27' 1-0 #6 Karol Sánchez Cruz hoofs a hard shot from 35m center-ish (two box-heights!!) -- off the upper left 90 and reflects back into danger. USA scrambles unconvincingly, eventually clears it. That's a post and a crossbar!
agreed with Ohara... needs to win those 50 50 balls..as does buehler boxx is worthless this game, again
left side of the defense is weak. o'hara? how about sauer? slow upfront, just built for crosses and setups with abby. how about a-rod, morgan and sydney. see how the gunners work against CR's young girls. where's the guy, 8a or whatever, with the possession by the usa vs weak teams? muscle, speed and strength, that's it, nothing technical to think about but set pieces..
Completely agree with O'Hara but these are the games she needs to be playing in to develop as a defender. I'm more concerned with our midfield right now. Boxx and Lloyd are non-existent. HAO and Cheney aren't involved enough either.
Boxx needs to put some fresh tennis balls on the front of her walker to be more effective. Jeez, no range, which is only compounded by no anticipation.
33' 1-0 US ping just past midfield right. #16 Katherine Alvarado Aguilar comes inside-out, puts back into #12 Cheney, who hooks her right chicken-wing and twists her hips. Alvarado spins away, and swings her straight right arm in an arc that just misses Cheney's head. Ref races in, O'Reilly races in, everybody takes a breath. Ref nearly slaps somebody with her emphatic free-kick (to the US) gesture, and nearly spears Wambach with her fingertips. I think T-1000 did that to the guy in front of the refrigerator ...
Heath is waiting for the ball then too slow to deliver a pass. There's no teamwork upfront either. So far we have problems with our defense, midfield and forwards. Other than that, it's swell.
36' 1-0 USA right corner to 4m left post. #10 Lloyd leans her torso through her insufficiently-massive defender, piledrives a header just wide left into the endboards.
In the WWC she showed her deficiencies at that role. Her mode was try to nutmeg. Failing that she lost the ball getting doubled.the USA lost to Japan when she got subbed in. She scored tonight off a set piece at the right post, but she still hasn't shown she can play her position. Three doubles and losses of possession so far.
39' 1-0 USA ping a header off a CR MF. Ball drops into a 50-50, #10 Lloyd lunges and pokes it, some contact with #16 Alvarado, who crumples. Foul on US. 40' 1-0 USA free kick from 35m wide left, #12 Cheney lifts it high to 8m mid-left. #18 Erika Miranda Gutiérrez comes out, leaps, and tries to catch it, #20 Wambach tries a header bomb, big collision with neither of them looking. Foul on Wambach, but Miranda paid the price. Brandi says: "punch the ball away"
42' 1-0 #17 Heath receives deep left in a 1-v-1. #5 Diana Sáenz Brown perfectly times a tackle, goes to ground and foot-wrestles ball away. Heath flaps arms: she's getting stonewalled.
Love to see the possession stats. I think we lost that stat. Dang! Gotta leave for a meeting. Hold down the fort.
2nd half sub - morgan CR has a lot of wear on their legs for 45 mins. morgan super sub goal, just putting it out there before the fan boys go crazy. it's how the sub pattern works with her.
heath, boxx, abby shouldn't be on the field..... get them off and get some speed and technical ability on the field..... i don't want this to be a close match.