Given a roster of only 18 active players, I definitely would not take six forwards if Horan is going to be the center forward.
Aahhhhhhhhhhhhh France, I really have nothing against them, actually respect them, maybe even have a soft spot for them ever since sharing that Southwest Flight from Tampa to Nashville during Sheba years ago. But ya know what the alternative definition of “potential” is - - - you haven’t achieved squat. Maybe next time they will have a full squad. How about that extended shout out to The Great Joy Fawcett that Julie gave. I did not see any foul perpetrated on Alex Morgan in the Penalty Area in fact, I do not acknowledge that Alex Morgan was in France. Very truly yours, Dr. Joe Machnik NOTE TO FRANCE: The little known 24th Commandment is…… “Thou shalt not tug on the beautiful locks of Christen Press”. The consequences are severe Semb - 73rd minute, please fast forward through it…..you don’t need to see that. It will just make your blood pressure sky rocket.
I'm surprised that hair tug was not a red card. Nasty and dangerous. If it was a little harder, Christen could have easily hit the ground with the back of her head first.
As I mentioned previously, the PSG coach asked that he needed his players to get rest due to the Champions League game coming up later this week. So out of his 4 players, 2 weren’t used(including league mvp Diani) 2 others played for one half each. And of course missing several Lyon players as well. This would be their strongest lineup(or at least by if everybody was available) GK................Bohoudi Torrent.....Renard......MBock......Karchaoui Diani.......Henry........Bilbaut.......Majri ...........Cascarino.......Katoto So only 2 first tier starters yesterday. Popular Le Sommer did start y, but her goal scoring is way off these days, only 3 goals so far this season for Lyon/she had 29 in 2015.
Toward the end of the match with France, Vlatko moved Rose Lavelle to what looked like to me the right wing forward -- which enabled him to get Mewis, Horan, and Ertz into the game at the same as Lavelle. I liked having all four of them in the game at the same time. If Lavelle becomes a forward, full or part-time, that shakes up the list of forwards trying for the OG.
Lloyd needs to retire. She was useless against Sweden and also looked weak against France. Im not sure she could score on an open net. Im sorry, you were great in the past but now yur hanging on by yur name only and its time to hang up your international boots. Don't make them send you away like other greats did (Abby, Lilly) go out on your terms. Maybe one more friendly as a farewell game and then retire with honor. I hope the coach gives her a chance to retire with dignity. It's time The game - France was strong for about 15 minutes then it was all USA...except the scoring. We got one PK and a good goal from Morgan. Its not enough. We need more quality chances and thats our biggest problem. Lots of possession... few shots. We cannot depend on cross and heading when teams pack the goal area. The goal from Morgan was the result of a good thru pass and thats what we need. Much more of a ground attack. I think Ertz is not a good AM. Maybe we need to go with a DM and AM setup?
I think Lloyd is fine for the Olympics. Her experience in two positions helps in the 18 limited roster. Who are you going to sub for her if she doesn't make it? Williams ( I don't think so) or one of the young inexperience deer in headlights players I've seen put on the field of late? Smith? Macario? Both need to show more, to earn a spot in the Olympic 18 and I do not see the time element allowing for that. Macario is looking more and more like a midfielder anyway. With Morgan and Rapinoe trying to gain playing legs, Heath soon to be back on the pitch to again work herself into shape, I do not see the time frame to train a newbie. Post Olympics, I can see the case for Lloyd's retirement.
I think Carli Lloyd is in, I agree. If the US goes with 5 forwards on the Olympics roster, it seems pretty obvious it's going to be: Rapinoe Press Morgan Lloyd Williams Maybe there's a chance for Tobin Heath to take the place of one of those five, but I don't think so, not with her recent injury, her time away from the US team, an 18-player roster, and the fact we already have some older players who've had extensive injury problems in the past (eg Rapinoe, Morgan)
I believe Heath is scheduled to return for the next batch of friendlies. If she is in just half decent shape she will win a spot over Williams. Heath is a better all around player than Williams and can play multiple positions as evidenced by her jumping into the midfield last Olympics. Time will tell.
I was surprised with that formation change but a genius one. Playing 4 world class midfields all at the same time should worry every competition out there. They were definitely linking up quite good but I'm most impressed with Lavelle as a false number 9. I am starting to think ManCity playing her out of position is actually a blessing in disguise..
Love the experimentation. Love the potential additional option. And moving Rose 15 yards closer to the Goal has obvious appeal. But wouldn’t this defeat the whole mid-field depth strategy geared for the quick Match turnarounds in the upcoming Olympic Tournament? Maybe HCVA is engaging in a little gamesmanship in giving opponents yet another tactic to prepare for and lose sleep over. But Me Likey seeing the left foot of Rose Lavelle cocked back ready to unleash TOTAL DEVASTATION and I relish any tactic increasing that opportunity. BWTHDIK Hey, I want to be the Team Barista, not the HC.
I would prefer most of the other attacking options over Lloyd, who doesn't look like she can bring it against top competition. Williams and Macario both bring different things to the table--I'd be happier with either instead of Lloyd, particularly since we are already relying on Rapinoe and Heath coming back from injury. Taking a small squad into account, we will probably rely on the whole roster. I think experimenting with ways to get our best 4 mids on the field, particularly something that gives us a bit of a different look, can only help if we end up needing a different option
Thought I was going to let this go?....no, no, no my little soccer buddies. Admittedly surprised by the 165-135. I would have kneejerk guessed 235-65ish.
Imagine playing 300 games of anything and only loosing 15 times. Yeesh. Some solid stories echoing what's been talked about here on the Olympic Roster situation floating around the web from soccer sports outlets.
It does seem hard to believe although if you remember Algarve, it make sense that Lloyd has earned well over 65 caps abroad. From 2006 on, the US has played 40 times in Algarve. According to that US Soccer blurb, Lloyd has earned caps in 41 World Cup and Olympics games. In addition, the US has had 15 World Cup or Olympic qualifying matches outside the country in this time: 2008 Oly qualifying in Mexico (4 games) 2010 World Cup qualifying in Mexico (5 games) 2010 World Cup playoff in Italy (1 game) 2012 Oly qualifying in Canada (5 games) That accounts for as many as 96 games Lloyd could have played abroad. From 2005 until now (using Wikipedia as my source), the US has played a total of 335 matches.So even assuming (unrealistically) that Lloyd played in 96 World Cup, Olympics, qualifiers outside the US, or Algarve matches, that still means 39 friendlies abroad out of the remaining 239 matches the US has played. Considering how many more friendlies the US plays at home rather than away, it just seems a little hard to believe but I suppose it's possible.
Thanks to Wikipedia, I was able to count a total of 148 matches the US has played abroad since Carli Lloyd's 1st cap in 2005. If she has 135 caps out of those matches, she's been in 90% of them, but I guess if you're going to hit the 300 milestone, you're not missing a lot of games.
If Heath gets fit we won’t have to waste our breath with Williams. I pray that she does. We need big game players in Japan not further experiments. Let the rest come in after this cycle. Plenty of room then.
If Vladko likes Williams so much, move her to Defence, move Dunn up to forward, swap them. I would love to see that experiment.
You would be taking away the last defender sub we got(which would mean probably Davidson)/we’re really cutting us short on defense,. We need a speedster & only energetic, under 30 year old fwd like Williams. The Olympics is an probable 6 games played every two days & only 6 field subs to use/exhaustion might of led to our downfall last Olympics. We’ll run into all sorts of defensive styles, some Lyn might be good at in breaking down , some not so good, but in case, we really should have our fastest player on the pitch, or ready to sub in