because i contribute to the wild speculation and debate that i sometimes make fun of/extend illogically/rail against. in one of my recent posts on the international u20 thread, i made a point of including myself as one of the people who keep making the same mistake. i realize i do it all the time. so i am not reluctant to point that out. i also try not to take this whole thing too seriously, altho, as a huge fan of the game, that's hard not to do. thirdly, notice that right after my "poor to genius in one game" quip, came the words "no, actually...." written so that no one would think i was castigating them.
And, part of the culture is having some people who point out that some posters are engaging in wild speculation and debate. I do enjoy it more when they point it out with humor, as luvdagame did in this case.
Whoa, missing a couple big games there! Steinhaus was the center ref for the 2011 World Cup final between the US and Japan and also for the 2012 Olympic gold medal match again between the US and Japan.
Not missed, just thought everyone here was already familiar with her. The German Wikipedia entry for Steinhaus has a list of all her major tournament matches.
Nope. Only get ESPN and ESPN 2. No U, News, or Classic. Was surprised to see that we got the SEC Network when it launched though.
It's not that simple. They actually have live content during the afternoons and evenings scheduled for a while now.
U.S. U20 Starting XI: Rowland; Gibbons, Roccaro, Naughton, Amack; Sullivan, Pugh, Lavelle; Doniak, Horan, Purce.— Chris Henderson (@chris_awk) August 16, 2014
It would have been a disgrace if the US had gone through. A strong opening ten minutes or so and then complete domination by North Korea for the remaining 110. The fact that we looked by far the less technically developed side given the differential in developmental resources is unbelievable. I certainly don't leave this tournament feeling like there's much ready to challenge for a USWNT roster spot in the intermediate future with the obvious exception of Horan. Yuck.
North Korea played some tidy possession play. The Americans seemed to rely a bit more on athleticism. In any event, I think the gap will widen a bit, skill wise, between certain European countries plus Japan in comparison with North American female players.
Ok, can the USWNT and female youth teams now stop hiring clueless American coaches who knows nothing outside of kick and chase/rout 1 soccer? We got a bunch of clueless American coaches (Heinrich, Ellis, French) running the highest levels of US Women soccer nowadays. Nice!
That was abysmal. North Korea really showed technical proficiency after those opening 15 minutes and never looked as rattled as the US, even when the US had the lead. I don't understand American coaching at all. Why keep playing in a formation that clearly was not working? This force feeding of a 4-3-3 is really worrisome to me; it's more beneficial to be good at multiple formations, isn't it? If this is what people say—Heinrichs' and Ellis' influence—I hope those two respectfully decline further involvement and realize their tactical awareness of 90s women's soccer isn't hacking it in today's game.
USA won the last U20 WC, so I'm not going to jump off a cliff just yet, but couple more cycles might do it!. People are saying USA depends too much on athleticism, the problem was this team was not all that athletic!.
The truth is the last 2 US teams that won the U20 WC played possession/attacking soccer by male US coaches. While the last 2 U20 US teams that crashed out in the QFs were coached by Ellis and French while playing kick and chase/route 1 soccer all tournament. I didn't want to say the clueless female US coaches in the above posts because many here will call me a sexist (a week ago I posted that the US female program should stop hiring mediocre coaches just because they are female and they are Americans, such as Heinrich, Ellis, French)
Sorry, but it's not Heinrichs' and Ellis' system. It's the system the USSF directs the teams to play (but, as pointed out, can morph into a 4-4-2 with a diamond midfield). The person responsible for this at US Soccer is Claudio Reyna.