Ouch. 6-0 spanking. And Boston actually looked good at times. The first three goals off posts or crossbar. But it's the result that matters. Not good.
Only 2-0 at the half. Thought Boston might pull it together at that point. At one point they had 5 shots to 0. D needs to be more organized. Need more midfield.
FINALLY!! I have frowned on the WUSA for two reasons in the past. 1) Not acquiring Maribel Dominguez since the league's inception. 2) Not acquiring Italy's Patrizia Panico since the league's inception. I first noticed these two players at WWC99 and was totally blown away by them. Even though their national teams did not fare well in the tournament, these players delievered worthy performances. Its sad the the league took so long to notice Dominguez, who was wasting her talents in the obscurity of the W-League for the past two seasons. Mark my words, baring injury, Dominguez will continue to deliever, BIG TIME! So watch out. I know there was some talk last season about Philly trying to buy out Panico's contract from her Italian club (Lazio), but they couldn't acquire her because her club was not intent on letting her go and made the transfer fee too high for the WUSA, or something to that nature. Does anyone know specifics on the Panico situation? Well, I think the WUSA needs to sort this out, buy Panico, get her on an American soccer field and watch her work her undeniable magic. She plays in relative anonymity in Italia, where the only time the league got serious mainstream media coverage was when Ronaldo's wife was playing for one of the teams. He used to go to her games when he played for Inter Milan, but Ronaldo in Spain now... So to the WUSA: Good job on finally getting Dominguez, work on bringing Panico over, and make me a talent scout!
Great idea to bring Panico over. Philadelphia could offer her something no other WUSA team could: cheesesteaks.
Breakers Suffer Loss In Atlanta Beat Hand Breakers 6-0 Loss Dominguez Notches Hat Trick in Beat's 6-0 Victory Over Boston
As a resident of the Delaware Valley, I can tell you that if Patrizia comes over here and eats cheesesteaks then she will not retain her speed nor her fitness. There's a very good reason why Philly used to be the country's fattest city and certainly the fattest in the WUSA. Anyway, the first two goals were fine individual efforts. That 3 goal was horrible. Play was called(She blew her whistle and then Sobrero made her hit. Therefore, it's free kick to the Breakers with the yellow card to Goals 4 and five were bad defending. However, allowing that space on the end was also the Beat's doing. Hooper I think it was. Goal six never should have happened The Beat player met the Breaker player at the halfway line with basically studs or boots into the body. Player is clearly hurt and the referee allows the play to go on. What's with that? Bad refereeing. Dominquez is excellent. Not as bad as the scoreline shows.
Well, that was certainly a slap in the face.Defense? Swarming defense?? What the heck was with Monica Gonsalves.She made one good play early on to disposess and then stunk the joint out for the rest of the match. La nouvelle fille had a good game when she was able to be involved but the rest of the attacking group couldn't finish early and then just disappeared completely. It could be that the Beat are really that good in which case a tough season is ahead for all but we were pretty bad in the back.Aldamo was giving up crosses with frightening regularity.It's early in the season, no doubt, but that was a very disheartening exhibition. It appeared that the stands were not too full.How can you not support a team that is that good on opening day when it's 75 degrees and sunny?? Anyone know how advance sales for our opener are going? Weymouth Dave
Midfield Defending If Coach Sundhage is stressing team defense, she needs to take a look at not only the individual defending of the backline but of the defensive coverage needed from the midfield. Sawa's first goal was created by a lack of a midfielder coming back to cover. Gonzalez succeeded in denying a turn from Hooper, so Hooper laid it back to Sawa. If the midfield had been doing their job defensively, then a player would have been tracking back to cover Sawa and she would not have been open so close to goal. IIRC there was an instance when a Breaker defender pushed up (Aldama I think) and the Breakers were dispossessed. Gonzalez had to come across with a good tackle to prevent a shot from getting off. If a midfielder had dropped for the defender going up, the potentially dangerous situation could have been avoided. There were too many times when the defense was left man to man, and I have to put some of the blame on the Breakers midfield. My memory's a little fuzzy for the match so if details are wrong, please excuse me. Also, can someone please tell me one time when Kluegel completed a pass? That coupled with being denied on one of her ventures forward (while Anson was simultaneously raving about her 1 v 1 ability) affirms my belief that she should not be starting, much less be called in national team camp.
As a coach, goals 1-4 are goals I could live with. Goals 5 & 6 were examples of poor play and/or exhaustion and/or indifference. Those are the ones I'd be worried about. A few silly millimeters and the Breakers go into halftime up 3-0, not down 2-0. They played well for 60 minutes. In the end, it's just 3 points in the standings with 19 games remaining. re: Kluegel: she penetrated well, but was not effective with her final touch. You're not going to beat Atlanta lobbing balls into the PA. You're definitely not going to beat Atlanta when the final touch goes out of play. With the quality midfield tha Boston has, use them, pull the ball back and lay it off to someone that has more options.
I thought BOS would get a better result. They played quite well in the 1st half, then ATL got the better of them. The 1st DFK from Dominguez was excellent, & virtually unstoppable. The 2nd, however, was the result of lack of discipline from an 8-man wall. They committed the cardinal sin of letting a goal slip. Why set up an 8-man wall when they have no intention of maintaining the integrity of that wall in the first place? The players on the edges made no attempt to rush the kicker. No one on that wall, heck, it doesn't seem like anyone on this team, is willing to take one for the team. Every time I catch BOS, Sombrero makes her case as a mediocre player. Lacks intensity and purpose. True, Sawa's goal can be attributed to lack of midfield play, but Sombrero just stood there when Sawa had the ball. Just by moving forward, she would have compressed Sawa's space. And by moving forward, she would have rendered Hooper & someone else in an offside position. I'm not impressed with her technical skills, & it seems that she lacks situational awareness. World-class defender my ass. I saw the same things about Jena as soccrgrlk13s8 did. If Anson thinks she's so great, maybe he should take her back to UNC, because she doesn't belong in the pros. any idea why Hawkins didn't start? As soon as Hawkins came in, she started to win possession & distributed effectively. Is that other Norwegian ever going to get healthy? BOS look like they're still a work-in-progress. As I said last season, even the nats on defense are a joke. Joe should have made a better offer for Iverson. If BOS defenders are as bad as they seemed, I wouldn't be surprised to see Iverson wearing blue before summer.
Hawkins certainly seem to do well when she came in. Breakers certainly can bounce back from this. There were some very good moments up to around the 60th minute. But that last goal shouldn't have counted. The wall should have been better on the second goal. If Mugneret-Beghe starts to click with this offense then they score even more goals. They should have scored a couple in this match. Unfortunate not to. Defense lost the game for them.
After reviewing the tape, I think that every one of the second half goals belayed a defensive error, either comission or omission. Yes, that includes midfield defense as well as the back four.
Boston looked good and dominated for the first 15 minutes, then the Beat stepped up ... and Dominguez got going. Boston seemed to lose focus after that and became flagrant with fouls and their frustration began to show. Atlanta really has it together. The new players are jelling with the old players... team chemistry is great. We have a lot of depth and the whole team is playing with a confidence I've not seen in them before. Scurry is better than I have EVER seen her. She's all over the place! They have just come out solid. I'm eager to see them play Washington and San Jose. I wasn't fond of the Referee. She made some terrible calls...most went the way of Boston during the first half and seems as if most went the way of Atlanta during the 2nd. Lilly slipped at one point (no one touched her) and Parlow was tagged with a foul. Hooper got called on several when she didn't even touch the nearby player, but her reputation causes her to get a few called each game whether she is in the wrong or not... we've come to expect that from all the referees. I was suprised at the no-call on the cleat move. It was a 50/50 ball and both players slid in for it...they looked like they slid into each other. Unfortunately for the Boston player, the contact from our player was the bottom of her shoe. I expect Boston to do better than they are probably feeling right now. Hopefully their homefield problems will be a thing of the past and you guys can rack up some points on your next game.
Did anybody else notice that the broadcast gave stats at the 30 minute mark reading "Shots": Breakers 5, Atlanta 0. Yet the official stats read only 2 shots for the Breakers? I can see them changing Meinert's shot because it would have gone just wide (although those goalposts sure were gobbling up balls). I thought I had a few other shots that were blocked by defenders in the PA. I wonder what the official definition of "shot" is. Who was the Breaker down at midfield in the 90th minute when Atlanta started the break for number 6?
Sobs - 50/50 ball her and Crumpton (I think) both slid into the ball from opposite directions. Kate got a chest full of cleat - could have been called a dangerous play.
And like a rather infamous play on Sunday, the referee should have stopped play to see if she was okay.
For anyone wondering why my earlier post was edited... it was nothing against Big Soccer rules. All I did was respond to the above post about Atlanta attendance. I listed the reasons why attendance was low this past weekend. Why it was edited, I still don't know...... I know this is a Boston thread, but I would hope others posting here with relevant information responding to others posts... would be welcomed. I see that it is not. This could be a big reason for this forums low post count. Good luck with the rest of your season. I'll stick to the Atlanta forum and rivalry. I was just trying to be informative, nothing more, nothing less.
Atlanta - Boston Officiating By far the worst "non call" of the first half was when Dagny had a breakaway and was grabbed by the shirt by the "Beaten" Augustiniak. Should have been a yellow card at the very least perhaps even a PK. I think you are confusing the Breakers with another team because Boston was the only WUSA team that was unbeaten at home last season and the Breakers haven't lost to a non-Norwegian goalkeeper in Boston since July 2001.
Re: Atlanta - Boston Officiating I'd have to look at the tape to refer to this play. I was in the stands and my cable was off so my VCR only taped static I just know people in my section were getting upset over the non-calls for the Beat during the first half. During the 2nd half, I was shocked at several no-calls that should have gone the way of the Breakers. The Ref was totally inconsistent. My Bad!!!!!! Sorry about that. It was their away games that they had trouble with, eh?! Well, hopefully that trend will end for them soon (just not at Herndon!!).