It does seem as if Leblanc is changing her tactics however. She usually plays so far out, you'd think she was a sweeper. However, against Mexico she stayed back, and on a couple of occasions, it seemed Hermus was expecting Leblanc to come out and was surprised that she did not. LeBlanc, with due respect to McLeod and Swiatek, is the better of the three yet IMO.
With all due respect to your opinion about the three goalkeepers, I disagree. Your comment about LeBlanc changing her tactics, let me update you in goalkeeping changing times. The newer strategy (which Canada uses) is to play the goalkeeper as far out as possible, way out, so she can give better and earlier support and enable the D line to play further out, regardless if you can get scored on. When LeBlanc plays further out as she is told to, she gets into trouble at times. A transition problem or running speed maybe. So in order not to mess up, she is holding back more and is hesitating as you noticed. MacLeod on the other hand does not have that problem. Swiatek can be very good in the traditional goalkeeper role, but she has even more difficulty negotiating the new trend.
There was a little confusion at times but that's to be expected with a make-shift back line. Nonen s/b ready for next game and hopefully Boyd will be ready for WWC play. In the meantime Pellerud will go over the tape with the team and get things sorted out. Barring further injury, LeBlanc will start against Germany. Mcleod might see playing time against Argentina.
hmm.. Interesting line up tonite. (Thursday's game in Vancouver). Hoop started as the sweeper. She's not bad except she passes the ball back too much to the keeper. (Passes not heads or chests). Rustad was scarey when she came on for Lang. Talk about unsettled defense. Andrews ended up pulling back to shore up the defense. Starting line up as I remember it was. LeBlanc Tanya Dennis; Hooper (Sweep), Neil (?) Silvana Burtini Timko, Matheson, Sinclair, Kiss? Lang and Latham I may have switched up Neil and Kiss but I think the rest were correct. Tonight it was all about Lang, she had a hattrick. Can't remember the first goal, but she scored it. Second goal was hers too a rocket from well outside the 18. I thought it was over but it found the back of the net with pace. Her third goal was the same as the second. Latham played well, but no goals. Sinclair seemed to disappear. Canada went into the 2nd half up by 2 though Mexico was never really a threat. The only real chance in the first half was because LeBlanc plays so high. She was almost made to pay for it... 2nd half subs were Swiatek in for LeBlanc (she looked shaky), Rhian Wilkinson in for Latham and Sasha Andrews in for Neil. Wilkinson is a speed demon, she was consistently beating the defense in foot races. She scored once after beating the defender to the ball and placing the ball into the far corner as she beat the keeper. Andrews was credited for a corner goal mouth scramble. Couldn't see what happened, as there was too much traffic. Rustad came on for LAng and Hooper was pushed forward to striker. That caused a bit of pandemonium in the back and resulted in a great scoring chance for Mexico as someone passed the ball back to Swiatek who was forced to clear the ball (pretty much from the line) under pressure. Morneau came in for Kiss? and pushed Burtini up to outside mid. Morneau had a bit of a rough start as her crosses started out being ~ hip level. To her credit, she stabilised the defense and set up Rustad's goal. Rustad's goal was a clinic in how to take free kicks. Canada took a short free kick passing the ball to Morneau's feet. Morneau put a cross pretty much right on Rustad's head. Rustad put the ball in the back of the net....... One more sub. Consolante in for Matheson. Is Moscato injured? Game ended Canada 6 Mexico 0 Crowd of 6,000 + stadium almost full. http://www.globeandmail.ca/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030905.wsobu04/BNStory/Sports/ http://www.cbc.ca/pcgi-bin/templates/sportsView.cgi?/news/2003/09/05/Sports/canada-mexico030904
Hmmm.. Dennis, Neil, Hooper and Burtini start on defense? Karina looks shakey so Pellerud subs in Swiatek? Andrews pulls back to shore up defense? Sinclair seemed to dissappear? Wilkinson looked like a speed demon? Six goals and not one scored by Hooper, Latham or Sinclair? Where were Hermus and Nonen? Did Andrews sub in for a midfielder? Did Consolante play midfield? This had to be the strangest game on record. Talk about bizarre. Reads like something out of the twilight zone. btw My sources believe Moscato was the victim of an alien abduction.
i always thought rhian was the type of player that loma described her as ... she just goes after the ball and causes havoc ... and she definitely has some deceptive speed! nonen might be still resting from her various bumps, but i have no clue where hermus is. that's a surprising playing NOT playing ... has something happened b/t the two games to randee? i hope it's nothing to read into too much ... lol. my sources tell me that carm has been hampered with stress fractures as of late ... she hasn't been in the sr. team picture since may-ish ... elaine
according to a poster over at Go Big Red! (http://www.gobigred.ca/forum/ubb/ultimatebb.php), neil was actually in the midfield and timko was in the defense....timko then moved into the midfield in the 2nd half. elaine
LeBlanc did not look shakey. She almost got caught once, but that was it. Swiatek looked abit shakey. Timko was definately playing the right wing mid-field position. Or else she was way, way, way, out of position the whole first half.... She kept running up and down the sideline closest to us. Don't remember seeing her anywhere near the middle of the pitch. Burtini and Dennis were the outside defenders which would have left Timko in the stopper position and like I said I don't remember her being anywhere near the middle of the pitch or anywhere else resembling the stopper position.........
http://www.canadasoccer.com/eng/media/viewArtical.asp?Press_ID=1460 Hmm. Looks like my bad, as Dennis was supposedly playing stopper. Really didn't look like it though, as Dennis spent all the first half marking along the wing and Timko was way, way up on the wing. When Andrews started, I thought she started in the midfield, but she was way,way over in the back corner though so it was really hard to tell.
More confusion. Now it seems that Hooper scored. "Kara Lang, 16, led Canada with three goals and veteran Charmaine Hooper scored once in front of more than 6,000 fans at Swangard Stadium." or maybe not.. "Goals: Canada - Kara Lang (7, 31, 59), Sasha Andrews (57), Rhian Wilkinson (61), Clare Rustad (85) " http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/03/en/030905/6/5oi.html Seems like Pellerud mixed things up so much that everyone's confused about what happened. Look for Matheson to start in goal next game with LeBlanc and Swiatek earning their first caps as forwards.
haha....can you imagine D in goal? she'll be dwarfed in the nets! lol although i must say, having KK run at you w/a ball might be pretty scary ... lol elaine
That's what it looked like, though it seems I maybe wrong about Neil. Nope. Canada had the game in hand. IT was never ever really close. Don't know Mexico's NT at all, but this definitely was not the same team they sent to the Gold Cup. No where close and "hopelessly outclassed". Yes, there was mass pandemonium at the back when Hooper moved to forward. Whether that was just miscommunication with Rustad entering the field I don't know but the defense looked very shaky for ~5 minutes and then Andrews started making her presence known. It really looked as though Andrews was more in the mid-field to start that second half, but I really couldn't tell. There were no lineups (announced) and they had a special presentation for Hooper just as the second half started so the Canadians lined- up late and the game started quickly. Oddly McLeod and Swaitek were listed as the same number and they announced that she (McLeod) was starting the second half, but McLeod was standing in front of our section wearing a blue pinney.................... The announcers made a fairly quick correction, but it was kind of funny as my boyfriend asked me how I knew it wasn't McLeod in net. (We were at the very end almost in front of the Mexican net in the second half). He was pretty funny as he was surprised he knew pretty much who every player was on the pitch from TV. Especially Hooper 'cause he's watched a lot of WUSA games with me. Yes, she wasn't playing up top. Just midfield as far as I could tell. LAtham seemed to be the go to person in the first half for our offense. Yes it was pretty much put the ball to Wilkinson and watch her run past the defence to collect the ball. She's fast. The first time she beat the defence she had a bad touch and the keeper beat herto the ball. But she was consistently beating the defence and getting in good crosses from the corners. Yep. Kind of hard to score from sweeper, but Hooper did have one shot in the first half where she walked around ~4 defenders and then blasted it at the keeper Hoops IMO was playing too high when she was moved up to striker and balls just weren't coming through for her. She's so stable. At one point a Mexican player was just hacking at her back and she not only retains her balance but the ball and her temper. She drew the foul that I think Rustad scored on............ On the bench. Nonen looked okay and was out warming up at the half. Don't know for sure, sure seemed like it. Consolante subbed for a mid fielder. Whether she stayed there, I'm not sure, there really weren't too many direct substitutions. The really nice shiny brochure they handed out at the game has 22 players on the WWC Team Roster. Andrews,Booth,Boyd,Burtinin,Chapman,Hermus,Hooper,Kiss,Lang,Latham,LeBlanc, Matheson,McLeod,Morneau,Moscato,Neil,Nonen,Rustad,Sinclair,Swiatek,Timko and Wright
they've been handing out those things since may....the poster thingie. that's just your player pool ... lots of players have been added since and some aren't in the picture etc. what's funny about that poster is if you look at a few of the players "head shots" ... timko and booth off the top of my head, you can tell they cut and pasted their heads into the uniforms, as they wanted everyone to have the same uniforms... i remember brittany telling me they did an awful job with her picture and she looks like there's a clump on her head. lol elaine
Good point no Dennis, Consolante or Wilkinson in the photos and Morneau's cut her hair. I thought she was Matheson when she was warming up at half time........
lol...yeah, izzy cut her hair...back in may, but it now a bit longer. took some getting used to!! i hope the CSA announces the roster today ... save me all this anxious waiting! elaine
We're rapidly running out of friendlies before the Big Show. When is Canada going to get its defensive act together??
When Chapman, Nonen and Boyd are healthy. Until then Canada will play with a make-do back line. No way around it. I'm guessing (hoping) Hermus and Nonen are ready to go and Pellerud was resting them for this one while experimenting with a number of other players to see what his best options are if Boyd isn't ready for the 20'th. In any case, he'll likely play his starting line-up for Germany in the final friendly against Australia.
Back home now, calmed and composed after such an entertaining game. I thought it would be 8 goals again, but I was wrong. Didn't win the 50-50 either, what a bummer. Everybody played very well including the subs. Everybody followed Pellerud's pre-game strategy to the T. With a team so well disciplined we can only win. If I have to make some points, here they are: The PA announcer needs to rehearse the Spanish pronunciation of the Mexican players' names, it was embarrasing. The French announcer did pretty good. Kara's first goal was scored at 5 minutes not 7 as recorded. I think Tanya Dennis will make the final cut. Charmaine looks like a seasoned Defender, better than many. What a resourceful gal. Kara has two blessed legs. Hope the CSA has them insured. My prediction: Canada 4 - Germany 1.
not particularly in the first game in edmonton (that i remember)...even if they were bunkering, the defense was really shakey and unorganized. elaine
In Edmonton, Mexico tried to move players forward and attack in numbers but couldn't penetrate the mids. 95% of the game was played in their half but I wouldn't say they were intentionally bunkering. Mexico showed some really nice ball skills and playmaking ability but Canada didn't leave them any room to maneuver. Brazil had the same problem, just not to quite the same degree. Technically better than Canada but the pressure forced them to cough up the ball a lot and then Canada would go on the attack. The majority of the play was in Brazil's end but unlike Mexico, they were dangerous on the counter. Big difference between the USA/Brazil and Canada/Brazil games. USA/Brazil was all nice playmaking, lots of short, crisp passes with most of the play in the midfield. Canada/Brazil was mostly long balls, fast attacks and counter-attacks. When the ball got into the midfield, it didn't stay there for more than one or two passes. More play in the defensive ends. Expect the USA to tromp all over Mexico. They must be very tired and demoralized after the pounding Canada gave them.
Thanks for the info guys.... I don't expect there to be more than 5 goals. They might be demoralized but a funny thing happens to lesse opponents when they play the US. The deeper they get into the game with out allowing a goal the more confidence they gain. Mexico always bunkers against us. I was just wondering what there mindset was against Canada. Weather they wanted to try and win. Or try and minimize the damage.
After about 60 minutes of the first game I think they just wanted to go home. Pretty certain the last thing they want or need right now is to play the USA.