So... is it just me, or did that draw feel a lot like a loss? We've made it to the WWC break, the part of the season that the Beat's entire strategy revolves around. Build a team that will have had lots of time together and take advantage of it when everyone else loses a lot of players. Pick up some points and make the standings look mildly respectable. Last week we lost 3-2 to a magicQuack team which (as proved by Philly this weekend) has no ability to compete sans national players. This week we drew 0-0 to a deflated Boston team with an anemic offense that barely put any shots on frame. One of the most beautiful set-up plays I've seen the Beat come up with at KSU stadium was just utterly blown. Watching the highlight reel on YouTube, one wonders where the highlights are. Mercifully, they leave out some of the other blunders. These two games -- at home, no less -- are the ones the Beat should have won. The ones they've been planning for all season. But here's what really gets to me... the post-game quotes. Galanis: "I’m happy with the way we played. We wanted to win, but we didn’t. [...] We played 90 minutes and majority of that was good soccer." THIS is what the man calls good soccer??
I'm just glad we didn't wind up losing due to either of the 2 Whitworth blunders. It seemed we were playing not to lose this one instead of playing to win it. Moving Chalupny back to defense underscored this point. We take our main attacking/playmaking threat and play her on defense...sigh.
I saw improvement in ATL's play since the beginning of the season. But that game made me want to change the channel -- and I'm a hardcore WPS fan. Reynolds seemed a bright spot but not sure if that was just b/c Boston looked so poor. Dowling's injury didn't look good -- maybe it isn't as bad as feared?
It better not be serious. Whitehill is gone for the mid-week game for her TV gig meaning the Beat could be without both their starting center-backs.
enough with the mj hate for a moment. you really think philly or even boston is that much better than mj if mike were still coaching or a guy like simon allen. philly isnt guaranteed a win this week if kai has one of her un-finishing games and the others can't pick up. what will people say if mj picks up a descent keeper and masar gets hot on philly? philly vs mj = dan vs riley. that's it! and that's more than enough for a 6-0 game. nothing to do with the quality of their bench.
Despite Boston playing like a team that just met before kickoff, ATL still did not take advantage of their chances. The lose to MJ was because ATL plays to tie, not to throttle down and go for the win... WIth the Defence, they can afford to go for it.... losing by 3 or 1, it is still a loss To me, that was a loss yesterday and very boring to watch it so much that the anouncers talk did not irritate me (They tend to talk like everyone knows them personnally and interject too much crap into the conversation to the point where they loose track of what is occurring in the game)
I was at that match and agree with you. Put in a four-back and a decent keeper who keeps her defense in line, add some competent coaching, and that would have been a whole different ball game.
I agree. That was the poorest display of soccer skills I've seen in the entire 3 seasons of the WPS from both teams.
Alright, that's fair. MJ's national team players are high enough quality to compete against other teams despite their... "coaching challenges", shall we say. Without them, Philly ran all over them. The Beat certainly didn't. We could likewise say that Atl vs MJ = Galanis vs Dan, and how frustrating is it to see the Beat lose that game?
I was so bored I changed the channel back to finish watching drag racing, only to come back to the game at 0-0 still. Loved Whit's 2 saves at the 89th but from what most of y'all are saying about the rest of the game, that's the highlight. Yawn.
Still haven't had a chance to go back and watch the game on TV, but, from my perspective, it seemed like we lost the ball in the midfield waaayyy too much (and too easily). The revolving forward situation still irritates me, although it was certainly worth throwing Chalupny and White up there. Once Chalupny was dropped back, I felt it was pretty much done for us. I agree that it felt like a loss because I thought this could be the team we could actually beat (and in front of a decent crowd, too). As far as this (WWC) being the time we were going to shine because of our cohesiveness, well, I think that was pretty optimistic to begin with. The fact that our formation and lineup seem to be pulled out of a blender every week has done nothing to help build the foundation we should be playing upon at this point. Reynolds and Jesolva have been the bright points for me so far beyond the expected level of excellence Chalupny and Whitehill have brought. I'm also very impressed with White so far. newsouth, what's with condemning the magicJack "hate" now? A few days ago you said they were done for the season. I'm confused. Masar getting hot? Weren't you bemoaning her lack of finishing not too long ago? Don't get me wrong, I actually like a lot of their players and think they are way better than the Philly scoreline (although I'm happy to see Philly getting in a groove and playing to the level they are capable of). mJ is still fairly stacked with Huffman, Masar, Ellertson, Press, Dalmy and Ras. Someone on this board brought drums to the game, who was it? Oh, and as far as the Beat vs MJ being Galanis vs. Dan, technically Abby was the coach that day. Wambach wins that matchup any day of the week.
Maybe Atlanta can pick up these two players from magicjoke. June 21, 2011: magicJack waived Rebecca Moros and Meghan Schnur. http://www.womensprosoccer.com/Home/news/transactions-11.aspx
I think Schnur would be a good pick up; not sure why the potbelly let her go, but I'm not sure why he does 9/10 of the things he does. Moros has been lackluster at best from what I've seen this season. Having said that, I have absolutely no clue what Galanis has in store tonight. Whitworth in goal and Lipsher as sweeper?
It's been said in the media that it'll be a 4-3-3 with Whitworth in goal, Reynolds-Wright-Marquez-Sesselmann in defense, D'Agostino-Salem-White in midfield, and Chalupny-Jesolva-Lenczyk up front. Wright and Sesselmann on the backline is dubious to say the very least. Why exactly did they trade for Sitch again?
Wright played on the backline for UCLA much of her senior year when UCLA was thin in that department. But, as you undoubtedly know, it's not her best position.
D@mn. Wonder if that's a career ender for her? She's been doing NCAA assistant gigs for a while. On the other hand, she's not yet 30 so?
Sitch is not even on the bench (and I don't think that she was at the last game). What's going on? It also seems like they were oblivious of the fact that Parker would miss several games due to the world cup. Saw an interview w/ Galanis after the trade, and he said that the Beat would only miss 2 players during the WWC. Parker played one game, and now she's gone. Did they really not know that this would be the case? Can we get a WPS worthy goalkeeper next season, please? Still rooting for them, but man, it's getting hard.
C'mon, I think Whipsher (or Lipworth) have exceeded the expectations of most going into the season and have clearly saved us from some real shellackings. Once you get outside of the posts, though, there are issues a-plenty. I root for the players regardless and wish they could get a taste of success every now and then. I can't imagine they aren't frustrated with the situation and are doing their best within the confines of Galanis' outlandish strategies. Sadly, I think most of the legitimately winnable games are behind us now.
Gotcha. I joined the game after the goal was scored, so I didn't know if the comment was directed toward a specific incident or just a generalization. *sigh* Well, I tried....
Lipsher must have really pissed off the BLUNDER FROM DOWNUNDER. Feel awful for the players who at least are trying to win.Too ticked off to write anymore tonight.