You are welcome. Unfortunately I cannot take any more pain meds for about four hours and MY BACK HURTS. Thanks for listening to an old man's complaints. The game was interesting in that it became clear what the plan was. 1. Play conservative and safe for the first half. 2. If close play the second half hard but do not go all out at first with subs that have an injury and are needed for the playoffs. 3. If still close at about minute 70 make the best subs available and turn the offense on full. Take a chance to win the game in the last 20 minutes if the game is close enough. 4. If a tie is gained do NOT pull back as that will be what SD expects and the best chance of a point on the road is to keep attacking. This produced an interesting game and had me guessing until it unfolded. It was a low risk way of trying to get a point on the road. GOOD COACHING!
Hopefully when the playoffs start, the Courage won't need to take so long to get into gear. The last few games have not shown particularly postive play in the first half. Getting everybody healthy and in their correct positions will probably help! Marcia might have said she didn't care who they play in the playoffs, but the last 20 minutes today definitely spoke volumes for wanting the Beat and not the Freedom. Dug up this little tidbit over the weekend -- this is how Grant Wahl predicted this year's season in the March/April 2002 SI for Women: 1. Atlanta ("no team will come close to beating them") 2. Boston 3. San Diego 4. New York 5. Philadelphia 6. San Jose 7. Carolina 8. Washington Well, one out of four playoff teams isn't too bad! To be fair, all the offseason maneuverings of a two year old league can't make forecasting all that easy.