Spirit v. Charge, pre/post game (R) Saturday, 1pm, PAX. I believe we'll be missing our U.S. Nats due to National Team duty. Tsunami can confirm that or not. Could be tough without them, if true. I have a bad feeling about this one.
Yes, we will be missing Aly, Joy, Julie, and Pags (along with 'Nanny' Mac) - all of them will be in Salt Lake City. So there will be lots of room for our other players to 'step up to the plate (or, in this case, ball.)' I guess that this means that all of our reserve and development players will make the trip and stand a good chance of playing time. I wonder if the team is able to sign an extra player, since 5 will not be going to Philly? Hmm, what kind of lineup can the coach come up with? Fleeting - Sullivan Latham - Nielsen - Bush Daniela - Fair Lisa K - Pickup? - Tanaka? Branam That would leave a bench that, except for Zhang Ouying, hasn't had much if any playing time this year... Zhang could of course spell a forward or attacking midfielder; Alfiler a midfielder or back; Rohbock a forward. And as backup keeper? Maybe convince Shelley Fingers to make the flight?
Our coach must be going crazy with all these National Team games that interfere with league games. It really is absurd. In fact, I'M going crazy. I don't see us getting 3 points this week. One point, tops. Whatever unit goes out there would have to really pull it together to get a win...or even a draw. And if we lose to the Charge AGAIN, that puts them right on our heels in the standings. Very frustrating.
Midterm Exam - - - San Diego tries to answer tough questions in rematch with Philadelphia, by Jorge Palacios Projected Starting Lineup Jamie Pagliarulo; Lisa Kryzkowski, Kim Pickup, Rhiannon Tanaka; Kerry Connors, Daniela, Jen Nielsen, Allie Sullivan, Zhang Ouying; Christine Latham, Julie Fleeting http://www.cybersoccernews.com/wusa/sandiego/030612sds-phladv.shtml
Juggled Spirit Lineup Ready for Re-Match in Philly “We will probably go with two up front (Julie Fleeting back from Scottish national team duty and Christine Latham). Jen Nielsen will start in place of Wagner and in the back you will probably see Rhiannon Tanaka in place of Joy Fawcett,” explained Spirit coach Omid Namazi. http://66.193.70.151/press_room/spotlight_on/367759.html Note: we were told at the 'meet & greet' event that there would not be a viewing party this time.
weather report... very tropical...high humdity, mid-80's, gully washing t-storms..heat index was 95 thursday, and expected to be low 90's saturday... samba soccer, let the ball do the work... pavlina scasna is available to play after being out 6 weeks.
Spirit depth to be tested by Charge, by Mark Zeigler http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/sat/sports/news_1s14spirit.html
Yuck The Spirit played one of the worse games I have seen them play. Yes, both goals can be laid at Tanaka's feet - she was reacting to plays rather than anticipating and aggressively making them. I wonder if Pags could have made the saves, though - they were savable. Fleeting looked tired the whole game. At least Zhang played with heart the whole game. Sigh...
Pags could of got those easily...Rhi definatly needs to get back her 2001, 2002 game form, she looks skinny and out of shape
One of the things that irks me the most about the game is the fact that Joy could have been there and might have changed the entire complexion of the game! Heinrichs never used her against Ireland, and didn't start Aly either - April could have left both of them in San Diego and called up others that she had previously wanted to look at, like Mitts or Connors (wouldn't that have changed the way the game played out!) Yes, both Fleeting and Latham were obviously tired from their international games. But if Joy had been there, the team probably would have been in it's usual 3-5-2, and the defense would have done a better job on marking Pichon on all of those long balls that the Charge continually played. I also wonder why Allie wasn't started in place of Julie or Christine and why Nielsen wasn't played at attacking mid... *** http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/sun/sports/news_1s15spirit.html
I won't blame her for the first goal as much as I do Branam; she went way too far off her line, IMO. She should have stayed put a little longer. Tanaka thought to pass back to Branam, but Branam wasn't where she should have been. I was more surprised Pags didn't start; Fleeting and Latham are a hefty duo to handle. For two teams that don't have a rivalry like, say, you guys and the Beat, we foul each other an awful lot... About Fawcett and Wagner not playing in SLC last night; we beat the Spirit *with* them in the mix, along with Foudy and Pags, so maybe it wouldn't have made that much of a diff. July 5, we'll be more up to speed, roster-wise; Kelly Smith will be back by then, and Scasna gave youse fits in the time she was in. Maybe McVeigh can build on the solid job she did as a sub. It was her best game to date. Paul
However, Tanaka didn't look like she was in her former self. What did she expect Branam to do?? head the ball? the situation still holds even if Branam stayed back. It is a bad play to get the goalie involved in such a risky situation. Branam would have had to chest trap it or head it or god knows what.
I've watched Jenni play for a 5 years now... I could see Jenni's plans when she was coming out. Even if Jenni was on her line, What the heck was up with the pass back! that was high and was not going to be easy to settle.
Tanaka definitely mishit that ball on the pass back to Branam. Under the circumstances, with Pichon right on her, a pass back to the goalie was pretty much a forced option. I thought that Ronnie Fair had a good game. Also, Kerry Connors looked very nice and had some great passes. Latham had a few chances but couldnt finish - she did look frustrated and quite tired or something. I dont know if it was just me, but Daniela seemed to give the ball away a lot. It looked as if Rohbock was being aggressive in the little time that she came in and also looked nice. Bush also had nice runs I think.
I was at the match, and the most effective Spriit player was Zhang... Tanaka option was to play out of touch..Branam was near the edge of the box, any backpass, even one of the turf would have been dangerous
The ONLY mistake that mattered was that Tanaka chose to pass towards the goalmouth, not to the short side. Namazi has to emphasize the fundamentals in this week's practices.
It was indeed a very frustrating game. Rhi looked out of place in the middle. A step behind Pichon on several plays. Fleeting is not an attacking mid. Why not play a proven attacking mid (Nielsen) there instead of out on the wings? Even when they switched up, Ouying (another non-attacking mid) went inside leaving Nielsen outside. Why was Sullivan sitting so long? Why can't we finish? How many chances does Ouying get? Her work rate definitely seems to be improved, but work rate or not, she needs to score at this level when the opportunity presents itself. See Pichon for clinic on this. Branam may or may not have been out too far on the one goal, bad luck really, but her distribution out of the back was poor. 5-6 kicks straight out of bounds. Her kicks, though powerful, often seemed to have a mind of there own. Road loss, now we need to get that behind us and refocus on the Power who seem to be coming into their own.
Yeah I agree, Branam's kicks were more often than not out of bounds, kinda useless. And she did stray from her line a tad too often. Remember the solid kaboom off the crossbar? She was off her line then and it would have scored if the ball was a few inches lower. That was off a free kick, so tell me again why was she off her line?? Pichon was a joy to watch - she did whatever it took to control the play - way too many Spirit players were waiting to see what was going to happen next on their plays. Tanaka did have other options on the first goal, a kick across the backline to give up a corner would have been better. Maybe she was trying that and it didn't work. About Sullivan and the other subs, at the very least I would have made the subs at halftime rather than at the 65 minute mark...
These international games messing with our team is getting to be very frustrating. In fact, it downright sux. I blame USSF or whoever's in charge. Play the games on Wednesday for chrissakes!!!!!!!! Whatever. I know they're only after $$$$ anyway. Gonna be a struggle this year to make those playoffs but I still thinkw e can do it.