Wow. Looks like women’s soccer is finally competitive on the world stage. Fun games to watch and exciting. Now, we need some of the numerous billionaires to back women’s soccer and pour money into the women’s league. We need to keep advancing the sport in this country to stay competitive at the world stage. We may still be number one but the rest of the world is desperately trying to take that away and are getting very close.
Why? They didnt play a style that resulted in them being in a position to win. I expected more from Spain to be honest. They had a good finish on a fluke mistake...other than that they mostly just bombed long balls at our center backs. Their high line only worked because we never subbed in our B team strike crew after the A team got tired.
Players and teams that do stupid things under pressure are the ones more likely to do stupid things under pressure in the future. This isn't cleaned up just because a brutal lesson was learned today.
I'm sticking with my pre-tournament analysis. With this 4-1-4-1, the only viable outlet for the back line is Ertz. When Becky received the ball, Spain shut down Ertz, and Becky had nowhere to go. It's almost predictable that we'd get stuck in a jam like that. So, I'm putting blame 1/3 on the super predictable scheme, 1/3 on Sauerbrunn for not laying it back to Naher (though, I'm sure she's got marching orders to look for Ertz 1st) 1/3 on Naher (though I'm sure that she's got marching orders not to boot goal kicks). And, I'm going to give Ellis 1/3 of Sauerbrunn's and Naher's 1/3's, for them not feeling they have the freedom to adjust to the circumstances. So, Ellis gets 1/3 for the scheme, and 2/9's for Sauerbrunn & Naher. Becky and Naher each get 2/9's. On the offense side, I've been saying for a long time that it's a problem having Pino and Heath. One of them .... great. Both of them ..... baaaaaad. We (mostly Mewis) played countless balls out to them that natural wing players would feast on. But, Tobinoe were either run down before they could turn the corner, or just didn't even try to beat their opponent down the wing when they were 1v1. We isolated our wingers 1v1, sometimes behind the defender *REPEATEDLY* and only got something out of it once when Tobin managed to get into the box on one of her static plays and get stepped on. It's no wonder we don't score from the run of play. Our scheme is to get the ball out to our wingers who can't beat opposing fullbacks on the run (even when they have a step or two) and have to stop the ball to set up their static moves. You could see Mewis was used to playing with real, actual wingers. She played a few through balls to Pino, and Pino was like "f*ck that, I'm not chasing that ball. *You* go get it." (Full credit to Pinoe for those PK's, though). Like I've said for a long time - Pino and Heath as our wingers is a luxury we can't afford. One of them, yes. But, we've got to have a wing player with wing speed. I'm saying Pugh. I don't care which winger she replaces. And, thank goodness we had Mewis in instead of Horan. Nothing against Horan, but with her, Ertz, Pino, and Heath, we're slowwwwwww as molassssssessssss. Hoping to see only one of Pino and Heath starting on Friday. (oh, wait, I'm not going to see anything. I'm going to be on the road Friday :-(
You're probably right when considering the long term. I was only referring to the short term (ie, vs. France).
I was being silly. Just trying to make the point that I don't like the fact that the DM is the only outlet for the back line in this scheme. And, while Becky and Naher deserve some of the blame for their decisions, I think Ellis does too. Both are experienced players. Both could easily see that they are unnecessarily trying to make precision passes in front of their own goal. Anyone in the world who has played a year of soccer doesn't make either of those passes. I can only assume that S&N did because they are under some fairly strict orders.
Well, Press obviously has the experience, but she's not particularly built for aerial challenges and hold up play with a defender tight to her. If the US plays a front two, I'd play Press and Morgan. If the US plays a front three, I'd still play Press and Morgan with Press on the left.
I am going to simplify this for everybody if we can agree that the "defense" consists of all the defenders and the defensive mid(s) and the goalkeeper. Therefore the mistake that resulted in Spanish goal was 100% the defense's fault. That should end the controversy. Sure it will.
I get your point but I wasn't laughing. I saw the USWNT pulling a USMNT (circa 2010 or 2014, not 2018 obviously) and getting knocked out of the Round of 16 because of it.
Looked to me like it was back to pink. Whatever; I'm just glad she converted on those PKs. Not missing on either of those was about the only mistake the team did not make in this game.
Haven't read but the last three pages so some of my comments may be late or already discussed. 1. The Spain goal is equally on Naeher and Sauerbruun. But some of this also has to go to the coaches. Same thing with the Men's side. I get playing out of the back. My college team did that 40 years ago. Us keepers always had a session or two in scrimmages every week where we played attackers. Got you to think from an attacking perspective which made us better keepers AND we learned how to play well with the ball at our feet. BUT I think US coaches have gone to far in driving this concept. Some times the correct play is for the keeper to just launch a 50-50 ball down the field. 2. Ellis should get some serious questions for her substitutions. Not the how but the when. Rapinoe was clearly out of gas early in the second half and the game situation was begging for Press. 3. Morgan didn't have an even decent game. But to her defense the Ref allowed Spain to chip away at her way too much. The US had 4 fouls and one yellow. Spain had 18 fouls yet still only one yellow. Unacceptable officiating. Period. 4. Horan MUST start against France.
Do not worry. Forever minus ten years is still forever. "I intend to live forever. So far so good" "I do not want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve immortality by not dying." - Woody Allen "I want To die peacefully In my sleep like my grandfather, not screaming and yelling like his passengers" "The future ain't what it used to be." Yogi Berra "My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people." Orson Welles
Okay, don't call that first penalty unlucky, unintentional defending. That had penalty written all over it every day of the week. Disagree with a lot of people on the second one, but I can at least see where the complaints are coming from on that one.
Final question from both my granddaughters after both today's matches: Why aren't all the players exhausted? They are playing for the world's greatest title and most of them do not really look tired. I had a lot of trouble answering that.
It's hard to slip an Indiana Jones reference in and expect me not to notice. Probably my favorite movie franchise [the original trilogy, at least].
Have you noticed that there are a LOT of other good movies that are basically homages to that trilogy? Like "National Treasure" and even "Angels and Demons." It is not that they tell the same story but that they are paced and shot in the same manner.
Oh it was definitely a penalty. Both were. It's just that it looked to me like the defender just took a clumsy stab at the ball and got the ankle, rather than a professional trip as so often happens.