More or less my point, she will have a huge crowd she can announce herself to. 20,000+ tickets sold for the game on Sunday.
you're joking right? HAO was on the team, had been for..15 years? 200 plus caps, gold medals, gold WC's...when she played her final match this year and played 70 minutes. What kind of logic lets you compare that to someone who's never been cap'd ????
Then why even call her up? It just gives the impression that she's so bad in camp that Ellis won't even play her for 5 minutes while everone else gets a chance, especially in a meaningless match. Heck, McCaffrey kept being given chances without doing much.
I mean, sorta but not really? You implied the NT wouldn't give minutes for no reason, I'm saying they've done it for sentimental reasons as recently as two games ago. That sentimentality makes it comparable IMO. It's a rare opportunity to cap a player for the first time in front of her home town, even one you never plan on calling again. They had nothing to lose from it & it would have made a lot of people happy, including home town fans. They've done it before. & really I think the idea of not giving a player a cap because it would give her false hope is a ridiculous excuse at this level. Ohai would have been OK with Ellis telling her that she's getting her first cap only because of her home town fans & not because of her performance. She's not 10 with a fragile state of mind.
This seems like inadequate analysis to me. There are other possibilities. Maybe Ellis simply decided Kealia isn't going to make the team and wanted to give all the playing time to players who will. Maybe she decided she wanted to give a particular group of players time together in the first game and another group time in the second game, with Kealia being one for the second game. Etc., etc. There are far more possibilities than the two you cited, yet you analyze as if those were the only two possible reasons. Let's wait until the second game and see if Kealia gets significant playing time. Beyond that, some feel the sentimental/promotional reason of letting Kealia play in front of her home fans should have been a decisive factor (obviously, it wasn't), some feel it should have received consideration (which it might have, we don't know), and some feel it should not be a significant factor (which it might not have been). There's no clearly right or wrong to any of these. Ellis may be right or wrong, but saying it must be she forgot or acted in bad faith doesn't cut it as a critique.
Bad faith is a far reaching category, more than you are giving it credit for. Not giving Ohai a chance to run out in stoppage time because she wasn't going to make the team is bad faith. She didn't let HAO play two games ago because she thought HAO had a future with the team. Not giving Ohai a chance to run out in stoppage time because she wanted to give particular groups of players time together, with Kealia being planned to play in the second game, is bad faith. It's the identical roster, with the identical opponent. There is nothing she can see it game one that she can't see in game two and vice versa. Etc, etc ... bad faith. I suppose someone can come up with something that would fall outside of the two possibilities listed, but as an Ohai fan I've spent the last 48 hours trying. I've only come up with one good answer: Disciplinary reasons. ...but even then, that's kinda bad faith. You can't have something thats bad enough where a player is punished by being left out of the starting 18 in front of her home town but also not bad enough to be kept in the camp for a second game a few days later. That would be a petty, almost vindictive punishment that would absolutely qualify as bad faith.
It's your opinion, so it can be whatever you want it to be, but to me it simply doesn't hold water -- at all. You're upset, I can tell, and I thinking it's making it so you can't see straight. But then, I'm a retired attorney to whom "bad faith" has a very specific meaning, and nothing you've cited comes close to that meaning. I guess if "bad faith" means "I really don't like it and am pissed off," then your post makes sense.
I am not discounting your post in the least, but I think this is a key point. You are biased in this case, and it's clear. I have favorite. I'm respect Ellis as a coach, and Ohai as a player, and am a fan of the USWNT. With an unbiased eye, I don't see an agenda/conspiracy/ill intent in not allowing Ohai to play. I don't know how the squad was selected. It could have been based off camp performance? Or how Ellis wanted to see a combination of players play. Or that some of the NCAA players had to go back to their teams after the 1st game. Speculate, speculate, speculate. But I don't feel a need to use an evaluation game as a time in which sentimentality should take precedence. Is that the key to getting a start? Make sure the coach knows your family is in the stands or you have a connection to the venue? In the long run, if Ohai plays in the 2nd game, and works her way onto the team, and is hosting the WWC in 2019, will it really matter? I don't know if she is as worked up about missing the game as some of her fans are........
The "ouch" meaning she won't have a future under Ellis, if she's being compared to HAO (Ellis made her preference of HAO's play very clear). Disclaimer: I am a fan of the team, and would be happy to support whatever players can help them win matches (especially against teams which play a bunker). I don't have the luxury of watches practices, so I cannot comment any further.
The problem here is the source. Jill Ellis has a history of being wrong about most of her players. She was wrong about Long, wrong about Brian, wrong about Johnston, way wrong about Dunn, wrong about McCaffrey, has decided she was wrong about Hinkle tho Im not so sure she was, continues to be wrong about Press, and Im sure Im forgetting half of them. Why would I believe a coach who is wrong about so much is right about Ohai? And what is Ellis saying about the NWSL? A lot of people who know the sport think the NWSL is the toughest league in the world. Is Ellis saying Ohai was lucky 11 times or just that it's a bad league and anyone could score that many even tho none of her regulars managed to do it. Maybe Ellis is saying Ohai doesnt fit her system which is odd as role on the left side Ellis was looking for in Utah was exactly the role that led to all those goals in Houston.
It's one of those things that, as time has passed & my frustration has waned, there still is a clear & present slight, but whatever. I'm biased. I get that & I've exhausted myself talking about this. It's important to clarify here that I'm not upset about Kealia getting her first cap or extended minutes. Way back when, my gripe with Ohai not getting called into the camp had more to do with actually getting into that environment & training in it. Cap & minutes just a bonus the first time in, I wanted her to get some expierence outside of Waldrums environment, which I detest. I long ago was willing to accept a call up like Lavelle where she didn't get to play but still trained with the team. Seeing her home town on the slate added the element of getting a run out & having the home crowd cheer her name, even for just a few minutes. Next time the USWNT plays in Cincinnati (if ever) & Lavelle is in camp & hasn't been capped yet, I would expect the same kind of run out to home fans. If the same thing happened to Lavelle that's happened to Ohai, I probably wouldn't be as upset about it, but I'd still be wondering why in the hell something so simple & rewarding for so many people couldn't be done.
Why do we keep going around and around with this. Obviously the NWSL matters see Williams, and Short. Ohai did not play in THIS game. The game this thread is about.... But the thing is; there will be a SECOND game...... All the critiques will only have weight if she doesn't play the 2nd game..... Man, I just am having a hard time seeing why there is an uproar because all 23 players couldn't play in the 1st game of a 2 game set where you can only dress 18?!? I have no favorite here, so maybe that's why I'm able to see this without getting frustrated, by the game day selection.....
Bad Faith, Mala Fide... deception or double meaning. Example: Ellis felt threatened that the narrative of the game was out of her control & this was her way to seize it back. Maybe Ohai slighted Ellis in some way & this is her punishment to get back at her. Maybe USWNT didn't want the game be all about Ohai & was afraid everybody would be talking about her instead of them. All those motives I find more likely than "I would have played her in game two/wanted to use specific combination in game one" (whats different about game two?)... "she isn't good enough/doesn't fit my system/isn't the kind of player I like" (so just play her for a few minutes?) ... "Disciplinary Action" (bad enough to drop homecoming gaming, but not bad enough to drop from camp?) My gut tells me the truth is something more simpler... Ellis simply couldn't be bothered with trying to make Ohai's homecoming work in the plans she made for this game. Laziness, instead of "Coaches decision". That's what she is reported as saying to the media as why Ohai didn't dress. Although, now that I think of it, that's technically mala fide as well, isn't it?
with ALL THE HOOPLA on the US using new players, they still started 9 regulars. Meantime, the Swiss(pop. 6.6 mill) didn't have the 3 above players mentioned, but also missing were regulars Kiwic, Humm, Bernauer & Waiti. The ones that played; Abbe lost her starting spot at Bayern Munich, so did Maritz over at Wolfsburg. Aigbogun is a nifty winger at league leading Potsdam, but not a good finisher(so far zero goals) The 18 year old Zehnder got a starting mid spot(over Selina Wagner) at Freiburg. Dunno where their gk(Thalmann) is playing these days, I always remember her wen she left in 8 goal for her Brescia/Italian club vs Potsdam in one CL match. Never even heard of the other Swiss starters like Kuster, Willi, Deplazes & Caligauis. Rimac plays for the low ranked Duiseburg Overall, once again the USSF has been had if they think this Swiss B team was going to be top quality competition
On the positive side, if play was without their dynamic trio, then Romania shouldn't be much less resistance (if they bring their whole team. Seriously even if they had had the other starters Switzerland without those three isn't even close to their full powers.
It's probably much more telling that the US couldnt get any traction in the first half than the four goals they got in the second.
On the contrary, I think Ellis was trying to phase out HAO ever since she took over. HAO was out of the Olympic picture pretty early and remember "Free the Irish?" Perhaps I missed the sarcasm in your post. I think Ellis has always seen HAO as a player with limited dimensions: a)run forever, b) drop back deep and defend with ferocity, and c) excellent crosses from right side based on one move used over and over and over again - touch ball past defender and beat her to the end line. HAO on the left side has frequently amazed and impressed me. She has demonstrated in club play that she can make deadly crosses with her left foot. I think she limited herself in coach's eyes over the years by rarely going to the middle from an outside position like Heath, Rapinoe, and Dunn do. (even though it is often successful when she does) Responding to posts from another poster, I was going to object to comparing Ohai to HAO as being unfair to Ohai, who I believed to be the player with greater dimensions of the two, but it seems I just overruled my own objection.
Yes, my post was a little sarcastic. I was not commenting on the players' qualities, but rather on Ellis' appreciation of them.
Ellis' lack of appreciation for the way HAO played soccer was always validated a bit by her age. It's just not wise to bet ur WC on attackers who will be mid thirties for France 2019
Jill Ellis on Andi Sullivan: "Will I probably have a look at her as a center back? Yes, I will. Was I really excited about what I saw the other night (as a No. 6)? Yes. ... Right now, based on what I've seen with her vision, somewhere in the central channel suits her best." [quote from Graham Hays]