Not a great performance, but maybe a needed wake-up call. I don't think they'll go into the France game over-confident.
You can't put 100% blame on Sauerbrunn, but you can blame her there. She could have definitely played it to Ertz or O'Hara on her first touch. She didn't need to take a touch before passing and should have been more aware of that pressure from behind.
She had plenty of time to pass out of the pressure. I actually "blame" her more than the keeper although both played a part but the last mistake was Sauerbrunn's.
US as a team looked fatigued today...came back to the field a little bit. Our gamesmanship was better than theirs so we used the ref to our advantage better than they did. Surprised spain with all those la masia players resorted to long balls at our center backs for their entire 2nd half offense. They correctly identified our vulnerability behind ertz, but wildly miscalculated trying to make it an aerial contest. Played right into our strengths. Going to be a great game Friday!
Even after all these years I cannot stop thinking like a goalkeeper and a coach and keeper coach. All of me wanted to see the pass back to the keeper except a bit of the old keeper as I was not real good with my feet. That was about 45-50 years ago and the keeper rules were VERY different.
No. There were 3 Spanish players around her when Naeher made that pass. I kept thinking right before that happened, "Naeher, please boot it, please boot it up field." Naeher could see who was in front of her. Becky was looking at the goal. Much harder to know how close the defenders are.
This was a good match to prepare the U.S. for France. Just what they needed. I'm happy the U.S. struggled, because we need to play faster. The good thing about facing France is that they won't play as physical.
I thought it was funny that Ellis said they should have been up 3-0 at halftime. They are not good finishers. They have been incredibly wasteful of good scoring chances since March. Even the Thailand game had 3-4 go right through the keeper. IIRC, 259 minutes have gone by in this tournament since the USWNT scored from the run of play. Two set pieces against Chile, one set piece and an own goal against Sweden, two PKs today. I think Lloyd's first against Chile was from open play in the 11th minute.
Any kick in almost any direction would have been better. We've all made a desperation clearance attempt. She failed to recognize the urgency of the terrible situation Naeher put her in and failed to make a saving play that was well within her abilities.
Absolutely. Both made poor decisions but Sauerbrunn's was worse. She is just a more proven player so everyone jumps on Naeher. Pretty much everyone was poor today. Short rest, heat. Something was always off. Lavelle or Mewis would make a turn or run & then fail to play the right ball. Or the ball get played in but just out reach (early Dunn cross, Pinoe stuffed at doorstep). Or they would put a great ball in but the finish was poor (Rapinoe). Morgan was mostly invisible. Rapinoe & Heath did not do much after the first 20 minutes or so. Mewis & Lavelle were often good but usually poor on the final pass/shot decision. We had some weird decisions by multiple players on the break. Naeher & Dunn continue to worry me. And Sauerbrunn (of all people) coughs up a terrible pass that leads to a goal. Heck, starting to eonder if Horan should start for Ertz in MF. And amid all this, and 90 degree heat, Ellis waits until the 85th to make a sub? Bullet dodged. 2 soft (but correct) PKs save us. Versus top teams, 4 goals in two games: 2 pks, 1 off a corner, 1 off a deflection, 0 clean from the run of play. Danger Will Robinson.
It is either going to be an early warning sign or a wake up call depending on how the next match goes. They looked a tad spent to me. Need some rotation.
I can't think of a team more rotated. It is possible they have had so much rest they are not 90' fit. Rapinoe and Lavelle both wore out after an hour. Over rotating for the Chile game and then sitting Horan today seems like it took the edge off the team that they had going into the first game. But I think sometimes what we think as tired or "flat" is just tactics. Spain was dangerous and pinned O'Hara and Dunn back. Without all those bodies forward, the attack struggled a bit. Plus, it takes the USWNT about 12 clear chances to score one goal it seems. Stress makes you tired faster. Even if much of the team had been fit, they had not gone 90' with any kind of stress for months if not years.
But who for rotation? Krieger for O'Hara? I think it's too big a downgrade. Horan for Mewis seems more likely than not, and maybe starting Pugh or Press over Rapinoe. But it's not clear to me how much more you could do with the degree of difficulty and single elimination nature of playing a top 3 team in the world on the road.
Gk fault on USA goal. Put her defender under pressure...why? USA needs to fire strength coach. We are a bunch of soft noodles. #3 from France will have a field day kicking Morgan. Don’t see Morgan lasting 30 min in game. She is always on the ground? Lloyd needs to play to provide some fight.
Agreed. The first thing I thought of when this happened was the 1974 men's WC final. Holland scored on a penalty before West Germany had even touched the ball, but that was the last goal the Dutch got. Glad this turned out differently.
Any defender that is not always aware of the attackers that are close should not be playing defense as they have already failed at half their job. The operational cliche is "Head on a swivel." There was an easy and normal pass available and that was back to the keeper. The keeper could have then passed to ball to either of the wide players or hit it long. She had plenty of time to make that pass if she is playing or even thinking at any level above U14 rec. But the fact is the entire US team switched off several times during the match and are quite lucky it only cost one goal. We can thank Spanish incompetence for that. BTW: I made a typo when I first typed that and the spell checker suggested incontinence instead of incompetence. Although it would have been wrong I almost accepted it even though I do not know the state of any of the Spanish bladders.