I have been impressed with several so far... Obviously, Pugh when healthy. Murphy has a ton of potential as she showed in game 1. Not sure Fox is all that young but she is playing extremely well as an outside defender, love her grit too. Need Rodman to get vax'd and put on a national team jersey before I can judge. Smith has played well and so has Macario (better than at first). Wasn't that impressed with Huerta or Hatch or Sanchez so far. However, we are finally seeing some youth play. That should help the team for years to come. And will say this. USA youth > Australia's youth in general.
even so, in the first match AUS debuted at CB that just turned 17 last month, and didn’t have creds previous to that. Something played for their u16 squad previously. So seems like Aussies suffer from an incredible lack of depth
You must have her confused with Lynn. Horan has 100 caps. Player like Lynn is the one that needs to prove shes worthy to be on this team
Virtually no other country, except maybe China and Japan, have a lack of depth when compared to the US. We have had a very broad girls youth soccer program for many years while most other countries do not have much resembling such a program or they started theirs much later than we did. As early as 1990 in the US, and even before, one of the most popular kids sports was soccer. That meant that we gave kids, particularly girls, exposure to the sport very early. Since then we have had a larger base to build on than other countries so it is not surprising that we are generally deeper in all positions. But that advantage will not last forever. Other countries should "catch up" but we still maintain a lead and that will continue for some time. Our depth has kept us in the ascendancy in women's soccer but that "could" change at any time.
Lynn has a lot to show too. Fast runner but inaccurate shooter, not a great passer either. Not giving up yet but she has to show more Horan may have 100 caps and there are other oldies that have even more. Horan will never drive the offence. For one thing she's too slow. For another, not gonna create much. She has the #10 on her back but she is not a #10, Hope Vlad keeps looking for a real, creative midfielder. I see Horan more as a DM
Speed is a luxury for offensive mids. It is not really needed as long as they have fast reflexes and good field vision and a good/great touch. Horan seems to have all those. In fact a DM needs speed more than an attacking central mid. I believe Williams has developed as far as she can and we will never see her shooting with accuracy. As I have said before she reminds me of Josh Wolfe on the men's side. He was able to kill an attack by just dribbling into space and shooting or passing or crossing. His passes/shots/crosses missed any target that was not on the other team or sitting in the 10th row. Goals he scored were more a matter of speed and luck than anything else. Williams can kill attacks by trying to do what she should. She has been playing long enough that, if she was going to fix what is wrong, the problems should be fixed. The problems are not fixed and the time and effort spent trying to develop her skills to be beneficial has been has pretty much been wasted. Williams, right now, is suited to no more than a late sub when we need a goal or when her speed will work to our advantage.
And yet Horan will sit behind S. Mewis, Ertz, and Lavella as long as all three are healthy. Suppose she can game start in Lou of S. Mewis or Lavelle. Pretty sure the Horan experience of subbing in for Ertz will be a thing of the past. Edit: in fact. I'm not sure where Macario fits in that rotation either, which is why I would love to see her at the 9.
Most impressive to me were Hatch, Fox, and Murphy. Ashley might very well be that elusive number 9... My girl Purce as usual was amazing. Williams I still don't understand what makes her good let alone a starter. The midfield underperformed. I was excited to see Lavelle, Horan, and Sullivan connection but it was rather meh specially Sullivan. Is it just me or the older Mewis is just a game or few away from getting dropped from the team. It's like Vlatko doesn't know what to do with her so he just randomly sub her in the dying minutes of games. The backline as a whole needs some work the most. The young ones are obliviously still pretty raw but the older ones surprisingly made more silly mistakes and giveaways like Sonnet for example. This young squad was so fun to watch but we all know a whole bunch of them will not get the call back for the next camp and eventually next games because the ancients are back from their extended respites.
That was direct payback for an earlier incident where it was Horan's head and face getting raked and pummeled, which was also an easy card, but not given.
Player of the day was Fox, no doubt. Player of the trip though was Horan; she's actually gaining speed, and also two or three step quickness. Where in the past she has tended to be more the beneficiary of the pressure of others, this trip she has been the benefactor more than her share of the time. Rose had one of her better games; never been big on Huerta, but this was pretty good. Sullivan had one of those games where at first you say "not much happened around her." Then you think about it and say "and that's pretty much what you'd like to say, again and again." I miss missing Ertz, but I'm content to miss missing her if that's how it is...
thanks to TITLE IX, the US got an highly successful formula that keeps about 39K woso players still highly engaged through the important 18-22 year old age groups. And this is the coolest part…..no one else wants to copy our system! So I guess we’ll keep on winning until the rest of the world copies us OR pays bigger pro salaries comparable to their men’s pro clubs so that more female participants will stick around(right now the pro club salary if an typically woso player is very very low)
Just watched the second match. boy howdy it fills me with joy !! That Emily Fox is very impressive. Might make the loss of Dunn a bit easier to swallow. Love that Purce as well. but surprisingly the player I found my eyes locked on was Sophia Huerta !!! What vision !! What execution!! yeah.. we gonna be fine.
Vlatko mentioned in the Post game press conference that he had planned to start Macario at the 9. So I would expect at some point he will put her there. He certainly has seen how effective she played the 9 for Lyon so far this season.
Fun matches to watch. Emily Fox has always been great and continues to shine at this level. I see her as the future starter. I think this entire backline, sans, perhaps Huerta, as the starters going into the WC. I really like Huerta, she brings a technical ability O'hara lacks, although O'hara is speedier and a very aggressive defender. I don't see any of these forwards -Hatch, Williams, Purce - on the WC team. They all play one-dimensional, direct soccer. If we play a 4-3-3 the forwards all need to be able to hold the ball and pass. Perhaps Williams will make the squad for her speed. Purce can play a few positions, but she is not elite at any of them. I don't think any of the three earned a corner between both matches. I much prefer Pugh, Smith, Rodman to these three. And then we have: Morgan, Heath, Press, Macario and Rapinoe all under the forward banner. Sullivan is steady. But I prefer our Dmids, like Boxx, Ertz (and even Lloyd when she played here) to be terminators and disruptors. Sullivan is not that. I'd like to see Howell get a shot. Murphy was great, fun to watch. Looking forward to seeing more of her on the National team.
To me, Horan has always been a 9. She got moved from there, b/c she couldn't unseat Morgan and Carli. But, she's a 9, and maybe she could be a great 9. She can finish, she can do the hold up stuff and the layoff stuff. But, right now we seem to have more depth, and rising talent at 9 than at 8/10? I think that if we played a double pivot, Horan could play as a 6. But, in a single six system, that player has to be super range-y (as they say in football).
Fox seems fantastic. Not a lot to go on, but I was impressed with Huerta. I'd put Purce in the "on the verge" group. And, I've always been a fan of Sullivan. She's not young any more, but she's still new.
It's not exactly secret. At the last WWC there were several teams that had players that had played NCAA players. But, other nations will never replicate the college sports system in any sport - including women's soccer. I feel like Title 9 has had a worldwide social impact because of the success of the US women's team, and women from around the world coming to the US to play.