I don't have a lot to say about the game, except congratulations, Breakers. So I'll focus on something entertaining, the new announcer. If you're an announcer for a professional sports team, here are some things to consider: 1) Don't forget the keeper of the home team when announcing the line-up. 2) Find out what Twitter is and use the word appropriately ("follow the Twitter" cracked me up) 3) Learn how to pronounce the players' names ahead of time 4) Don't say "courtesy of (player x)" when announcing a goal for the away team 5) Announcing the end of the game 5 minutes after the whistle is not really necessary 6) Learn how texting works (and don't confuse letters and numbers) 7) Learn about the sport prior to your first engagement It was pretty funny. The ref was entertaining as well. He seemed in constant panic mode and to overreact quite a bit. You would have thought that he was trying to keep a Premier League game from getting out of control. Not sure about this red card. But in all fairness, I am not sure why we got the PK either. Did anyone have a better view?
Ditto on the announcer. The 14 year old girl in front of me knew more about the players and the game. I didn't see the p.k. foul, because I was too bust picking up my jaw which had dropped to the ground in awe after Naehr's save. I did see the foul by Whitworth. She came out of her penalty box and got beat to the ball by O'Hara. O'Hara made a neat move around Whitworth and Whitworth took her down. It was a not a vicious foul, but it was definitely a DOGSO situation. The red card was warranted. Not a great decision by Whitworth.
Hehehe...great list! I'll add to it: 8) Learn how to pronounce the name of the visiting team's COACH (what did he say? Tony Da-sick-eee-oh?) I cringed! If you're announcing a women's professional soccer game, you sure as hell should know who Tony Dicicco is! Also, I saw on the Breaker's page here on Big Soccer that Whitworth got a "multi game" suspension for the red card. What's up with that? Is it true? Oher observations: Despite the score, I thought that the Beat seemed to be a more cohesive team than last year's team--at least they were passing the ball to each other. Galanis is a joke.
The game became significantly better when Lloyd was put in. I'm sure Galanis had wanted to "make a point" by putting her on the bench (everybody has to earn it, etc), but when you have so many players on the field who have zero WPS experience, you can't afford not to put your only real national player in the starting line-up (other than Mitts, who played a pretty good game overall). I'm probably stating the obvious, but without a quality goalkeeper and a forward (ANY forward, really), there's not a whole lot of reason for optimism. The Beat's game was a bit faster than it was last season, which was good to see, but there's nobody up front to score goals. I also don't recall De Agostino (?), Marquez (?), and Dowling winning any challenges. Reynolds showed some promise, though.
I'll jump on the "PA announcer sux" bandwagon. I've had so many people ask me WTF is this guy....it's pretty terrible to not even get your own team right. I'm not giving the guy a total free pass on a visiting team because I know they have pronounciation sheets up there for every person on the field. But if you are announcing as a job, you should be saying your team's players' names in everyday conversation just to make sure you have it down. I almost blew a gasket when he announced DiCicco. I agree that Lloyd's 2nd half start was a game-changer. The pace seemed to step up a bit and there was more smart plays. While I agree with the coach about earning your time, I also agree that making a point might not always be the best decision. She needed to be out there at the start. Didn't see the foul that resulted in our PK.
The person who posted that has retracted it - it wasn't a violent foul, just a DOGSO, so she'll sit the next game but that's all.
I've never seen Lloyd start a game playing well come to think of it, maybe she should always be a second half sub, Nats included...
Well, the Beat certainly can't afford to put her on the bench. I know that she has a lot of critics, but nobody can deny that she was one of the more successful USWNT players - scored more goals lately than anyone else.
SHe should have, she (and a handfull of other players) has played almost 200-300 more minutes than everyone else on the team... WHY ?... if she was given an even split with someone, they would have the spot. Pia refuses to play another player and take her off the field, that's why... Atlanta will be calling for her to get benched just like Chicago in a short time
highlights Boston vs Atlanta http://www.womensprosoccer.com/video/index?pid=t94dtT_ObKqf_dTzgGvfTJNdoZbPSLrZ
I agree that Reynolds showed promise as well as Jesolva who seemed to play end-to-end tirelessly. Honestly, I actually thought the team was fairly exciting and ambitious in the attack. Most of the press I've read is pretty down on the team (well, that's been going on for a while now -- guess it's more like, "see we told you they'd suck"), but I certainly think their performance was much better than people give them credit for. I was on the defensive end for the second half, so it was a little difficult to judge Lloyd's contributions, but I think with her and Chalups in the center and our aggressive youngsters in the attack, the team does have a chance to score. Also, it seemed like the crowd was really into the game and supporting the team. Nice to see given the dismantling and reconstruction we've undergone. On the announcer, I heard him at the UNC game and was hoping it was just for tryouts or he was the winner of some radio contest ("Beat Announcer for a Day!"). I thought exactly the same thing when he said "Tony....Di-kee-cho". "Really, you don't know this guy? '99 World Cup?" Jesolva's name sounded like a train wreck of vowels. At least the guy gets excited and gets the crowd motivated, I'll give him that. And no more "Ladies and Gentlemen.....HOPE SOLOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!" every time someone doesn't score on the keeper.
The only thing he motivated me to do was to go down and strangle him. Guess Fitz got him for free. You are right about the " Hope Solo" thing that was so bad in a Team sport
I've lurked here for a while and finally got around to registering to talk some Beat. I tend to agree with most of what has been said in this thread. The announcer - I was just amazed at his inability to simply pronounce members of the HOME TEAM lineup. Megan Jaysul....Alyssa Marquez, etc. Also, something about him makes me feel like I am listening to a low rated AM station on Sunday morning. But enough announcer talk! My thoughts on Lloyd - she changed the game around when she came in...before then, the Beat had nobody taking control in the middle. I thought I read where there a limit of 4 games the members of the WNT can play before the World Cup? If so, why waste 1 game of Lloyd by using her just a half of a game where we were down 2-0? Has the 4 game limit been changed, or was/am I just confused?
The 4 games topic referred to the number of games the WNT players would be available to play before the WWC.