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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.
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!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.
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.
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...
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.
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.
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?