USA vs.China Pre/During/post-game, etc. THREAD [R]

Whoops. Just saw Speedoblob's answer to my Wagner question.

 

No love lost between former Freedom teammates, eh?

 

USA played ok, but the only real goal that the US scored was the last one by Lilly, the other ones were by a mistake by the Chinese goalkeeper, a very questionable penalty, and the other one could've been interference by the US players.

 

Good competetive game between these two teams, as is usually the case. The final scoreline is very misleading and almost entirely the fault of the Chinese keeper Wenxia. At least two if not three USA goals from the run of play were the result of poor positioning and handling. Where is Gao Hong when you need her? China played some pretty posession, but the final ingredient for success continues to elude them. A better goalkeeper and second striker to help Han Duan are their top priorities before next year comes around.

Tarpley had another strong game, in my opinion. I would like to see her be rewarded for her efforts by getting to start in at least a couple games in the future to see what she can add. It was interesting to hear that she's been playing more of a forward role lately. O'Reilly hasn't exactly been lighting it up, so I wonder if Tarp could get a chance to fill in for her. O's speed would be a nice asset to have off the bench too. One area that Wambach has improved upon this year has been playing quickly and staying on her feet, but this game I thought was a step back for her. Granted the Chinese were giving her almost no space and had two defenders on her at all times, but she seemed to run into traffic instead of turning away and playing the simple ball back one too many times. She didn't have a bad game, persay, but its just something I noticed.

Defensively the US looked a little disorganized on a few seperate occasions. The obvious one is the goal where LePeilbet was drawn too far wide, as Foudy pointed out, but at other times they gave to ball away too close to goal (that one by Rampone near the end a glaring example). But they are improving steadily as a unit and will continue to with more games under their belts. Lori Chalupny needs to start! She has outshined all her competition for the left back spot this year.

An encouraging performance overall for the United States.

 

CHN – Han Duan (Ren Liping) 24th minute.
USA – Cat Whitehill (unassisted) 30.
USA – Aly Wagner (penalty kick) 59.
USA – Kristine Lilly (unassisted) 85.
USA – Kristine Lilly (Lindsay Tarpley) 88.

from

http://www.ussoccer.com/articles/viewArticle.jsp_281308.html

 

Would somebody please explain to me why the US persists in playing this 4-3-3? Mitts made a couple of nice runs up the sideline as did Chalupny in the second half, but for the most part it's satic, not getting the job done in the midfield, and the forwards are trracking way back far too much, both to play a defnesive role and to pick up a pass. The result is either we get stopped in the midfiled or we launch long balls into the box, which are pretty ineffective against a team like China (or anybody else who is stacking the back two-thirds).

What's wrong with a 4-4-2? Maybe it's as simple as not having Boxx back there to play the back of a diamond or, maybe, tacitly acknowledging that Wagner is not up to playing the top of the diamond against a good/fast team. But Tarpley can play the point of the diamond and there must be somebody who can cover the defensive role. With a 4-4-2, seems to me they could do a much better job of pushing people up the flanks, keep the forwards from running themselves to death, and cold control the midfield much better.

 

The referee made a big mistake on the penalty call against China, where Aly Wagner and a Chinese defender seemed to collide accidentally. If anything, the contact seemed to be initiated by Wagner, but either way, it wasn't deserving of a penalty kick.

Also, on the third USA goal (Lilly's free kick), Wambach and Kai could possibly have been called for interference with the goalkeeper. But she should have held on to it anyway, so I think it was a good no-call.

The red card on Pu Wei (kicking Wambach while on the ground) was a good catch. The assistant may have helped her out, but still it was well spotted.

Each team was called for 13 fouls so it wasn't one sided in either teams favor, but the big decisions went the USA's way. I've never heard of this referee before so maybe the PK call was a rookie mistake.

 

I agree with the post regarding the 4-4-2 system. Without Boxx in there, they do seem to be having a bit of trouble controlling posession in the midfield. When the defenders win the ball, often times the middies are outnumbered and therefore not open to receive the ball, so the defenders are forced to send an ambitious long ball forward without any great purpose. Lilly, Tarpley, or Lloyd have the ideal skills to play an attacking midfielder, but Ryan seems to be set on the 4-3-3.

I posted earlier that Lori Chalupny needs to start, and one of the reasons is the 4-3-3. She's the only wide defender that has attacked successfully with any consistancy, which is essential to this formation.

 

I was standing on the concourse behind the goal when the penalty was called and I couldn't believe she called it. It looked pretty weak to me. I haven't seen the tape yet. All in all a beautiful day at Toyota Park. Overall pretty good crowd. Most of the girls stayed long after to sign autographs except for Solo, she booked into the locker room and I didn't see Lilly sign much either.

 

I'm not a US fan and I don't want to troll, so I'll just say that I agree with what a lot of people said about some very umm...questionable refereeing decisions and that Lilly's 4th goal was perfectly placed and pure class...

 

Did poor Joanna Lohman set a new national team record yesterday? That would be for picking up a cap without having actually played! That must be the most frustrating thing to happen to a player, and the most imbecilic move ever by a coach! What's the point?

 

To those of us in the stands, it looked like a move on Ryan's part to allow Kristine Lilly to get a well-deserved ovation from the crowd. With Lilly's second goal coming so close to full time and only 1 minute of stoppage time added, it didn't allow Ryan much time to sub and Lohman any time to play.

 

I would suggest it is a horrible thing to do to a player just for that purpose, if in fact that was the case. I would think Lohman deserves a little respect.

 

To give Lilly a nice round of applause. It happens.

 

I'm sure she'll earn it in training and hopefully with her play, if given the opportunity. I wonder if she played in the closed-door session vs. China during the week? Maybe she'll see more playing time vs. Mexico?

 

What the others said: the PK call was horrible. That was either a foul by Aly or a no-call, not a foul the other way.

 

It was great to see Tarpley getting some time, and up front as well. With O'Reilly unlikely to go to the Peace Cup at the end of October, I hope we see her up there more.

I continue to be impressed with Carli Lloyd. She's winning a lot of balls and can really push it through. She certainly had a better game than Wagner, who seemed to be really off with her service on Sunday.

 

I highly recommend recording the games and repeatedly replaying them. It helps to solidify my opinions.

 

Well that could be due to the fact that she draws like 2 or 3 opponents everytime she touches the ball.

 

Not putting Chalupa on the A list is a DA thing to do, in any case. She works better in the mix than in practice, trust me!

 

Here's a Soccernet article about the game:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=377407&root=us&cc=5901