Whoever got Thailand in their group was going to have the easiest group; in all four pots, Thailand in pot 3 was the biggest outlier. Chile is right in the middle of pot 4.
so no mentioning of the possibility of the US of winning this shindig? Hmm.......Alex Morgan might just wonder; what does an American girl have to do to get attention around here.........
It's another cycle but USWNT didn't change much of their tactics while the rest of the world has. Beside that team average age is 29 (does Ellis aim for Guiness record?) Not many fresh legs out there. Players roatation is a must, but may not be as effective whith quite iron starting 11. Imo if USWNT can avoid cards and injuries, and won't underestimate Thailand and Chile (lesson from Australia) then semi-final is possible for them. Otherwise hurdles may start as soon as round of 32.
one slight problem for the US is that more than anybody else, when it comes major tournament time. Sweden seems to have their number this decade ; beating them in 2011 WC & 2016 Olympics, plus the only team to tie them at the 2015 WC But Sweden ain't got Pia no more & her succesfull formular of bunkering, bunkering, bunkering while countering with her two speedsters(Shelin, who retired, & Jacobsson, who's now way past 30).In the one game I've seen of them this year, the new coach kept pushing his back line way, way up, where upon even the over handed Germans had no problems fast breaking against them(which of course is an Ellis specialty, warped style!) It's either Stokes or Greenwood as left back. so Daly would be only 3rd option/ Here would be Neville's usual picks on his A & B squads A);...........Bardsley Bronze. Houghton. Bright..Stokes ..............Walsh Parris..Scott..Carney ...............Kirby ..............White B) Earps Daly...Willamson...Mcmanus..Greenwood .............Moore Mead...Staniforth.......Duggan ............Stanway ............Taylor the B squad done better than the A in the last couple of rounds of friendlies. but Neville's got to really figure out & combine the best of both. He tends to swap out White for Taylor at halftime(I think honestly Parris should be the lone striker like at Man City). Needs to at least keep one player for emergency injury, which leaves just one more sub to use)it be really criminal not to use Mead or Daly). I also would prefer the CB combo of Wlliamson & Mcmanus instead of Houghton & Bronze. But that probably ain't going to happen cuz Euro mindset s more about having CB's that contribute on offense(like Houhgton & Bright) instead of the other two who can actually defend! here are some of the English players that were on the list but didn't get chosen. I really liked Lawley & Ubogagu(wouild of been their fastest player) if England got the lead & decided to hold back & counter(like they did at SBC vs Japan). Christiansen is a shocker since she got picked/plays for Lyon. With all the creds she got, Williams at age 36, was past her prime, though perfect pick for Ellis, lol) And then to show how deep the English really are; Beth England(2nd leading English scorer in the WSL) plus all those controversial players from the past. Dowie(2nd leading score at the Aussie/W-League), Aluko, Sanderson, Rafferty, all aren't even on this list of rejects
hmm.....the US had always made it to at least the WC semis & is this really the strongest WC ever?....considerng so many of the best forwards like Pajor, Harder, Hegerberg are going to miss it. as well great mids like Fishlock, Vero & Guijarro. US hopes of making the semis if they get pased France in the expecedt quarters match. Due to the Deacon's stupid, mindbending decision not to include Katoto & Hamraoui, plus the often injured Cascarino might not even play either, I due see the US winning the game, but loosing either the semis or finals to a well conditioned team that peaked at the right place at the right time like Japan(in 2011 or the Dutch in 2017). btw.........thanks for not mentioning that I just somehow wanted to insert AM's pic into a post ,lets keep this our lil secret!
Age could be a concern for the USA, but the team is in an easy group and Ellis won't need to play Rapinoe, Heath, Morgan and maybe Sauerbrunn a lot in some of the early matches. I'm sure a couple of them will be pulled fairly early against Thailand and/or Chile or may start on the bench. Rapinoe has been saving her legs for the last month already--hasn't played in any NWSL matches. She's supposedly had a knock but I think just not wanting to risk injury, mostly, before the WC.
....have you not read any of the posts here? Almost everyone has mentioned the US in at least one of their posts. And on that note... This is patently ridiculous. Especially since there is no "round of 32". And if you mean the R16 that's still laughable.
yes it was typo I ment round of 16 as for laughing...well so be it...I only hope that US fans won't have to laugh thru tears in 1/16 or in quarters
Quarters is entirely believable since I think any team in the top 8 has the capability to knock the USWNT out - particularly if the expected USAvFRA matchup happens. The only way the USA goes out in the R16 is if Germany get upset in their group B and then sees the USA in the R16. If the USWNT gets upset in the group stage themselves, they can beat anyone from group E pretty easily.
Getting attention as cover girl is so dated. Might have worked in 1999. These days you have to twerk.
it's the style rather than the ranking of the opposition that gives the US the most problems , the Dutch(from group E) with their long balls(hence, getting behind Ellis's high back line) would definitely wreak havoc. In similar vein, France & Sweden, have been abel to beat the US in the past(though I think Sweden has changed it's tyle since Pia retired). On the other hand we've been able to beat #2 Germany since 2003, since they insist on playing the Joachim Low style of rather ponderous, short passing game, desgined to bring more numbers upfront, yet works right into the hands of the usual hard pressing the US does. Now if only current coach MVT, only switches styles to the other famous German coach(the gegen pressing, Jurgen Klopp, who's Liverpool men's club just beat the crap out of Barca in the CL), than you might see a very different result in a GE/US confrontation. The only time I've seen a German team switch over to Klopp is their 2014 u20 WC squad(which ended up winning the trophy, plus an easy win over the US squad) but don't get me wrong, an opponent needs still to work to be in zinc in order to beat the US. France for instance tend to be that way during friendlies, but not come major tounrey time/currently the Dutch are out of zinc(terrible defense lapses in their last friendlies) but so they were right prior to the Euro 2107(and look how they turned it around) when comparing the 2015 & 2015 US squads; even though the former had the big names like Haliday, Solo, Wambach, Leroux......the newbies compare quite well(Dunn, Horan, Levelle, Pugh) but aging of some of the returnees make me feel that the 2015's was the stronger squad. If the US manages to win with this somewhat weaker squad means that Title IX is stil the queen of woso(which will defintely drive the purists crazy, lol)
I guess all of you here knew, but I just realized that the USA vs Sweden is something that happens basically every world cup, the last 5 times they have been in the same group and 6 out of 8 world cups they have been in the same group. This is more than Nigeria vs Argentina in the men's side.
Yes, we almost always play Sweden. And we played Nigeria quite a few times, too - just the way the pots worked out with the smaller tourneys.
Best team: USA (athletically and as a whole) Spain (tecnically) Japan (tactically) Likely to win: France (mainly because of the home advantage).
Except in tournaments the US hosted, the host team has always exited in the QF stage. And in 2003, which was in the US but supposed to be hosted by China, China exited in the QF stage anyway!