I don't think I implied that the world hasn't gotten better....... My point, is the world is going to continue to improve, so the years of the US dominating like in the early 90's is over.
i don't dislike heath. she just keeps proving me correct. heath = "B" movie version of Casey Loyd + excess Thais Guede moves which lead to dispossessions.
I don't expect to see US domination in every game against good sides. I do expect to see good, positive, ambitious soccer from the US. I didn't see a whole lot of that from either side last night.
so. expect jill to be more defensive than sermanni. maybe that's why she was hired. (i don't believe this, but bs is the place to start a new rumor: it was hope who complained to sunil and got ts fired.) ...or am I reading too much into that video. jill's games will produce a lot of unhappy posters on these threads.
I know teadrinkerful does not like to hear this, but you are so right (maybe the only thing on which i agree with you). it's not just the turnovers - other players turn the ball over too. but unnecessary turnovers caused by gratuitous over dribbling, when a simple pass will suffice. and then instead of learning her lesson, she repeats the same thing a few minutes later. then does it again in the next game. it is supremely annoying!
Where France went horribly wrong and will prolly fix for game two is if u need to pull a CB out of shape to handle Thomis they need to be attacking into that opening. Its hard for me to believe Necib and Abily couldnt take advantage when Rampone was pulled wide. I was also surprised Thinney didnt start. If that was the tempo Ellis wanted they did a good job maintaining it. They were helped by the fact the French didnt pressure up the field until the end but the effort to connect lightly contested passes was there. The French did a good job not allowing connecting passes in the attacking third.
Cox was beaten once according to the stats. She won the ball back and stopped Thomis several times. If Thomis was so dominant why was there a goose Egg on the French score line?
I cannot believe you would disparage Hope Solo's good name. Do you not understand she is an inspiration to any who would aspire to be queen of the doublewide neighborhood?
Loss for words?. There were no dominant French players on the pitch. period. They had one shot on goal. The defence did its job. Look at the stats for Heath, Press, Holiday, and Lloyd. Even then the French were inept by comparison.
Actually France had 2 SOG and USA had just one. http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2014/06/14/17/23/140614-us-womens-national-team-vs-france
i don't think thomis was dominant. so my phraseology - like a drum/often was too strong. thomis' problem is her inability to put the ball away once she has used her speed. but you only need to get behind an outside back once in some cases to win a game. my point is that opposing coaches might be able to do a better job of taking away her obvious strength - speed.
Stats, schmatz. Thomis' speed against Cox was a problem, but did the defense adequately handle it? That first run, at least Cox and the CBs forced Thomis into taking a tight angle shot from near the endline. Not going to beat Solo too often with that. Cox brings other very good qualities to the match. I saw her reading, anticipating and intercepting France's passes often in the 2nd half. It's very hard for me, a non-expert, to say if it's worth it, having that trade-off when the US faces someone with that kind of speed. Someone either here or at Equalizer made , I think, a spot-on comment that Ellis was experimenting with that very question, how well can Cox and the US defense cope when faced with a speedy forward. As this reader said, Ellis knows Thomis is faster than Cox. She knows it's a potential problem, but how much of one and is it offset by the other things Cox brings to the game? This was one really well-planned experiment on Jill's part last evening. I just don't know what conclusions to draw from it. I also wish I knew the other experiments in the lineup last night were as well planned so we could learn something really valuable from them. As a sidenote, the Cox question is an interesting one from the perspective of the long-running fan complaint that the US relies overly on superior athleticism at the expense of technical skills. I guess most fans are thinking of attacking players in that regard but this is such the clear example of the debate on the defensive side. The US obviously has experimented at LB with players like O'Hara and Mewis who are obviously faster than Cox, but Cox is so much their superior when it comes to the technical side of D; it's even obvious to a relatively unsophisticated observer like me: defensive positioning, awareness, technique, plus, as someone on Equalizer put it, Cox has the cultured left foot when it comes to passing on the attacking half of the field.
I'd say she was dominate, esp against cox (this one here is a BIG liability if they are foolish enough to start her in elimination games in the WC.), but her finishing and runs resemble fabiana, which are a bit mindless.
So faster = dominate?!? If that's the case, we just need to recruit the NCAA and Olympic Track & Field hopefuls and load up the team...... All it takes is being able to sprint faster than your opponent, and you now dominate them.... Noted.
Did you compile the turnover stats? I'd like to have more stats for the NT than U.S. Soccer gives out. Turnovers. completed passes. crosses. shots, shots on goal, etc. Plus defensive stats: blocks, interceptions, etc. I noticed more turnovers by Lloyd than anybody else. I was half right.
yes. i could see from the lineup that this was clearly an experiment. but france experimented too - with the hang back game that would keep the scoring low. we have to remember that when we evaluate the uswnt's game. france was experimenting too with a different approach to playing the u.s. they just were unsuccessful. next game, i'd like to see an experiment with engen and ohara replacing rampone and cox, brian replacing long, hao replacing heath, and wambach as the central forward. don't know if we'll see that experiment, but that's what i want to see.
Here's an experiment ....................Solo Krieger - Johnston- Engen - O'Hara ......................Lloyd ..............Brian - Press HAO ..... Hagen ..... Leroux If there is some UCLA minimum then start Holiday for Hagen and bring Hagen, A-Rod and Morgan in at the half
I don't think the US will dominate every game either. To say it's because the world is improving is an easy out. Okay, so the rest of the world is better. They're not getting there. They've arrived. Shouldn't the US strive to keep pace or keep ahead of the curve? Like someone else said, it'd be nice to see positive soccer from them at least. For me, last night was too much pass the ball around the back, lob an unsuccessful/hopeful long ball, lose the ball.
Argentina played world cup today vs Bosnia, messi dribbled into defenders like 30 times, and got dispossessed almost EVERY single time and gave possession to the other team. you know what the commentators said...they praised him saying how he is good with ball control and not afraid to go in. in the end he scored a goal that gave Argentina a win. you know what bosnia did with the ball they got from messi.... they did not score. so yeah play makers will get dispossessed but thats because they actually trying to create chances or show the other team that they are not afraid and will not pass just because someone closed in on them.