Yes. Hope Becky keeps her spot. Well, other than that Bompastor shot... But really, that was more the defender's fault for not pushing Thiney wide. What I found hilarious yet quite sad is that the defenders quite clearly don't trust Lloyd to hold onto the ball. They constantly boot it over her to the forwards when she's in the game. However, when Cheney takes over the CM (and actually holds onto it), they pass to her and she rewards them by keeping it, looking around, and making the pass. ARod rarely gets rewarded because she gets these great services and then she wastes them with her ridiculously bad first touch or she actually runs OUT of the play. She can't combine with Abby at all. She doesn't draw off defenders, she doesn't put herself in the right spots... At least Morgan does some give and go with Abby. That being said, I agree that Morgan's a bit erratic due to her inexperience. Given our style, then yes, that's the type of ball we have to play. We looked okay dominating the ball with a better CM. LP is looking better since that Sweden game but Rampone there certainly helps her, as does the fact that Boxx is staying back to help and that the defense isn't as high as in the Sweden game. That being said, Krieger having to help run in to help when our CMs just constantly giving away possession (and getting hurt) is a bad sign. Yeah. Although I think some of this is trust... Honestly, I think the defenders just don't trust Lloyd with the ball (perhaps with some justification). Incidentally, Hope too does long balls with Lloyd in and changed her game to passing to a defender more with Cheney as CM. Hope we can impose our will on Japan too. I think people are a little scared by how much possession and chances the other team has. As you say, part of the reason it works is because we have Hope Solo. She's a ridiculous, remarkable bulwark back there and without her, we'd never be able to play like this (or at least, not successfully).
After the troubles she had in the group games, I think Amy LePeilbet deserves special praise for her play today. She was generally solid back there. And Christie Effing Rampone? Machine.
Why, why, why? She has done little more than to occupy space as far as I have seen. What am I missing about this?
Except when Becky lost her mark on Thiney which froze Solo so Bompastor's cross could skitter into the far post. I still think Sauerbrunn is an upgrade to Buehler.
They mentioned earlier on the telecast that the USA-France game will be rebroadcast on ESPN2 at 6pm Eastern.
LP has been good and Rampne great both of the last two games. The defense has sorted out its prior problems quite well......
Cheney has blown up. She stabilizes the central midfield, she gets a goal and an assist...I'm starting to think about her like she's always been this imperious MF presence who can be counted on to get the job done. She wasn't even a consistent starter until this tournament. Shades of Hucles in Beijing...except that Cheney is at the beginning of her career, not the end. The future of the US midfield may be before us.
Whether she stays with the run or not, the keeper needs to respect the run and hope if the ball lands it goes wide and not in the net. You are basically handcuffed in that situation.
As a keeper did you think Solo should have been at 3/4 rather than mid goal facing the cross? She might have been wrongfooted anyway but.....
You still thinking it was a fluke? Japan just comfortably beat Sweden giving up only 1 shot on goal because of a rare mistake from Sawa. I think the US will have trouble against Japan because it'll be a huge clash of two inspired teams. Do I think Japan will win? No. But I don't think it'll be a walk in the park for the US.
Lloyd had one of the worst performances I have seen. Pretty damn awful. ARod was completely ineffective as well. Pia should start neither in the final. Insert Morgan and Lindsay/Rapinoe.
I only read this match cast at work. The stats of this match are very impressive for Japan. For the Germany match, the only stat in their favor was possession and they looked like they would not score if the game lasted 3 hours. So I still think Germany was a bit of a fluke. If, since the Germany game, they have been able to further solidify their defense against power, pace, and height, and increased their speed/numbers/aggressiveness in attack, then going forward I see great things for Japan. Can they do it a third time and against power, pace, and height? We shall see. I am very happy to see Japan win their last two games. A part of me would like to see them win it all. I think women's soccer could use much more style/size diversity among its top teams. Real shame that the Chinese program has fallen apart. The most attractive final would have been Japan-France. And I think France would have defeated a talented but tactically deficient Brazil.
1+. Rampone showed why the break-up of the good center pairing of LePeilbet and Buehler was correct. LePeilbet acquitted herself well the last 2 games. Buehler was pretty good too but the 3 of them on the field together are still iffy. The right side was a question mark 3,4 months ago but Krieger has been solid the whole cup. Sauerbrunn earned her cap today. Coxx is a dependable backup as well. Mitts hasn't played but is still pretty as always. Suddenly, we have a defense as strong as we did 3/ 4 years ago.
You're right. Took a closer look at the website. The business address is in Orlando, but the farm is outside of Atlanta.
Sweden's GK Hedvig Lindahl made at least four mistakes: - weak punch for Sawa's header goal - out past box top right for Kawasumi's empty-net lob for the ages - off her line on Ohno's glancer off the crossbar - final-minute clearance at 32m wide left -- the sixth mowed stripe!! Those seem uncharacteristic for Lindahl; they're definitely rare for Solo. Japan will have to work harder to create their own shots. USA survived France's midfield dominance. We should get a reasonable subset of Sweden's chances around Japan's box edges, and then I think USA is more patient, effective, and unpredictable than Sweden is. As others have noted, we hold the aerial attack in trump. Cheney's flicks are a subtle wild card; that's a very hard attack to stop, hence a highly useful weapon. What was O'Reilly doing on the left, anyways? Pretty good left foot!
They have a few copies of the game right now: http://www.********.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=302 This one will have it later: http://americansoccerarchives.com/index.php?page=torrents You need to sign up for both sites though. Or you can watch it on ESPN3.com
I had read a few posts early on with concern over the referee. I think she called an outstanding match today. She let the girls play and gave out just 1 deserved card.
On a darker note, they might even scar her Career with a record for the most starts/minutes for a WWC forward who never scored...