Amazing how the Lyon coaching staff doesn’t share you cynicism regarding Macario’s talents. After her 4th game with them last season she became a starter for the rest of the season and has been a key starter for them so far this season. In the five matches played so far this season, she leads the team in goals, with 4 and is tied for the league in goals after 3 games. In the 16 games she has played for them so far she has 10 goals. The team is loaded with experienced NT players that she has been able to scrimmage with each day in practice. Ten of those players just finished playing for their NT in the WC qualifying matches that just took place. One of those players, Bruun who plays for Denmark was the starting center forward in both games, scoring 2 goals in each game that Denmark won. When she comes back to play with Lyon she will return to her backup role behind Macario. In the last game before playing in the qualifiers, Bruun was subbed in at the start of the 2nd half, but it was not for Macario, but for an outside midfielder. Marcario stayed in the game for the full 90 minutes, moving over to play the rest of the game in the midfield while Bruun took over her center forward position. So I guess for them it hasn’t been overhype. They have a lot of confidence in her abilities thus the reason for her being given more added responsibility with the team. My problem with Vlako and the NT team is their basic style of play and the difficulty it presents in trying to get established players to adapt, The very thing he mentioned with wanting the players to learn how to handle tight pressure situations, quick one touch pinpoint passing is something Macario does well with the likes of Majri, Henry, Von Donk, Mallard, etc., but getting that cohesiveness with US players will be s major task and something that he realizes will take time, time he doesn’t really have. Another thing I see with Lyon is they do a lot of give and go even in tight situations as well. Case in point: in this last game Krueger passed a ball to Macario, which she in turn put ball out there for Krueger to run onto, only Krueger didn’t run. For most fans it was just a bad pass by Macario that went out of bounds.
If we're not invited, we're not invited. We then send the A team to the Algarve Cup - same difference to playing minnows in She Believes.
For the Record, my friend Sara does not feel “ripped off”. I know, I know, don’t feed the trolls, vagabonds, posers, skeptics and non-believers. One thing for sure, Cincinnati loves them some Pardon me Miss O’Hara, but I’m a grumpy old man who’s mind is in decline............remind me, in total how many times has the United States Women’s National Team won the World Cup????
Just watched the second game. Really like the looks of Pugh and Sofia Smith up top with a poacher/holding striker between them. They both have incredible pace, but are also technical (more so than say Williams, IMO). Both appear to have the ability to not only take on players 1v.1, but pick their heads up to slip in tough passes. I’ve always been a fan of Pugh, and think she’s a game changer. I haven’t seen much of Smith, but she seems to be of a similar skill set. I know we still have Heath, Press and Rapinoe occupying these spots, but I hope Vlatko gives more time to these girls….
Colleges don’t play FIFA rules , they play American soccer! So what rules be used; it’s not going to help USWNT if they got to play unlimited subs & vice versa colleges might not able to hang if they can’t sub. Not sure if an college insurance will even allow it
College teams have played friendlies against national teams & pro squads for a long time. The two sides negotiate the rules (which usually look like pro rules with unlimited single subs & no returns since these are usually preseason) and then play. It's not "FIFA official" so they can do what they like.
Even noting how uneven the competition is in the French league? Besides I am not saying she isn't good, I just think her talent is being absurdly magnified. She will probably prove me wrong after she wins the French league and/or CL but as far as the USWNT, is she really the next superstar? I don't see it specially if she stays in the midfield. Maybe a striker?
Should be a good traning to get the right mindset for the USWNT. I mean USWNT and Lyon pretty much have the same distribution of matches in most they are so much better than the opponents and need a complete F-U not to win, a few is a bit harder but still should win almost all of those to and just a handfull/year are a real challenge.
@Kevin625 showed how wrong that is (maybe even within this thread), how the US women have played pretty much everyone they could have played in the top 20 in the last 2-3 years. It's a much more interesting question to ask whether playing for Lyon, unless you're French, makes you worse and hurts your development as a player for your national team. It's hard to think of players who went to Lyon and became better.at least as far as their country was concerned. I don't think Lucy Bronze is noticeably better player now than before she went to Lyon and in the big games she may be worse. Lotte Schelin didn't accomplish for Sweden what Jakobsson, Blackstenius, Rolfo have. Ada Hegerberg?!!! Marozsan might be the best example. She seemed like she was going to be all-everything leading Germany back to dominance. Year after year, however, playing for Lyon hasn't helped her become more of an impact player for Germany Kadeisha Buchanan was spectacular in defense at 19 before she went to Lyon. I'm sure she's developed but I don't know if she has developed more than what you normally expect from someone who was 19.
FYI, just so you know, the little known 62nd Commandment is......... Thou shalt not take the name of Ada Hegerberg in vain.
I was initially negative about the U.S. playing Paraguay -- but I've changed my mind. After the match the Paraguayan players were taking selfies with Morgan and Lavelle and circulating around looking at the crowd and taking in the scene. They were just glad to be there. The heart-warming aftermath was worth more to see than the match itself.
checking out this weekend’s action it’s pretty much the same thing; Lyon’s wins while it’s opponent just bunkers. Last year England’s WSL seemed more balanced, but due to strong, unlimited/un restricted recruiting, both Arsenal & Chelsea keep destroying everybody so far this season. Tobin Heath got an whole 4 minutes of playing time yesterday for Arsenal. NWSL keeps showing it’s the most even league in the world, while still being able to hang with Europe’s best(those summer tournaments won by Louisville & Portland) but our USWNT don’t want to give the leagues most potential players a chance. I mean 5 out 6 fwds are past the age of 30, it’s like a whole generation of NWSL’ers have gone un noticed. Meantime Australia has just announced a couple of fall matches with Brazil, but no mention of possible USA encounters. So bring on South Korea! They might be tomato cans, but at least of the Del Monte variety(Paraguay was more Dollar Tree brand, unless Walmart makes them cheaper)
What is happening with the USWNT poster child, Rose Lavelle. She doesn't seem to have that same aura about her at the club level. She has played 7 games since returning from the Olympicsl. She started all 7 of those games, averaging over 80 minutes a game without a whole lot to show for it for this season. So far she has zero goals and zero assists which is easy to understand when you have only 2 SOG in 20 attempts while Lynn Williams who has taken quite a bashing by many on her SOG percentage, managed so far to get 23 in 41 attempts. That is is more then half compared to Rose's 10%.
Could it be that other teams and coaches are more concerned with keeping Rose from beating them than they are with Williams?
I'm one of those people who have felt Lavelle has been better for country than for club, but I watched a couple OL Reign games BC (Before the Cataclysm) and thought Lavelle was very active, very dangerous. She was making her team dangerous. Just my opinion. As for shooting percentages, a lot of it is probably explained by Lavelle being a midfielder while Williams is a forward. Lavelle takes most of her shots outside the box. I wouldn't make too much of the comparison, although I'm certainly one of those who have defended Williams against the relentless bashing she received, and no doubt will continue to receive. The Williams-bashing has been bloody nuts.
Well let’s compare her numbers with Kristie Mewis. Kristie also has 20 shot attempts like Rose, only she has less shots per game then Rose since she has played 12 games.What really stands out is her SOG. She has 10(50% sog) compared to Rose’s 2(10%) She also has 3 goals and 3 assist. Ashley Sanchez as a midfielder also has much better numbers then Rose.
Yeah, it's something to compare, but shots-on-goal % isn't a primary number for comparing midfielders. Couple games I saw, Lavelle looked really good on the ball.
Stats or no stats, the Reign was as low as 9th place before Lavelle started playing regularly for the team, and now look where they are at; #2 and with that surge, maybe currently better than the league leaders, Thorns. I do think that Sanchez will be heir to Lavelle’s playmaking style, should be made into an USWNT regular once the NWSL season is over
Lavelle and Marozsan might not be scoring or directly assisting but they have been integral to all the build-up plays. I hope they start getting more involved in the final third though as the play-off begins. OL Reign will be unstoppable then.
I couldn't watch this. When is the next good match up? I like to see competitive games, even if it means watching the USWNT lose. IMO, defensive football is much more preferable than watching a rout of a JV team.
The next match for the USWNT that means anything and is against a decent team will be in qualifying when we play Canada. No CONCACAF team, except Canada, can hang with the US' third or fourth team and many cannot eve hang with a good U15 side. That does not mean that the other matches will not be fun to watch but 5 or 10 to nil is only fun if the players at least try to show skill. The problem is that we will still be stuck with a coach that is no good for this team. We will play down to the opposition as long as we do not change coaches. My only real question is: How far will the US have to fall before our coach is fired for incompetence. I have done it before but I misspelled "incompetence" and the spell check suggested "incontinence" and it got me wondering if incontinence is a firing offense.
Next matches are against South Korea, which is a fairly strong team. Their current rating is about 1800. USA rating is about 2100, a 300 point difference. On neutral ground, the US expected win pct would be about 85%. At home, it's 92%. Of course, US is heavy favorites but South Korea can be expected to make US work for it and show some good qualities white they're at it. In the recent past, South Korea has played US quite competitively in low-scoring affairs. We also know South Korea has players with good skills such as Ji So-Yun who plays for Chelsea and Lee So-Dam who plays for Gotham City. This is the kind of match which should be good for trying a few new players, tough but not too tough (like tossing Emily Fox against France IN FRANCE for her first start)