New York at Courage July 12 New York is ahead 2 - 0 at half time. We seemed to be holding our own early on but NY was all over us the last 20 minutes or so. Hope we get our act together. Announcers say that Borgman is still suffering with bad shin splints, which explains why she was taken out after 26 minutes.
NY @ Courage 7/12 [R] Don't forget the [R] in the subject..... UGH! What an ugly game. We weren't stringing very many passes together or getting very good first touches. The score made the game seem closer than it really was. The Courage just didn't seem to be in sync. Kim Yankowski played in some nice serves, but most of them resulted in nada! What was with McCullough (sp?) and those cutesy little heel flicks? BTW, just how tall is Cheryl Salisbury? That woman is a freakin' TREE!
I think the Power are one of the tallest, if not THE talllest team in the league, average height wise. Rapp is 5'8" (she looks taller), Raveia 5'10", Tietjen 5'9", Baumgardt 5'8", Boxx 5'8", Orlandos 5'10", Welsh 5'10", Smolak 5'10". Even our developmental player Jones is 5'9". Then we have "the tree".
Yeah, unfortunately for the Courage, your defense looked like the "Great Wall of China." There was one comical moment when a Courage player (I think it was Wallis), with Salisbury right at her back, was jumping in the air for a 50-50 ball. Wallis leapt as high as she could, Salisbury stood firmly planted to the ground and still won the ball. It brought on the giggles for me, let me tell you.... Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! OY! OY! OY!
Why did we keep trying to play the ball over the top of the NY defense? They were winning every 50/50 air ball. Why didn't we try to play a few through balls. Birgit and Venus have better speed than the NY defense. Birgit didn't get the ball much in this game. Let's hope we play some to her feet in the future....The defense was not very organized either.
Oh yeah, what is the deal with Entlich's substitution "pattern?" I know Borgman is dealing with injury and they wanted her to go as long as she could. No problem with that but does McCollough really belong on the field for that much of the game? Her speed of play is just too slow. She got to the right place more often than not but she took three or more touches when she should have taken 1 or 2. I think Wallis is a better player. With so few roster spots and our injuries and nat'l team call-ups, get the best 11 out there. Yanky seemed to have a bigger impact than McCollough, too. I'm frustrated...
We're so thin, we don't have a best 11 (grimace). Two (and only 2) of my overall season notes that I thought showed themselves in this match: 1) Venus is fast, but plays slow. If she has to turn and face her defender, she better pass quick or the ball is going back up the field. 2) Boyd varies from game-to-game (not good in this game). It's hard for me imagine her being a National Teamer in WC competition. Her speed of play is better than Venus's, though she has limited "speed." Unfortunately, too often her distribution results in a give-away and the ball going the wrong way just as with Venus. But, Hey, I did like the way Kim got in there and did the one thing she does best--serve the ball perfectly into the box.
The Courage got burned in the midfield just like at the start of the year. Gave up possession way too much, just like at the start of the year. Hardly got a shot on net, just like at the start of the year. Now we have a hunt for the guilty individuals, just like at the start of the year. Not very smart.
Nahh. There's no hunt for individuals. They're collectively just not playing well right now, and the last game was really painful when we saw how little depth we had. This seems a lot different to me than the beginning of the year. I felt really bad for them against NY, especially looking at our defenders forced to play out-of-position in the midfield (which has been going on for a few games now). It compounds our team (and individual) weaknesses. I DO think we can get it back together and go on another win streak, but it will be even tougher than it was after the first four games.