Why are you banging on her... She was considered the worlds greatest player 4/5 years ago and 2018 she was 2nd team all NWSL... She hasn't played THAT many caps in the last 4 years, like 71. Not 150 since she was World's Best Player. Nothing like trying to say the Workd's best player turned to trash in a year... 2018 all second team was just 3 years ago. It sounds like you upset because we have a plethora of great older players. She is sounding like Olympics will be it. Starting a family is something she mentioned and age is an issue.
I think this is really a great set-up for OL organization on the women's side. They can send young players over to train and work with their academy instructors and coaches. Returning with the tools that they can apply with Reign. In the process they could end up finding some players that would be good enough to play for Lyon someday. Plus as they are already doing, the ability to send players over from Lyon that can help improve the competitiveness of the Reign. Win Win Situation for them! `
Thanks, NCChiFan. Trashing Carli Lloyd for all her caps is just ridiculous. Let's not forget: she got all those caps because various USWNT coaches WANTED Lloyd on the team.
quite a few other newbies so far have looked quite impressive in the NWSL Challange Cup; Rodman(Spirit), King(Reign)Monaghan((LOU)/arguably so far the best team(Thorns) has produced 6 goals by 6 different goal scorers like Charley, Tulsi, Weaver, But what I hate seeing is when the top goal scorers by the end of the season are mid 30’s types like A-Rod & Sinclair, lol there is an incredible amount of talent in college soccer(it’s actually the biggest single participation sport for women in college), but when the 8 thousand plus seniors graduate & can’t make it in the 10 team NWSL or abroad, where are they suppose to continue to play? Our lower leagues are just 2 month temp, designed to keep college players active during summer break. So this part(after college is probably our weakness) and we loose a lot of potential/promising players this way(considering the low NWSL pay scale for rookies is discouraging as well)
Barring injuries, it looks to me like the only hotly contested position on the US team for the Olympics is the fifth forward slot. It's between Smith/Williams/Heath/Macario. Williams has the most recent minutes -- but I suspect Vlatko will give a long look to Macario in uncoming friendlies. All those newbies can compete after the Olympics. It will be certainly be the last hurrah of Lloyd, Rapinoe, Sauerbrunn, and O'Hara -- and the future of Morgan, Press, and Heath will be up for discussion. So, maybe the US will need a whole new group of forwards for 2023.
The sponsors wanted it. The promoters wanted it. The only coach to do what coaches normally do - use meaningless friendlies for player identification and development - got fired. The rest got the message. The coaches "wanted" Lloyd when the games got meaningful. The U.S. hasn't played 300 meaningful games in Lloyds career. First cap: 2005 Here is a complete list of meaningful games played by the USWNT since 2005: 2007 WCQ - 2 games (2006 Gold Cup) 2007 WWC - 6 games 2008 OQ - 4 games 2008 OG - 6 games 2011 WCQ - 7 games (2010 Gold Cup + Interzonal Playoff) 2011 WWC - 6 games 2012 OQ - 5 games 2012 OG - 6 games 2015 WCQ - 5 games (2014 Gold Cup) 2015 WWC - 7 games 2016 OQ - 5 games 2016 OG - 4 games 2019 WCQ - 5 games (2018 CONCACAF Championship) 2019 WWC - 7 games 2020 OQ - 5 games 80. We have played a grand total of 80 official competition games in Carli Lloyd's national team career. I doubt she played in all of those, especially all of the group stage CONCACAF games. But I will agree wholeheartedly that Greg Ryan, Pia Sundhage, Tom Sermanni, Jill Ellis, and Vlatko Andonovski wanted Carli Lloyd on the roster for those 80 games and the couple tune-up games before each event. Who wouldn't. That's not in doubt. Even if you include 4 tune-up games for each of those 15 tournaments (another 60 games), that leaves at least 160 times that Carli Lloyd played in games in which the result was meaningless in the long run. In other words, a great time to try out new players. I will grant that from 2005-2008, and again in 2012, that the full USWNT needed a minimum number of games due to lack of a professional league, but frankly the vast majority of Lloyd's career has had the WPS and NWSL in place. Endless meaningless caps weren't required for fitness - that's what clubs do. I'm not banging on Lloyd per se, it's just that at 39 and 300 caps, she's the current poster child of what's wrong with our national team development. It's skewed towards sponsorships and promoters needs, not actual results on the field. We get the results because we're so far ahead of the rest of the planet - the gap is not really closing. Believe it or not, I've long been a fan of Lloyd's. But I'm a bigger fan of the badge. I don't want to wait to lose to change. And we shouldn't have to. There are so many incredible young women - who are more than capable - that just aren't getting a chance. And that's a shame. Carli Lloyd isn't going away. We still know who Mia Hamm and Carla Overbeck and Julie Foudy are. We'll always know who Megan Rapinoe and Carli Lloyd are.
Who are the players that will retire or leave the USWNT but still play in NWSL? Rapinoe, Lloyd, Becky, Naeher,?
My last comment on this. Such a profound waste of time. How many games in ANY sport are "meaningful" under a standard like yours? So what? I've enjoyed attending hundreds of sporting contests in person and have enjoyed watching thousands on television that wouldn't fit your standard. As for the glory of "the badge," ugh. Despite all your rationalizations, you've spent a great deal of effort trashing Carli Lloyd. She deserves better, whether she's chosen for the 2021 USWNT or not, whether she plays wonderfully or not. You could easily have made a good case for more emphasis on younger U.S. players without trashing Lloyd.
And meaningful games are those part of official competitions. League, Cup, and official championship games. It's not that hard of a concept. The Algarve Cup or SheBelieves Cup aren't "meaningful competitions". They're friendly tournaments where the "Cup" is used to manufacture interest. In international soccer the meaningful games are, and always have been FIFA, Confederation, and Olympic competitions and their associated qualifiers. Everything else is a friendly. It's not a hard concept. That's not to say that Friendlies don't have meaning. Teams do need to work on fitness and cohesion and tactics, but the difference between the Four Nations Tournament and a closed-door scrimmage is marketing.
Macario, Smith, or Kristie Mewis can make the Olympics as the 5th midfielder (or 5th mid/6th forward). Barring injury or some unfathomable development, neither Smith or Macario is going to be ahead of Lynn Williams; Tobin Heath is the only one who can conceivably take a 5th forward spot ahead of Williams (and I'm completely with Andy Mead on the wisdom of having another 30+ player with recent history of injuries on the roster) When Macario got her first big start against Canada, it was in an attacking midfielder role with Lynn Williams in her customary right forward spot and Rapinoe and Lloyd filling out the rest of a typical Andonovski-era front three. So it's really a question of 5th midfielder (or 5th mid/6th forward swing spot). A bigger question than the 5th forward is 6th defender. Frankly, I'm not even sure about the 5th defender spot because I think Kelly O'Hara is playing her way out of it. She's a red card waiting to happen Also, we don't talk about it much but, to me, it's a completely open question who should be the backup goalkeeper.
There is another way to look at this. Amandine Henry came to the US to play for a couple of years for the Thorns because she felt US soccer had something French soccer did not: US players know how to win and they have learned how to have the determination to do it. She wanted what the US players have and came here to learn. Where does that come from for US players? A lot goes into it. And maybe one part of it is that to the players, there is no such thing as a meaningless game. This is inculcated in US athletes, including soccer players, starting at the rec level -- just go out to your local soccer complex during soccer season and you can see it. Maybe it is overdone ... but if the goal is winning world championships, maybe not. Maybe this is something Sermani did not understand -- in US soccer, winning is good, losing is bad, and tieing is less than desirable. Just look at posts here when the US loses a game -- the tie and pk loss to Sweden in the last Olympics is a good example. No team ever has won the World Cup and then the Olympics, yet even here posters are using that loss as an indictment of having Rapinoe on the roster. Look at when Ellis tried a three-back and the team lost, at how fans reacted. Here, some posters were wanting her head. US soccer women and fans simply do not tolerate losses. To them, every game result has meaning and losses are evidence of coaching defects.
We need to first really find a real #1 goalkeeper. Alyssa Naeher is shaky but somehow gets the job mostly done and she has an almost unbelievable knack for getting PK shooters to take bad shots and then she make the save easily. Her play in games is made almost easy by the quality in front of her. All she really has to do is stay awake for the rare shot and occasional horrid backpass that the defenders and sometimes midfielders gift to her. She still manages to mess up distribution and general play with her feet a lot more often than she should. The problem is all the other keepers in the pool are just as bad but bad "differently." Goalkeeping, at this time, is the only real weakness the USWNT has. That is actually a bit ironic because for the longest time goalkeeping was the only strength the USMNT had. I do not know where we can find a truly good keeper but I do not think Alyssa Naeher is it. Having said all that I have noticed that Naeher is getting better in some of her weaknesses. I in particular she used to, even in a crowd, catch lofted balls mostly at chest level. That just invites some "Girlzilla" to stick their head in and tap the ball into the goal. I does not take much. But, in the last few matches, I have noticed her reaching up to get those high balls. In fact it is so much an improvement that my youngest granddaughter noticed it as well. I do think Naeher is now a near perfect backup keeper, I just wish we could find a #1 that plays like Hope or Briana. Both of those brought more to the table than three Naehers even though they both also had real weaknesses. It is hard to find a really good keeper. There just are not that many people with the athletic ability, strength, agility, temperament and just the right mix of crazy+cautiousness+brazenness+selfishness+aggressiveness+timidity to be a really top goalkeeper. And out of those few I wonder how many play soccer. Maybe we should feel extremely lucky we have had two. Most countries are doing good to get one. Of course like golfers wishing they had "Jack Nicklaus' " "bad" short game as one of their strengths most countries would love to have even one of the last five of our goalkeepers as their starter.
If only we had a Christiane Endler type player. Anybody in college or NWSL have ability of being tall, mobile, strong physically and mentally and have high IQ and skills?
l Question about Bethany Balcer relating to her playing time with Reign? Noticed that she started the first two games at CF, but Pruitt started the last two. By the way, I noticed that OL Lyon does a nice job of covering the Reign on their website. They have a page that covers things going on with the Reign. Noticed they just posted on their website a highlight videos of all their games in the Challenge Cup.
Japan’s Civil Aviation Bureau recently announced that from July 21st to August 6th 2021 it will share the responsibilities of patrolling the skies of the Greater Tokyo Metropolitan Area with Lindsey Horan.
Point taken, and you probably have to look Jill Ellis directly in the grill and not Vlatko to this point. Limited games, thanks to the rona, coupled with learning the traits of the starters acting in his system. Give him props as he has brought in youngsters during this break in period with a major tournament about to start. Purce, Smith, Macario all got a look see, plus borderline low cap players. And calling out Carli by saying look at the 170 games she didn't have to play is implying she was a cap hog.
The problem with calling Macario a midfielder is where and when does she play? We have four of the best midfielders in the world: Mewis, Ertz, Horan, and Lavelle. Already, one of them has to sit on the bench. The logical fifth MF on the Olympic roster for use in emergencies is Kristie Mewis. As a forward, Macario can fill in for any of our aging stars, or start if they falter or are hurt -- and they are more likely to falter than our midfielders. (Of course, she hasn't yet proved herself. I would still go with Williams as the 5th forward today, but I am anticipating that Macario will get a major look-see in upcoming friendlies.) I think Davidson is the fifth defender, and Sonnet the sixth (but I don't like Sonnet much). Jane Campbell looks to me like the second GK. and I'm also not high on her. I agree that O'Hara has been weak recently. Maybe Davidson will get the nod as starter.
Jane Campbell vs Mexico was embarrassing. I remember her well in that game. Don't have much confidence in her on that.
I think you will be surprised when you see her in the next scheduled friendlies I have had a chance to watch all of her games and it is clear why they have made her a starter. She is one of the the best at passing on a team filled with experienced National Team players. By the way, in the last four games they have started her in three differ positions. Primarily they like to use her in the 9 spot, more of a ghost 9, because you occasionally will find her at the outside forward positions as well. One game they did start her as a outside back. The game against PSG where she scored the only goal for Lyon, they had her at a CAM in a 4-2-3-1. And here is an amazing statistic that really stands out, In the last four games she took 12 shots and 9 were on goal with 4 hitting the back of the net. What she has accomplished so far at Lyon has been a confidence builder for her and i think she will be determined to prove she belongs on the NT for the Olympics.
It’s been up to individual countries whether to decide if these mid tournies are important or not; England decided not to renew Phil Neville’s contract after his squads poor performance at last year’s SBC. Germany fired their’s(Stefi Jones)after the 2018 SBC. Japan fired their coach for failing in the over crowded Asian qualifiers tourney just 6 months after getting his squad into the finals of the World Cup)plus his credits included winning the 2011 WC). The odd thing with Jill Ellis was she had an bad cycle starting with the poor 2016 Olympics/cultivating with the 2017 SBC performance.....and this on a team that insider like Sydney Leroux, who said we would of won the 2 WC’s despite of Ellis.