Game 6: Red Stars vs. Independence 5/15/10

I guess it's not a real league until a coach's head is called for: http://bit.ly/9hGsxg

 

Where did Klein go? Did I miss something, or do I have to start a "Where Brittany Klein" thread now......?

 

"I'm also their leader and by that, I can sit here and scratch my head and be disappointed by it, but take a look at their faces," she said. "It's not from a lack of wanting to do it."

"What has happened with a team like us is we go behind and we panic," Hayes said. "Rather than just settling into the game, we want to take it into our own hands individually. It has become a stress for the team."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sport...6-red-stars-chicago--20100515,0,6594812.story

What Coach Hayes said after the game...

 

With Chapman on the roster and Formiga now in playing shape, Emma has apparently decided we don't need two d-mids and so she put in Formiga in place of Klein. One thing I would have done is replace Formiga with Klein at half-time since Formiga was just so horrible out there.

Also, why was Carney in the center of our midfield half the time instead of out on the flanks where she belongs? Oh, that's right. Because Formiga couldn't complete a damn pass. OK, she actually did complete ONE pass in the first half - an 8-yard backpass to Markgraf. Yeah, that's what I want to see from my Brasilian CAM...

 

Cristiane and Nogueira sure didn't play like they wanted anything.

Well, I think Emma had better ask herself WHY did Carney think she had to do it by herself and was totally gassed at the end of each half? Because her teammates were largely clueless, disorganized and/or lolligagging about the field, maybe? And what "game plan" is she talking about? I sure didn't see one. I haven't seen much of one all season. A team needs a plan, a strategy, something that tells them what to do when they get the ball. We had none of that again last night, as far as I could tell.

So you had:

1. players literally running into each other out there rather making space for each other

2. players just standing around waiting for something to happen rather than MAKING a strategy happen.

3. no communication out there while plays were happening which led to players gesturing to each other in frustration AFTER the attack is already dead or the opponent scores.

4. Carney was everywhere, trying to make up for the deficiencies of Formiga, Nogueira, and Spilger, which led to her making passes behind her teammates late in each half because her legs were gone by then.

It didn't help that Emma kept Cristiane in the game too long. I'd have subbed her out at half-time along with Formiga and put Asllani and Klein in their places. True, Philly chose to just sit back and counter in the 2nd half, but we'd have looked more dangerous with Asllani in there anyway. Unlike Cristiane, Asllani hustles, anticipates, and creates opportunities out of nothing. Klein may not be a midfield general but Formiga sucked and contributed nothing to our attack anyway. Having some stability in our central midfield would have allowed Carney to concentrate on playing her game instead of having to exhaust herself putting out fires all over the field. Or, if you want Carney at CAM, then take out Formiga and put in Sitch on the wing.

As well Emma should. We did have limited success in 5-10 minute stretches when we put Philly's defenders under pressure when they won the ball. So why didn't we continue that since it worked? Probably because to play a high-pressure game like that would require forwards who willing to make the effort and neither Cristiane nor Nogueira are those forwards. "Lack of wanting", indeed...

 

I attended the game, and my impression was we were good enough to have won. Philly took advantage of the one good (half-gift, half-earned) opportunity they had. Chicago had a number of good opportunities and took advantage of none of them. On balance, I thought Chicago looked like the better team, but they came up short in the account book.

Then I started reading some of the comments here - and I find myself unable to disagree with a lot of it. The Brazilians certainly did not come to play: Christiane looked to be having a bad day because she has played pretty well this year (yes, she does look heavy and out-of-condition); Formiga is a question-mark at best. Carney was terrific. I thought the defense performed creditably overall, except for the lapse producing the early goal.

We definitely were passing - ineffectively - to space an awful lot, but Philly did a bit of that, too. Sometimes I think we watch too much European football - WPS is simply not going to reflect the quality we see there.

But a lot of what is said here is certainly valid - we had chances, and opportunities to create chances, which failed to materialize due to an apparent lack of that little additional effort you expect from a professional athlete. And that - in the end - is a coaching failure.

 

Philly was able to use short passing, running off the ball and creating space for each other to create several scoring opportunities while we had trouble getting the ball out of our midfield. Part of that was the fact that we gave them too much room all over the field but part of that was also that, unlike us, they had a plan and worked together to execute it.

If I was a Philly fan, I would not have liked the way Philly then sat back during the second half on only a one-goal lead, but considering the Red Stars' difficulty in getting anything other than aimless long balls over the top to our forwards and our futility in front of goal, it worked. The best you can say about us is we did not give up and we should have made them pay for bunkering too long, but we didn't and it's been a problem ever since the beginning.

 

I personally think that the Formiga experiment by CRS is just as inconclusive as it was for the FCGP last year. It's time for Emma to get that sparkplug, Klein, back out on the field where she belongs. She has always been the heart of her teams, as she was last year for the CRS.

 

I think you guys are being awfully harsh on Casey Nogueira. From what I saw (around the 30-minute mark of 1st half), she was one of your best players. She made Mitts look silly once or twice near midfield. She had the great crack that went just high and wide. She held the ball, split the pass between 2 defenders to whoever that was slicing in at the corner of the box (shot went wide).

Yes, there were a couple balls I thought she would get to before going over the touchline - okay, she just doesn't have that extra after-burner speed. But she was getting back in midfield to get possession for her team - in fact, I thought one of the problems was that both her and Carney were having to be in too many places. Red Stars really dominated possession while I was watching but at the cost of having those two (&maybe Chapman) roam all over to do it. Not sure who to blame/ what the solution is for that.

The team had enough possession but somehow the finishing isn't there or sometimes the last pass. I was a big defender of Cristiane last season but it seems like she isn't giving you that world-class finish, which she's capable of, consistently. I certainly thought your coach did the right thing substituting her when she did.

Nogueira is your next most dangerous attacker & I think she's doing fine for a rookie. But the Red Stars don't seem to have anyone else who can consistently threaten the goal: possibly hampered by illness/injury to Asllani and Rapinoe, but right now you have to wonder where you'll get some goals from. Maybe McDonald (another rookie) - she was unmarked on that header but couldn't put it in -- I'm not quite sure how critical I should be on that one; I'm not opposed to a bouncing header but, geez, when there's so few defenders in sight or on the goal line...

On other hand, Red Stars are still a pretty good team and sometimes soccer just isn't fair. Look at Sky Blue. 4 goals in 5 games (before today) and they have 3 wins out of it. They got pushed around by Atlanta, a game they could've/should've lost by 3 goals except for their GK Bardsley who put in the best game a GK has played so far in WPS.

 

I haven't gotten to watch the game yet; I was babysitting last night. But when I came home and read all of this and saw the score, my heart really sunk. I don't currently live in Chicago, but I was born their, and to me, Chicago is my home team. I've also been a New Orleans Saints fan all my life, and I know how it feels to lose over, and over, and over again. It sucks. Every time.

I guess I'll be able to offer more opinion after watching the game. But, I really hope we pull it together. Something needs to change, and at this point, I'm thinking Emma just isn't the person to bring this extremely talented team together.

 

http://wps.american-soccer-news.com/?p=373

That's... amazing.

Maybe she's seeing what it looks like to lose a dressing room.

 

Hayes needs to go. It's as simple as that.


Scoring three goals in 6 games is ridiculous. We aren't attacking in an organized fashion and this needs to change. I was actually talking to Casey Nogueira today and she said she feels more pressure from us fans than Hayes herself. Not good news hearing that your coach isnt pressuring you enough. As much as you need to keep a positive outlook, you also have to be hard on these women. They have two weeks off.. perfect timing to redraw a new game plan. If they dont improve by then, Hayes NEEDS to go.

 

I'm not sure Emma is the best coach for this team either but if this team was so talented how does a coach make players miss the net from the sidelines.Fans always defend their players but sorry this is not an "extremely talented team".

 

I'm not saying it's all on Emma. But you cannot deny that we have numerous, extremely talented, quality players on our roster, and we are not delivering results. And I think it has to do with our system, which has to do with the coach.

 

I agree

 

Haven't had a chance to post until now, but that game on Saturday was the worst I've seen this team play. I double down on the comments about no communication...It looked at times like they had never played together before. Embarrasingly so! Players didn't go to the place the passer thought they were going and the pass ended up in yards of open space or someone (Christiane mostly) would gesture or bark at a team mate for not sending the pass in.

Twice in the first half Rapinoe gestured for Engen to overlap to the outside, but then she ineffectually took the ball towards goal herself. You gotta mix it up a little and also reward that back for making the run!

Where was Sitch? Is she hurt?

Chapman was great, as was Carney (as usual). But she is getting the ball too far away from the net. You can't start every offensive possession with Carney getting the ball at midfield and dribbling/carrying it 20 yards. The passing was horrible.

The parts of this team are too good for this kind of team effort. Granted the goal was a gift, but they took advantage of it. You could see the team just sort of deflate after it happened.

I have mixed feelings about what to do about it, though, or where to place blame. I like the system, but it doesn't seem like the players are 100% sold on it. In the past losses, at least I could say that the team effort was there. This wasn't true on Saturday. They lost the crowd early because it just seemed like a number of players were just going through the motions.

 

I agree. You can blame individual players or the entire team all you want, but it all comes down to it being the coach's responsibility. She NEEDS to change things up in the style that we attack. We could try a 3-4-3.. North Carolina is well known for using it and it obviously works for them. We have three Tarheels so it wouldnt be brand new to everyone They key would be constant pressure.. would we be able to accomplish it?


Thats one idea i guess i have.. but really we just need to attack in a different fashion.

 

Ahhh forgot the substitution rules. I love the 3-4-3 when done properly.. too bad we cant do it.


Another thing... can anyone explain to me why Spilger played at center d? Engen has been a central defender for 2 years!! Spilger is not nearly as good as Engen. Does anyone know why Hayes would put Spilger in the middle? Especially when she had only logged what.. 65 minutes prior to this game and was all of a sudden helping anchor the heart of our defense?

 

I was wondering the same thing. I thought it could have been because Engen was a rookie or just used to playing on the left? Whatever the reason, the clearance wasn't made and they got an easy goal (not Loyden's fault by any means).

 

I've been thinking for a while that the weakest part of this team is that two of their biggest weapons are very similar type players. Both Carney and Rapinoe often come back and receive the ball near midfield and then dribble over quite a distance before deciding to try to make their own shot or pass into the forwards. They are both creative and fast (although I would give the advantage in the former to Rapinoe and the later to Carney). This would be a great advantage if they were able to link up more but they haven't been complimenting each other's games. Much of their offense (especially on Saturday) consists of one of them bringing the ball up, doing very similar things, just on opposite sides of the field. This willingness to run and to change sides so much should be a great advantage, but it hasn't been working like that. Ostensibly this tactic is used to mix up the defenders, but if both Carney and Rapinoe take the same line or tact with the ball, than what is the point? Until there is a level of diversity in the way the Red Stars build up the attack and the opposing defenders are forced to respond under pressure, I'm afraid that the goals are still going to be scarce.

This brings me to what I increasingly have been believing about this team. Yes, they are supremely talented players. What is lacking is "role" players, who are either absent or have been miscast. For example: Last year, I thought Lindsay Tarpley was miscast as the "face" of the team. Lindsay is a fantastic player (and all around nice person). But she is not the outspoken, kick-ass, in your face type leader that all successful teams have. She prefers to rely on her play to do her talking for her. Also from last year, I think the reason Carli Lloyd had such a disappointing season (I'm sure to herself as well as the fans), is because she really is not the type of player that the offense can run through. She doesn't have to do that in NJ because that's O'Reilley's job there.

I am a pragmatic person so I would never say things like "We need a player like Shannon Boxx". The reality is that there aren't very many players out there that can do all the things Boxx does. But it is realistic to wish we had someone who would/could similarly impose a physical presence in the middle of the field. After Saturday, I can see why Lori Lindsay is getting so much time with the national team. It seemed like everything went through her for Philly. I thought Sitch was supposed to fill that role for the Red Stars--but she didn't play this week, and has been subbed out early in many games. Chapman has been a revelation the last couple of games, so that may be a step in the right direction, defensively.

Perhaps the reason why Rapinoe and Carney feel like they have to prosecute the offense in the way they do, is because there isn't anything going through the middle of the field?