USWNT v South Korea, Oct 19 and 22, pre/pbp/post

46' 2-1 USA subs in (2 of 6) #9 Lindsey Horan for #6 Andi Sullivan.

48' 2-1 USA are just a tad hesitant in Korea's box. In 1H, Rapinoe and Morgan received one pass each down box mid-left, and both of them elected to pull up and turn away 1-v-2 instead of bursting past them. Here, Morgan settles at 7m 1/3 left, dainty-touches in a small void -- can't quite get any shot off, one touch too many, poor square touch hoping for S.Mewis, intercepted by a swarm.

49' 2-1 USA pass to L.Williams totally unmarked through box top mid-right. She, too, pulls up at 7m 6-right, elects not to shoot, square cross blocked upward by a sliding defender. Rapinoe runs center-to-right toward it, #10 Ji So-Yun raises knee-high foot to clear, Rapinoe clips Ji's foot and sprawls down. Foul, penal

50' 2-1 During the dead-ball, #19 Kim Hye-Yeong goes down, holding her forehead. Trainers ... and they stretcher her off What happened to her?

52' 2-1 Korea subs in (3? of 6) #23 Jang Chang for #19 Kim Hye-Yeong.

52' 3-1 Rapinoe pk, right instep hard into 2/5 left 1/3 high, as Kang Ga-Ae dove wrong.

 

I shall abscond to watch WSU-UCLA live, starting in 10'.
Then In 2023 I'll able to say I watched her live in Pullman

 

Is it just me or does Alyssa only seem to have a 6" vertical leap? Great strike by the Korean, but it was directly over the keepers head. Even with her outstretched arms, Naeher was still about 1 ft too short for the ball. Am I missing something?

 

Jesus......;last time they played at the Superdome in December of 2015, they got over 30K, this time, less than 10K Has interested in soccer the US really fallen down that much?

 

my take on the game -

The starting team for the USA was very good. I liked the possession and ground attack a lot. The new faces all did good. It seemed to me that Rapinoe had a lot of poor passes directly to Korea but her offense, when not turning it over was good.

When Ellis started making subs in the second half, we were not as good. The two players that stood out to me as being expendable were Horan and Lloyd. Horan reminds me of Cindy Parlow at the end... lead feet. She is too slow for the game now and we have better, younger and faster options. The starters for example. Secondly was Lloyd. The end is near for her too. We simply have better options these days. giver he an "Abby" or Sydney and stop calling. We need to move on and shes had her run at this level. Just too slow I think and cant fix that

I was impressed with Sofia Huerta too. There is a place for her on this team. Good control and passing. I know Ellis has as a thing for Short and se was good last night for a change but Huerta is also a good player

Morgan seems to own forward now an Press is falling behind

Summary - glad to see Ellis play a fair number of younger ones. We need this. She also needs to see that Horan doesnt fit and that Lloyd should start being relagated to a backup role, as Dempsey was for the men. If Ellis wants to stay around longer, she has to seriously push the younger ones forward and start reducing the role of the older ones that don't have the pace. Some of the older ones seem to be OK but we need a solid backup at every position. Failure to do this will put her into and "Arena" position and we saw how youth and speed can beat experience, Thats why we will watch the WC on the TV wile Arena looks for another job

 

With more than 15 posters contributing more than 30 posts - in this thread alone!!! - I would say that interest in US soccer is alive and well.

 

Hmm-- well I thought Horan was terrific, along with JJ and O'Hara and Sullivan. Thought the team played well generally. Might have Horan as WOM even-- seemed to pretty much control bug chunks of it.

 

How was Sullivan? I missed the match. I thought she looked great before she went down with the ACL.

Also, is Lavelle injured?

 

My take on the game:

1. I loved the movement in the midfield, especially the long diagonal balls. Korea were organized and pressed aggressively, but our midfield did a nice job of maintaining possession and creating chances.

2. The South Koreans displayed an awesome level of fitness. I hope this becomes a trend among women’s teams.

3. I loved the combination play between Short, Rapinoe, and Sullivan.

4. Integrating Sullivan needs to be priority one for Ellis. She is going to be a world class midfielder.

 

Yes, I thought Sullivan was great. She's a keeper; glad to see her back. I was glad to see a "Sunil Out" poster in the crowd. Mewis did not have her usual outstanding game.

I think we need to search for other keepers. Naeher's kicking is miserable. Her jumping is very limited. Her play makes one realize how superb Solo really was.

 

Don't forget, Sunday was a scheduled UNC game at Wake Med Soccer Park that was moved to 10:00am after the USWNT decided to come to town. The game is free if anybody going to the USWNT game wants an extra dose of WoSo that morning. UNC has been clicking on all cylinders of late & has scored 20 goals in their last 5 games.

 

I saw you guys posting about Andi Sullivan & thought of this tweet.

Sullivan is the future and I'm thrilled to see her back, but it takes some serious rose-colored glasses to hype her performance tonight.

— Charles Olney (@dr_olney) October 20, 2017

.

 

Is it just me or does Lindsey Horan look completely different in that picture? At first I was like who is that?

 

03' 1-0 Dahlkemper left ck, inswings long to 3m 2-right. S.Mewis runs around #22 Han Chae-Rin trying to body her off (physical mismatch), arrives alone and drills a head-spike down past Kang Ga-Ae not coming out, bounces up into left side netting. WNT does not have tweetcap rights for non-Lifetime streams? Intriguing to see Dahlkemper as the dead-ball taker (with Heath out?).
http://www.espnfc.us/video/latest-videos/600/video/3239789
15' 1-0 Mostly played in Korea's 1/3.

16' 1-0 Dahlkemper left ck, to 12m right post. L.Williams jumps slightly backward, nods a header down toward right post, Kang Ga-Ae dive-blocks wide right.

17' 1-0 USA right ck, ground pass to L.Williams at box top right post. She can't quite one-touch, settles and shoots low across mouth -- deflected wide left.

17' 1-0 Dahlkemper left ck, to ~11m right post. Horan pushes off her defender (no call ), heads down hard into a defender at 6-top center. Ball trickles to 1m 1/4 left, Kang smothers it with Press(?) lurking.

 

20' 2-0 Short chases down a fast ball at 6m left touch, backpass to Horan at arc top wide left. Horan curls a fast cross inswinging to 4m 1/3 right, Kang dive-blocks down to 8m right post. S.Mewis is running alone directly into that void, one-touch right instep volley just inside right post, with Kang still down.
http://www.espnfc.us/video/latest-videos/600/video/3239807

There's no place like home 🏠@sammymewy bags her first career multi-goal game at her club stadium! pic.twitter.com/evPMiuzzNa

— U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (@USWNT) October 22, 2017

USMNT U17s just got shellacked by England 1-4 in the QFs on exactly the same goal -- from just about the same spot, too. Do Unto Others First! (and WNT does tweetcap selected ESPN goals )

 

33' 3-0 Endless stream of USA attacks, some from high-press turnovers at Korea's 25m, some from fast balls up right touch for L.Willams or Huerta beating Korea's flanks with sheer speed.

35' 3-0 S.Mewis passes from circle top right to Morgan in a seam at 27m mid-right. Morgan reverses to 27m arc right, dink pass to Press cutting center-to-right at arc tangent right, 1-v-1 with #17 Jang Selgi. Press fakes centerward to make Jang open hips toward goal, cuts to right foot, 2nd-touch right instep bend over Kang Ga-Ae's fingers, curls into 1/5 right high.
http://www.espnfc.us/womens-interna...deo/3239831/press-curls-in-a-third-for-the-us

🎯 P 🎯 R 🎯 E 🎯 S 🎯 S 🎯

Go on, @ChristenPress! pic.twitter.com/oEz5mDUzF0

— U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (@USWNT) October 22, 2017

41' 3-0 Korea through-ball from circle left springs #11 Lee Geum-min behind 3 defenders from 30m through box top arc right to 15m. Right foot shot on the run toward 1/6 right, Harris dives horizontal at 8m and double-blocks it wide right. Lest we think we're the cat's meow, one pass beat us all!

 

Can we please have Dahlkemper take all our corner kicks from now on over Pinoe? Finally someone who can actually pick out players making a run towards goal instead of wasting one corner after the next.

 

45+1' (of +1') 3-0 USA right ck, to Horan at spot, header down into scrum deflects wide right?

45+1' (of +1') 4-0 Dahlkemper(?) right ck, to 12m left post. Horan jumps over 1, heads a bloop to 4m right post. Ertz steps back to ball amidst 3, twist-heads across mouth, mini-lobs Kang stranded at center, bounces on goalline into back left low.
http://www.espnfc.us/womens-interna...47/ertz-adds-a-fourth-us-goal-before-halftime

HT 4-0. I think this is a young Korea line-up; I recognize many of these names from their recent W-20 teams. South Korea just (back in April) won their AFC WWC'19 Qualifying Stage group B over North Korea(! -- after a 1-1 draw left them tied on 10 pts with better GD), so they've earned a window for their own experiments. They advance to the AFC Asian Cup (and WCQ Final Stage) in 2018/Apr -- with Jordan, Phillipines, Thailand, Vietnam, and no DPRK

 

My major complaint with Dahlkemper's corners is that they float too much and they're just a bit slow. If she could figure out how to hit players with more pace and less float on her kicks, then she'd be the #1 option for sure.

 

46' 4-0 USA subs in:
- (1 of 6) #25 McCall Zerboni for #4 Becky Sauerbrunn
- (2 of 6) #20 Allie Long for #3 Samantha Mewis
- (3 of 6) #15 Megan Rapinoe for #23 Christen Press
- (4 of 6) # Jane Campbell for #24 Ashlyn Harris
- (5 of 6) #19 Crystal Dunn for #13 Alexandra Morgan

-- 4-0 South Korea subs in:
52' (1 of 6) #2 Lee Eun-mi for #6 Park Chorong.
52' (2 of 6) #15 Lee Sodam for #23 Jang Chang
53' (3 of 6) #18 Son Hwayeon for #22 Han Chae-rin

56' 4-0 South Korea subs in:
- (4 of 6) #18 Moon Mira for #9 Jeon Ga-eul

 

61' 5-0 #8c Cho So-hyun backpass to Kang Ga-Ae, with L.Williams loping to harass. Kang plays a simple ground pass rightward to RB #19 Kim Hye-Yeong at own box top right, as Rapinoe closes from 10m+ away to apply discomfort. Kim whiffs on the trap , ball rolls right over her toes -- directly into Rapinoe's stride! Rapinoe dribbles past her to 7m mid-left, square pass to 7m center for L.Williams lurking behind the ball, she taps in past Kang stranded.
http://www.espnfc.us/womens-interna...239884/rapinoe-williams-link-up-for-uss-fifth

When opportunity knocks 👊, @mPinoe and @lynnraenie answer 🚪 pic.twitter.com/iKwTZ4lRrD

— U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (@USWNT) October 22, 2017

63' 5-0 South Korea subs in (5 of 6) #12 Yoo Young-a for #19 Kim Hye-Yeong soul-crushing

64' 5-0 USA subs in (6 of 6) #10 Carli Lloyd for #14 Casey Short.

65' 5-0 L.Williams slides into Kang Ga-Ae diving out to 14m 6-left -- cleats her in the face? Foul, stoppage, trainers ... and they stretcher Kang off

68' 5-0 South Korea subs in (6 of 6) GK #21 Kim Jung-Mi for #1 Kang Ga-Ae.
69' 5-0 Yellow card on L.Williams

 

Well, the US looked good -- and Korea didn't look as good as it did last Thursday

Mewis looks like the player of the year for the US to me.

Rapinoe had about 10 of her passes intercepted -- and made two great hustle plays to create 2 goals. That's Rapinoe for you. .

I thought Huerta played well enough to remain in the chase for the 2019 World Cup roster.. She and Williams, who is incredibly fast, seemed to interact well together.

Sauerbrunn now seems to have enough confidence in Dahlkemper to get forward more often and leave Dahlkemper holding down the fort.

I'm glad to see Zerboni got a cap -- and she was good. Of course, everybody of the US team was good today.