All you've shown is exactly what I said about the match - USA were outshot by Belgium by a factor of ~2..5 (total is 2.7, on-target is 2.9, off-target is 2.4) - though I see you ignored what I said about possession or passes, nor did you provide any further evidence of your claim the USA "bunkered" that match. Your point? =EDIT= Exhibit B: player heatmaps Completely normal distribution from the US - i.e. not skewed defensively
Ok, so lets see Messi 1 gold medal. Marta has 2 silver Messi has 4 CL, Marta has 2 (2003 and 2004) Marta was elected 5x Fifa Player of the year (2006 to 2010) and 4x runner up Messi 5x (Fifa and Ballon d'Or) and 2x runner up And you still think she is overated?! She won all she could for club as did Messi and was recognized as a major player by international awards. She and Messi hasn't achieved a successful record for their country...
a Gay slur in a female match? doesn't even make sense. can you post a video or the sound of the match? Kika chant was directed at Solo I heard clapping booos when sweedish player where about to take their penalty and chapins for the Sweden team when they won the whole thing. I will try to find a video and listen to the yelling But if gay slur was yelled then Brazil should be punished
They were yelling "Zika" at Solo for her overreactions on social media earlier to the outbreak But yes, in addition to that, there have been chants of "bicha" reported regularly at several soccer matches - usually against the US, Canada, Sweden, or Australia, the teams with out players.
Showboaty and impotent teams like the USWNT should learn to play against a world class defensive without collapsing before lecturing people on the beauty of football. Especially such a dirty team such as the USWNT that never played beautifully- but they dived and fouled their way to victory, which is why people love them. Sadly they got complacent and thought they could get a participation trophy
I see I understood it was during the pênalti kicks, No excuse Brazil should be punish This is a new thing here, historically there wasn't any yelling during goal kicks, Bicha is a slur often yelled at soccer matches (macho culture) that and every other slur available in the portuguese language. But shoudn't happen in the Olympics so a punishment is in order
Your reference to "US fans" is out of line, as you would know if you would look carefully at the diversity of posted opinions from US fans. Thus your putting all "US fans" in the same boat is out of line. Or, to use another of your own terms, is "becoming nauseating."
for Brazilian fans; why Andressina Machy wasn't a starter? I guess she got enough play because of the two o.t's. but she's an excellent play maker as well as having a quick outsider shot, catching the gk often off guard. At her club, Houston Dash, I've seen her out perform her team mate. USWNT usual starter, Morgan Brian, at a regular basis. Thought she was also the best BR player in a couple of friendlies vs the US last fall. She took most of the free kicks too, if I recall correctly. There's nothing wrong with being a super sub, but in my opinion it would of been better to have a fine play maker like her dictating the flow at the beginning of the game. Not trying to pan, the girl that starting instead of her, which was a player named Isa. Just never heard of her and not sure if she made that strong of an impression in the last two games.
Interesting read on this thread (from most of the posters). For what it's worth, here's something about bunkering I read by someone talking from an Expected Goals (xG) viewpoint - xG being an analysis of the shots during a game and the probability of it resulting in a goal based on factors such as distance from goal, angle from goal, whether a header or kicked, etc. He said this is what happens when you have 20 shots with 5% probability. 73% of the time, it results in 0 or 1 goals. You just don't run up 4 or 5 goals against a team which bunkers effectively. I don't see much we can do about it without fundamentally altering the nature of the game but I guess a couple ideas I had from years ago flash back to me 1) on corner kicks, the defending team must keep one or two players beyond an attacking zone line until the kick is taken 2) shorter corner - balls within the 18 yard box which go out for a corner kick, result in corners which are taken from a spot closer to the goal than the actual corner
Someone really has been in exile, haven't they? Back from the Land of Eternal Lingonberries?! Good to see you back
I like Andressa/Andressinha but putting her #5 seems to violate the rule mentioned by someone here at BigSoccer in the last week about, a) putting your mentally toughest ones at #1 and #5 in the PK order, and if you don't have two of your defenders or d-mid group in the first five, you're probably doing something wrong. Meanwhile, was Dahlqvist or Seger playing d-mid because that would fulfill the rule of two Ds/d-mids for Sweden. (Meanwhile looking back at the US - I guess Horan/Brian could both count as d-mids, maybe? But no Ds taking the PK And, of course Press hardly seems ideal for the #5 spot)
I would agree on #1 and #5 pk takers...I see those spots as for either a team captain/leader or someone who loves the pressure. Both spots are for someone who has "ice in their veins" because the first kick sets the tone for the rest, and the last pk taker may have (depending on the rest of the kicks) a ton of pressure on them, in which they have to convert. Like Michelle Akers said on twitter, penalty kicks reveal mentality, and you have to put a player in those positions who is mentally tough and fully confident that they'll convert (and also a person who their team is fully confident in). Despite Marta missing in the previous PSO, she's a team leader and makes sense as a #1 or #5, but I'm not so sure on Andressinha.
If you think two silver equals gold, you crazy. You know what they say, if you don't win ... Also, Neymar? Really? Yes, Marta is overrated.
I don't think Andressinha did enough to earn a starter spot with the NT, she's still a on/off kind of player, far from having Formiga's regularity. She played very well against China, but didn't do much with the other opportunities she had. And I'm not crazy about Thaisa, but she has a more defensive role on the team, without her the defenders could be exposed.
But she's also only 21! One of the things I was very curious about in this Olympics was to see how her coach, Vadao, uses her with the national team uses her in comparison with how Randy Waldrum uses her with Houston. But unfortunately Vadao usually had her on the bench. Or taking PKs.
You got me, It doesn't bother me that much, unless it is toward a openly gay player, than it should not be tolerated. There is soccer language and regular language, In a stadium I would tolerate slurs and bad language in general that I don't use in everyday conversations, part of the game as I know it, just like booing your opponet and verbal abusing the ref. All ok in my book. I strongly condem anything racist. This hoje thing about brazilians yelling "bicha" for female players still confuses me. It is like calling a dude "dyke" I makes no sense... I didn't went to the stadium and I didn't hear anything other than "Zika" but if there are multiple reports of people hearing Bicha I guess I will take it at face value.
Actually it proves to me that you are extremely biased against Marta. No two silver is not the same as a gold medal. Nevertheless this is the one honor that Messi got that Marta didn't and you still think Marta is overrated... So if Messi didn't get a olympic gold medal he would be overrated also? all his club accomplishment and all those fifa/Ballon dÓr honors means nothing? He is considered excellent just because he managed to get an olympic gold medal?! IMHO Marta was one of the best (if not the best) female player we ever saw, Her skill set was head and shoulder above the rest. I can say the same about Messi as a male player
Yeah, she's only 21, and that's probably why she's a bench player. Also, I've seen her exhibit the same traits while playing for the U17 and U20 teams, so forgive me if I'm a bit skeptical about her being this special snowflake.
I personally think it's a lot of luck and a bit of voodoo USA won 3 WC's and 4 Gold's in a row, nothing else could explain these results. Agreed, never have we played against a good defense before, so I understand why didn't possess or have any shots on goal in this particular match. I only wish Pia was still coaching the WNT like she did in 08, so we could play that really popular and sophisticated style of bunkering that fans across the world and at home loved and praised us for. I don't remember any international coaches talking in 07, 08 about how poor the level of play has gotten in the US because all they were doing is bunkering waiting for a counter. It was never called too physical and unsophisticated and technically poor.i just hope we got a golden sticker for participation in Rio to go with the other 3 stars. I'd be happy then. I'm just praying for us to go back to that style next WC so we can win.
Amazing stroke of luck to play 7 FIFA tournaments without once meeting a good defense, eh? Or is it that all defenses before Sweden have sucked?
You make no sense, so you support homophobic and racist slurs that people make at football matches but you strongly condemn anything racist. Personally, I feel like that stuff should end because we as a society know better than that. Football at least in the Olympics and World Cup, are nations coming together in peace and fair play. Some countries don't believe in gay marriage or they think gays or people of color are inferior or subhuman. Nobody can change that culture overnight, and I understand that. What I don't understand is meeting people like yourself who try and defend it like it's perfectly fine.