I agree with everything you said above, and you have put into words what I think the team's biggest downfall. We have a formidable offense that doesn't work together. Rapinoe and Carney have to learn to work together for the team to be successful. And at this point, I almost feel like one game is going on in one wing, and another game in the other: the Rapinoe and the Carney game. I also agree that we need an offensive leader. And I think the prime candidate for that job in Chapman. I think if she can really rally our offense and keep a strong leadership position, she can help by bringing those balls more through the middle and then distribute to the wings or the forwards. If Formiga is going to be on the field, then Chapman is going to have to take a more offensive role, because Formiga is a dead hole. And please give us Klein back. We need her. Maybe we could try a 4-3-3 once? With Rapinoe, Chapman, and Carney in the midfield and Cristiane, Nogueira, and your choice of Masar or McDonald. Maybe Nogueira could play the middle and drop back as more of an AM at times. But we need something fresh.
You guys have some good points. and I didn't think about it but you are right galsoccer907, come to think of it, we do sometimes have two different games going on. The Carney game and Rapinoe game and very little constructive happening in the middle. At least when Klein was in she could tie the two together. Formiga is not the answer in the middle and I hope Emma sees this before it's too late and Klein loses her confidence and rhythm. Formiga should be coming off the bench not Klein sitting on the bench for 3 whole games. Last year she experimented all season with all kind of line-ups. I certainly hope we don't go through another season where you have no idea who is going to play from week to week and we're still experimenting in August. This team should be stable and confident by now and everyone should know their rolls.
From a Pride fan, the banter here is similar to what the Pride forum looked like a year ago when the team was not winning. From the outside looking in, I find some of the comments insightful and some are quite amusing, if not absurd. CHI are not an "extremely talented" team. I saw that firsthand a few weeks ago even before they went a man down out west. Scoring goals will cure a lot of ills, not all, but at least alleviate the pressure felt. The problem is that CHI's frontline is a joke. Cristiane's an enigma, Asllani looks lost, Masar has yet to score because she has the technique of a donkey, and Nogueira is talented but lazy, that's why 7 teams passed on her in the draft. I thought that CHI gave up a lot in getting Loyden [Tarpley]. Not that she scores a lot, but for a team already bereft of attacking talent, there was no adequate replacement for her. Can't blame if the coach constantly retools the lineup to find a lineup that clicks. Reminds me of a certain team last year. Creating dangerous scoring chances, and finishing them, will go a long way to make this a competitive team. Good luck the rest of the way.
Thank you for the insight. I'm sure our situation is no different than any other team that is losing. I may not agree with everything you said, but I appreciate the input. I do agree that our frontline needs some serious rehab. I have a lot of hope for Asllani and Nogueira; but as it was said before, Masar isn't going to score and Cristiane is fat and out of shape. But I really want to believe in Nogueira; she's still adjusting I think and I think she's going to improve as the season goes on. Most peoplewill think I'm just making excuses, but that's just my opinion. We need another forward who really compliments Casey; I'm not sure who that could be though, honestly. She's so opportunistic, and when she gets the opportunity, she is amazing. But we need a really hard worker too.
I think Asllani and Nogueira would make a good combo up front. Two different styles. Asllani is a hard worker with good skills/moves. She will eventually find her groove. Remember she is playing with a broken rib. I'm sure she is wearing some sort of brace under her jersey. She still played with heart, IMO last saturday. Nogueira has excellent skills that needas to be constantly motivated. Just need to put those two together along with Carney, Rapinoe, Klein, Chapman into a cohesive, working combination. I'm not against Brazilian players or anything. I'm a fan of Brazilian football. Love Marta. But give me two more, hard working players from England like we have with Carney and Chapman instead of Cristiane and Formiga and I'll be fine with it. Masar- local kid, fan favorite etc., but I don't know if she's significant minutes, professional material. At least I haven't seen it yet. As a pro you can't miss all those scoring oppurtunities. That's what you get paid for. She works hard, has a great attitude, but IMO, Cachundo is right, I haven't seen the football skills/moves that IMO are necessary at this level. I hope she improves. Take a look at Lauren Cheney and how smooth she shakes her defender off and cranks a shot on goal. Look at Kelley O'Hara and watch her make her defender break her ankles trying to keep up with her quick any direction, cutting moves. Marta is able to cut left and right and excellerate when needed to get that extra step for a shot. I have not seen any of that in Masar.
what about jess? she seemed pretty good saturday. not the best ever (def looked better with the heels last year but that's probably all to do with her injury), but strong for sure. the red stars need that target player (bingo, Jess is what, 6'0"?) and she's fast (when she wants to be). as for casey... i love watching her play-- when she gives a crap. when she's not motivated she drives me absolutely NUTS. i definitely agree with the assesments about cristiane and formiga-- i've been highly unimpressed with both of them. kaz is quickly becoming one of my favorite red stars-- HA!! maybe take a chance, go to a 3-back, and toss engen up front? she might be able to at least put shots on frame. ((and yes that was mostly facetious))
I still think Nogueira needs to be our "super sub". Sure, Cristiane has been having trouble.. but I've been following her game for a few years now and I know it will do more harm if she is benched. Cristiane's game will not get better if she only appears as a sub, it will only get worse. I have said it before and I will continue to say it. We are not playing her the type of balls she needs to get into good scoring positions. I'm not going to defend her lackluster play, but we aren't giving her many good opportunities by playing the way we play. Now maybe if Hayes would explain the type of runs she wants Cristiane to do, we might see some changes. Cristiane plays a typical Brazilian style of attack; she will sometimes make those diagonal runs and sometimes, she will want the ball at her feet. She isn't like Kai or Aluko that play the same style all the time. She will always mix it up as to what she see's around her. It's difficult to read their style, but I often notice that Cristiane does make gestures as to what she wants to do with it. Carney and Rapinoe need to acknowledge and see what she wants exactly. What this also tells me is that they DONT have a specified plan as to where the forwards should be and where and when the midfields need to get rid of the ball. And that, once again, falls into the fault of the coach.
She plays for the best league in the world, for her country...what kind of motivation does she really need? Would that be enough motivation to get her working?
I knew that there would be someone who would come up with a reply like this. My answer is yes you are right. What other motivation would you need? However, people are wired differently I have seen players and I know one or two personally (former MLS players) who have all the god-given talent in the world and the opportunity to use that talent but fade away because they aren't motivated every time, come to play only when they feel like it or just plain don't give a sh_t. I would say man, if I had the talent of that guy and my desire I would be the best player in the world. But they are who they are. There's no way of changing them. That's how they look at life. If you could combine Ella Masar's desire and great work ethic with Nogueira's skill and Cristiane's talent, you'd have a great player.
One more thing about Nogueira, I have seen her destroy Notre Dame's dream of a National Championship several times in college. IMO, she was the ND killer. For some reason she would get super motivated when playing ND and with Tobin Heath take the game over for UNC and there's nothing ND defenders could do about it. It seems she could score at will. So when she wants to play there are very few players that can stop her.
I think starting Asllani and Nogueira (subbing in Cristiane for Casey at the 60th minute until she's kicked her buffet addiction after which she may be worth starting again) might be the best choice right now but we'd still suffer from several problems. First, Asllani is our only forward to show consistent creativity and thought while she plays. Cristiane has shown a little creativity but only very intermittently. Second, we STILL don't have an effective CAM. Maybe Formiga eventually gets her act together but will our season effectively be over by then? This is where Lloyd steal our money killed us last year and where Emma trading Tarpley is just killing us this year. Third, we have no real target forward who can receive crosses from Rapinoe and Carney and then either score or dish off to the second forward or an onrushing CAM. And no, Cristiane is not that player; she's the one the target forward should be dishing off to. Fourth, upgrading individual talent will make us better but we'll still underperform if we're still so disorganized. This team doesn't seem to have a game plan or to communicate with each other on the field. Part of this is the constantly shifting line-ups, true, but I have to think part of it is the coach. And where is Markgraf while all this is going on? You'd think with her experience and credentials, she'd be a leader out there and I certainly do not see that at all, at least not on game day. In fact... Fifth, Emma seems to be a better judge of young American talent than foreigners or big names. Klein, Dalmy, Rapinoe, and Engen have all played well and Spilger is a useful back-up defender. Nogueira could be good if she wanted. The jury is out on McDonald whom we rarely see and it's also difficult to assess Loydon because of what's going on in front of her. Krzysik looked good against us on Saturday. Masar, it is true, has sadly been a disappointment. Meanwhile, of the foreigners/big names from last year: Lloyd was an epic fail of biblical proportions. Markgraf chose our opening year to take our money but then have her kids and, more importantly, I don't see where she's been worth the wait. Cristiane has been a pretty significant disappointment thus far. I can't even remember off the top of my head as I write this if Dieke has played at all this year. And those are the ones that stayed. Last year's Swedes and Australians are all gone. So far this year Formiga has been terrible. Our only foreign or big name players who've consistently done the business are Tarpley and Carney while Asllani and Chapman have looked promising so far in losing causes. So we can talk about which two forwards start up top but until we get our other issues resolved, it's pretty much just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
BTW ratdog, I'll see you tomorrow night at Toyota Park to watch the original Red Stars from Belgrade play Legia of Poland. It should be two great games tomorrow night at TP.
Ughh...it is so frustrating that everyone's comments are always..."Well, if Casey kicked it into gear." I totally agree, too. But I wish someone could just sit her down and figure her out. And I completely agree with MRAD...she slaughtered Notre Dame. I wish we could get her and Tobin back on the same team. And she needs to adopt that same mentality for the Pride or something. Our lack of an AM is a problem that MUST be addressed. We need a distributor bad to pull Carney and Rapinoe together. We need Tarp back. But we can't have her, so we need to figure out what to do in the meantime.
The problem is we KNEW this when we got rid of Lloyd all the way back in what? September? We should have gotten a real, up-and-coming AM.. not one that is getting out of her prime.
who would've been a good choice for an amid then? there was no way the red stars were getting tobin, arguably (when healthy) the best up-and-coming amid (if not all-around player) in the US. i would say maybe Ali Hawkins, who can play up front (high school anyone?), amid, dmid, or defense, but obviously she did what Jess didn't and is sticking around at UNC for her last year. as for Casey... yeah Anson decried her lack of motivation for the better part of four years. if Anson couldn't motivate her... well... hmm. I will say this for Casey though-- she seems to be in better shape than I've seen her ever. Maybe get anson on the phone and have him verbally thrash her :-/
I say we make a trade with the Freedom for Brittany Bock. She can play the CAM position. Is she still injured?
If we do not win at least one of the next two home games, the drum beats for Hayes' removal will get louder, IMO.
She's only seen 12 minutes of WPS action (vs Boston) and didn't travel w/ the Freedom to Atlanta. So I'd say, yes, she's still injured. I think people are being far too harsh on Nogueira. I am not one to withhold honest criticism of Nogueira (see the UNC thread from last year) or any player. But some posts have gotten a bit OTT. You're missing effort she's putting in on the field. Or equating running at top speed everywhere w/ motivation & effort. Nogueira isn't running around like the proverbial headless chicken but she's put in good shifts. And I haven't seen the "lazy," "mentally checked out" Nogueira yet. Seriously, if the midfielders are all over the freaking field pulling the team out of shape, not defending well, turning over the ball, and/or doing their own thing, do you really want one more player doing that? Nogueira looks fit, is (to my mind) closing down some defenders' passing lanes, and seems to be trying. And she's the leading scorer (yes, I know 3 total goals for the team is bad). She is also a rookie and no matter how talented, rookies don't immediately acclimate to a step up in level of play, athleticism, etc. I think the team's problems are suspiciously similar to last year's problems, just with different names (and a bit more speed in the back). And that makes me think the root of it is either the system (or lack of same) or getting the players to follow/buy into the system. The midfield has been fairly porous and turnover prone. But I'll go back and watch the archived games and see what I can see. The nice thing about the CRS webcasts is A) they exist and B) the camera is generally pulled far enough back that you can see the overall team shape & watch plays develop.
I'm a big Nogueira fan. Last saturday she held back on chasing a couple of passes down that I think she could have got simply because the team needed that extra hustle last weekend. But I've always been impressed with her. We need a player like Casey Nogueira and am glad we got her. I have no doubt she will put many balls in the back of the net for the CRS.
Peter Wilt on PitchInvasion: http://pitchinvasion.net/blog/2010/05/19/sports-results-effect-on-one-fans-psyche/