Re: Pre/pbp/post 7/6 USA vs. Sweden Oh yeah someone called the swedish victory dance bizzare, its not a Scandinavien dance its french. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhCIDe92iKQ"]YouTube - MOUSSIER TOMBOLA - LOGOBITOMBO ( LE CLIP ) *version UNDERGROUND‏[/ame] Anyway think there is more then one bizzare country in this WC Enjoy http://www.zdf.de/ZDFmediathek/beit...eo/1381342/Tanzende-Fußball-Frauen-bei-der-WM
Re: Pre/pbp/post 7/6 USA vs. Sweden Again, I think this team has major problems. I'd make a radical move and put Box as a CD. Or play a 3-5-2 with her as the dedicated d-mid. Or basically play it like a 4 person backline with a stopper/sweeper setup in the middle instead of a flat 4. Let Boxx roam a bit in front and destroy everything, let Rampone cover the back with speed and form the offside line as needed or play as a sweeper. i'd also make some changes in the MF. It would look something like this: --------------Solo-------------- ------------Rampone---------- ---Krieger-----------Cox/Mitts -------------Boxx-------------- ------Lindsey-----Rapinoe----- HOR---------------------Cheney ------Wambach---A-Rod------- I thought Lloyd was awful last game. Rapinoe as well. Still, the latter has a bit more bite in my opinion. I'd be tempted to put Cheney in Rapinoe's spot and play more of a diamond 4 in MF, with A-Rod wide, Cheney as CAM, and Morgan up top. But could have serious defensive problems. Bottom line. When your LB and CB are shaky, and your CM doesn't generate much offense, you are in trouble.
Re: Pre/pbp/post 7/6 USA vs. Sweden I disagree with putting Mitts in there. Yes she "proved" herself enough to get on the team but I'm not sure how much speed she has after the hamstring injury. I think she lost some of her explosiveness and I think she would ultimately be more of a liability on the field. Plus let's be honest, her defensive skills aren't that great. In the past her skills were a liability that she could overcome with speed but right now with that in question I don't think she is the answer. I would rather see Cox in there than Mitts at this point.
Re: Pre/pbp/post 7/6 USA vs. Sweden I completely disagree about Mitts. I have always thought she was mediocre at best. I've watched her national team, as well as WPS play, and she shows moments of tenacity and foresight, but the rest of the time is lacking in speed and fitness. Champions of her are quick to assume she deserves a spot simply because she has rare shining moments and because she is likable and they are rooting for her, ignoring the fact that most of the time she is mediocre to sub par. Engen could mop the floor with her I agree with most other things on this thread, EXCEPTFor LP. I remember thinking, except for a couple of misteks that she was extremely involved, I liked how shw was getting up in the offense, and I think she is a calming force back there. I agree with Julie Foudy’s comments when LP came out of the game, that perhaps that wasn’t the problem that needed to be fixed. I noticed that LP was all over the place the first half, SHE HAD MORE TOUCHES ON THE BALL THAN SHANNON BOX. Seriously. The camera was always on her. For a very very long time I STONGLY think that our two main problems are the two center mids (I couldn’t agree more with the comment that they simply don’t play well together0 HOW MANY flat, undynamic, unexcitiing, predictable games do we have to watch with these two before pia gets it? I simply don’t understand, it’s just so obvious, I can’t imagine what she could be thinking. Individually they are solid players, but they couldn’t be more unexciting together. Over the last two years, I have never seen them have an exciting interchange, the two of them. The sum of the parts simply don’t equal the whole in this situation. Period. But I thought, and have thought for a long time, that Boxx is the problem. She simply doesn’t get enough touches, and when she does, it is uncreative and mediocre. Notice that when Cheney or Morgan or Abby get the ball, everybody rises in anticipation because they produce. Boxx is not one of those players. I think she is the most ineffective player we have. Lindsay was a tremendous improvement, in movement off the ball, touches, quick feet, and most of all, creative passing. I think boxx is a huge problem. It reminds me of Cat Whitehill a little, she is just sort of there because she’s a favorite and the fact that she is a dud gets overlooked simply because she’s staple. I think Lloyd is still a powerhouse, sorry. A-Rod is too inconsistent for this level. Not a doubt in my mind. Morgan needs to replace her. She can finish ten times better. The other problem is that our attack is completely flat. Undynamic, and uncreative. It’s really sad. We don’t do any slashing runs and don’t cut through defense. We have the most predictable attack of all the teams I’ve seen in this cup. There is a reason why when Sweden got the ball those few times in the second half, they still had better chances than we did, even though we were dominating. They are simply more dangerous in the attack with slashing runs and creative through balls. I’m so tired of watching the US try to muscle their way to the goal. Nigeria has a more dangerous attack than us, esp. with A rod there.
Re: Pre/pbp/post 7/6 USA vs. Sweden Just finished watching. I must have recorded a different game than this thread is about? Odd game-- it could have come out either way and been a just result. Sweden played very well, the US did not and yet the US might well have won 3 or 4-2. I had Lindahl as woman of the match-- the save on Lloyd's toe poke and the one on Rapinoe's shot-disguised-as-a-cross both impressed me. Schelein would also have been a fair choice... Beuhler is having an Agoos-like WC. Except for her goal she can't seem to do much of anything right...and yet the free kick goal is the only real consequence so far. I thought LePielbet played pretty well, with only 1 and 1/2 criticisms: Trying to cover on the PK was not smart. Hope might actually stop that-- and exchanging Hope's chance of stopping it for a PK-and-a-red-card is not a good trade. And from where she started Amy's not going to stop that any way but fouling in the box. (That it was not, in the end, a red is a matter for the ref to explain to her peers.) And of course one would hope that Amy might have thrown a hip full into the free kick and kept it off goal; but easier said than done, and shit happens. Otherwise I didn't see her at fault for much, and I thought there should have been a mid there to help on the PK play-- probably Cheyney? (Even so, I don't think anyone could have done much-- the Swedish attack recognised and exploited the situation too crisply for support to get there.) I thought Arod played fairly well-- I didn't see an outrageous number of misses, and she was within a few inches of a great goal. I didn't have any argument with Pia's subs. Our problems were defensive-- we were making chances by the bucketful. The best way to maximize that was by shutting off Swedish posession, not by making offense-for-defense subs. Ohara was a pure offensive sub, and she got the chance she was put in to get. If she buries that no one is using the word "waste" about her. She just blew the shot is all. I dio think asking Beuhler to follow the blonde striker wherever she went early on was questionable coaching; Beuhler's neither fast enough nor quick enough to do it, and was just getting pulled out of the way a bunch--like on the PK play. (I did notice that there was a somewhat similar situation to the PK play at about the 54 minute mark-- and Cheyney was right there to clean it up, suggesting to me that Pia might have told to her that she was not supporting enough on the first one.) Brazil is something of a toss of the dice at this stage-- they might rip us for two goals in 10 minutes and leave us chasing the game and getting lit up again. Equally we might do the same to them. If they play the same system they have throughout the Cup so far it should be a holiday from off side calls... ARod, HAO, Lloyd, Rapinoe-- they might all wanna eat their wheaties and sharpen their cleats and go all playground for a day. I am quite sure of this-- if we have to beat Brazil to win it all, the earlier we play them the better. The sky has not fallen. But we are now at the point where it can fall suddenly at any moment. Its time for Heras. Rachel, meet Christiane. She's past her prime. You can do it. And if you don't you may never be back here. This next 90 minutes is why you wanted to do this instead of marching band. Go get it.
Re: Pre/pbp/post 7/6 USA vs. Sweden Yep. I thought they must have been familiar with her-- they seemed to know from the start what she would ignore-- particularly the two handed push in the back, just strong enough to move someone out of contention for the air ball. That looked like they had run drills on it.
Re: Pre/pbp/post 7/6 USA vs. Sweden Estelle freaking Johnson snatched her job away from her in Philly without that much trouble. And she & Leigh Ann freaking Robinson made Mitts surplus to requirements and she got herself cut.
Re: Pre/pbp/post 7/6 USA vs. Sweden I know. and lord knows I am NOT a big fan of Leigh Anne Robinson's.
Re: Pre/pbp/post 7/6 USA vs. Sweden I really don't think that's the same dance but if it is I guess we can say it's even more bizarre as they took a dance from France via some country in sub-Saharan Africa. As far as the other teams- I never exempted them from weirdness. That Kiwi "haka mare haka" dance is pretty common in their sports teams- the All Blacks do it before every match and at least it's a Maori dance and native to New Zealand. But this discussion is neither here nor there...maybe next time the Swedes score a goal they rock out to Dancing Queen or some Cardigans?
Re: Pre/pbp/post 7/6 USA vs. Sweden I did both which were fun, so I take some offense to that. At least marching and kids can hold a formation. As humorous as I think it is, I still to this day (well not really because most of us know why), wonder how in the blue hell did she punch a ticket to Germany? If she didn't play in group or crack into the game line-up, she's not going to play at all in the knockouts unless someone's leg pops off. Why not just give her a warm-up set and take her along as a chaperone? I just would have stayed home. It is so ordered.
Re: Pre/pbp/post 7/6 USA vs. Sweden Mitts should not be considered for LB because she was not comfortable playing there when DiCicco tried her there in Boston. She's on the team as Ali's backup at RB and Cox and Amy are the two LB. So no argument there. But your statement here is not correct. She was not cut by Philly —she was traded. And it was due to salary cap issues and her and Riley not seeing eye to eye more than her play on the field IMO. So if Pia took Engen instead of Mitts, how would that have helped matters at LB or RB? Engen is a CB and it would not have been wise to throw her out there at LB at WWC. They already have four CBs (Rampone, Rachel, Becky and Amy L) so Engen was not going to play much.
Re: Pre/pbp/post 7/6 USA vs. Sweden It's too bad because Engen is clearly a better center back than Beuhler and LePeilbet. At least, she has been this entire WPS season and was arguably on or near par with them last season. And for those who still don't think so, go rewatch the WNY vs Philly game where Engen single handedly shut down the Philly offense (save for that last second goal when Ali Riley lost her mark and Adams scored). I'm also pretty sure that is the game where Paul Riley said in an interview that he was baffled Engen wasn't on the WNT for the World Cup.
Re: Pre/pbp/post 7/6 USA vs. Sweden Agreed. And even if we beat Sweden it can fall suddenly at any moment. After all, it's the knock-out stages.
Re: Pre/pbp/post 7/6 USA vs. Sweden Ah, now that's another argument and you could be right about that. Rachel has been a rock for WNT so I think she's earned her ticket to WWC but she certainly has not had the greatest of tournaments.
Re: Pre/pbp/post 7/6 USA vs. Sweden Bizarre or not, it pisses people off to have to watch it, which means it does its job.
Re: Pre/pbp/post 7/6 USA vs. Sweden Are people really pissed off having to watch it? I don't get why. It maybe a little silly to do the hokey pokey but aren't most team celebrations at least a little silly? I'm mostly just *really* annoyed at how utterly predictable the reasons for this loss were. And more annoyed at how seemingly little the coaching staff did to mitigate the problems.
Re: Pre/pbp/post 7/6 USA vs. Sweden I can't speak for hagabo, but I think he means when the opposing team -- and their fans -- have to watch said dancing and celebration. (Think: Centipede in '95)
Re: Pre/pbp/post 7/6 USA vs. Sweden From the video clips I've seen, Sweden has been doing this dance after EVERY game they've won. Not just after the US game.
Re: Pre/pbp/post 7/6 USA vs. Sweden From Shek Borkowski's blog: http://shekborkowski.com/2011/07/usa-12-sweden/
Re: Pre/pbp/post 7/6 USA vs. Sweden The part about Abby deciding is pure conjecture and (imo) bull. It is pretty clear to me that Sundhage was the one deciding (before she asked Abby "do you want to play"). And not sticking to her plan to pull Abby at the half was also about Sundhage and not Abby. Why people can't just believe that the players aren't nefariously telling the coach (who is portrayed as meek and mailable) what to do is beyond me. Is it really that much easier to believe that the players (or rather Abby) holds that many strings than to believe Pia is in fact making colossal mistakes that everyone knows are wrong?
Re: Pre/pbp/post 7/6 USA vs. Sweden I agree. Pia wanted to tie or win that game, and she thought having Abby out there was the only way to do it.
Re: Pre/pbp/post 7/6 USA vs. Sweden I agree. That part of Shek's blog is BS to me. I'm sure if Pia said NO, Abby would not be playing. But Pia recognizes (unlike Shek maybe) that Abby IS an accomplished professional and gives her the opportunity to have an input.