Merrill Ring on Aly & the Beat game

Perhaps you need to credit ATL's tactics. I didn't see the game. But from what I've seen of Aly at this level & from her playing days at Satan Clara, is that she's not a complete player. Not that she won't be. But her defense needs a lot of work. She doesn't go back to defend, not to my liking anyway. In college, the way to beat her was to deny her space, and most importantly, time. She tended to get in a stubborn streak where she will attempt to hang on to the ball, only to lose it, instead of passing it off. And that was in college, where defenders and defenses are really not that good.

Aly's not an all-around player; not yet anyway. But she's no one-trick pony either. Her positives more than outweigh her negatives, IMO.

 

Lets see, before Aly Never a winning record! This year the longest undefeated run in WUSA history. All the key players Jules, Joy, Mac and Fleeting were there last year. Playing in the middle of the field is not an easy task and so many little things go into a winning team. Simply made outlet passes that get you on the attack and out of trouble made to look easy because of great skill do not get much attention but do make a big difference. On playing defense it is not always about being overly aggresive, when it works it gets a lot of cheers but if it fails you have problems, PK's, freekicks, or one less defender behind the ball. Defensive positioning is as critical or more so, watch closely you could learn something about defense watching Aly. One other point, how many offsides does this team have? They must lead the leaque in that catagory. Some of those callbacks have cost the Spirit goals and even worse posession, and most certainly Aly points as she has sent many great balls forward that were called back. This is a team sport and even though Aly has not held the limelight as she most certainly has in the past she appears to continue to play hard and is never selfish with the ball, and happily does not appear to be down on herself due to lack of personal success(ie. goals or assists). She just keeps playing and smiling and I believe has made a great difference for the team. I'm sure glad she plays for us and not someone else. As far as someones comment about the level of play, can you say National Team?? Perhaps her problem is the wide variation of skill in WUSA vs. the NT. If that is the case she needs to adapt to this level.