dorrance would agree with you. he played her there some himself. but she needs to be playing there everyday to keep her head up while habitualizing the incessant start/stop, fast/slow, twist left/twist right, pass/hold, movements needed to play there at the int'l level. most, I think, would agree on your lavelle-if-healthy option.
breaking news, Full Disclosure, I am pulling back the curtain, - - - - I am fond of the United States Women's National Soccer Team. Shocking, I know. Why, yes why would any one in their right mind travel to the "Mistake by the Lake" on a perfectly good Tuesday in June ??????????? Quite simple - - To see, to observe, to witness the Greatness Sports Team that ever was, is, and evermore shall be on this or any other Planet. Ssssssssscrew the Mens World Cup and its insignificant Champion that will be crowned in a month. What happens in Cleveland tonight, and what happens with this Team has been Recognized, Acknowledged and Certified as the Only Thing That Matters. 197 minutes to the Absolute Paradise created by the USWNT. The Journey, even thru Cleveland, with these women, will always be....... G L O R I O U S
Today’s Starting XI vs. China PR: 24-Ashlyn Harris, 14-Sofia Huerta, 4-Becky Sauerbrunn, 12-Tierna Davidson, 19-Crystal Dunn; 2-Julie Ertz, 3-Samantha Mewis, 6-Morgan Brian; 23-Christen Press, 13-Alex Morgan (capt.), 15-Megan Rapinoe Subs: 1-Alyssa Naeher, 8-Amy Rodriguez, 9-Lindsey Horan, 10-Carli Lloyd, 16-Rose Lavelle, 17-Tobin Heath, 20-Allie Long, 25-McCall Zerboni, 27-Merritt Mathias
USA (Jillian Ellis): 15 Megan Rapinoe, 13 Alex Morgan, 23 Christen Press 3 Samantha Mewis, 2 Julie Ertz, 6 Morgan Brian 19 Crystal Dunn, 12 Tierna Davidson, 4 Becky Sauerbrunn, 14 Sofia Huerta 24 Ashlyn Harris China (Jia Xiuquan): Han Peng for LB #2 Liu Shanshan; Yan for #20 Zhang Rui. 7 Wang Shuang, 10 Li Ying 11 Wang Shanshan, 23 Ren Guixin, 27 Yao Wei, 16 Yan Jinjin 18 Han Peng, 6 Lin Yuping, 5 Wu Haiyan, 25 Lou Jiahui 12 Peng Shimeng
17' 0-0 China outlet to #11 Wang Shanshan facing way at circle back mid-(her)left. Chest-trap, Huerta arrives and clobbers her chest-to-back, knocks her flat. Foul. And Huerta wins that duel on mass 19' 0-0 USA probing at midfield, as China have their 4-4-2 shell withdrawn to their ~35m line. Brian receives at 22m center, dribbles right-to-left-to-right, square pass right to Huerta. Huerta chips a cross toward 6-left foot -- too hard, sails over everybody and endline. 20' 0-0 Dunn turns down wide left, chases to endline, just hooks a cross over goalmouth to 6m mid-right, China clear into near touch. Dunn is doing what Ellis wants from an LB: with zero pressure from China into her defensive zone, she's way up at their endline sending in crosses.
22' 0-0 Morgan slides and scythes a shot from box top mid-left across mouth, past Peng's dive, just wide right low. 23' 0-0 Davidson the Younger gets challenged by Wang Shanshan(?) on a rare sprint-press, quickly chips leftward over Dunn's head. Dunn can't trap it over her shoulder, out into far touch. Still, decent calm to to clear the ball away from the danger zone.
31' 0-0 Press holds at 14m just outside box left, bends a cross to 8m 1/3 left. Rapinoe taps square right into Ertz's stride -- Ertz not expecting it, foot-drag partially whiffs and only ticks ball rightward to Morgan standing at 7m 1/4 right. Meanwhile, Ertz bumps chest-to-chest into #5 Wu Haiyan, knocks her down and steps over her -- and is thereby offside Morgan lifts thigh-high left instep and half-volleys without much power, Peng dives right and deflects ball to 2m 1/3 left. Ertz easily pokes ball in, but offside. Cute, but too fancy. 35' 1-0 S.Mewis receives cutting center-to-right through circle top, passes up box right to Press not marked, to 15m. Press bends a high cross over mouth, outswinging to 5m 6-left. Rapinoe gets lateral separation and has plenty of time to get under it, drives a stoop-header down across mouth -- past Peng, into right bottom pipe. And Morgan was not-closely marked at right post for any cross or tap-in. That's the correct cross, and a good-enough finish -- next we could optimize it to hit a runner in stride.
The goal: A 🔥 finish from Pinoe. An 🅰️+ cross from Press.That was an all-around beaut. pic.twitter.com/IiS3hNXaIl— U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (@USWNT) June 13, 2018 46' 1-0 USA subs in (1 of 6) #20 Allie Long for #6 Morgan Brian. 46' 1-0 Ertz snaps a good ground pass out of a scrum to Rapinoe at circle back wide left. Rapinoe waits for pressure to surround her, has the switch to Press at any time ... then pulls a sharp diagonal cross that springs Press totally alone from 30m onward -- but pulls it too far toward box top, Peng trots up and collects. Wicked idea.
56' 1-0 Dunn gets to 12m wide left, crosses fast to Press wide-open at 11m mid-right. Press measures a half-volley, but slices under it, way wide left and over. 57' 1-0 USA subs in: - (2 of 6) #10 Carli Lloyd for #15 Megan Rapinoe - (3 of 6) #9 Lindsey Horan for #2 Julie Ertz.
59' 1-0 China subs in (1 of 6) #29 Li Tingting for #16 Yan Jinjin. 60' 1-0 China fk at arc top box right, left instep ground shot bending to right post low, Harris kneels and collects. 61' 1-0 Li Tingting outraces Davidson down box right to 10m, backpass to #7 Wang Shuang posting up at 15m mid-right. Wang spins cw to collect, continues her spin and slices left foot but gets no bend at all, shot sails wide left high.
62' 1-0 Huerta(??) cross from box top right to 5m 8-left, Morgan chests ball down past RB #25 Lou Jiahui, gets shoulder-bumped down and faceplants -- no call. China clear, Long collects at circle top left and gets fouled down. 64' 1-0 Lou Jiahui dribbles past circle top right, Morgan overtakes her on the inside, takes ball off her foot and bump-shoves her down hard with a right forearm hook. Foul on Morgan, she protests the imbalance in calls 64' 1-0 USA subs in: - (4 of 6) #17 Tobin Heath for #13 Alex Morgan - (5 of 6) #16 Rose Lavelle for #3 Samantha Mewis. 66' 1-0 China subs in: - (2 of 6) #21 Xiao Yuyi for #11 Wang Shanshan - (3 of 6) #26 Wang Yang for #23 Ren Guixin.
72' 1-1 LB #18 Han Peng hoofs to midfield mid-left. Both USA CBs (Sauerbrunn, Davidson) are way high up, jump with #21 Xiao Yuyi. Ball glances off Sauerbrunn's head past Davidson, into vast empty space. #29 Li Tingting runs on from wide left and has a 2-v-1 breakaway through box top left to 16m. Square pass right strands Dunn near spot, #10 Li Ying slides at 14m right post and redirects ball into 1/3 right back, past Harris still scrambling. Welp, don't both jump and neither win it. 75' 2-1 Press dances right-to-center across pressure, gets clear at 22m arc right. Sharp right outstep pass to Heath facing away at 14m center (and Press starts her own cut), Heath one-touches left toward Press's stride. Ball hits #6 Lin Yuping, pops up behind Press. Heath swings right roundhouse half-volley, slices a total mis-hit -- and it's a perfect lob over Peng backpedaling, just over her fingertips and under crossbar 1/4 right Totally a Heath goal, she meant to do that -- 77' 2-1 USA subs in (6 of 6) #27 Merritt Mathias (1st cap! ) for RB #14 Sofia Huerta.
So it just came to my attention that Heath's last cap was not the thrashing by France in the 2017 SBC [as I've repeatedly asserted] but in the second friendly against New Zealand in September 2017, which took place during my post-Irma cable/Internet drought [I think?] and of which I was consequently completely unaware. I'm disappointed in BigSoccer's fact-checkers for not correcting me, and even moreso in myself for not knowing that fact to begin with. At any rate,
85' 2-1 Han Peng hoofs a longball from behind circle back left. Heath jump-and-turns to distract -- and twists right ankle on landing. China foul or offside? Heath sits on grass, stoppage for trainers. 86' 2-1 Heath walks into far touch, jogs to limber up, awaits return. 87' 2-1 Harris comes out to box top to collect a tricky ball under pressure -- sprawls self across box top, but keeps ball on the other side of the line, and gathers. 87' 2-1 Heath returns. 88' 2-1 Heath fk at 27m arc left, shoots high toward goal, Peng catches. 89' 2-1 Peng punts, USA promptly feed Heath on a breakaway, ahead of 2 through 25m mid-left! Heath gets overtaken by #5 Wu Haiyan, tries to cut inside but Wu takes ball off her foot. Not all the way back, can't outrun a tired CB
90+2' (of +4') 2-1 Press springs Heath past Lin Yuping through arc top box right! Lin recovers and dogs Heath shoulder-to-shoulder to 3m, blocks cross over. 90+3' (of +4') 2-1 USA right ck, to 6-top left, China heads away and clears. China possess to our large arc top, pass to box top center almost leaks through until Dunn clears. Probe at box top left blocked into far touch. 90+4' (of +4') 2-1 Mathias hoofs clear past midfield. FT 2-1.
Sorry but the USWNT has been awful the 2nd half, way too many mistakes from the backline. We lost the 2011 WWC because of backline mistakes.
Okay, but not great. No egregious defensive mistakes that I saw, but mis-fired on a couple of crosses. She got a yellow card early in the game which made her cautious. The big loser on the defense was Davidson who turned over the ball several times. U.S. was pretty lousy in the second half -- cept maybe for Heath who looked good a couple of times. The other subs --Lavelle, Mathias, Horan, etc., weren't notable. Press played well; Rapinoe of course was good. Harris saved the US with a great save.
Watched first game and 1st half of second game. Disappointed at quality of us play and selection of players. China is more technical and more composed w ball. US players faster more athletic. Is US going backwards in player development or selection. Rapinoe is the only one that is a complete player. She is 35 yes old?
Commentators praising ertz, but the gal can't pass just runs around yelling. Mews? Can't pass or hold ball but man she is huge and starting?? Were are the woman soccer players in America that can dribble turn..pass, composed w ball? We have Lloyd rapinoe and Heath..all old...all the others selected are big or fast? Us is falling behind or simply not giving slower, smaller, more technical players a chance. Any thoughts out thr?
I thought the U.S. had a much better lineup to start this game than in the first game--that was obvious--and Ellis wisely ditched the disastrous 3-back scheme and returned to the team's more natural 4-3-3. As a result, we played a very strong first half--controlled the middle of the field, was solid defensively and created some chances, and scored a goal. Press was lively and good on the right wing--very active, drove into the middle of the field, made some nice crosses, created our first goal and should have had a goal herself but futzed a good chance. She made a big difference. I thought the midfield trio of Brian, Ertz and Mewis was very solid. Brian looked pretty good--she is a good distributor of the ball and I think helps gets the U.S. into a nice rhythm. Ertz is a bulldog on both ends of the field and Mewis does good things. There is not a lot of attacking dynamism in those three--but they are played to good account. Rapinoe and Morgan did their thing. Dunn and Huerta were OK in the first half; Dunn is clearly still trying to get comfortable at outside back and I don't think is there yet, but I thought she was quite good in the first 20 minutes of the 2H--one of the few U.S. players who was. The second half was a completely different story. China high-pressed us, and their size, pace and athleticism really bothered our back line and midfield. They also played more direct. We were almost overpowered at times by China, which if it ever gets its act together will be a force in women's soccer. We were dispossessed a lot, made a bunch of bad passes and were just noticeably outplayed. Were it not for a fantastic Harris save we would have been down 2-1, and instead won the game on a lucky goal by Heath, who did some good things as a second-half sub. Ellis changed the midfield as well, bringing in Horan, Long and Lavelle, and they weren't very good on the whole. Horan was mostly invisible; Lavelle tried to bring some attacking punch but didn't succeed, and I didn't get much of a sense of how Long played--but we definitely missed the defensive presence and physicality of Ertz and Mewis. Davidson was very poor in the second half--she lost the ball at least three or four times, giving China scoring opportunities. But I'm not worried about her--she's been good, at age 19, and will be good for years to come. While the second half was discouraging, U.S. fans should be encouraged by the first half, when the team seemed more itself and performed quite cohesively and quite effectively.
Tend to agree. The USWNT has few players that are technical with skill on the ball. Heath, Horan, Rapinoe have skill on the ball, as I like to call it. Most other players are just speed and strength. That's why our players that go to play in France often don't do well because they are not technical enough. IMO, this all stems form the youth system all the way through college where winning right now is the most important thing, thus speed and strength is so important. Teaching technical skill takes time and IMO, most youth coaches and even college coaches don't want to take that time to develop. They focus on winning now. Thus our senior team players have very little technical skill but lots of speed, brute strength and conditioning, and it's won us 3 World Cups up till now.
The great thing about soccer is that it requires, and rewards, both technical skills and athleticism (size, speed, strength). Brian certainly has technical skills, as do Morgan and Davidson, among others. Athleticism has worked for us, and that's surely a big reason why we continue to rely on it. At the same time, I think America's younger players are more technical than ever. Why did China bother us in the second half tonight? It wasn't because of their technical skills--it was because of their size and athleticism.