I don't know about the rest of you but I'm going to declare #13 ready for primetime. Does this mean that she's going to be consistent in every game? No. However, we have at least one person who can step in for whatever reason. It's Abby that is the ? right now. How long can she last up front in her current condition? It's hard to replace someone like her, which is why Pia is reluctant to limit her minutes (That or she really does run the show, as some posters think ). Boxxy, unless Pia does something for her like she did for Amy-Rod, I'm afraid her time's up.
I'll have to agree with this as well!! She was the most consistent the entire game & never stopped. She fought for each and every chance to put one in the back of the net. Wambach was slow to get to some balls today... BUT I think having a speedy forward along side of her worked well, sort of balanced it out. That's why I'm a fan of the 4-4-2 Very sad the whole JLoyden news
Well Morgan has now scored 6 goals and assisted twice in 4 total starts for the USWNT. I'm not sure what else she can do at this point to become a full time starter when they play the 4-4-2 formation. She has also been involved in the U.S.'s last 7 goals (scoring 5 times and assisting twice).
I'm afraid the feed kept needing to rebuffer for me, so I missed about 20 20second slices of the game-- so my impressions may be lacking some data... I loved O'Hara's game-- but I gather something unfortunate happened while New Zealand scored (offstage in my world?) I thought the cold bothered the US much more than the Kiwis, and bothered us a lot. Abby couldn't hit the broad side of a barn from the inside today-- until the very last gasp of the game that is. Morgan had trouble getting much of anything on the ball-- and still was the best player in the game. Lloyd covered herself with something today, but I don't think it was glory... The game was just absolutely crying out for Rapinoe, but I gather Pia didn't want to weaken the defense that much until Moorhead? Moorman? came out of the game. I assume she knew something I don't. I thought the offense was running at Riley at the beginning for a very obvious reason-- the more she was forced to react, the less chance she had to create. When she finally started getting a chance to start the offense for them personally, she was all kinds of trouble. I assume that we have returned to the 4-4-2 for reasons which I think Morgan has made glaringly obvious to everyone but our friend with the thermometer on his wall; but it IS an exchange, as it seems to take Cheyney pretty much out of the game. I loved the 4-2-3-1-- but I don't see how to get Morgan in the starting lineup in it, and you pretty much have to feed the hot hand. And I reiterate, in the hopes that someone else will do the research I don't have the resources to do-- surely Pia is setting all sorts of records for last gasp results by a coach? How many of these have we seen now?
Jill was in Frisco, training with the team ... she went home to be with her family when she learned of her sister's tragic death.
Agreed, I liked the 4-2-3-1 (which was really a 4-5-1). Cheney was off today, but in the 4-4-2, too much is relied upon Lloyd and Boxx and therefor lacks efficiency and savvy. I'd like to use this (4-2-3-1) formation and sit abby, put Morgan up top. We should try it at least. Pia better bring another holding Mid to Algarve. And better start playing Becky S. horrible horrible news about Jill. Thoughts to her and her family. how horrible. It must have really effected the team. especially the girls who have known Jill for a long time.
Very upsetting news. Glad I didn't know about it until after the game. From where I was sitting I had a good view of both of Morgan's goals, though I was surprised that the first one was called. I thought our struggles pretty much came down to our inability to mark all the black shirts in the midfield. There seemed to be nobody there to receive passes or pressure their players, and when Boxx or Lloyd or Cheney did get possession in the middle they'd be instantly swarmed from all sides. At first I didn't love the like-for-like substitutions (I also didn't like the one substitution that wasn't like-for-like, the O'Hara for LeRoux move, since I thought O'Hara was one of the best players on the pitch aside from the play that led to the NZ goal) because I felt our formation could use some tinkering due to the aforementioned midfield issues. But A-Rod and Rapinoe and LeRoux really worked hard to get us on the board, and it paid off. By the way, it was absolutely frigid. My hands and feet took half the drive back to Austin to recover.
Video highlights of Alex Morgan's goals - from a GLBsoccer retweet that links to Steve Goff's article for the Washington Post.
where did i say she wasn't legit? the fanboys and girls on here are reading into it the wrong way. USA fitness late is better than anyone in the world. Leoux's sub is the key to her late game heroics. The first goal is simply a robbery. God forbid NZ got out that game with an 1:0 win with a turnout (22000) like that, given the crowd was silent for 88 mins. the ball hit the post, went forward or lateral and the keeper pushed it out. i'm guessing ussoccer's line cameras were broke, but if that had been NZ they would have shown every angle imaginable. like i said, they'll win the olympics. japan is an one hit wonder, france doesn't have the fight in them, and brasil is just too young, given thais, beatriz, and debra wont be ready until 2015. and pia will give morgan unlimited feeds, so she'll get her goals, so nike keeps the sponsorship dollars flowing. it's big time sports, don't you know?
Don't be so cynical...Morgan is a great choice as the poster child for US Women's Soccer, Nike is dead-on. Hopefully, we win the gold and perhaps that will resurrect the WPS. Eventually, teams will have to be more aggressive in defending her and that should allow more scoring opportunities for others.
[from Brooklyn Soccer: Agreed, I liked the 4-2-3-1 (which was really a 4-5-1). Cheney was off today, but in the 4-4-2, too much is relied upon Lloyd and Boxx and therefor lacks efficiency and savvy.I'd like to use this (4-2-3-1) formation and sit abby, put Morgan up top.We should try it at least.Pia better bring another holding Mid to Algarve. And better start playing Becky S.] For now you can eliminate some of the midfield problems by playing L. Lindsey, or move Cheney inside. Agree with everything else you say, Is it realistic to believe Abby will be able to play at an effective level 3 years from now? In comparison to where Alex Morgan will be in her development by then
Watching a broadcast on mute doesn't mean they were silent. I could clearly hear AO and much of the crowd even though they weren't mic'd as a section or with field level mics.
I saw the 2nd half of the game, and only now seeing the replay, it does appear that the 1st goal did cross the line. However based upon the half I saw, I would say that Ali Riley was player of the game. I am wondering how she improved so much.
oh rub it in ... but did you jog there? e-he-he Given that we all had lousy angles, we trust the refs to do their jobs. Methought Morgan didst grandstand and protest too much; although we all know the recent FIFA history of true Lampard/Rubios off the bar (and surely ARs have had this seared into their minds for the same reason). - Brasil was much cooler about it in the Confed Cup 09 final when they (Kaká?) dunked a header @2-2 through the upper right 90 off Howard's chest and out. They just kept playing (as the ball was still live!), didn't notice, didn't protest, later asked for a (legit) corner, and took it. (Although frankly at that speed and from their angle, probably none of them honestly even knew for sure that it had crossed.) - Similarly, France blasted a ball off South Korea's GK's trailing back hand well over the line, and it was too fast for anybody to notice, so they didn't protest either. In real-time, I instantly suspected the possibility, through deduction. Watch the replay (which confirmed my real-time impression): (0:10) As header flies toward post, Bindon is retreating from 6-box center toward her goalline. So her momentum is endline-ward. (0:11) At the instant the ball hits the post, Bindon stands with her left foot's toesy-woesies on the goalline and her right foot shoulder-width inside her goal. Hence, her center of gravity, hips, and right shoulder are necessarily inside the goal. (She's leaning slightly outward, so her left shoulder might be straddling the goalline.) (0:12) As Bindon "catches" ball at her own throat-height, her momentum has carried her just past her own goalline into the goal. Her right foot is shoulder-width plus stutter-step epsilon deep into the goal. Her left foot has shuffled off her goalline inward, with tiny but clear green gap between her left toes and the inside edge of the goalline. Her spine is now vertical, no longer leaning outward (and certainly not at some crazy angle like 60 degrees from vertical). Her hands are in almost a Thromberg reflex, catching the ball to her upper chest like any standard grab. At this instant, her butt, both feet, spine line, head, and right shoulder are without question inside her goal. Her shoulderline is turned roughly 45 degrees to the field. Remaining questions: 1. Did she clasp ball to her chest? Or hold it some separation s ~ 0.4 diameters away? 2. Does this posture necessarily put the ball fully beyond the back edge of the goalline? From the one angle, we can't tell. But it is at least plausible. No conspiracy needed; just physics. Test this yourself: physically pick a line on the floor, put your feet relative to it the way Bindon's are relative to her line, hold something at your throat, and then drop it straight down to the floor. Is it clearly on the line? When I physically falsify this hypothesis (using a beach ball I found abandoned by a bus stop months ago, which is about 30% larger than a soccer ball), I find I can extend my arms to almost 80% of their range (and I'm 5'11.5", surely taller than Bindon), and the ball's vertical shadow still doesn't even graze the "goalline". (My hips and stance are a bit wider than Bindon's, but surely not by more than the beach ball's 30% penalty.) Hence, I concluded then, and still maintain now, that it's plausible (that the ball had fully crossed), and too close to disprove from that angle. So we must defer to the person (or camera) who has the proper endline angle. We note the obvious: that even Bindon herself thought it was plausibly over the line, too! Hence she treated it like a hot potato, and blindly slapped it into goalmouth traffic, short-circuiting her catch-reflex. At what depth-into-goal does this become the appropriate goalkeeping response? Given that ussoccer decided to webcast the event on such short notice (~1 week), they probably didn't even have endline cameras installed, nor boomcams, skycam, reverse field cams, etc. It wasn't a televised match, so the coverage was roughly NCAA game-of-the-week level, maybe two fixed camera turrets at midfield and a few guys with camcorders. This charming appeal to conspiracy(-of-one, heh -- we all see that) cuts you both ways. To be consistent with yourself, you'd have to say: - Mexico got all the ref breaks when they (legitimately) beat us 2-1 in WCQ, it was big-time for them, with the turnout they had, they deserved it - God forbid USA beat Brasil in Confed Cup 2009 (even though we all agreed the refs missed a legit gol for Brasil -- but heck, 22 players on the field missed it too, it was just too fast) Compared to that, women's soccer, even in USA, really isn't big-time. A much more likely "conspiracy" is that FIFA has admonished ARs worldwide to not become the 3rd crew with egg on their face. Picture Blatter adding a special video to the AR training materials: "If you miss another legitimate gol, then I will have to accept a goalline technology proposal for 2014, and that would make me very sad" -- and you will be sadder My amateur astronomy solution to that is extra gloves and socks in the car, long johns, and spare blankets. We plan for 5+ hours alone while motionless, which subsumes any lesser athletic events. One of my bucket list items is a conference/WCQ road trip to AZ/TX/FL or similar, where I can sneak outside city skyglow radii and see all of Scorpius, and Canopus low on the horizon. Funny: our local club just got two new members who moved from Anchorage, AK to Moscow, ID for the same reason ...
Two answers: a) she works like crazy off the field and b) WPS. Watch her off the ball, she positions herself like they show in textbooks. I believe that many folks don't give credit enough to WPS experience, which I believe is why it took so long for Sauerbrunn (among others) to get her chance. A couple more thoughts. Abby's play to head the ball to Morgan for the last goal was super human. Watch it on the replay. She gets 95% of the goal in my book. Speaking of textbooks, an overwhelming majority of coaches tell their players to head the ball down when attacking in the box (up when defending). Both of Alex's headers were down - one more facet of technical competence.
Gilmoy, it's bad enough when people post facts on this forum, but now you've gone too far, actually being scientific and conducting science experiments. This must stop!
When Lori Lindsey played for the WUSA Freedom, on one occasion she was right in front of the goal and headed the ball downward in textbook fashion. Unfortunately, the ground was so hard and dry - and she hit it so hard - that it flew up and over the goal.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I've rarely if ever seen a camera view from directly on the endline, and in any case they wouldn't have any official effect if there were - it's all down to the judgment of the referee and the relevant AR. That being said, it would have been nice to see a replay of the first goal from the same angle as the final replay of the second goal. It's pretty plausible to me that the ball went in - as you note, the ball is at the goalkeeper's chest, and she's almost entirely inside the goal.
Replay of the full game is up: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bso_a5UuYe0&feature=channel_video_title"]WNT vs. New Zealand: Full Match - Feb. 11, 2012 - YouTube[/ame]
Im sorry if I may have missed this already being discussed but was there an official reason why Hope Solo was subbed out the second half? Hope never gets subbed out!
I think the PBP guy mentioned something about an injury. But, if it was that, it must have been very minor an/or the trainers/Pia were being extra cautious. From one of her tweets, it sounded like Solo trained on Sunday. Not sure if she saw any time during Monday's closed door match.