PBP: WWC Final USA vs. Japan July 5 - Pre/PBP/Post

As others have said, the lesser minutes makes sense for the Golden Boot for the most goals scored. If someone scores more goals in less minutes then they are a better scorer. I like the assists in there as it then favors someone who also helps others score.

I don't think doing it by rounds makes sense -- theoretically someone whose team only plays three games could have the same number of goals as someone who played in 7 and got a goal or more in the knockout stage.

My tweak would be, perhaps before minutes played, take out the PKs scored. If you really want someone who is creating and scoring, the PK should come out.

I am NOT a big FIFA fan, but their rules are not always stupid. At one point or another in a tournament, you need to have the dreaded lottery draw as your final tiebreaker. There is always a possibility that all the other tiebreakers remain tied. Now, if you want to add six more tiebreakers to reduce the odds it happens, go ahead. But then you need to keep track of all of them. I think you will find the 'lottery draw' rule in most any tournament you go to that is structured like the WC: a round-robin group stage followed by a knockout stage.

 

That still wouldn't have broken the tie in this case. Both Sasic and Lloyd had two PK goals.

 

How about if we subtract one for missed penalty?

 

Missed penalty. The gift that keeps on giving!

 

Looking back at the WC and my expectations heading into it, I feel that 6 players from the squad (JJ, Klingenberg, O'Hara, Heath, Lloyd and Brian) exceeded them. I would love to include Sauerbrun and Krieger on this list, but in all honesty, I had very high expectations for those 2 based on previous play. If Lloyd had finished the WC with 3 or 4 goals I would not have included her on the list, but that performance in the final was completely unexpected.

 

You can add Ellis to that list. I honestly expected her to prefer losing her way than doing what needed to be done.

 

I think a lot has been said on these boards about Rapinoe/Holiday getting the yellows against Colombia, which turned into a good thing, since Ellis decided to play Brian as a defensive mid. However, another bad that turned into good was Abby Wambach missing the penalty kick against Colombia. If she had made that shot, Carli would not have taken the next one. It seemed like after making that penalty kick Lloyd got her scoring confidence back. Prior to that she was consistently missing her few shots wide.

 

if you're actually complimenting ellis....

respect.

never thought i'd see it.

 

Just throwing this out there. It's now 3 days as World Cup Champions.

And the front page of bigsoccer roots against the US in the final and went to the pressing problem of Micronesia being incredibly inept.

Anyone think that's the way bigsoccer's front page would celebrate a US men's team victory?

 

bs doesn't promote any one team.

bs doesn't belong to any ....

it will always be (in some part) a way for people to bs.

expect it.

 

Well I never hated Ellis I just felt her tactics were dumb. Just like anyone else in the world including a lot us on this board, every day is a new day filled with the hope we'll do better. Ellis did much better.

 

I started an over/under/even thread to address this. Mine was based on a comparison to public expectations.

Based on expectations of those of us who know the game, I agree with at least four of your six. I would see Heath met expectations, and then only because she played very well in the final. I thought she underwhelmed until then. I have to ask about Johnston because her expectations were pretty high coming into the Cup. I don't think folks expected her to be the best player on the team (which she was for the first five games), and had she stayed at that level, she'd have been an "exceed". But, her slips the last two games (which fortunately did not hurt in the end) probably take her down to meeting expectations.

You have to include Lloyd since the performance was unprecedented and nobody (well, maybe other than Lloyd herself) expected it.

 

FIFA should just give Lloyd next year's Puskas Award right now.

 

Sasic was trying to be like her idol, Abby Wambach!

 

I would agree with you, and would add you can say that about a lot of players in this tournament. Players across the roster took on roles they weren't used to & did things they weren't known for that was, in the end, was for the good of the team. I would say Heath improved herself greatly for this tournament, in spite of what I've said about her. I can say the same thing about Rapinoe, she was consistent, which for Rapinoe is a much bigger deal for me than it is for Heath. Rapinoe has, for as long as I ever watched her, been hot and cold not just from game to game, but from minute to minute.

Yet both players were consistent through-out the tournament, with the exception of Heath reigning in those turnovers in the final. They were not a catalyst that made the difference between the poor US performance we saw against Columbia and the great US performance against China. I don't want to say those two players were part of the problem, but they certainly were not the reason why the US suddenly started playing well.

It just doesn't seem enough people are praising the impact the youngest player on the roster, Morgan Brian, had on this teams title hope.

 

From behind the net on Carli's 3rd goal:

 

The USWNT got revenge for the past and a blueprint for a dominant future
http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2015/7/9/8914331/uswnt-got-world-cup-revenge-future-blueprint

Good article

 

Look how small all the rest of the players look....thats not trick photography.

 

(Jubilation + 6 Scotches + Late Night) = Playing fast and loose with time. So sue me.

 

I disagree.

Great article.

The best part is the focus on how Morgan Brian made the difference.

She's been completely under-appreciated by the mainstream press given the Lloyd onslaught, which is understandable. But she turned the tournament around.

 

Y' know, someone should point out that the actual point at which the tournament turned for this team was----






















Abby's goal.

She didn't do much this time around, but what she did was big. After that goal, things which had looked fairly doubtful began to look very possible. Once again, she came up with a key moment, and deserves to have that remembered.