Enjoying the World Cup, but I'm a bit surprised and disappointed about how much more comfortable on the ball than the US numerous teams in this tournament look, inspite of our #1 ranking. I'd even go so far as to say that the women don't look any better relative to their opposition in that regard than the USMNT do. Our country's resources and soccer culture do seem to be giving women plenty of advantages in the international game (and as someone earlier said, nothing else matters other than what's on the scoreboard), but for some reason the problems with skill and technical ability remain constant across the board regardless of the level of spending, organization, and interest relative to our competition.
I didn't pay much attention to them growing up. But now I just love soccer. This has been a great cup, the women's team beat more technically advanced teams in Brazil and France, great games, and they reminded me that beating Spain in the confederations' cup was no fluke. Japan let us know how important technical development is. Loved watching them beat Sweden. Just awesome. I'll be satisfied with either team winning, but I have to hand it to Japan for having a great first touch. Lessons from the WWC, if our men's team gets a better first touch we'll jump by leaps and bounds. We really are suffering from an injury bug (Holden, Davies, Gooch), if those three had never gotten injured we would have beaten Ghana and at least gone toe to toe with Uruguay. __________________________ Lastly, I don't care what they're ranked, watching the US win feels good. Also Solo and Morgan are cuties.
I get where you're coming from, but I think it does a disservice to our women to constantly explain away their success by bringing up the notion that they have more advantages than other countries do. Plenty of national teams have advantages over others -- in men's soccer, Brazil has a massive number of players to draw from; Spain, Germany, and England have deeply ingrained soccer cultures and the most firmly established leagues; the Dutch have exploited coaching and training techniques more than some other countries; etc. Why should we bemoan the ways in which these teams have developed and found success? That's the name of the game. At any rate, it always just comes down to 11 players facing another 11 players. If you watched the USA-Brazil WWC match it wasn't at all a David-Goliath situation -- it was two evenly matched teams gifted in very different facets of the game. The announcers on Eurosport kept bringing up the fact that Brazil's federation doesn't give its women's team enough resources, blah blah. If the USMNT ever cracked the top 10 on a consistent basis, I wouldn't give a hoot if our country had 300 million or 3 million people. It's all about the 11 players on the field. I'm pretty darn proud that our women's team is so competitive.
I enjoy the women's game at the WC and Olympic Level. it's a shame that i have to get my rocks off rooting for them, thanks to the ineptitude and lack of development of our men's team. I felt going in, that I would not get into it, but once i turned them on, they sucked me in. The thing I like the most is that they play on the same size field as the men, and yet, with the lack of speed of the men's game, the ball is forced to do more of the work and the style of play becomes more technical because of the available space. C'MON YOU LADY YANKS!
Even if we win there is work to do. Skill and youth eventually wins. We need much more of each Several teams have already caught us and Germany has surpassed us, the loss to Japan notwithstanding If you want up make a difference, support your local WPS team, and if it fails, support the next pro league, whether it's WMLS or something else. Like the men, college soccer does not cut it anymore
The USWNT will lose ground in the future if their players remain one-dimensional. Our women do not appear as technically proficient relative to the rest of the world. One day, being bigger, faster, and having the advantages they do will not be enough. I do not believe anyone is discrediting the opposition, it is very much the opposite. Most of the criticism concerns our women relinquishing their role as a top-flight team because their methods are antiquated.
Sorry, this struck me as a bunch of crap. How many damned men's teams in the world play like Spain?! And then there's the "sure, now, you can say it" factor. Yeah, now we can say it, after Spain finally broke through and Barcelona has won the Champions League again. But before that, how much respect did Spain get? About as much as Arsenal gets these days, am I right or wrong? Honestly, the way you make it sound like half the men's teams in the world are like Barcelona and Spain but the women don't play that way - that's bull. *** sorry if I'm coming off a little harsh. Carry on.
I disagree 100% To me, if you love soccer you love soccer. The women play great and they play a more open game than the men. Go USA!
Sorry, this struck me as a bunch of crap. How many damned men's teams in the world play like Spain?! ------------------------------ Few. But thats not the point. Most women's national teams in the world are pretty mediocre and their mediocre is different than men's mediocre Even a mediocre men's team ( oh like the USA) tries to use space when possible Most women's team don't have the speed to use the full space of the pitch and their goalies are weak for the most part. Hence, lots of teams rely on crosses, set pieces, and long range shots ALOT. That plus the occassional brilliant 1v1 skill of some players has been the women's game since the 99ers ..........and recently Germany and Japan. But Japan uses the short pass and off ball movement (probably out of necessity) more than anyone. They are also most guilty of trying to walk the ball into the net when a medium range shot would have been the better option. The Colombian coach also tries to play this way and did a semi successfully with the u-19s But he simply does not have talent, YET. Things are changing in the women's game for the better IMHO Those here who say the USA women cannot rest on their laurels are correct .
There is some confusion here between a short passing game and skillful soccer. Short passing is one particular style. You can play skillfully without playing a short passing game. Italy has won 4 WCs, skillfully, and they have NEVER played the short passing game. Our women have very good skills, but do not play a short passing game. Example: Rapinoe's 40 yard, left footed pass onto Wambach's head vs Brazil was an incredibly skillful play. I seriously doubt our men or women will ever play the short passing game. Just not our culture.
I agree with most of your post but beating Spain really was a fluke and statistically almost an impossibility. USWNT were only inferior to Brasil in that Brasil had a couple technical players better than our girls. The women are physically better fit, comparable skill to any other women's team, better tactically than most women's teams, and can impose their will on opposing teams when it comes to crunch time. THE USMNT can do none of these things and was a vastly inferior team to Spain, it's not even close. The US beating Spain is the very definition of a fluke victory that will never happen again. Now if we improve as a team we can compete with Spain and even beat them but expecting to win in a similar fasion against any team in the future is insanity.
Ogh and by the way, I love the USWNT with just as much passion than the men's team, I wish the men's team actually could have a chance to win the WC one time in my lifetime, it will probably never happen but I can still dream of miracles. So enjoy this moment because the way the EUropeans are starting to fund the women's game, we might not be back every 4 years like our current era.
well, it could happen again if we had a good game and a team as good as spain similarly takes us as lightly as spain did that time (i think i read something about a cancelled practices, cancelled team meetings, and lots of casual interviews on game day). but, i don't think reliance on flying under the radar is a way to build a program... there may be a time when the chances of our women making a deep cup run are about the same as that of our men. but as long as we are in concacaf, i would hope this cycle's qualification troubles are about as bad they get (for our men or women)
I am guessing you don't follow women's soccer and remember the Hope Solo/Greg Ryan fiasco. If only Hope played for the men's team, then maybe BB would be gone too! Whether you're a fan of Pia or not, I think overall she has done a great job with this team and the team is firmly behind her, they come out playing hard for the USA, each other, and, I believe, for Pia also. I would be happy to see her stay for 4 more years compared to other coaches we have had in the past.
I'm pretty much indifferent to it really. If they win the whole thing, cool, if they lose, so what. What kinda irks me is the notion that any of these women are sexy. The only one worth looking at is Hope Solo, all of the other girls as well as the ones on the '99 team are about as hot as Jodie Foster or Melissa Ethridge.
I think Hope Solo is actually quite odd-looking and has a weird personality. Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd, and Tobin Heath are all much better looking than her.
What irks me are people like you who think all the USWNT players are ugly dykes. Is that what you meant to say? Sure, they're not wearing pretty dresses and lingerie, and they are hot and sweaty and like to play sports, that makes them all lesbians. Grow up.