78' 2-0 USA diagonal pass into 5m wide right, Krieger chases it down and underhits a cross, ball trickles to 10m box right. #3 Natalia Gaitán, arriving late, undercuts Krieger and both roll to endline. Foul, yellow card on Gaitán. 79' 3-0 USA fk at 6m wide right, Heath(?) bends it to 4m right post. Johnston, starting at 3m left post, makes a designed hard cut toward ball, leaves #2 Echeverri(?) chasing her shadow. Johnston arrives first, flops forward and snap-heads down past own left shoulder, across mouth under Peréz's hands, bounces into left side netting. 82' 3-0 Naeher scrambles out to 9m left post to pick up ball, unbalances self and falls over while heaving an outlet pass to the left. Do another pushup! 83' 3-0 #3 Mewis cuts back past #5 Pineda at 22m arc top, shoots left instep rocket just high.
87' 3-0 Colombia subs in: - (1 of 6) #10 Yorely Rincón for #4 Diana Ospina - (2 of 6) #7 Nicole Regnier for #15 Tatiana Ariza. 90' 3-0 USA flowing move down wide left. Pugh crosses from 8m toward right post -- but Dunn is trapped under a much taller defender , can't even get an uncontested jump. +3'. 90+1' (of +3') 3-0 Colombia subs in (3 of 6) #18 Yisela Cuesta for #11 Catalina Usme.
90+2' (of +3') 3-0 Pugh turn-and-go up centerline to 24m, diagonal pass leads Heath (possibly offside??) through box top mid-left to 8m. Heath shoots left instep low, Peréz stuff-blocks it! Ball sticks in Peréz's shins, Heath overruns and tries to poke ball out -- Peréz hooks ball to self and falls onto it? 90+3' (of +3') 3-0 Through-ball sends Press to 9m mid-left, 1-v-1 on Peréz. Peréz sprawls, Press rounds her -- chases to 1m mid-left, has no angle to shoot. Hesitates, ground pass through 6-top left for a central run -- but Peréz, recovering backward, picks it up FT 3-0. PotM is Peréz, with an assist from Lloyd-in-a-friendly.
Ellis tactical changes didn't work. Heath playing full back less involved. Mewis playing over Long. Press playing out wide.
I though Mewis did what Ellis wanted...stay back and link. Mostly I thought Columbia womaned up and didnt let the US attackers do anything they wanted. Attackers also squandered some very open looks.
She is fine, in great shape, and playing well. This happened before the WC as well where they played with lineups and then she played nearly every minute during the Cup. So who knows? I thought they might move JJ to DM and Krieger to CB, but haven't seen it yet.
I agree with this, but I tend to favor speed and athleticism in the midfield almost to a fault. Long looked really dangerous to me in her one start.
I liked almost everything about this match. Colombia weren't as jetlagged so they played somewhat better-- but so did we. Liked all the experimenting, as I believe it was all about what could happen rather than what will. I thought Heath had the best game overall for us, and I'm not sure my favorite player a couple of years from now won't be Mewis. I have no idea why her game seemed indecisive to anybody-- I thought she was coming along nicely. Horan was the designated enforcer this game, and she still came up with the crucial play. I do wish we had finished a little better, but we made a ton of chances. I'm quite happy.
After 5 stagnant years of Pia playing the exact same starters for every single match, i'm very pleased to see Jill try so many new players and so many different positions. The team is enjoying this is as well..it allows players to become better all-around footballers. Plus, the matches are lot more fun to watch now Ellis coaching style has completely changed from pre WC to the WC quarterfinals and to the present. Leading up to the WC quarters, she was oblivious and what I thought a bad coach. She had loyalties to her senior players and didn't mess much with formation or tactics. Since the WC quarters and then winning the WC, she's trying so many new things and while not all work, i'll take this any day to the boring years of Pia. Like many people on here, I'm not sure Ellis would have made this important quarterfinal changes with out the yellow cards, but since that match her coaching style has changed.
I'm aware that they had a different uniform for that tournament. I said it slightly better in my next post about the necklines. This photo is from the Pan-Am Games that happened shortly after the World Cup. I'm not sure the team left Canada after the World Cup. They are the same shirts we saw the past two games against the US. I'm not sure if this photo is an example or if the shirt is just hanging differently in the celebration, but they had at least two necklines on the field at the same time during both tournaments. Some shirts were more open than others. At least one of the players during the World Cup had a shirt that I recall having buttons. I'm not going to go through my post history (I don't recall if I posted a photo), but I noted it at the time during those tournaments.
I don't recall seeing them at the World Cup and didn't watch the Pan-Am games. So that's why I never commented on it before. I will say that the necklines of the jerseys the USWNT wore today seemed a bit more open than I've previously seen before as well. You could see the bra straps of a few of the players. (not complaining, just observing)
It seems to me that Ellis is trying to get the best offensive-minded players on the pitch so that this team can finally figure out how to break down the bunker-defense. Most teams can't hang with the US, so they will play mostly defense and hope for a goal off a quick-break counter. I'm sure she'll use Krieger against teams like Germany who get after it.
She got the nervous bug with all those 150 friends and relatives in the stands. Reminds me of what happened to Sauerbrunn in the SBC France game when she was honored for her 100 caps.
Here's are some good quality uploads of this match on Youtube (both halfs): ESPN3 replay really stinks. If you try to fast-forward or go backwards the stream freezes or jumps all over the place; very frustrating. I couldn't watch from the 60th - 70th minutes.
I tend to agree with taosjohn, in that for the most part, I thought it was a pretty good game. It lacked the sharpness from the last game, but still we created a lot of chances. If Perez hadn't had such a great game (and if Lloyd hadn't had so much family there), we would have had a few more goals. I'm not sure whether the 3-5-2 experiment really worked or not. If the scenario was really an end-of-game-push-for-a-goal, well then it took 26 minutes to get that goal. How much of an end-of-game push was this supposed to be? On the other hand, I'm glad we were experimenting with it now and Heath played well. Its good to have that in the back pocket. Actually I'm really impressed with Heath. She's played much more consistently and much more in sync with her teammates the past year or so than she ever used to. I think she's reaching her potential and enjoying the extra leadership responsibility that Ellis has given her. I liked seeing her get the armband after Lloyd left (although to be fair, there was really no one else to give it to. Can we just take a moment to enjoy the fact that at the end of the game, Heath was the most capped player on the field? How things have changed from pre-WWC!) Our defense had another rock solid game, especially Sauerbrunn who was just her quietly-good self and cleaned up for Heath a few times. Johnston also with 2 goals, so no complaints about the defense. They had very little problem with the 3-5-2 experiment and were all getting involved in the attack. I mean, at one point Sauerbrunn was offside. Let me say that again: the player who is normally the covering CB was offside! That just says a lot about the game. Anyway, the midfield is where I'm concerned. I don't think either Horan or Mewis played poorly; in fact, Mewis is shaping up to be a great midfield back-up, but I don't think the connection between them is there. For long stretches, neither was also putting themselves in a place to provide an outlet for the backline. I'm not exactly sure whose responsibility that primarily was, but I'm guessing it was Mewis. Also as I said before, the sharpness in attack was really lacking compared to the previous game: first touches, the slip passes, and in finishing. Part of that was bad-Lloyd showing up. But I think also Dunn, in particular, was trying to do too much on her own. I did like the interchanging and movement between the front 3 though; if only the final touches had been better.
I didnt really buy into the experiment with Heath. While I believe she was trying to simulate an end game situation in reality I dont think they did anything really different. This is already a team where both outsides backs play high and one is almost always on the bi-line. I also didnt notice Mewis playing any differently than she did in the previous match. As to general play I think Columbia played a smarter game. Instead of wasting energy trying pressure they sat back more and used their energy clogging the passing lanes in the box.
Monica Gonzalez should always be the sideline reporter on US games with Latin American teams. She has the experience and language to get the story....as she did with the Colombia team and its internal problems.