Solving Abby's problem.

Discussion in 'USA Women: News and Analysis' started by DonCorleone, Jul 31, 2005.

  1. DonCorleone

    DonCorleone New Member

    Jun 21, 2005
    NY state.
    I am just curious if Wambach can create scoring chances for herself since the one who has always fed her retired (Hamm) and Greg Ryan's system doesn't really help her in my opinion. I am showing concern here because she is such a talented striker and scoring mostly by her forehead throughout her career & i don't want that to fade away and becoming just another striker, but, if she is focusing on different way to score now this will be nothing but helping her to be a complete striker. I don't want her just giving assists to others eventhough she's good at that but she'll do her best infront of the goal scoring...
     
  2. abby2004

    abby2004 BigSoccer Supporter

    Feb 25, 2005
    East Coast
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Coach Ryan needs to find someone that has the speed like (Hamm). I'm thinking O'reilly or maybe Tarpley. i can't see Milbrett being put in that position. :)
     
  3. suncraver03

    suncraver03 New Member

    Oct 3, 2003
    Club:
    Chicago Red Stars
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    O'Reilly is just the player to take over Mia's feeding of Abby. I'm not concerned about her goal scoring. I think she's making a conscience effort to become a more complete player and to get other people involved in the offense. It reminds me a little of Jordan after he scored 63 points against Boston and they still lost the playoff game. The Bulls only became champions after he started making more of an effort to share the load with the other players. Ryan's style is not going to rely on set plays like April's. It's obvious she's been working on her game and her stamina.

    The biggest concern I have for her is the longevity of her career if she can't stay off the ground. I know she's a young stud now and can dish it out with the best of them, but those hits are going to start adding up and eventually one of them is going to do her serious harm. I know you're going to get into it from time to time in soccer, but she's gotta be more careful as she gets older.
     
  4. chessplayer

    chessplayer Member

    Sep 12, 2000
    Richmond, VA
    Unfortunately, Abby's size and game will not allow her to avoid the hits I think. The best comparison I can make here is to Michelle Akers. She managed to play 15 years before her body finally wouldn't take any more punishment, and I think she lasted as long as she did because the team had so much talent around her that the opposition could not key on her. Anson Dorrance and then Tony DiCicco both used speed of possession as the keys for the offense, so Aker's size was an asset but not the primary method of moving the ball in the box. It also helped that she played in midfield in the second part of her career and wasn't exposed to the punishment that the target person takes all the time up top.
    I think, though, that Ryan's coaching philosophy may be more help to Wambach's longevity than April Heinrichs' was because, whereas Heinrichs used the target-player-to-facilitate-the-attack mentality all the time, Ryan seems to emphasize a more creative approach that involves all the strikers, mids, and back runners to put the offense together in a more free-flowing style. This will lessen the need for Abby to bang up top to create space for herself and others, and her improving possession skills will make her even more dangerous as she can make the pass as well as the shot to make the whole attack more dangerous.
    Since she can post up and receive the ball to hold it for others, and she can also run at players and move the ball around the field, she can create scoring chances for herself and others in a variety of ways. In this way she makes Milbrett, MacMillan, O'Reilly, Lilly, all the others better because she can mix with them rather than just receive from them. Long-term, this will reduce the punishment she has to take. I think this is the primary difference between her and Christie Welsh and Fotop, although Fotop seemed to show more playmaking skill vs Iceland than I remembered seeing vs Canada.
     
  5. GLBryan

    GLBryan Member

    Oct 30, 2004
    Georgia
    Nice assessment.
     
  6. abby2004

    abby2004 BigSoccer Supporter

    Feb 25, 2005
    East Coast
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I agree with your assessment. :)
     
  7. noorwell

    noorwell Member

    Sep 15, 2003
    brooklyn,ny
    Hi here you guy we got two soccer fans who have soccer brains. Suncraver03 and Chessplayer. great to know they are those who don't get carryaway with a personal agenda.
     
  8. Hamm-star

    Hamm-star New Member

    Oct 2, 2002
    I think honestly that Tarpley may very well become the playmaker more so then O'Reily. Already she shows a great deal of poise and she hs demonstrated that she already has veyr good vision.
    As for Abby?...She is doing the right thing. She is making sure that she will never be seen as a one trick pony. she can maintain her strikers mentality while providing another outlet for the ball on the attack. the more people at the forward position who can not only put the ball away but can accurately thread it to a teammate the better. I like Welches speed. both her and Abby have decent speed especialy for big girls and that speed is deceptive. i find Defenders reacting a little late at times because they do not seem to realize just how quickly they are moving. Anytime you can make a defender scramble to regain positioning you are doing something right.
     
  9. AndyMead

    AndyMead Homo Sapien

    Nov 2, 1999
    Seat 12A
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    Abby has a problem?

    I don't see it.

    If she has one, it's the fact that she isn't playing enough. She needs to join a professional team in Sweden or Germany.
     
  10. noorwell

    noorwell Member

    Sep 15, 2003
    brooklyn,ny
    Right on Andy. agree.
     
  11. chessplayer

    chessplayer Member

    Sep 12, 2000
    Richmond, VA
    Props to Mia Hamm for helping Abby develop her playmaking and ball skills! Abby's time on the Freedom (and Mia's mentoring) is still paying dividends. It sure would be great if that league ever got going again. We have so much talent out there that if we could have a machine like the WUSA to develop it at that level of intensity I think our team would have new stars coming out of the woodwork.
    I was always reading and hearing how the WUSA was the top league in the world for its quality level; it will be the key to our regaining/maintaining the top spot in the future.
     
  12. MrZedd

    MrZedd New Member

    Jul 18, 2003
    Eat less, run more. That's all. She doesn't appear to be match fit in the last few outings. Of course, that would beg the question "match fit for what?" as there isn't much of consequence happening these days.
     
  13. GLBryan

    GLBryan Member

    Oct 30, 2004
    Georgia
    Agreed. Thought "Solving Abby's Problem" was a bit of an overstatement.
     
  14. Hamm-star

    Hamm-star New Member

    Oct 2, 2002
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------

    One could argue that they have not had enough slated matches to BE match fit. I think most of the problem is lack of play time period. any player will tell you that you can do the work outs you can do the practices you can do the wind sprints but non of it compares to actual 90 min. game play.
    You get match fit by playing matches. that is why they call it that. Also we might want to concider that ryan may do things differently in his practice sessions as well. we do not really know what kind of routine he has them on. we do know from a brief report that he has pretty much left them to their own devices as to when they go to bed what they eat ETC. But we do not know the kind of training he has them on.
     
  15. Hamm-star

    Hamm-star New Member

    Oct 2, 2002
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------

    I would agree that some kind of a pro league is essential to maintaining a steady stream of potentials for the national team. In years past it was not as neccessary because while there were Women's leagues (Japan/Sweden) they were not nearly at the same level of play as the national team level. While U.S. players played on them. IE Millie and Mac as examples they did not do it for that long. one might argue that the compatition really did not afford them enough tachtically or technically to make it worth their while. Now however those leagues have improved for the simple reason that you have more well known national team players from around the globe playing on them. This makes them now worth playing on as the level is far better then it once was. Is it WUSA level?....no...But it is decent.
     
  16. taosjohn

    taosjohn Member+

    Dec 23, 2004
    taos,nm
    Actually somewhere on here it was revealed that they are doing a whole lot of lot of scrimmaging...
     
  17. suncraver03

    suncraver03 New Member

    Oct 3, 2003
    Club:
    Chicago Red Stars
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I thought the title "Solving Abby's problem" was a little extreme also, it's not so much a problem as a challenge. I do like Tarpley in the middle but right now I don't think of Abby as the seam player that Tarpley is so good at finding. Abby is a stellar front line player who is taking advantage of her reputation to draw the defenders to her so she can make the pass to the open player. She's a true professional in that regard.

    I like the comparison to Akers in that they both did/do take a lot of physical abuse. They both dished/dish it out, too. I think that the bigger, stronger players in today's game compared to the extremely inferior athletes on most of the teams in the 90's are more dangerous to Abby's style of play.

    I want to be totally clear. Abby does not have a "problem". Her attempts at becoming a more complete player are an example to everyone else, no matter what you do in life. Even if you at the top of your field, there's always room for improvement if you are willing to work hard at it. Way to go, Abby!
     
  18. Hamm-star

    Hamm-star New Member

    Oct 2, 2002
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Yes but that does not give any indication as to what kind of routine he has them on. and Scrimmages are rarely if ever 90 minutes in length and often include breaks.
     
  19. AndyMead

    AndyMead Homo Sapien

    Nov 2, 1999
    Seat 12A
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    Right. There is absolutely no substitute for competitive meaningful games. Abby needs to be playing for a professional team that plays other professional teams in a real competition. Right now, that basically means Germany or Sweden.

    Practice and scrimmages are great, but at some point she - and the other national teamers - are going to need games. And roughing up patsies like Iceland with the WNT or 99% of the W-League/WPSL isn't going to be enough.

    Until the WSII, USL, MLS, or some other organization starts a professional womens league up in the U.S., Abby and the other national teamers who are out of college need to get to Europe.
     
  20. luvdagame

    luvdagame Member+

    Jul 6, 2000
    amen!!!!!!

    i really miss the wusa by the way.
     
  21. taosjohn

    taosjohn Member+

    Dec 23, 2004
    taos,nm
    I wasn't suggesting that it would make them match fit-- I was responding to the part about what he might be doing differently in practices, which is what I thought was meant by "what kind of routine he had them on..." I was just saying we do know a little bit about it is all...
     
  22. Hamm-star

    Hamm-star New Member

    Oct 2, 2002
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------

    understood.
     
  23. Awe-Inspiring

    Awe-Inspiring New Member

    Jan 18, 2000
    Ditto to Andy Mead.

    Abby's only "problem" is not getting enough time as the face of American women's soccer, so she can promote the game like the founders did.
     
  24. chessplayer

    chessplayer Member

    Sep 12, 2000
    Richmond, VA
    Agreed.
    I also like the comment just made about a league providing more face time for marketing WNT atheletes and thus growing the game that way. All the principals of the old WUSA (DiCicco, Foudy, etc.) are outwardly optimistic that a league will start up again someday. Let's hope so.
     
  25. 6thMan

    6thMan New Member

    Jan 7, 2003
    If she is the FACE for American Women's Soccer, it is in trouble. Why do we need a face? Who is the face of American Men's Soccer?
     

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