a little off topic, but this is important, people...! I went to the link above and see the Levin and press are playing together, but then I looked at Press's stats...does she really have 17 goals in 20 game? as the stats suggest? http://women.soccerway.com/players/christen-press/185852/
answered my own question! never mind.....! https://www.bigsoccer.com/community/threads/ms-press-vs-marta.1977208/
Yes she does, second in the league behind Mittag http://women.soccerway.com/national/sweden/damallsvenskan/2012/regular-season/ scroll down.
Göteborg is moving the players around a lot so the only ones that havent recently played in at least two different poistions are Press and the goalkeepers.
I wondered about that. If she was getting time as attacking center mid it would raise her stock a ton.
That is unlikely to happen in Göteborg, even when they played 4-5-1 Press was always the sole starting forward. She is their main attacking force and Göteborg is a far less dangerous team without her at the top.
Not live, and only a few on them on television. But she is a very good forward one of the five best in Damallsvenskan and all of the other of comparabel quality (Mittag, Bachman, Marta, Melis) have all been playing for their WNT for years. Swedish commentators have been surprised most of the years that she haven actullay played in th USWNT yet and that Pia only had her as an alternate for the Olympic games.
Thanks, Jan. Now I'm seriously excited about seeing what she can do with the national team next year, assuming, you know . . .
. . . that she gets selected, was what I ellipsed. But, hey, the Mayans. That too, for the end-of-days fans among us.
Here's an ironic note about Christen Press. I couldnt remember how tall she was so I checked the player pool on USSoccer.com. Not only has Pia forgotten about her but she isnt even listed in the player pool. Poor girl gets no respect
http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/club-soccer-articles/top-10-us-youth-soccer-stories-in-2012_aid28287 I don't pay much attention to TopDrawer, but I read the article on biggest news stories from the club and youth level of 2012, and the U20 WWC title is deservedly #1. Now if only they could get the coach's name correct from that U20 squad (I guess the writer is fan of Parks and Rec)
Equalizer, who r usually pretty good, had the U20 victory as the 11th most significant women's soccer story of the year. Guess it was a really big year for soccer.
I look forward to Pia's failure in Sweden. Without the fit athletes and upfront fire power of the USWNT, her lack in coaching will be exposed with the Swedish NT.
They will lose in the Quarterfinal (on home soil) in the Euro tournament coming up. The honeymoon will be over after that. She'll still be the coach of course, but the criticism will begin.
Yo they have Lotta Schelin one of the best strikers in the world. They have Nilla Fischer & Josefine Oqvist who are no scrubs. Sweden has some up and coming talent that just need more experience playing international comp. If they lose to Germany there no shame there. Germany are the reigning European champions. If Sweden loss to any other team some criticism will probably be fair.
Stay classy there big guy - so, if Sweden overachieves (gets to the final four of Euro/WWC) will you admit you've been totally wrong about her? Let's just say I for one am not holding my breath on that one. I just hope the great job Pia did here won't be exposed by a reversion to the mean under Sermani. I think he can keep it going, but it's going to continue to be a very challenging environment for the WNT. Not to mention the same "fit athletes and upfront firepower" wasn't as successful under pre-Pia, which sort of makes your point kind of sorta not too logical in the first place - I mean, do you think other coaches have won WWC's/Oly's withOUT talent?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the USWNT won WCs without Pia, so they were a level above before she arrived? How many did they win with Pia? I give them 1 Olympic medal because that Japan game with those penalties and handballs in the box which didn't result in kicks for Japan was an abomination. I have to agree with Sinclair on their road to glory in the last Olympics. Baby Horse and Wambach (I prefer Fullbach, but some members don't like that) are 2 of the top 3 forwards in the world. I put Marta at 4 now, because of a horrible 2012. It's nice to have those two on the same roster. Then, add Sydney (doesn't have the caps but cause the same type of disruption on the pitch like Morgan) and Cheney ( can give you a goal or 2 against anyone in the world when she is HoT). I would say they roster 4 of the top 20 attackers in the world. It would have been even more nastier for opponents if Pia remembered Press, who could possibly be top 10 in the world right now without one cap , but that's for another thread. MF was horrible, but so fit they could run their way out of problems. Back-line was a mess, but anchored by the #1 defender the world up until late 2012. I think she got tired late in the year after all those caps since Pia basically couldn't sit her. That being said, I can only come up with Germany being comparable to this team. Japan has a nice hold and chase us game, which seems to offset the USWNT's fitness level but really has nothing up top to match their forwards. Lotta Schelin? I can't remember her being ranked top 3-5 in anything. Ok, they got one forward, who I'd bench against Horse and Wambach. They probably have a better ball control mid-field which is anchored by the lady who played for WNY but who doesn't against the USWNT? Pia needs BIG TIME fit athletes in her system. Oh, and who do they have to anchor their back-line? She gets exposed in Sweden.
newsouth Japan has a strikers that can play against the US backline. Yuki Ogimi formerly Nagasato matches just fine against our backline. She goe up against good backline all the time in Brauen Bundesliga and Champions League she's one the best in the world. Lotta Schelin is top notch striker one the best in the world. Do you not follow club football? Of strikers you mentioned Schelin an Marta are the only striker that played club football. Just because Morgan, Sinclair and Wambach didn't play club and only played international ball doesn't diminish Schelin & Marta club seasons which were very excellent. Schelin won the Treble. Marta role was spent more in Midfeild that doesn't take away from her striking abilities. Sweden players are more technically sound than our current roster. Look at those players in at their club team or just a year ago. With the correct tactics and motivation Sweden could be right there challenging for trophies and seen as a top women team.
Sweden is excpeted to get to Euro semis so that is not overachiving, even the most critcal can hardly find more than three better Euro teams. Germany is for a fact, France may very well be and in a strecth even England could be considered better than Sweden but what would be the fourth team?
It will be interesting to get a look at Sweden at Algarve and see if they r tactically different as opposed to just more familiar with Simon & Garfunkle.
A very nice article about U20 reserve, Becca Wann. She didn't play elite travel/ODP soccer because she wanted to keep playing basketball in addition to soccer.
hahaha...mawahaha. i'd say more highway 61 revisited or blood on the tracks than sounds of silence. but i'm excited to see that game...