It looks like the Thorns will be "all hands on deck" -- except for Heath -- for the WNY game tomorrow. This from Paulson at the TweetBunker: Thorns debut Vero & Steph w/ Alex & Rachel playing Sat.
Coach Riley, in his pre-Red Stars interview, indicates that Heath will play in the Thorns' #10 position (but doesn't say she will start, although I'm guessing she will). He also says the only goal for the game is to get the first goal. Does this seem stupid to anyone other than me?
You are not alone. I kind of get what he was trying to say- score first and make the opponent chase the game- but the way he said it was dumb AF.
I'm still focussing on him saying he would rather win 6-5 than 1-0, which to me says he has no respect for the defensive part of the game. That he is sitting Brooks seems curious to me, since she is the only player on the team you could call a true D-mid. The starting lineup tomorrow will be interesting. I'll be going to a game scheduled to eliminate the chance to see 2 World Cup games. Another loss with crappy defence will be pretty depressing to the point and I'll start asking who next years coach will be. He broke up a champion team to get his vision of what kind of team he wanted. At some point he has to be accountable.
From the Rose City Riveters website: "Paul Riley says Mana Shim is healthy and will be ready to play by Friday."
he seems very desperate, it seems to me like he still has no tactic for attacking, just hopes for the best, and depends on players to think of something themselves, which is the reason they dont click because they are not on the same page and no strategy. Will love to see heath play tommorow
I'm inclined to agree with you, as my observation at games has been the players aren't sure what they're trying to do. But, that could be due to the week-by-week introduction of the newly arriving players. Whatever the case, they need to know what they're trying to do soon.
Well, I'm not upset about y'all giving us Williamson and Wetzel. That aside, I have little doubt that Brooks is going to be stuck on the bench for what's left of the season. Riley wouldn't dare bench his pets Farrelly and Long for a player who doesn't fit his "What's a defense?" style. Which is incredibly dumb, as we all saw against KC.
I think our defence is not that terribly bad, its the midfield that is not able to hold the ball and keeps making a bad pass that is picked off on the counter. the one and only trick we reserve to is taking the ball to the endline and trying to make a cross into the box, which is so predictable and they were trying this one trick the entire game vs KC
no slight alteration of tactics when holding a 2-0 lead late in the game. no forcing the trailing, traveling team to waste a lot of energy chasing the ball for long periods of time. no bringing in of brooks to defend a lead.
I'll tell you what other dumb decision he's made- still doing 2-a-days at this point in the season. Portland looked gassed at 70 minutes, and since he won't back down on his rigorous training schedule, they are going to be exhausted by August. 2-a-days are fine in preseason and when you have a long break in the schedule. But now it's time to back off so your players have some juice left for the stretch run.
It looked very similar to Boston, holding a 3-1 lead over Washington, pumping long balls to Sanderson and HAO in the 2nd half and Surprise! Tie game FT. Thorns not necessarily airing it out, but only able to play straight ahead. Why not switch it around the back sometimes? With the lead!?
I agree with the announcers comment about Portland fans. I have watched Thorns games in Portland and she is right. Portland fans ARE knowledgeable and passionate. It was refreshing for me at Portland games to sit next to a soccer mom or dad or anyone for that matter who actually knew who was who on BOTH teams and not just the "clueless" soccer mom or dad who are just there to bond with their daughters, who only know about Wambach and Solo but yet pretend they are "passionate" fans that I see around the country all the time and that includes people in Seattle, IMO. Portland fans ARE real fans of the women's game in my book. They know women's soccer. Period.
Still looking for verification that Scolari was seen talking to Paul Riley telling him to defend with three in the bavk because it is better to win 6-5 than 1-0.
While playing at Benedictine is still very difficult, Portland will have a decent chance to play a bit of their game. The referee will be Josh Wilkens, in my view one of the three or four best refs in the NWSL. Somehow, this was on the Seattle thread: I think Thursday will be different
That would be telling... Generally, I'm becoming somewhat accepting of many refs as far as that goes. I'm focusing now on what I see as certain philosophical differences with the way games are called, which has less to do with the individuals than a prevailing view or approach which I find myself at odds with. There've been several games where the refereeing hasn't been much of an issue, but some games are easier to call than others and I haven't analyzed them as closely as others to see whether it was the referee's performance was particularly good or whether it was one of those "easier" games. Having said all that blah blah blah -- one other referee I will single out by name as one of the best, because I've done it often enough here and at Equalizer, is none other than Dimitar Chavdarov, who many fans have said should never referee a NWSL game again(!) Ya think there's a slight difference of opinion?!
Merritt Paulson @MerrittPaulson 1m We have 17k tix sold for our 8/3 @ThornsFC game. Let's push to sell-out Prov Park with another 3K for what will be largest ever NWSL crowd C'mon, Portland, get that sell-out. I'm hoping you guys pull it off.
Me too. The game is with the Dash. While I know that other teams' fans would like more broadcasts of their teams' games, and I sympathize with them completely, having a fan support display like ESPN had yesterday for the Thorns/Breakers has got to be good for women's soccer and for helping implant the message in the NWSL cities that being a fan of your NWSL team can be crazy fun.