Not that Marta is easily marked, but if Dunn is healthy I think this is were she could have been a huge help. If not her then O'hara.
I know people have already brought this up, but I would've liked to have seen Ellis at least look a little more engaged. Jill be like... pic.twitter.com/5cZr8SR6D3— Jennyyyyy (@1_uswnt) December 14, 2014
Exactly and I believe I posted that here at the time. That she got a hat trick with only Tancredi as the other threat shows extremely bad defensive scheming.
Im starting to believe Ellis scripts her subs. She burned one to get Chalupny's feet wet when she could have just as easily waited for Argentina. She waited a long time to do anything, then replaced Rapinoe who was having a good match with Press. At 2-2 u might think ud want them both in there to go for the win. Then Brian replaced Holiday even tho Holiday was having a hard time going it alone in the back so instead of keeping both on she made Brian go it alone in the back. Then, a goal down she pulls out Leroux to bring in Mewis.
Ellis is not a great tactician nor a great motivator. Some coaches can get away with being one of the two. The best coaches have both. Initially I admired her switch to a 4-3-3 given the U.S. personnel, but she has gone about it all wrong. The bizarre positional use of players continues. She continues to leave Holiday stranded. Her substitutions seem pre-planned and make little sense in the flow of the game. And on top of that, her demeanor is so passive. I can't recall ever seeing her get out of her chair to give instuctions or make a tactical shift to address a problem. Or even show some enthusiasm to rally her team when they're flat. She just sits there. If I sound irrirated, I am. I don't think Sermanni should have been fired. But once he was, there were better candidates who applied for this job. The fed chose Ellis because she is loyal to, and possible swayed by, the veteran players who want a final shot at glory.
I think she is a good motivator but it's easy to motivate players in the direction they already want to go. Im less upset about the loss than the way she and her staff have approached both games. I think the players play hard for her but she completely ignores the fact that other teams play hard as well. When the talent gets pretty even there has to be more than just the American will to win. There has to be an offensive plan. The current plan seems to be keep moving and someone will get open assuming we can hold the ball until then. It's a big assumption.
So did the German WNT until they won their first WWC. I am pretty sure they will get their own as soon as they win the WWC, since the other alternative would be putting their star on the men's shirt and if that was to much to stomach for the German Federation...
I think not only the subs were weird, but the starting lineup too. If there was an issue with game fitness why not put those college players in the game earlier? They were playing non stop since August and they looked more than fine when they came on. I think starting midfield from that CONCACAF final worked the best in that whole tournament and this was a good chance to find out how could it work against tougher opposition. Brian did some good things when she came on both offensively and defensively. Also: Holiday also told me she'd like to see Brian in No. 10 role. "Honestly, I think that Morgan Brian could be great at that position." #USWNT— John D. Halloran (@JohnDHalloran) December 14, 2014 If it didn't work out at least Ellis could blame it on the young kids. But instead we saw Wambach at number 10 (but not really) again. I hope S. Mewis won't get discouraged by this because she looked good out there. She never got that "slowly getting used to this" approach that other younger players did. I'd also start anyone that played on that Tyreso team and knows a thing or two about Marta. Could Engen be worse than Rampone? I won't even comment on subs because it was already covered accurately by others. I also have a question: why is Rodriguez there and what she has to do to get on the field? It will be interesting to see what Ellis do next. Will she try to get back to 4-4-2? Seeing how tough it is for this team to get used to even simplest changes, I'm not sure if they can do it on time. Now I'm very interested to see who she'll bring for that January camp. For those not emotionally involved, it was great game to watch. At least Dash fans could see that Formiga still got it and Poliana had an assist on the first goal. Looking at the stats Brazil had 4 SOG and scored 3 goals, USA had 7 SOG and scored 2 goals. This team still has problems with finishing. Not much changed since Algarve Cup, huh?
The funny/crappy thing is that Male fans of the USWNT cannot by men's versions of the women's jerseys. Nike will not sell a jersey in men's sizes with the 2 stars on it. They do not want FANS, I repeat FANS, taking undo credit for World Cups not won by the USMNT. They do not want to see a jersey with 2 stars and Dempsey on the back. What difference would it make if the fans did it? At most it is a breach of etiquette. Yet it is ok that Brazil's WNT wears jerseys with 5 stars on them?? Thanks for keeping all of us fans in on the correct side of the law Nike. Hell just make sure that fans can only get stars on the jersey if it is a USWNT member's name.
In recent history, yes, but in all of US WNT history, she's not the first. The most well-known of this unfortunate group would be Tiffeny Milbrett who played in losses for her first three caps in 1991 and 1992. Of the lesser-known names, Tucka Healy in 1985 lost all three games that she ever played for the national team in (she did not play in the draw that year). In 1992 and 1993, Sarah Rafanelli also lost the first three games she played in. In 2001, Ally Marquand played in losses for all four of her caps. In that same year, had it not been for a win against Portugal in the Algarve, the same would be true of Lohman and Lori Chalupny.
Thanks, WWC/WPS_Movement, for posting the full game, so that I could watch...especially now that US Soccer is apparently geo-blocking their highlight videos.... Pluses: I liked both Brian and Chalupny in their limited minutes although Chalupny had a couple rusty moments, but I could not be happier to see her back in a US jersey. Rapinoe had some bright moments as well. Minuses: The team seems to have lost the ability to possess the ball and control the tempo. Even in our chances on goal, there was very little build-up in play. Brazil dominated the match and deserved the win; congrats to them. Honestly, I did notice some lack of fitness as well, which contributes to a lack of possession. As your legs tire, its harder to hit an accurate ball, but still no excuses...it was, simply put, a poor performance by most players. A few observations: 1. The line-up didn't make sense. The formation is not even playing like a 4-3-3...I no longer know what the hell it is with several players shoehorned into positions, and I don't think the players do either. (By the way, what position was Sam Mewis playing? I couldn't figure it out.) If we're indeed focusing on ourselves as the players said in one video, then hopefully they will see that this is not working. Its not even the formation either; the system also doesn't show any planning or consideration of the opponent or the players we have. (Sidenote: I'd agree that Ellis seems to pre-script her subs because otherwise, it means she's not actually watching the game at all.) 2. Some may disagree, but in this game, I didn't notice a difference in urgency and tempo from most players from the time we were winning, tied, and then losing. I didn't see any veterans stepping up to motivate and direct players, and that concerns me. Where's the hunger? Where's the mentality that we refuse to lose? The only noticeable uptick was when Press and the younger players got out on the pitch.
I would bet there is real angst going on among the coaches today. I only hope they don't panic. On offense, they are trying so many combinations and asking players to fill undefined roles that it doesn't matter what your position (midfield/forward) you play like a forward. Our midfielders are all over the place and provide no outlets moving forward, hence over the top passes or turnovers. Watch how Brazil passes - one or two touches, move the ball on the ground, advance in open space, take the shot. Just like China. On defense, for two matches in a row we saw defenders properly mark strikers crossing and found that others did not rotate quickly enough to cover overlapping players who took the shot and scored. Hope looks unsettled and Rampone while still quick, seems slow to react in the moment. I think Krieger and Brunn are starters and maybe they should team at CB for a match as long as we are playing with lineups. Dunn can't stay healthy, Jill doesn't seem to have much faith in KO; Engen and Kling have disappointed when the level of competition has increased, and maybe Chaup will be the answer at LB. By the time we hit Algrave, the experiments need to end, the back four need to be set, midfielders identified and their positions and roles defined, the forward starters and rotation needs to be addressed (they all can't play every match) and coaching emphasis needs to move towards building chemistry and consistency.
Well first thing first, it was a good and fun game to watch. Overall, even though we lost, my take away from this game and the last is that it's not that our players have fallen back but rather the issue is with the formation. That alone keeps me positive because that is something that CAN be fixed. What the past two games have shown us is that our biggest problem is lack of bodies in midfield. I understand that this has never really been our strong suit but that doesn't mean we should play with 1.5 midfielders which in turn leaves our defenders stranded. The two defensive schemes I saw in this game was broken by Marta exactly how you will expect such a skilled player to exploit such weaknesses. On the first goal, we had our defenders playing a high line to compensate for the lack of midfield players. With one ball over the top or through some quick passing, Marta was able to break free and with her pace, most defenders won't catch her. That was the first goal. For the second goal, the defenders did the opposite and stayed back but that left a gaping whole filled only by Holiday and Marta was able to out run the defenders and score again. As for the third goal, that was a break down by everyone focusing on the sub and even than, Hope should not have let that go by her so that is all on her. For me, even though it was a loss, I'm hoping the coaches can clearly see where the fault in this current formation lies. You can't fault the, too much because no one in Concacaf was testing this formation so this is good. I know Ellis mentioned in passing that she was trying to implement similar system to what the Reign have but I think her biggest mistake is that fact that Seattle's 4-3-3 plays more like a 4-5-1 while the USWNT 4-3-3 plays more like a 4-1-5. To solve our defensive problems, all she needs to do is play more the 4-5-1 and make sure she picks the right players. I would like something like this: Solo Klingenberg, Sauerbrunn, Rampone, Krieger Chalupny, Lloyd Rapinoe/Heath, Holiday/Brian, Press/HAO Morgan/Leroux/Wambach
At this point I'm really glad that we're facing Argentina next and not a mediocre team like Switzerland or something. With the current team psyche and only several months removed from the Algarve Cup debacle, I could totally see us being down 3-0 at halftime to a team like Switzerland. Unlike past USWNT teams, instead of rising to the challenge and playing their best soccer under adversity, this 2014 version seems to just crumble under pressure. After the 2012 Olympics I was looking forward to a new coach taking this team to the next level and building upon what Pia left behind with new blood. Unfortunately, instead of a master tactician we got Dumb and Dumber instead. In all my years of watching soccer I've never been so perplexed at some of the decisions made by our coaches. Sermanni starting Wambach and A-Rod together in several matches made zero sense after everyone and their grandmother knew that this combo was proven to be a sham a few years back. Even someone as stubborn as Pia realized this formula just wasn't working. Starting the 2 Mewis sisters in the middle was also a head scratcher. Then we got Ellis who thinks that coaching soccer is like playing musical chairs. Are we supposed to build team chemistry just 7 months removed from the WC tournament or are we supposed to find out how well each player can play out of position?! Are we supposed to believe that Heath will be our starting forward come next summer? Really? Is Wambach going to play in the #10 slot? Really? Is Klingenberg going to be our RB?.....and so on and so on! The only hope I have for this team right now is Alex Morgan. I'm not saying that she can do it all by herself, but I do think the players believe in her capability to score crucial goals late in matches, which helps them keep focus when the going gets tough. Let's face it, if Brazil was playing without Marta they would've probably folded after being down 2-0, and lost 5-0 instead. However, with Marta on the pitch they never gave up since they knew that their superstar will somehow manage to get them back into the match, which she did. The current squad has no faith in Leroux and Press (as well as the older version of Wambach), so as soon as they face adversity they start kicking long balls and running like chicken with their heads cut off. The last thing I wanted to mention is that whatever mojo Leroux seemed to have after scoring some crucial goals against stronger opponents earlier this year, it seems to be all gone now. Perhaps her positioning with Seattle in the NWSL really confused her role with the NT. Heck, the old Leroux would've probably scored at least 5 goals against weaker teams in the Concacaf tournament, but she only managed 1. In all honesty, at this point I would not start her against a tomato can team like Argentina. I just feel like she'll probably score a hat trick to build up her stats and not really focus on playing consistently well against stronger opponents.
I disagree, I thought the urgency was at the right level for this. Keep in mind this ultimately is just a friendly and we are still tweaking stuff (can we get rid of Abby at #10?) so I thought they had the right level of urgency, not too lethargic but also not too urgent. It's good that they are getting these tough test now
The problem with this team is not the offense so bringing in Alex Morgan is not going to fix the fact that we play with one person in midfield and that our defenders are constantly out of position or chasing the play. I lost count yesterday at the amount of times Klingenburg and whoever her help was got beat on the left side line by the simple triangle passing. As I was watching the Man U Liverpool game yesterday, the commentator mention a good point about these new formations like 4-3-3 or 3-5-2 that have the wingers playing forward. The problem is once they get beat, that's it for the back line because no one else is covering and they have a direct line to the goal. When Sauerbrunn tries to cover, she leaves the middle open which invites all these chances that we have seen in the past 2 games. If we can fix the defensive part of this formation (which starts with committing more bodies in the middle), we will be on the right track
I'm sort of confused as to why Allie Long was removed from the squad. She may not be the best player out there, but at least she stuck to her role and was more defensive minded. I think what Morgan brings to the team is the confidence that our midfielders have in her (especially Rapinoe) to just pass her the ball and let her make a play in the final 3rd (whether it's to score or pass). With the other forwards the midfield feels like they need to do more than just defend and pass since let's face it, without them we could've very well had zero goals in this tournament.
That's because they are playing more up field than even the forwards. The midfielders have no reason (none) to not trust the forwards as I haven't seen a prolonged situation were forwards are screwing up golden opportunities set up by the midfielders. The problem is the midfielders won't stay back and let the forwards do their jobs. Hence why at times you would see Leroux/Press being the ones tracking back while Rapinoe and Lloyd are stuck up field. For example, in the first goal yesterday, Abby was right next to that ball that Lloyd score and if she wasn't there, Abby had a tap in. Similarly on the second goal, Rapinoe herself admitted that it was a cross that got away for her as she wasn't looking to score. To her credit, Rapinoe did play well in these two games but was completely gassed yesterday 5 minutes into the second half. At one point I thought she was injured but apparently she was just bending over to catch her breathe
If Abby would have put that first ball in the net the AR would and should call off-side. But she wisely moved out of the way for Lloyd, it looked.
So Carli Lloyd will be playing with Rosana and Poliana in Houston. Are any of those two the one Carli elbowed last summer in Florida?