ok geniuses. things to work on before the wc.

Germany looks great with their intermediate coach, Horst Hrubesch, He brought in much faster players, as well as a faster attacking pace while keeping his defense well grounded. He's been able to beat Iceland & Canada in away games.

But he didn't want to stay, so the next one taking over(she's usually goes by her initials, MVT). While she's got experience(she's currently the Swiss coach), I fear her coaching style is back to the Neid/Jones days of slow build ups while moving up their FB's way out of position. In other words; made to order for the US(or any direct attacking team)

in my book the one opponent the US has trouble with is France. Their women's coach seems to have adapted their men's style of hold back, wait & seek out their opponents weakness & then swiftly counter. Their only problem is they still haven't found a starting striker or AM that they feel comfortable with(Le Sommer plays more of a winger)

this game was against the top team in their WC qualifying group(so maybe the back ground crows will tell you how much show up)

 

OK, so now we've had some legitimate competition in these 2 friendlies. The team is pretty much decided. What do we need to work on the most? I think our CBs need a lot of work - their spacing, their communication, their covering - can all be improved. Sadly, elementals like first touch and passing to one's own team really hurt us against France. Movement off the ball has greatly decreased. And, Morgan really needs to make herself learn to stay onside.

 

The biggest lack is the lack of playing as a complete team. We have a bunch of individuals that work for their own glory and not one that has an understanding of what being on a top team actually means.

As soon as we are faced with adversity we either fold up or try to place the blame on anyone but us.

Every player on the team or in the pool is not performing up to their potential and they are not doing anything to help others improve in the areas of weakness.

I will use one small part of the problem to illustrate what I mean: There are two sides of "passing" and those are passing and receiving and both of those also have multiple facets. I will use Ertz as an example but I could just use just about anyone on the team and make a similar point.

Ertz does a REAL good job winning the ball and also of initial control but her pass out of that situation often goes quite wrong. But what does she see right after a win of the ball? Most of the time she sees players standing still or running/turning away. Some times a player, and not the same ones, need to quickly check to the ball and get into fairly close open position and that is not happening often at all. By open I do not mean just an open spot on the field but rather an open spot that has a clear passing lane.

Every forward player always seems to want a breakaway or at least to run into space with the ball but they are not willing to do the work to prepare for the attack.

If a pass is mishit at all players need to challenge that ball and make it hard for the opponent to receive that mishit. But the US players just watch the other team control the ball and move it around the field.

Then there is also "first touch" we have very few players that can take a difficult ball and use their first touch to turn it into a great ball. That is needed as soccer is a game of errors and the idea often needs to be "Make that mistake great."

I hope a lot of the problems in the passing will go away as the players play and practice more together and the CONCACAF qualifying actually hurt as the rest of the teams were so bad and mistakes were never punished.

The quality we are playing now will, I hope, actually prepare us for the WWC but the damage may have already been done.

Right now, at our current level we drop out at the round of 16 or the quarter finals. we do not even make the semifinals.

Of course there is time but we not only need to fix some skills we also need to fix the attitude.

 

Seems to be a Big Soccer tradition-- someone posts this in every WC year.

Then when it turns out not to be true, it is held that the prediction was accurate and the actual result accidental...

 

I think we're playing at a level where we could win the whole thing, or we could drop out in the QF's...and that was the case in the past as well. Do people not remember the 2011 QF or even the 1999 QF? Or the dicey moments of the 2015 SF (final score notwithstanding)? It always takes some luck to get to the final and some luck to win the whole thing.

But being a bit superstitious, it makes me feel better now that we're holding with WWC-year tradition, and the doomsayers are posting.

 

On top of all that, do people not remember they barely qualified for the 2011 WC?

They got knocked of out CONCACAF WCQ by Mexico (the only time they ever beat us).

Then, they had a 2-game playoff with Italy. First leg was in Italy. The score was tied 0-0 headed into the final minutes when Alex Morgan came on as a super-sub and scored in the 90+4' of what was supposed to be only 2 minutes of added time thanks to some extremely poor goal-keeping and very generous time-keeping.

Then, unimpressively, won the 2nd leg 1-0 at home.

 

OTOH, the loss to Mexico was a bit of a fluke result, the two games of the play-in never saw Italy threaten at all-- either leg could have ended tied and we would still have qualified,

And then we came within 90 seconds--twice-- of winning the Cup. It took a miracle shot to send it to free kicks. Japan won, yes, but the US was hardly the easy out that was so confidently predicted.

 

I wish something could be done about the keeper situation before the WC but that isn't going to happen. Is Alyssa Naeher really that much better than Ashlyn Harris? What about some "new blood" between the posts? Someone like Aubrey Bledsoe. Would she be a better alternative to someone that is now on the team?

It's more than just "mishits." It happens every time possession is lost if it is due to poor first touch by the receiver of a pass, not winning a ball out of the air, being dispossessed by a defender, or whatever. When possession is lost, all energies need to be put into winning the ball back. I don't see that with this team. There is no sense of urgency in getting possession back.

 

I'm enjoying all the comments, positive and negative. My own sense at this point:

As disappointing as we have sometimes looked recently, we are probably still co-favorites and certainly among the favorites to claim the Cup. And even if we were clear favorites, heavy favorites even, the title would be far from a sure thing.

I am in the camp that doesn't trust Ellis to 'get it right,' but my trust in the players remains - to compete, to find the sense of urgency that has been lacking, when it matters most. The experienced players know there's a lot of work to be done before the World Cup begins, but they also know that that is the time to be at peak performance.

As to the larger issues of playing style, and according player selection, that can't be done right now. What's worrisome is that it doesn't seem to be happening sufficiently at the lower age ranges, where true transformation would have to occur.

 

What happened to Sydney Leroux? I think she is a very good player, fast and capable of breaking down the defense and score goals. USWNT forwards badly need someone like her to up their striking power.
It is good that USWNT will be playing teams with different styles in Europe and elsewhere. It is such games that show up where USWNT is lacking and needs improvements. I look forward to telecast of these games and wish the team great success.

 

Sydney Leroux is pregnant

 

This. The NWSL semi-final that Portland lost really highlighted Ertz's shortcomings. Is it too much to hope that she can improve these weaknesses in her game at this late date?

I like Fof F's point about players checking to the ball. We rarely do that.

Also, I agree with PlaySimple about Naeher. I wish we had a better goalkeeper. Ellis certainly could have been playing all sorts of goalies in the past year, but she didn't. Has that extra year improved Naeher?

 

I believe there is a flaw in her footwork on both crosses and chips. I also detect an error of form on her medium distributions.

However the exact flaw or even if there really is one in any of the above I cannot tell for sure because the TV cameras never ever linger on the goalkeeper unless she in hurt and down on the ground or she is celebrating some mile stone and even then the camera does not show whole sequences.

I "think" she is a bit better but as I said in another thread, "She has a way of turning the routine into an adventure."

I would really like, in particular, to have gotten a good look at Franch. I "think" she is already a better shot stopper than Naeher and I wish she had a real chance to play several times and against really good teams.

But it is too late unless there is an injury and I really believe Naeher is our keeper for the run to and through the WWC.

 

Not Portland, Chicago.

 

My bad, thanks for the correction.

 

I agree. I wish she had received another look last year before she got pregnant again. I guess she figured she’s out of the picture for good. We lack pace in that supposed A team front line. I would always have Press on the field because she can outrun anyone for a breakaway, whether she is played in or just goes 1v1 on her own. I don’t think any of our other forwards can do that.

 

Harris scares me to death in net. She makes far too many risky/poor decisions for me.

Naeher is less athletic, but more solid/consistent.

 

Agree with everything you've said and feel the same way about Franch. I almost made a very similar comment about wishing to see more of her in a reply I just made a couple minutes ago.

I think Naeher's issue is that she's not as athletic as the other keepers. She's not as quick and doesn't have much of a vertical leap, compared to the others, but is still pretty good overall.

Over the past week or so, I've been going through all the USWNT games from all of 2018 and updated a database that I've been keeping. Naeher conceded 6 goals (plus an own goal) in 2018 with the NT...

1. DENMARK (21January2018) - 13:40 - Nadia Nadim scored off CK on a free header and buried it in the corner. Nothing Naeher really could have done about it.
2. FRANCE (4March2018) - 37:57 - Dahlkemper gets burnt by ball over the top from midfield (M'bock) to Eugenie LeSommer who got behind Dahlkemper. Naeher comes out and slides, but LeSommer dribbles around her and scores from a very narrow angle. It was a combination of bad defense and a quality goal. Naeher came out to about the penalty spot. Hard to blame her on this one, but (in fairness) this one one that a quicker Harris possibly gets to in time.
3. MEXICO (5April2018) - 63:24 - Naeher, with a little time, clears a ball out from the goal box to just past midfield. It was a low line drive that is quickly and strongly headed straight back at the US. Ariana Calderón flicks it over Dahlkemper and Katie Johnson is in on a break. Naeher quickly comes out to that top of the box and Johnson easily chips a bouncing ball over her head into an empty net from the top of the penalty arc. It was arguably a bad ball out from Naeher, but it looks like the defense was caught napping a little too. Hard to say if there was anything another GK could have done about it once the defense was beat. If she stays home, she probably gets easily beat as well.
   
4. JAPAN (26July2018) - 19:02 - US presses Japan's defense and Davidson gets caught pushing up. Yui Hasegawa sends a perfect through ball behind Davidson to Mina Tanaka. Dahlkemper chases her down at the top of the box, but she cuts back and takes a shot from the top of the box. Sonnett comes sliding in from the right and the ball deflects upwards over Naeher who came out to the top of the goal box cut off the angle and has to watch the ball sail over her head into back of the net. This was good play from Japan, but the finish was definitely very fortunate. Nothing any keeper could have done about this one.
5. JAPAN (26July2018) - 75:24 - Japan has the ball down in the left corner, right by the corner flag. They pass it back up the sideline and Heath gets burnt badly by Moeno Sakaguchi who dribbles to the top corner of the penalty box. The defense doesn't collapse on her quick enough and she floats a long range shot, perfectly placed, into the far top corner of the net. Naeher is actually in position to save it, but just can't jump high enough. Not sure if a more athletic keeper would have saved this one or not. Definitely looks like one that Solo (or maybe Harris) may have gotten a piece of and saved, but that's debatable.
   
6. AUSTRALIA (29July2018) - 21:36 - US gets burnt in transition off a corner kick. Lisa DeVanna picks up the ball at the top of her box and blows by everyone, leaving Sauerbrunn and Brian in her dust. Dahlkemper pushes up to stop DeVanna and gets beat on a through ball behind her to a cutting Chloe Logarzo. Naeher comes out to the top of the goal box and Logarzo easily slots it home in the right corner. This is one I think Naeher really needed to come out and contest. I think Harris definitely comes out and plays sweeper keeper here and has a better chance of saving it. Still, it would be pretty harsh criticism to blame Naeher for this one. Definitely a quality goal from Australia as well.
   
7. BRAZIL (2August2018) - 15:28 - Brazil was on a goal-line-to-goal-line, full sprint, fast break down the left flank after burning Sonnett early on. Davidson and Dunn are left to cover 3 Brazilians in the middle as the cross comes in behind the defense. Davidson slides and desperately tries to clear it out over the end line, but only gets a piece of it and accidentally slots it into the top corner. Nothing Naeher (or anyone other keeper) could have done about this one. Hard to put any blame on Davidson either. She nearly made an incredible goal-saving play because it would have been an easy finish for Brazil if she let it go by.

I realize this doesn't include any of her NWSL play, but I think she's been great in her games for the USWNT in 2018. She made a lot of quality saves, and didn't let a single goal get by that she should have saved in my opinion. Yes, Harris may have... may have... saved one of two of them because she's more of a sweeper keeper, but in fairness, the majority of the blame for these goals belongs to the defense. Just about every one of them was a high-quality fast break, and most of them by top ranked teams.