37' 0-0 McGrady(?) long pass up left touch hits Bailey in full stride, two steps ahead of Merrick(?) caught too high. Bailey maintains lead to 14m box left, cross to 6m 1/3 left cleared away -- behind Feist's run to near post, ahead of Hatch. 40' 0-0 Speck dribbles to 25m arc left, short-passes to Williams waiting at box top left post. Williams does a receive-turn-shoot in one motion, lifts it high over bar. 40' 0-0 Off that restart, Sullivan stoops to head a high bounce at midfield mid-right, just as Debinha swings a bicycle at it. Brief stoppage, Sullivan resumes. 41' 0-0 Washington hold in the back. Debinha presses and induces nerves and a backpass, Bledsoe hoofs long into left touch.
44' 0-0 NC left ck, short, backpass all the way to circle top. Kurtz passes to Roccaro at 22m mid-right. Hilarity ensues: Erceg, still up at box top wide right for the corner, is already cruising back to her spot at midfield -- Roccaro passes to where she would be if she were an attacker, Erceg runs right past it -- then turns and chases it (gasp) forward to right touch. +2'. 45+2' (of +2') 0-0 Washington has pulled into a turtle shell in their own 1/3, ceding all of center circle and about 15m ahead of it to NC's white shirt goon squad. Every Washington ball is a hoof and pray, NC reloads and charges them again. Roccaro dribbles up centerline, jukes right and leaves Dougherty Howard flapping, to 25m 1/4 right, shoots right foot hard just over bar. HT 0-0. Washington was in it for about 40', then parked the minivan. Washington 4(1)-(1)7 shots(sog), 1-4 corners, 8-16 crosses vs. 11-6 clearances, 0-1 offside, 4-1 fouls, 53% possession. NC doesn't have the ball less, it's just that they use it more quickly.
46' 0-0 North Carolina subs in { 0th of 3 }: - (1 of 5) #19 Crystal Dunn for #4 McKenzie Meehan - (2 of 5) #8 Denise O'Sullivan for #23 Cari Roccaro - (3 of 5) #5 Samantha Mewis for #25 Meredith Speck. 50' 0-1 Merrick passes up right touch for Williams at 35m. Staab slides and touches first as Williams hops over her, ball rattles off Staab's legs and pops up into Williams' stride. Nobody else is back, Williams marauds through 8m box right, continues to 7m 2-right, shoots left instep pull into 1/5 right 1/3 high past Bledsoe wrong-footed. Somebody should rotate over and stop ball, but there was no time for that, either. "It's not IF Lynn Williams will punish you, but WHEN."@lynnraenie with a solo masterpiece 🖼0-1 | #WASvNCTune in now on @CBSAllAccess and @Twitch.#NWSLChallengeCup pic.twitter.com/rcCmik93p9— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) July 2, 2020
In this half, NC has subbed in a good bit of the A team. Washington hung with them for the first half (or most of the first half really), but I think the game is now firmly in NC's hands. But I'm still hoping for more goals, either way. EDIT: and make that 2 for North Carolina. Both from Williams.
60' 0-1 Washington subs in { 1st of 3 }: - (1 of 5) #11 Jordan DiBiasi for #8 Meggie Dougherty Howard. 61' 0-2 Merrick passes to Debinha running a curl around box top right. Debinha goes down box right to 5m, Milliet makes a near-post run, dragging Nielsen and Sullivan with her and clearing out the entire goalmouth. Debinha bends a cross past Bledsoe at near post, to 4m 1/3 left. Williams front-cuts tired Huster, stretches out left toes and pokes into back left edge. Come for Debhina's 🎯 cross, stay for the finish. 😎@lynnraenie has 3️⃣ goals in 2️⃣ games this summer!0-2 | #WASvNCTune in now on @CBSAllAccess and @Twitch.#NWSLChallengeCup pic.twitter.com/pEzWlRi2HU— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) July 2, 2020
67' 0-2 Kurtz and Hatch jostle for a ball, except that Kurtz lands with cleats upon Hatch's left foot. Stoppage. 68' 0-2 North Carolina subs in { 1st of 3 }: - (4 of 5) #23 Kristen Hamilton for #2 Lauren Milliet. 70' 0-2 Washington subs in { 2nd of 3 }: - (2 of 5) #2 Ashley Sanchez for #10 Rose Lavelle (c=> Bledsoe) - (3 of 5) #7 Jaye Boisierre for #12 Andi Sullivan.
77' 0-2 2H hydration break. 82' 0-2 North Carolina subs in { 2nd of 3 }: - (5 of 5) #16 Hailie Mace for #9 Lynn Williams. 83' 0-2 Washington subs in { 3rd of 3 }: - (4 of 5) #4 Natalie Jacobs for #23 Tori Huster - (5 of 5) #6 Katie McClure for #33 Ashley Hatch. 85' 0-2 DiBiasi longball from wide right drops into McClure's stride, alone to box top right, but she shoots high.
89' 0-2 Hamilton toe-pokes at 30m down wide right for Debinha still sprinting -- and Hamilton continues her own trailing run through spot. Debinha chases alone to 5m wide right, crosses to 6-top center. Mace overruns ball slightly, opens right instep and drags foot like a putter, somehow pops it over the bar +4'. FT 0-2.
Well, NCC continues to be NCC. The wheels fell off for Washington in the 2nd half as they began to tire, and NCC brought in the likes of O'Sullivan, Dunn, and Mewis. But, that was a much more fun game than the previous one.
NC dismantled Washington, which looked good for 15 or 20 minutes -- and then was forced on the defensive. And then Dunn, Mewis, and O'Sullivan (the adults) come in the game to replace the NC youngsters in the midfield. Bingo! Williams gets a couple of goals. Debinha for NC is other-worldly. I thought she was, next to Kerr, the MVP of the league last year -- and probably would (will?) win this year. Or if she doesn't Williams would. The Courage shut down Hatch almost completely and didn't let Lavelle do much of anything after a couple of early runs.
Didn't watch the match (as usual, in the night for me), but just from highlights I can see how effective Debinha was. And I agree that she was NCC's key-player last season and probably MVP of the league along with Kerr (by the way, in the final match she clearly delivered, unlike Kerr).
Debinha has grown over the last few years from a dangerous but inconsistent playmaker to an elite force in her own right. NC is difficult to play against because they're so fast all over the pitch. I think Washington's blueprint for countering the Courage is spot on: assemble technical players at the back, possess deep, slide the ball past the pressing attackers, and work up the field at speed. Hatch and Lavelle are devastating if they get the ball with only one line of defenders in front of them. But aside from a bright opening 10 minutes, the execution was all wrong last night. Their passing wasn't crisp enough, they lost the ball a few times, and eventually possessing the ball became its own goal in the players' minds. They refused to take any risks, and the strategy unraveled.
You are correct that the comparison should be with Sports/go 90 or YouTube FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE NWSL but ESPN is a correct comparison FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE SPORTS FAN. ESPN and CBS are supposed to be similar in the level of professional TV production and taking well over eight or nine hours to get a replay up and ready to be streamed is simply unprofessional. The maximum should be four hours. After all there is really no editing involved as all they have to do is place a link to what the recorded from just before that start of the match to the end and that is little more than trimming which with modern video equipment, or even equipment from ten to fifteen years ago, is an extremely fast process. My 13 year old granddaughter can do that kind of editing on her computer in less that 30 minutes. It was not a one time thing either as it is 07:30 and last nights match is nowhere to be seen. I guess that the one person they have assigned to the video editing needs her naps and sleep time as much as I do but I would think that CBS could allocate more than one eighty year old grandmother to the task of getting the replay up and running.
I wanted to edit my previous post but it seems to much time has past. It is now 10:00 and last night's match is still not available. This means that it will be impossible to watch that match before today's match starts and if I choose to watch today's match live last night's nights match will be spoiled due to the commentators mentioning the score probably over and over as they cannot seem to ever shut up and they have to fill their incessant cackling with something so they will squawk out the score. I skipped all of the discussion about last night;s match but that seems to be effort wasted. CBS does not even offer a start from the beginning option for matches in progress so should I choose to watch last nights match I will have to wait until todays is made available if I want to see all the match and that just shows that CBS is second rate. It is all we have but I actually prefered YouTube (I can;t believe I said that) as they actually handled the streaming availability quite well. It is what it is and probably means more money for the NWSL but from my point of view it just ain't worth it because CBS' poor handling of the streams is costing me some enjoyment of my favorite sport. OK: I forgot that there are no matches today BUT that still does not forgive CBS for second rate handling of getting the archived matches up and available.
it was live on youtube, I posted it at this threat yesterday(albeit. I only found about it at half time). You can click on & still watch the replay
I finally had the time to watch this match and I will say that it was the best match so far in the tournament. Both teams played, mostly, good defense and most passes were pretty clean and there were few outright mistakes. NC showed just how far behind most of the rest of the league is and what it takes to win under current conditions. Washington really could not have played much better but they were up against a superior team having a pretty good day. That is not to say that NC was perfect, far from it, but they did show the sparks of the flame they have been in the past. They also showed that their depth beats everyone else hands down. I also had the feeling that the whole team could use the phrase: "Don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry."
The Courage are following the blueprint Dorrance established 30 plus years ago and the USWNT followed suit(not so much now), just out athlete everyone else.
I do not really agree. Yes, they have speed and a lot of it. But they also have a great deal of skill and that, even more than speed, is what wins matches for them because their greater speed also means better conditioned. Even if the other team is close to equal in skill that skill goes away when players tire. Speed in soccer is a lot like size/strength in boxing. Give an equal level of skill the bigger/stronger person almost always wins in boxing and in soccer given an equal level of skill the faster team usually wins. In heat in place of faster you can say better conditioned. Remember: "Speed Kills."
It is also teamwork and smart play. Debinha dragged a defender and froze a second with her near post run on Williams’s goal in the first game. For her second goal in the second game it was Milliet who made the near post run and occupied two defenders. The whole team learns how to play the game together. Riley is really grooming Milliet. When Mewis, O’Sullivan, and Dunn came on at the half, the announcer said it completed the box, but it didn’t. Dunn played up top with Williams and Milliet was left in to play the other 10 with Debinha while Mewis and O’Sullivan played the pair of 6’s.
Interesting situation after basically 1.5 matchdays: one team at 6 points, another at 3 and all of the others at 1 point. Would you have expected half of the first 6 games being draws? (I actually did, in my predictions: only I mostly called the wrong ones! ).
Williams is faster, Press is a more accurate shot taker. The only one that could match Williams speed is Sweden’s Sofia Jakobsson. The way she’s dominating this tourney, it’s amazing that Lynn couldn’t make the WC squad! what’s kinda disappointing for the US is despite so many of WC fwds missing, none of the younger or rookies have been able to step up
I have watched Press for many years and at first her speed was a liability more than it was an asset as she would run herself into a position before she could really assess what needed to be done and that often resulted in a badly missed shot or pass. Over the last year or two she has reigned in her speed just a little and has learned to think faster/better and her speed is really a dangerous weapon now. Williams has not learned to control her speed and much too often runs ahead of her thinking resulting in a bad/poorly taken shots/passes. She, like Press used to, simply kills attacks with her speed much too often. Unless she learns, as Press has, to control her speed and actually keep her mind ahead of what she is doing she will remain a fringe player at the national level. Remember that speed only becomes an asset when it results it an improvement in play. A long time ago I had the honor of seeing Sir Stanley Mathews play for club and country. He was often described as "slow as a turtle" but his thinking was so fast that he almost always appeared faster that any defender he ran into. It is really "speed of play" that is important not "speed of foot" and in "speed of play," right now, Press is at least 1/3 faster than Williams.