The new guidelines are throwing everyone off. But since the Oly roster will be chosen from these players, this subject will probably get a lot of input. http://www.ussoccer.com/articles/viewArticle.jsp_6553607.html The only big surprise here is that Cox is missing.
I'm thinking Scurry, White, Krieger, and Cheney get cut eventually. Unless Cheney moves ahead of Arod, which I think is a real possibility. White also has a lot of talent, her problem seems to be timidity, or it was the only time we actually got to see her play. That's something that can be worked on. I'd be surprised if she made it, but I can't rule her out until I see her play one more time.
Damn. Scurry's still on the roaster, eh? (And good call on the new thread, tauri. New rosters, player injuries, etc. are all fair game for new threads. But by the end of the week we'll hopefully have new guidelines up so as not to confuse.)
I'm surprised Cox was cut. I thought she has out performed Cat Whitehill. I'm surprised she made the cut. She hasn't been playing well and hasn't conformed to this new style. I can't see White making it. I hope Aly is up to game speed, otherwise, not really playing in two years will lead her to be cut i'm thinking - which would allow Cheney and Arod both... And perhaps Cheney can get more experience the the D-mid position. That would make me happy. Cox was so calm on the ball and a great passer..sad for her. I'm excited again about Krieger. As i said before, her experience against the top foreign players in the world could really be an attribute. On another note, these girls were all sent home for rest of the year. Coxx won't even be there to train with the squad running up to the olympics ..is my understanding
Cox is a real surprise- she played in 10 of 14 games although only 1 of last 4. Makes me wonder if something is left unsaid- beside that Krieger, Whitehill and Buehler have outplayed her.
Maybe it's just me, but I don't think Buehler or Whitehill outplayed Cox. While speed is not the only thing, I thought Cox was faster than Whitehill and Buehler and she was great at getting forward and helping out with the attack. Maybe there is something else going on there, I don't know, but I really thought Cox would have made it. Color me perplexed.
wagner, wagner, wagner! if she's up to speed, her game is made for pia's style. she could move ahead of white in the race for an olympic spot. but i can't see her beating anybody else. one gk, one back, and one midfielder will be cut to make the olympic roster. scurry, buehler, and white. or, if pia goes for experience at the gk spot, barnhardt, buehler, and white. now it's time to get busy finding ways to see these matches. especially the brazil match.
i was surprised about cox, but given that Mitts is back and krieger maybe i shouldn't be. I think whitehill is going to be the defender cut for the olympics.
Yeah, my guess is it's down to Wagner/White for the last midfield spot. I would bet that if Wagner proves to be match fit in Korea, she's in. I agree that her game suits Pia's style perfectly, and I think if she's match fit she's the best solution to the problem of filling the hole left by Osborne's absence. Having said that, I'm not sure White is necessarily in if Wagner isn't--my sense is that she hasn't shown enough in real games to be included. Since my sense is entirely based on ESP (ooh, the "sixth sense") and not from having actually seen White play (no access to the one TV channel that has shown a WNT game in 2008, and White didn't play in DC), I could be completely wrong, of course.
Final cuts aren't about "This person can't be a starter for this team." They're about "Who is more likely to be needed/successful as a situational sub." Whithill's recently (and frequently) demonstrated ability to do something important offensively in the 91st minute would seem to insulate her against being cut. If we should find ourselves in a hard luck game against Italy down 1-0 in the 85th with scorers already in the game, who do you want to sub in-- Buehler or Whitehill? As for Cox-- she's not beating out Chalupny and it looks as though Mitts is back to full speed. If I were Cox, young and freshly married, I might say to Pia "Why don't I have my first kid now, and I'll be back next year when you'll need me to do more than keep the bench from floating away?" I don't know anything in particular, but it doesn't seem that surprising to me; she became a regular because of injury. We're finally healthy again, she hasn't overwhelmed any more than she has disappointed, and she'll have many years to play after Sobrero and Rampone and maybe even Mitts and Whitehill are gone. I think I even suggested she might not make the Olympic roster, way back in one of the early threads on this year...
She doesn't even have to be match fit-- just 10 minutes fit for an offensive situational sub. White won't beat out Hucles as an injury replacement or Wagner as instant offense based on anything she's shown so far, so I don't see her making it unless someone else gets hurt. I don't see Wagner as filling Osborne's role at all-- but I don't see White there either. At best its who's filling the roster spot. Mitts might almost have the best shot at filling the role, but she already has one, and she's not really physical enough for Osborne's-- scrappy, but not the big horse. Now there was a woman on Ryan's roster everyone loved to hate...
Sorry I wasn't more clear, taosjohn. I didn't mean that Wagner could fill Osborne's role, per se, but that she is a good fit with the rest of the midfield if, as you say, she can play at speed for 10 or more minutes. Wagner has supreme field vision, and if she is physically capable of executing what she knows she wants to do, she brings an extra dimension of play to the midfield. But she definitely wouldn't be there as an Osborne surrogate--completely different styles... I'm afraid I'm not clued in enough to know who you mean here. I guess I haven't been around on BS long enough. Help?
If Wagner is fit to play 20 minutes strong I do see her making the roster. Bringing her into a game where we need an offensive push would be a great option to have off the bench. I could also see here coming into games we are leading for the final 20 minutes to keep Boxx fresh... something Ryan forgot to do at the WC. A question, isn't each team allowed to name a third GK as an alternate for the Olympic roster? That might be why three GKs are heading to the peace cup.
Who? Marci Jobson? Her rep was that she was good in the air but now she's coaching Baylor - I still think she could be a National Team coach one of these years.
I used to feel the there were people who disliked Marci Jobson only for the reason that she was friends and and associate of Greg Ryan and played for him in college. These people probably knew very little about Marci. From what I've heard Marci Miller(Jobson) was someone that the girls on the team liked very much. She was kind and personable from what I've heard. Now whether she should have been a member of the WWC team or not we could debate that. Apparently Ryan felt she should. But that's what people used to say abou Hucles, that April had her on the team because she used to play for her at Virginia. Coaches do it all the time all over the world. There's coaches of World Cup teams that play their sons against fan objections. So to say people loved to hate her is B.S. From what I understand she was liked very much by her fellow team mates. Peoples stupid prejudices are another thing. If you hate Ryan, don't hate Jobson.
The idea is Wagner comes in for Lloyd if/when she has a bad day and to give her a break and for that extra offense. She's a fantastic passer, but Pia has repeatedly mentioned how she likes the way Box and Lloyd work together.... The few games I've watched I haven't seen this exactly, but that's what Pia says. The problem is both Wagner and Lloyd are known to be weak defenders. I am concerned who will back up Boxx, she doesn't have the strength/legs to play a full Olympics..we will need to sub her out. I'm guessing Pia will try a Mitts, Rampone, Kate, Bhuehler in back with Chupa in front of them at the Peace cup? and: Mitts, Rampone, Kate, Chupa and Hucles at dmid.
As you've figured out by now I was referring to Marci Miller Jobson. And I was not implying that her teammates hated her, only alluding to a fair number of bigsoccer posters who objected to her presence on the roster; and I know that she's retired. My point, such as it was, was that she had the skillset to be a reasonable sub for Osborne, and that this event now might be seen as justifying/explaining his inclusion of her on the roster then, much as the run on defender injuries in the Mexico series could be seen as justifying Hucles'. And this is not an effort to reopen the whole "Ryan sucks" bag either-- I wish Pia had been hired when Tony left, let alone April. I'm just sayin' that its way silly to be criticizing roster choices with the certainty that can only come with complete involvement and access to the process (if then.) A couple of decades ago I had the chance to watch a couple of weeks worth of Cub games, one a day, while Don Zimmer was managing. For the first few days almost every day he'd be pinch hitting some body and I'd be talking to the TV about how that was the wrong person at the wrong time-- and each day the seventh or eighth inning would come and the other manager would put in the pitcher Zimmer was expecting and he'd send up this sequence of pinch hitters who had a history of success against that pitcher, all in an order that made sense and finished with a reasonable defensive alignment still on the field for the next inning--set up by the decision I had argued with. Sometimes he got his runs and won, sometimes he didn't but he taught me once again that its what you learn after you know it all that counts-- he was putting his team in a much better position to win than I would have been able to, because he could see farther ahead and knew his own people in detail. I'm still perfectly willing to question a coaches' decisions these days, but I won't declare myself smarter until I see how it all works out. He/she may have learned more after he knew it all than I have.
Wagner's use will be entirely situational I would guess. Her defense has improved, but she has historically been dispossessed by more physical players. I think Germany would give her fits. She can't do her job if she can't hold the ball. Jobson did not deserve a roster spot based on skill. She brought other things to the team, but whether those things were more needed than a more skillful player is the question. Just curious, people seem to be talking about Boxx as if her skills/endurance have significantly diminished. Not having seen the team for any amount of time to make a judgement, I was wondering what gives this impression? As for Hucles, I was one of her detractors. She must have raised her level of play, because she was mediocre in the past -JMO. That improvement certainly could have happened under Pia. (See Kai) The other player that's history is LePeilbet. I guess she never beat the ACL as Pia invited her to one camp and she hasn't been back since. That's a shame, as she could be handy now. That's too bad about Lopez, I always liked her grit and she did pretty much have to jump into the fire after Mitts went down.
it's tough for me to see this, since osborne's primary job (and in fact her speciality) is breaking up plays on the ground and in the air. wagner is one of the worst defenders on the team. this is one of the areas that i'm really focused on in the peace cup. who will pia play as boxx's backup? whoa, whoa!! back up!! you do know that you are posting on bs, do you not? that kind of reasonable approach is forbidden on these boards. but i do agree with you. that's the way i look at it too.
It was not Wagner I meant by the "she," but Jobson. I'm not sure how you got the "(Wagner)" into my quote?