It does feel a bit like children teasing other children. Kind of demeans the game, it is worse than "It's all gone quite over there."
Belen Cruz, who just entered the game in place of Robles, had a couple good Mexico youth team campaigns.
I'm not sure Pugh was onside when she got the ball. Great stuff from Press on that goal from the top of the box.
Well we did not look that good against a weak team. The second group looked better than the first group. I am not that confident going into the WWC right now
This was a successful send off match. A victory and no apparent injuries. That is all that could be hopped for. I do wish the back up keepers would have received some playing time in these last few matches, just in case,but I guess you can't have everything.
great game, we did it guys, we won the World Cup. OH wait, I have about 35 more days before we can say that. BTW, anybody see that shot of like four players fixing their pony tails?
I am underwhelmed by the U.S. team. Granted, it's just one game, and they're still trying out things, combinations, etc., but for the supposed #1 team I see too many flaws. There are too many players with just passable technique, at best. I wish I could count all the errant and poorly struck passes, headers, etc. And this is not even considering questionable ideas in the attack. As a U.S. fan of course I'd like to see them win the WC, but right now I'm not optimistic.
At what point does Morgan play herself out of a starting role? She doesn’t look like she belongs on the pitch with these players a lot of the time. How does a world class soccer player, supposedly, have zero 1 v 1 ability?
I think I commented on it. But I may have just thought I did. Old brain has problems distinguishing fantasy from reality.
It's thought that it first got big at Navy and then other colleges and high schools. Somehow it became a thing in MLS and a drinking game on the MLS board when SKC fans did it. This was all more than 10 years ago. Fortunately it has mostly waned on the men's side. I believe Nike picked it up in some national team promotions at some point too.
Jill picks the starters and she has a history of making some mistakes. Right now, the biggest mistake is Morgan starting. She is not the best option
Red Bull fans did it a lot, so as a result it was never done in the two seasons I was a STH in Philly.
I'm not at all sure that is true. The "A" team plays against the opponents "A" team that is fresh while the "B"team plays against the opponents "B" team and plays when they are tiring. Also judging by these send off matches is pretty much meaningless. I'm not saying you are not correct but I am just saying that, unless you are on the inside, there is no way to judge based on what we have seen. Now after the first group match we might be able to say more, much more.
Unpopular opinions: a) for all our criticisms of Coach Ellis, she got the tactics right in the 1st half. Overall ball movement was excellent, always on the initiative. The final execution was lacking, especially by the front three of Rapinoe/Morgan/Heath b) Rose Lavelle was USA's best player. Dunn was second. c) Morgan and Rapinoe, even though I love them both, shouldn't be guaranteed starters at World Cup. They're not in good form d) Heath had a relatively poor game despite the goal (Let's face it, it was a cheapo) but she's been best American player the last year-plus so I'm not worried about her. I've never been her biggest fan but she's our most essential attacking player now. e) it's not a question of Dunn vs O'Hara but this match again convinced me that Dunn, even at LB, is a far more dangerous threat for the US than O'Hara is. It's really not even close and I don't understand the O'Hara fan club (Well, I do, but I understand the Ali Krieger fans a lot better. Tee-hee!) One big question I can't answer - can you simply swap Carli Lloyd in Alex Morgan's place and still get the overall ball movement the US had in the first half? Or is Morgan's speed and something about her movement and hold-up essential to the first half game plans that can't be duplicated with Lloyd starting? Does playing Carli Lloyd simply force a different game?
It was pretty obvious to me that in terms of ball movement, our "A" team was much much better. The "B" team was better in getting results. Part of it is the opponent's fatigue, as you point out. The other part is Lloyd is in much better form than Morgan. So what makes the "A" team much better in ball movement and overall attacking strategy? a) Rose Lavelle was the USA's best player b) the US attack is best with Heath as outside attacker and Dunn as LB c) Things move a lot better with Ertz as DM. Maybe Horan or Mewis can keep it moving, but certainly Ertz keeps it moving a lot better than Alli Long
The first half was very different from second half. The tactics and overall ball movement in 1st half was great - it's unpopular to give Coach Ellis any credit for anything but the tactics in the first half were great. The main problem in first half was with the front three Rapinoe/Morgan/Heath. Heath had a poor 1st half despite the cheapo goal, but she's been the USA's best player the last year or two. Morgan and Rapinoe aren't in good form when it comes to the final ball. Mewis had good ideas for the most part but her passing touch was off. Lavelle was fantastic. Dunn had two excellent crosses. Overall ball movement was good and quick - and that requires good technique. They were getting the ball in good positions to the players they want to get it to.
I feel a lot more confident than I did in 2015 and that turned out pretty well. Trust me, we look much better than we did going into the last WC. We had a lot of bad performances in the 8 months prior and were having trouble scoring in many of them, even against weaker opponents... Oct 2014 - World Cup Qualifying • 1st game Group stage, beat T&T 1-0 thanks to poor GK mistake Dec 2014 - International Tournament of Brasilia (in Brazil of course) • Blew 2-0 lead vs Brazil, lost 3-2 (Marta hat trick) • 1-1 draw vs China • 0-0 draw vs Brazil Jan 2015 - Friendly • 0-2 loss @ France March 2015 - Algarve Cup • 0-0 draw vs Iceland May 2015 - Send-off Game • 0-0 draw vs South Korea They were shut-out in 4 of their prior 11 games over the previous 5.5 months heading into the 2015 WC. For comparison, the last time this team was shut-out was nearly 2 years ago (July 2017, 0-1 L vs Australia). They did have a few good games in that stretch as well, namely, avenging their loss to France with 2-0 in Algarve Cup finals and winning @ England 1-0 in January. Of course, to be fair, this 2019 team has bigger issues on defense than the 2015 team.