31' 0-1 USA chips to ~6m center, Labbé slaps ball way out to 24m mid-left. Short volleys ball back to box top, Canada heads it away, Rapinoe(?) heads it back in. Zadorsky jumps at 16m for a header clearance, just misses, ball drops untouched behind her as Morgan turns past her, suddenly unmarked at 14m center. Morgan swings quick waist-high right roundhouse volley down toward left post, beats Labbé's dive, bounces into back left edge. 33' 0-1 Beckie(?) turns at circle left, chips quick to arc top mid-left for Leon splitting Dahlkemper and O'Hara with pace. Naeher charges out to 15m, O'Hara comes across and blocks ball with her back, ball bounces out to Sinclair at arc top mid-left. Naeher stays up at 15m , dive-blocks shot, scrambles back. Canada get two more long shots, both blocked by legs. Prince(?) spins a shross from 8m wide right, Naeher dives to left 90 -- way wide and high, but Naeher's head was still spinning from the wind sprints
Two things after the first half. 1) We don't handle pressure well. Canada has blown us up so far 2) Still not a Short fan. Yes shes fast but Canada is beating her like a rented mule all half. All Canada's best chances are coming off Short's side. Shes quick but thats about it Lets see what adjustments Jill Ellis, the master tactician, comes up with
That's a good example by just about every defender of what not to do in the box. I recall her holding up a few attacks down her side with solid 1v1 defending on good positioning.
56' 0-1 Beckie shoots from ~24m arc right to right 90, Naeher pushes it over the bar. 56' 1-1 Canada right ck, high to 6-top left. Quinn is again completely unmarked thereat (she wasn't in 1H, either), heads into the scrum -- ball bounces away to 15m 1/3 left. Lawrence(?) runs on and shoots, blocked point-blank, ball spins square left to 15m left post. Quinn comes back to it (still not marked), spins right instep bend past Naeher's dive to 1/4 right -- off crossbar, bounces down. Sinclair bicycles across mouth past Naeher again, Leon poaches at 1m 1/4 left and bundles it in. Sauerbrunn was at 0.5m center behind Prince(?), keeping everybody onside.
That was honestly one of the worst performances I've seen from Mewis in a very long time. She's been good all year, so maybe this was just an off night.
Just the sort of hard fought, fast paced game you expect from US and Canada. I was impressed with Quinn and Fleming for Canada -- and also with Leon and the newbie, Kelly. Quinn is one cool customer. For the US side, well, I'm not so impressed. First time in a long time that Mewis has had a bad game. Williams did nothing; Lloyd little impact on game; Smith, hardly nothing, Press nada.in her few minutes. . O'Hara looked good -- and amazingly fit after 90 tough minutes.
Time to bring in some younger players for the US. Ashley Sanchez could have made a difference in this match.
listening to John Herdman makes me cringe. I want Canada to lose so badly sometimes because he's such an arrogant prick. "I don't care about that" ::when asked about the USWNT goal:: "USWNT were lucky to get out of B.C. Place..." This guy makes my blood bubble.
O'Hara is playing tremendous soccer right now-- just terrific. Liked Horan's game a lot, along with Brunn, Naeher, Morgan. Williams was way better, actually was useful on defense even. Not happy about Smith's showing, nor Short's. I know Ellis wants more speed at those positions because she wants them to be key offensive positions; but it doesn't do any good to be up there more often if you can't do something with it when you are. Short just doesn't connect enough. Klingenberg is a much better offensive contributor even if she doesn't get up there as much.
Final stats: Final stats, #USWNT / #CanWNTShots: 11 / 19Shots on Goal: 4 / 8Saves: 7 / 3Corner Kicks: 4 / 5Fouls: 13 / 14Offside: 2 / 1 #USAvCAN— Caitlin Murray (@caitlinmurr) November 10, 2017 Pretty choppy game, and we were a bit lucky to come out with the draw. But Mewis had an off night, and Naeher was not on her game tonight either, imo. Short was one of the weaker links in the backline, but Dahlkemper also had some shaky moments. Basically I saw some weaknesses all around the park, and I'm not sure what it was...lack of focus? lack of chemistry? lack of desire/just tired? playing in front of an away crowd? Looking at the lineup, I don't think its lack of talent, but something was definitely off for multiple players tonight. On the other hand, I agree with Taosjohn: O'Hara and Sauerbrunn had great games. Morgan also did some really good work, especially in her hold-up play.
don't know why your picking on John Herdman; he went into the game missing arguably the best CB in the world in Buchanen. He's got only 1/10th the population/players to choose from the same select/college system that we use in U.S.. He went with what seems to be where woso is headed these days; an intense pressing game, in a way, very similar to an basketball full court press. Elis' answer was to battle through the midfield rather than long balling it over, even though she knew what was coming. She insists on using the same old, same old players, thinking familiarity with each other will get them through this Herdman's team was younger & hungrier but been inactive since June, but you really couldn't tell that vs Ellis more experienced squad In the meantime, some of America's best players are trailblazing right now in the land down under as both Doniak(Courage) & Hill(Pride) are currently the leading scorers of in the W-League over the likes of Sam Kerr. Maybe they can start the NT? but with Ellis in charge, I guess we'll never know
First, I'd agree that the US has a much larger pool of players to pull from, but I'd like to point out that the USWNT was also missing Heath, Pugh, and Dunn (plus Brian and Lavelle). Certainly neither team was at full strength. I don't understand the argument that Ellis keeps bringing in the same players; those who say it simply haven't paid attention to the USWNT this year. This USWNT squad has a few relatively inexperienced players; Ellis has also given a large number of 1st caps to players during her tenure. Some may not like the decisions she made on who made the cut or not, but Ellis has certainly called in quite a few new players. Also the fact that the USWNT is not constantly long balling it forward as much any more is PROGRESS. The US also likes to play a high press (although they did less of it in this game; it came in spurts), but is trying to transition to a team that plays through the midfield instead of sending long balls constantly. I applaud them for continuing to stick with that transition, even in games where its difficult. There certainly are players now that are better able to play under that pressure in the midfield, although Mewis was not doing it last night. Finally, as for both Doniak and Hill, they fell far behind the offensive players on the WNT roster in goalscoring production during the NWSL season. So why should they be called in again?