Ya - that was my guess, too. The ladies want contracts like the men's. Great. 1st order of business is eliminate the long term contract where players that are past their expiration date are called in because they're going to get paid anyway. Even if that wasn't the case with ARod, elminate even the suspicion of it.
Not really sure why Williams is being fast tracked. They have forward out the ass. Id like to see Williams have a small role and let her try and work it into a bigger role thru her play. Same thing goes for Lavelle and it probably would be the best thing for Pugh. Making young player earn more time forces them to keep improving instead of being too comfortable.
Just so I'm clear... Everybody is on board with our genius coach playing three in the back, right? ....becaus, um, it such a proven formation on the international stage.
That's a great point. Not only that, but let's say Williams starts the next 5 matches against elite opponents and fails to score. The first inclination would be to get rid of her altogether and find someone else, where in reality, if she was brought along slowly like Morgan, Leroux, etc. she could become very productive over time. Pugh is another player who is judged as a full time starter at a very young age, where it may have been more beneficial to ease her into the starting role over time.
I honestly don't have a problem with the 3back. My problem is the coach has to understand the demands of the positions and has to have the personnel to meet those demands. Personally, I stunned not to see Menges get a shot in a wide position in the 3back. For me she is what u look for. Of the players they r using only Short is fast enough and might develop into a good 3back player given enough time and caps. The rest r simply too slow to cover the extra ground.
It has the 3 first placed SBC teams plus Sweden, Norway and Spain in it. If that isnt competitive what is?
The tight 3 in Houston was a killer, but that's not something the USWNT does. Heck, I don't think I've ever seen anybody ever do a tight front 3 before 2016. Kind of defeats the purpose of having a 3 front IMO. Waldrum was a moron for implementing it & even more so for sticking with it for 10+ games thinking it would magically change. That being said, I don't necessarily disagree with you about the width benefiting Kealia in this formation. It's the depth. This shallow U that Ellis is obsessed with saw Lavelle get plenty of time on the ball but most of the time in the US' own half connecting passes forward, not creating chances. She ended up doing very very little in the final third. I don't see Ellis putting a less technical player capable of dribbling out of phone booths like Lavelle, Heath, or even Dunn in those wide areas in the current formation. Much as I support Kealia, that's just not her & she will never get picked for that position over Ellis' preferred type of player. on that shallow U, I can't help but notice the similarities to the formation that Ellis tried desperately to force leading up to & even through the first part of the WWC. The two yellow cards forced her to change the formation & personnel and I was prepared to give her credit for recognizing the success the change breeded. She's now reverted back to the same kind of formation, with two holding & two shallow wingers. It's the same thing from 2014/2015, except with Carli Lloyd in the 10... who knows, maybe the formation would do better with someone other than Lloyd at the 10, but it certainly isn't at the moment.
More like forwards, my ass. We don't have any. I don't know if you have been watching, but USA forwards haven't done squat in several tournaments now. Not in the last Olympics, not even in the winning World Cup. Morgan scored a single goal in the Olympics. The other scores were Mids. In the WC, Wambach and Morgan each scored a single goal. Press scored hers playing mid. Ten other goals came out of the midfield from Lloyd, Rapinoe, O'Hara, and Holiday. Scrap the bunch, put Macdonald and Williams together on the pitch. It worked pretty well last season. Or use the nwsl season this year to determine who our forwards are, by the stats. But our number 1 forwards hasn't been productive in a while, now.
Else played 3-4-3 against Romania with Press, Williams and Dunn in a tight three. Yes, Lavelle despite her technical ability could do anything constructive with that space because England didn't respect her enough to come out. If u leave Ohai alone on the left 20 yards out she'll shoot it and put it on frame. If u go out after her the defense soften in the middle and she can go around players to get off the cross. One of my biggest disappointments of SBC was not finally seeing if Ohai can actually do this against elite defensive teams. Maybe she can't but if she can it makes it very hard to pack into the box.
Forwards r like centers in basketball...even great one can rarely do much on their own but if u have a game plan and the players to get them open, they can tear u up. Like every other forward in the world, the US forwards need good entry passes to have any chance.
that was definitely not a tight 3, at least not anywhere near compared to what Waldrum tried to do with the Dash. That being said, her width in this formation is not what I'm concerned about. Against Romania Press & Kealia, even as an outside midfielder, were interchanging high up the pitch. In this formation Kealia would simply get the ball too deep too often, & with too many layers of defenders still in front of her. Her best assests would be completely neutralized & here weaknesses would start working against her. All that would remain is a semi-competent defender with an engine who could support Short far better than Heath ever did.
Actually, Morgan scored 2 goals in the Olympics, but I get your point about getting more scoring from our forwards. My main concern is that if our forwards were missing wide open opportunities, I'd say scrap them and bring in another batch of players to see what they can do. However, if the entry passes never get to them, and the crosses are off the mark, even Messi would struggle in this system. The opposing defense is basically double teaming our forwards and daring our midfielders to get a nice cross in. If I was the opposing coach I'd tell my defenders that if in doubt, just give up a corner or foul the US player outside the box. Even a child would do better with our multiple wasted set pieces. Again, right now our team has a lot of flash over substance, and that includes Pugh, Lavelle and Heath. I really miss the simple passes Holiday used to make or HAO's beautiful crosses right at someone's head.
Pugh was played in the front 2. Just think about Lavelle constantly playing the ball forward to Pugh. That being said, how often was this position been involved in the final third movements? Impressed as everybody is with Lavelle, she mostly operated in the midfield, connecting passes, retaining possession, & advancing the ball forward from the midfield. If Dunn, Lavelle, and Heath, were supposed to be generating a lot of chances in the final third in this system... well.. it was a colossal failure.
We're pretty much turning into France (pre this tournament of course). Lot's of oohs and aahs followed by a big goose egg on the scoreboard.
considering who IS on the actual team managed to only score 1 goal in 3 games, I think the idea who ISN'T on the team who might help with the attack is an entirely relevant conversation, especially the players (& the one player in particular) who were in the January camp & not carried over to the SBC.
Considering that Ohai was called up to the 2 or 3 previous camps, I think it's safe to say that she's in the conversation to be called up again in the future. I'm sure Ellis will open the field to different players in the future since we're more 2 years away from the next WC. I would hate for it to be just Williams or bust.