as it should be as it is a trend that seems to be driven by the execs at the TV stations. BTW: The "lesser" leagues and tournaments do not have as much of this problem the U20 Women's WC was well covered for the most part and other Ux tournaments have been equally, mostly, pleasant to watch. The cutaways and useless babble do not "ruin" the games but they do detract from the enjoyment thereof. What I would like to see and hear is just simple coverage where the player on the ball is called and relevant info is passed on but otherwise the cameras stay focused on the field and the commentators just shut up.
I wasn't watching closely enough or something but initially I thought someone pushed Dunn on the pitch and then I realized from the reaction of the crowd that she was doing a dive demo. I hate when they do replays during times when the game is actively at play again. I know throw ins aren't exactly the most fascinating thing ever but I still want to see who is throwing it and what team currently has the ball.
Well, she did play for the youth NTs. I think the the main thing that hurt her chances of making the senior squad was not dedicating herself to soccer and playing all 4 years at a D1 college (whereas players like Lauren Cheney and Amy Rodriguez played 4 full years in college and were getting senior call ups at the time). And then her professional career didn't start off well. Even though she got drafted by the Chicago Red Stars, she got injured her rookie year and was out for over a year. And then before she got back to full health, Chicago had left the WPS and shortly after that league folded. She had a decent season playing abroad for Melbourne in 2012, but in the meantime Alex Morgan had firmly entrenched herself on the national team, Leroux had become the team's supersub, and Press was playing well in Sweden. So like hotjam2 stated the FW position was stacked with players above her on the depth chart. And her lackluster 2013 didn't do anything to help. 2014 was probably her only real chance to make it: Morgan was injured, Wambach was no longer the dominant force she once was, and McDonald was playing well for Portland. But for whatever reason Ellis still wasn't interested in calling her in to camp. By the time she finally got called in to camp in 2016 (which only happened as a replacement because 2 other players that had been called in were injured), Dunn was back at forward after winning the 2015 NWSL golden boot, Pugh had joined the team, and now she had Williams and Ohai as competition just to be that last forward to make the camp rosters. So the team was again as stacked as ever at forward.
Both years here, McDonald was the first player on the pitch in her pride t-shirt before the game. McDonald is the glue that joins the team. The shirt was undoubtedly for herself. From my personal observation she has a very strong and personal faith. Faith and support for LGBTQ is not incompatible.
The Courage are the best women's team I've ever seen. And, trust me, I've pretty much seen them all over the last 30 years. The difference with the 2018 version is that they maintain for 90 minutes a speed of play and especially a speed of thought that no other team has done game after game after game. On the surface they're frustrating. You see missed chance after missed chance and bad pass after bad pass and you wonder how they went 17-1-6. (or 17-6-1 depending on how you parse things). But it's precisely the speed. These "wide open opportunities" aren't there for other teams. They're missed because of the speed of play. But if you've watched them in practice the last two years (and possibly more going back to Rochester), what Riley has done has gotten them up to speed and kept them there. They're used to the missed passes and the missed chances - because they keep coming. Where other teams, teams with unbelievable rosters like Portland, get into trouble is that they get sucked into trying to keep up with the pace of the game. And it's not just the athletic, high pressure style, but the technical speed of thought. When you don't do it week after week, and you don't practice it every practice, it breaks you down. You haven't practiced the recovery runs needed because of the missed passes and turnovers. You're not used to having such a low conversion rate on opportunities, and that seeps into your confidence. If you step back and re-watch any of the Courage games from the latter half of the season, it's breathtaking just how they tear teams apart. The Sunday resumption of the game against Orlando, the final home game against Houston, the last regular season trips to Portland and Seattle, the final. These were teams playing well with good rosters. The Courage just ran them off the field. Not for the whole game, but the relenting pressure just broke them down. I honestly can't tell you any other women's team that I've ever seen that has maintained the speed of thought and speed of play of this team week in and week out. And I go back to the 1991 Women's World Championship and the early UNC dynasty period and pretty much everything since. My hope is that in five years, this team isn't that remarkable. This could be an inflection point in the women's game. I want another team in the league to step up and bring it.
I'll echo others here and say a hearty congrats to NC Courage players, coaches, staff, and supporters for a well-deserved Championship win to go along with the Shield. They were simply the best team from the beginning to the end of the season, and also definitely one of the best in the world.
The comparison of a national side to a club team is not only unfair it is like comparing apples to oranges. Any good club team will defeat most any national side rather easily. Having talent does NOT mean that the team plays well together. Club teams have the advantage of the players knowing at all times exactly what the other players on the team will do and how they react in most any situation but national sides, unless they are drawn from mostly one club and coached in the same way as the club, do not have and cannot have that cohesiveness. That means that the very things that won NC all those game and the championship will most always be missing from a national side. A few weeks, maximum, of practice and a few games just cannot even come close to what club teams are able to do. So I would say that any of the top four or five teams, maybe more, in the NWSL if moved intact with the same coach into a tournament with the best of the national teams would be dominate. This is not to detract from what NC has done but rather it is to point out that comparing them to any national team actually diminishes their accomplishments. Of course NC is better than the national side, they are supposed to be, the fact that they are better than the rest of the NWSL is a much greater accomplishment. I wish there was a meaningful club WC for women, or men for that matter as what exists it little better than a joke, then we could see in part just how good the various leagues really are. Champion leagues fill part of that but they do not match teams around the world against each other in meaningful matches. How would the champion of the NWSL fare against the champions of the English and European leagues? Then throw in those from Asian leagues and you really have an interesting tournament. I think that the winner of the women's league in Australia might give many teams from the rest of the world a run for their money as well even though much of the best from Australia is playing here.
i'm even more impressed that the courage won this championship dealing with a travel penalty, and a 3 day penalty in terms of rest days. i thought that the WAY they play would surely be affected. props to them, it wasn't. yes!
Regarding McDonnald and the USWNT. I think she has always been pretty good at shooting and heading but she used to lose the ball a lot. She has improved quite a bit in holding the ball and dribbling, she is also getting more services in the box now which gives her more chances and makes her look dangerous. She should probably get a look on the senior team. Problem is, who are you going leave off?
I congrat the Courage on the win but I think they should thank the power that moved their game last week. They got to play and practice on that pitch that is quite different from grass plus playing last week there means they did not have to deal with the weather last week and the traveling this week. They were saved from themselves.
Actually I think that Portland was hampered more by "turf bounces" than was NC. Also even coming off a match played on grass and then playing on turf I think that NC wins 90% of the time. There was an advantage to the move but it was not related to the turf but rather it was related to the ability to focus. If they had stayed home or even nearby the team would have been inundated by news and discussion of the storm and that was reduced by being out of the area. But, as I said, NC would win anyway as their "style" does not really depend on a lot of intricate touches or dribbling skills. It is the defense that everything flows out of and defenses are impacted less by the field than offenses. One more thing: Every NC goal in one way or another resulted from blown coverage by Portland and mostly those are the same on turf or grass and the offensive runs that make them happen are not degraded by lack of experience on turf.
Thanks! The move to Cary was a real upgrade for the team. Rochester could not/would not give the fan support they are getting in North Carolina. They may have moved away, but I am still on their side: Twelve 2017-2018 Courage Players I Cheered for as Flash Players in Rochester Heart of the Flash McCall 2011-14 and 2016 2015 Charlie’s Angels plus Hamilton & Eddy D’Angelo, Dahlkemper, Mewis, Williams, Hinkle, Hamilton, Eddy 2016 Additions Rowland, Erceg, McDonald, Speck
Are y'all kidding? That was one of the best things I've ever seen a player do. I burst out laughing; it was hilarious. Every match, players complain to the ref that the other team has surrounded them with divers. Crystal said it right out loud. You can see her check to make sure that the ref is watching before she makes her statement. A classic for all time.
Yes, also the only problem with Dunn is that replay showed that she probably had really hooked the other players' foot, so it was most likely a real foul from her, not a free dive from the opponent.
Also Dunn did not really stick the landing. She really needs work on her finish if she wants the fake dive to become part of her gold metal routine. A little extra flourish and a BIG smile at the end would not hurt either.
when Ellis robbed Riley players for her China friendlies, NC could only manage a 1-1 vs Houston Here were the lineups https://us.women.soccerway.com/matc.../houston-dash/north-carolina-courage/2745024/ but at full tilt, NC beat Houston 5-0 in the last game of the season. It would be very hard to play 6 straight games(to win the WC) using the same starting lineup without injuries, tired legs, emotions taking it's toll. btw............it's so amusing to see so much praise lavished on Riley, If I recall 3 years ago(when he coached the Thorns) all the posters were calling him the worst coach ever & for his head to be brought on the chopping block!
Sometimes coaches just do not "fit" a given team. I have seen cases where two coaches whose teams were doing poorly simply switched teams and both teams completely turned around the teams. Sometimes the coaching style does not fit a team and other times there is a personality conflict with leader on a team and it often can be totally unidentifiable. Coaches and teams are like a marriage and sometimes the marriage just does not work.
Moros's dive was better. Dunn did a bellyflop dive. Moros did a dying fawn. Rapinoe was the alleged diver. I bet she had trouble repressing a laugh.