Olympic qualifying 2020, US vs Costa Rica on February 3

It's scheduled for 7 pm Pacific. It's a doubleheader and the other game starts at 4 pm. Since it's a knockout round, they need the three-hour window in case the first game goes to extra time and penalties

 

They better win it.

 

Well said, Semblance 17. Please count me as one fan who feels Christen Press has been playing wonderfully, who would like to see Press in the starting lineup in the crucial game on Friday night, and who finds it distressing to see hocbz's apparent need to trash other players in order to praise hocbz's favorite.

 

Maybe hocbz is her brother. Brothers have been known to trash roster spot competitiors of their sisters.

 

Ali Krieger's brother comes to mind....

 

Are the Costa Rica players still unpaid for their work?

 

Might be because she no longer has to worry so much about Ellis sitting her down? She's more relaxed now and plays with confidence

 

Yes we won but again, no competition. Now we have to face Mexico or Canada and I suspect it will be Mexico with Canada in the final. Three soft games Im afraid is not good prep for the next round. Mexico should be no problem but I think Canada could be a bit harder. I hope we're ready for that game

 

Mexico is another "soft" game and the "final" with Canada is meaningless as we will already have qualified to go to the Olympics.

As I said in an earlier post" The match with Mexico is the ONLY match with meaning between now and the Olympics. Canada is just a chance to get injured and the "She Believes Cup" is just a set of friendlies.

We can try to artificially hype the games as much as we want but it seems factual that they, except for this semi, have no real meaning. I think we would be even better if we had several moderately strong teams in our region but we do not and we have to import them. It is good that it is lucrative for good teams to travel here for friendlies or or 95% of even our friendlies would be against teams that are no better that second or third rate. We so rarely play strong teams in matches that matter that it is a wonder we stay strong like we do. It is a testament to the internal drive of all the players that we do not have our skills deteriorate from lack of use.

 

You know though, this is kind of an unfair argument with existence...

Who does it differently? France England and Germany have Olympics and WC just as we do, and Euros against each other if they get high enough in the draw-- and even there, Germany at least has been known to bomb out against second tier opposition now and then IIRC. Japan sees Australia now and then in qualifying but Brazil and New Zealand don't even have that, and Africa less still. And most of those matches aren't WC, so they aren't "really important."

And they can't beat the men's teams anyway, so they're just kidding us and themselves, per Ralee Monkey. .


The games have just as much meaning as one attaches to them; surely Jackdoggy has demonstrated that pretty conclusively by now? And if you dominate a region, why then your practices get that much harder, and you stay sharper just from them.

 

Yes, but the number of strong teams in Europe is at least five and probably seven. I believe that there are 12 teams better than Mexico and at least four better than Canada. Asia and Africa also have more teams better than Mexico that we do. South America is about on a par with us as there are only two or three better than Mexico. Then we get to the OFC where there is only one team on a par with Mexico and none that, to me, look better.

That seems to say that our federation is weak below the top two and hideously weak below the top three.

But that is just what we have to deal with because, unless some of the macho countries decide to actually put resources in women's soccer and not just token support, there just are no countries with a women's program to even remotely rival ours. Mexico seems to be trying but the impact of their program will take years to really bear fruit.

As I said earlier it is a testament to our players that they can keep their level at the best even though they rarely play teams even close to their level.

I think I remember Kristine Lilly saying in the run up to the 1999 WWC that the best and most competitive matches they played were in the practices. (I might be wrong about who actually said that as it was quite a while ago and my brain is old and a bit feeble.)

It is good they can remain competitive but it would be better for the US and everyone in women's soccer if there were a few more quality teams in women's soccer and that quality was spread more evenly around the world.

 

That's a valuable observation.

Friday is the first game for Vlatko that really counts. A loss would be a disaster. It's going to be very interesting to see who's in the starting lineup, their positions, who comes off the bench, and who sits. Certainly one of the most intriguing questions will be whether Christen Press is out there when the game begins. Start her over Heath? Start her over Lloyd? We'll see.

 

Hello from a balmy Reykjavik Iceland.
It 8 degrees c here in February and I’m having a Gull beer and watching my USWNT qualifying for the Olympics in Japan.

I’m a few days late but...

Cheers