Tokyo Olympics: USWNT vs New Zealand, July 24, pre/pbp/post

Ertz is on her game. She has two assists. That is because she takes chances in attack and executes those chances very well. Yes she does make some mistakes but those are mistakes of aggression and produce more than they cost on balance.

 

I was not a fan of the defending on that corner. Likewise, it took too long for the

Krueger and Macario for Horan and Dunn

 

Good sub now. I love big hair!!

 

Olympics don’t cap subs at three? Is that new?

 

If USA plays Sweden again, I think Vlatko should seriously consider Krueger as the left back.

 

New? Sort of. The 5 sub "rule" has become the norm world wide for every competition.

 

New Zealand sub
Longo for Hassett

 

GD +1

Alex Morgan makes it 5-1 assist from Press

 

Wow. I must not have been paying attention. I guess the last major tournament I was invested in watching was more than two years ago…

 

Now we are finally taking NZ apart. They have become tired, as expected.

 

We could use another in extra time.

 

Another own goal!

Press earned it 6-1

 

Final
USA 6 New Zealand 1

3 points

Goal differential +2

A comb happened.

 

Well NZ has scored three times, twice for the US once for themselves.

 

Today's soccer game for USWNT was not a must win It was a must blowout

 

finally it’s no more Vlatko the Skaredy Kat., It’s Vlad the Impaler!

 

Not yet. We still need to play decently against a decent team. Australia is a lot better than NZ. and we kind of need at least a tie as our GD is not large enough to insure we advance with only 3 points but 4 and a +2 GD probably is. I am eager to see what we do against Australia.
A must win is what the next match is at least as much as this one was.

 

Tobin needs to give Abby's Jersey back.

 

In a way, I found this 6-1 victory against New Zealand more worrisome than the 3-0 loss to Sweden. Any thought that the defeat was simply a terrific team having an uncharacteristic bad day against a strong opponent is now gone.

Over time and recently, I've posted my concern about the U.S. offensively. I watched too many games where Naeher could have taken a nap, where the U.S. completely dominated against weak opponents but had great difficulty putting the ball in the net. But now my concern is quite different: this U.S. team has serious defensive weaknesses. A very weak New Zealand team often maintained possession in the U.S. end for a while and had plenty of scoring possibilities. And obviously that New Zealand goal never should have happened.

It's now difficult for me to imagine the U.S. winning three elimination games against good opponents, possibly including Sweden, with so little time in between games. I hope I'm proven wrong, but this looks like a hard road.

 

And vice versa.

 

Not really. Australia is through with a draw as long as China doesn't beat the Netherlands by 4 or more or Zambia beats Brazil by 6 or more.

They are playing after us, so it can't be guaranteed, but maybe the highest probably way of Australia not making it through would be to lose to the US and then have Japan beat Chile AND one of Zambia or Brazil win their match ups.

So a draw would mean they are through unless there is a historic level upset while a loss means a simple win by either Zambia or Brazil who are both playing teams who will probably be resting some players.