I just think, as much as the midfield is an issue, things need to be solved defensively first. It doesn't matter who the midfielders are if the defenders can't shut down attacks and clear the ball appropriately to the midfielders. That did not happen against England and though you can blame Rapinoe and HAO for not helping enough, Krieger and LePeilbet have GOT to be able to clear the ball sufficiently.
I think that's the major issue everybody is hovering around. The WNT is still run like a club team. The WPS performance levels of much of this team is really average to poor. The girls who do show well in WPS end up being played out of posistion, or not at all for the NT. I understand that to most of the girls, contracts and money situations require that the WNT is their club team. The random schedule the WNT players will use pre WWC highlights this fact. When you consider that 3 of the U.S. 4 mids are so ordinary in WPS play, should it really be a suprise when they look so bad on the higher international stage? The best most consistant WPS performers for the U.S. are the defenders, but look at that back 5 vs England and only one player (Buehler) gives you confindence she belongs in that game. For reasons fan's and pundits can't fathom, the second choice player in each posistion is still very unclear. You drop all the regular poor performers, and who replaces them . There's nothing wrong with knowing your best team so soon, but the current U.S. side always remains the same posing bigger questions rather than giving answers. How Carli Llyod keeps her central #10 role when everything around her is crumbling is amazing though. When it comes to holding roles nobody feels you should be in any longer, Gaddafi and Mugabe couldn't play it any better than her right now. How much worse does she have to be before she's replaced. It's embarrassing for the U.S. players who can play smart technical football, that she represents the best that the U.S. female soccer system can produce.
I actually think the problem starts in the midfield (maybe my career as a defender has something to do with this belief?). When you have numbers running at you all game long it's hard to keep shape and hard to distribute the ball. I saw no off-the-ball runs by the midfielders to open up so defenders could simple tap them the ball. England was running directly at the US defense with six players - there were holes to be filled that the US midfield just didn't do. When caught in that position, most defenders struggle making good passes out of the back. Additionally, when you have to try and cover two people at once, more often than not, a defender looks lost. Without proper midfield cover even the best defender look hapless. But it would help if our defenders were played in the proper positions and had much better first touches.
Many of the replacements are not on the roster, some are. Start Morgan and Cheney up top. Wambach is hurt, but hopefully will be healthy when the WC comes around and will be a valuable sub off the bench. Play three in the midfield: O'Hara, Heath and Tarpley. I'd have no problem with Rampinoe in here as well but this group can cover ground, is imaginative and play both ends of the field. I'd like to see a couple of the u23 midfielders brought in to fill out the bench (Edwards, Noguiera). Play a DM behind this group. Osborne is my choice because she had a great season in WPS. Boxx is the sub. The defense is where my changes really happen. Buehler and LePeilbet played well together in the middle against Germany last year but Amy is not healthy yet. I'd bring in some height for the middle - like Jordan Angeli or Marion Dalmy. Out wide? Time to give Wilson and Ellertson some playing time. Rampone is a good vet on the bench. My three keepers: Solo, Barnhart and Henninger. Time to give the future keeper some WC experience - even if she doesn't play.
In- game adustments This team desperately needs to learn how to make in-game adjustments. Twice Pia has talked about the half-time adjustments that seemed to have changed the game. In the England match, she talked about solving the Kelly Smith positioning and applying pressure. Why did these have to wait until halftime? They need to spend a lot of time developing options to counter formations and play that they are likely to see at the World Cup. They also need the captain to be able to read these needs and adjust or implement adjustments sent in from the sidelines. I don't know if Christie Rampone is the women for this, but I'm pretty sure Buehler is. I think Rachel B. is postponing medical school or something like that to play soccer. A lot of people don't like Julie Foudy announcing, but one thing she talks about every telecast is using a portion of the game as a scenario, i.e. we are down by 1 with 10 minutes to go - we need to throw numbers forward. The team when she was captain (and I think before) was able to adjust on the fly because they thoroughly understood the game. Over time, this adjustment ability seems to have atrophied. Another thing she talked about during the England game was pinching the wingers in to adjust to the 3 England midfielders playing centrally. Developing players vs. developing team based skills This board spends a lot of time grilling Pia about not playing more women and not developing creative players. First, if Lori Chalupny were still playing and Tobin Heath had been healthy for the last two years, the creativity of this team would be much enhanced. (The left back problem would also be solved.) For all of 2011, as many known starters should be getting at least a half together and potentially 60 minutes to learn how to play together under changing circumstances, The other time can be used to test other players like Alex Morgan or Tobin Heath to get them ready for a backup role or to give them a chance to make the case to be a starter. (In my opinion, they both demonstrated that they should be starting.) If HAO is the best option at right wing, play her there and don't waste any substitutions at that position. Arod Pia has been devloping Arod and people are going nuts. She led Southern Cal to a NCAA title and had a break out year in WPS last year. She provides world class speed to the USWNT that can be used to open up the attack and keep defenses from playing a high line against us. She isn't a finished product yet, but the highlights from Algarve looked pretty good and if Bardley hadn't made a great diving save, she would have scored against England. I agree that Alex Morgan has been playing herself into more time on the pitch, but I still want the Arod option. If Arod doesn't start, bring her in when every else is tired. Llyod I don't understand having her in the central midfield. I was optimistic after the Algarve tournament, but this last match was a disappointment. Good or frustrating, I enjoy following the team.
Playing Dalmy in the middle wouldn't utilize her strengths at getting forward. Her and Wilson have been consistently snubbed and I don't understand why. If you want height in the middle, then play Engen or Ellertson back there. I agree though, the lack of size in the middle is not good. Rampone is 5'6" and Beuhler is 5'5". I'd love to see a lineup like Wilson-Engen-Beuhler-Taylor. As untested that they may be, they all are young and athletic and have succeeded at all levels of their careers so far. Maybe we can hope to see things like this at the 2012 Olympics..
It is called banging your head against a brick wall over and over, hoping the brickwall will crack before your head does. Pia is an inflexible, incompetent coach. I wouldn't mind her getting fire right now and replace with Tony DiCicco, even this close to the world cup.
I agree. Tony Dicicco is the only coach, in the modern USWNT era who gets it. He constantly proves he can win with the USWNT, seniors or U-teams. He understands when something doesn't work, you abandon it and try something else. Pia on the other hand is inflexible. She wants to push the Scandinavian style of 4-4-2 down the American throats whether they have the talent for it and/or like it or not. For Pete's sake try something different like putting in Cheney, A-Rod, Alex Morgan with a 3 up front and see what they can do. Take out Lloyd and put in Heath. Just try it for one of the Japanese games and see what happens. If you lose, you lose but at least you tried something different. I would rather see the USWNT lose during this pre-WWC friendlies while trying different things then lose or win doing the same ole stuff. Trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, and playing kick ball. Yes, give me Tony Dicicco any day.
It's amazing that she doesn't try something new despite the poor results over the past year, but when people have mentioned this in the past other posters have crucified them for suggesting that losing a game is ok. It's interesting that those types of posts are not following your comments. Maybe people have finally got it - that winning games outside of the WC and Olympics mean absolutely nothing.
it's not just that we're losing it's how we're losing..more importantly. it's one thing to lose while playing really well it's another thing to play the style, players and the general way we have for the last few years. It's important for players to be in all different types of situations, playing from behind, 1 goal, 2 goal, playing a person down, etc.. but this situation is different. MRAD- AGREED. I'd love to see Heath, Morgan and Cheney all start. Cheney has shown over the past years she is most effective at holding the ball in the final third and making passes. Morgan has showed she is the most intelligent forward we have, making the best runs and being the most dangerous and also has shown really good technical ability. Heath is a two way player and we don't have many of those on the field..and it shows when the opposing team plays high pressure defense and tears the field open.
It's time to move Kelly O'hara up there as well. She was out of her mind on the left flank at Stanfoo the last few years, and had a rocket shot as I recall, she has been playing bit parts in the WPS, but should get a role here. Arod should agree to be a super-sub (ala Kai) and give up starting, coming in late in the game with fresh legs, and Abby should only play when she is at close to 100%. I'm still convinced that carrying the Freedom last year was a heavy load and she did not look much better against England than she did at the end of last year in WPS. Don't get me wrong, Abby has been my absolute fav player since I saw her live at Spartan again'st Sweden in 2002 or so. The travesty in the mid-field is as bad if not worse. I want Leslie Osborne back in the mix, and Yael and Tobin, and ...... time to move on. No comments on the back line at this point because I'm gonna get Buelerized if I am not careful. GK's are another tale to be told. Clearly, we all have to hope that Hope is back now, and will be ready, because, as all the other pundits have said, she inspires the team, gives them confidence, and makes unreal saves. However, as we move through the ranks, it is pretty clear after the last 6-9 months, the Barnie may have lost a step or three, and really doesnt have the presence to inspire the team. Retirement time. Ashlyn is another story, as she demonstrated in the WPS this year. Pia, pleeez give her some quality minutes, GKs NEED minutes in the net in game situations. However there is clearly a lot of other talent in the wings that also need minutes here and there as well.
He also comented on what you see now 3 years ago, and everybody laughed it off as Dicicco being a self serving so and so. He won the 08 U-20's and siad his team lacked the quality of what he had seen from the other teams in the same tournament. Dicicco simply hasnesed the best attributes of a mixed talent bunch. Quality GK, Athletic back 4 who don't overlap, 2 holding mids with 1 offensive, 3 forwards who can finish and run all day. That was the sum of his master plan. Dicicco's biggest coaching decision came in the form dropping the teams most creative players who helped them qualify, sighting a lack of effort to do what he needed. Promoting players like Morgan (the next face of U.S. women's soccer), the once senior #10 in waiting Nairn, and the how good is she really quality of Leroux, is something he couldn't do within the senior system. We know he has a lot of American system soccer IQ, but would he be able to use it with the seniors in the same way he did with the youth right now? Pia is simply trying to harness a growing trend in the global female game, true width. The German's utilise a very progressive 4-4-2 which requires a high level of tactical and technical player to make it work. It basically allows wingers and wing backs to take larger roles in how goals are scored. All the best teams in the WWC will have this similar trait, in many various diferent formations. Sundhage is desperate to have the U.S. girls playing the football of a 2011 top tier nation, but maybe without a full respect for what the U.S. game is best suited for. She has made enough comments on the poor midfield/wide play to suggest change, but she has also made the situation worse by playing more players out of position If you thought England were good, when Japan play USA watch how the Japanese possess and move the ball. The Japanese make plenty errors and may not take it to the U.S like England did, but they are another team who use the friendlies to test it's squad. I wonder how the U.S. will line up in both games
According to Jeff Kassouf's article on MagicJack today, he said Borislow stated that Marian Dalmy “could be the best player in our camp right now". Yet she still can't make her return to the National team. Hmm
Abby is a liability at this point. Too slow and too injured to be useful, except as a bulldozer. Need more attacking players willing to attack with the dribble as Rapinoe did for the US goal. Maybe Sundhage is just trying to get the team so pissed off that they tear apart all comers this summer. _________________ just another spoiled shellfish brat
Yeah, this is crazy. They seem to preform the absolute worst when they are on tv...go figure. And interestingly, Scotland actually beat England just a month or so ago, though I didn't check to see whether the lineups were the same. Goals from the Wambat, HAO, 2x Heath(!!), and good ol' Tarpley. But listen, people. Pia has made up her mind. Has she ever shown any willingness to stray from her "plan" in the recent past? The "Lepeilbet at left back" attempt is the epitome of her unfortunate coaching style. Many here really enjoy hashing this out time and time again, but I'm so damn tired of it. I guess this is just a space to air frustrations and consider what could be/could have been. The WNT mess has actually heightened my excitement for the WPS season, where we can actually see other players perform.
Yeah, i'm looking forward to watching the WPS and seeing other play. Pretty tired of watching such poor soccer for years now from that starting 11..
I have always been a big Wambach fan but the "strategy" seems to be kick it up field as hard as you can and hope Wambach gets it. That route one type soccer could have worked in the old days, when there were three countries that allowed women near a pitch without requiring a male chaperone. In this day and age, the other countries are catching up, and they are incorporating elements of their football culture into the women's game. Our football culture is built around fitness and work rate and hence why we are not one of the top men's teams in the world -- our women's team is in danger of following.
Wambach is great and more versatile than people seem to realize. And guess who assisted on some of Alex Morgan's goals including the big one against Italy? She's an incredible weapon that only one or two other countries come close to having in their arsenal. But it's no excuse for us to play so poorly otherwise. And right now she seems hurt. She hasn't bounced back yet from this latest injury so who knows how effective she might be? It sounds like we played better without her in the second half against England. And in Algarve, sketchy reports make it sound like we played pretty well -- and Abby came off the bench in those games. So maybe we'll be alright by going to our Plan B - which is the one without her. Shocking to think of it - we may have to make Abby our Plan B. More shocking - if it's doubtful that she's a 90 minute player at this stage, do we leave her off the World Cup roster altogether?! I'm a huge Wambach fan. But I don't think you can rule that out right now. Can you afford two super subs on the bench? Because that's what Alex Morgan is unlike what a lot of people here at BigSoccer like to think.
I have often thought that the national football/soccer culture and identity of a nation can be best seen in the development of it's much younger women's programs. The U.S. in a twist contrary to the global football norm, has it's men's programs playing catch up to it's women's. During this process you can finally begin to see a true American style football philosophy appear. Right or wrong, the very same philosophy in qualities that made the U.S. women so strong on the early global stage, are now sighted as negative attributes. At some point the U.S. women would have to play a deeper level of global competition like the men do now, and because of this your seeing the U.S. women gradually succomb to looking ordinary when put under examinations they are just not used to facing. System traits that at the moment hold the men back, will also begin to effect the WNT more too. So easily over come by previous WNT generations, these issues now begin to make the team look slow and cumbersome even though the team is filled with some of the sports best athletes. A reality nobody thought would come so soon. Both the men and women for me are gradually moving to very similar point, but for different reason. Even though they are now at very opposite ends of what you would consider a global force to look like, the quality of players and football they produce within their respective program's are already very similar. Your gradually seeing both programs reflect each others core values, and therefore general American soccer values. Whiles it's good enough for the men to use moving slowly forward, it's not good enough for the women if they are to remain #1.
American women's soccer culture is different than American men's soccer culture. You can't group the two together. They were born at different times and have developed in completely different manners. Currently, the women's NT does not represent much of the women's soccer culture in the US. It doesn't reflect the play of the top collegiate teams, the top youth club teams, nor the best teams from WPS. It's also wrong to claim that Mia and company came from a soccer culture that valued athleticism over tactical and technical skill. Quite the contrary. I would say that those women were much better technically and tactically than most of the women on the full NT right now. Their superior athleticism allowed them to dismantle other nations (like beating teams 8-0), but they were still outstanding soccer players. They developed these skills and knowledge of the game because they all had to play against boys growing up (there weren't enough girls teams/leagues). Against boys of relatively the same age, their athleticism wasn't going to cut it - but skill and tactical sense did help them. The current US WNT (from April on) has strayed away from the origins of American women's soccer culture. It sill exists - in spades. Just spend some time watching youth soccer and you will see it all over the place. We just need a national team program that recognizes these players.
Oh, I think Batfink's point is a very good one and I think a variety of people have started noticing that. While the US women were technically superior for their time, looking back in retrospect they didn't feature dazzling individual skills apart from one or two players. If you take Mia Hamm out of the evaluation and then start comparing along the evolutionary lines of Brazil, etc... Other qualities stand out and distinguish that era - superb athleticism, conditioning, power, a strong sense of teamwork and that never-say-die attitude. Things that characterize our men's team right now, too. Yes the men and women's programs were "born at different times" but that's what's interesting is how the men and women have developed certain similar "core values" that seem to mark our national style.
They may have been at polar opposites at one point in time, but now the two programs are becoming very similar at a ever increasing rate. The qualities the men look for in a player are only slightly more advanced in the women's section. The culture of men's soccer has become a force in America, and in doing so has assimilated women into it. Like it or not the international level is still the highest form of the women's game. The culture of how the female youth/college game is played won't translate to the international stage too much longer. These are area's of development the men struggle to harness now, and your not seeing the women produce the same level of genuine elite talents they used to through it either. The continued growth of the MLS has become the breeding ground for U.S. soccer fan culture, and hope of future domestic talent development. WPS teams will eventually become branches of various MLS clubs, which will shape the model player of the female game yet again. Mia Hamm as great as she was, played at her peak without many of the qualities you see in a player like Marta. Nothing wrong with that, as it was a very different time. The initial athletic advantage USA had through TitleIX was huge, but as nations cut the athletic gap the difference maker had to come from qualities USA now appear to come up short in. The current USWNT squad would give the 99' side a hell of a tough game though, with pound for pound better all round players within it's squad. All you need to be is better than opposition around you at your time. In these times being overly dependant on the qualities that worked 10 years ago are not going to be enough to win anything in a convincing fashion. Women's football culture obviously never developed at the rate of the men's. Right now girls will grow up supporting a MLS side, or watch international men's sides to see how the game is meant to be played. Young girls will obviously take on the same things young boys will. Both NT's will head down the same road of future success or failure, with the same core values of what a U.S. soccer player should be.
The continued growth of the MLS has become the breeding ground for U.S. soccer fan culture, and hope of future domestic talent development. WPS teams will eventually become branches of various MLS clubs, which will shape the model player of the female game yet again. ___________________________________________________ Amen....... Been saying this for some time now. An MLS academy will produce the next Mia Hamm or Marta. ( And they will earn their investment back ten fold with merchandise alone) Problem is she's only 6 years old right now and it's still several years before there is a critical mass of money making MLS teams willing expand into the business of women's socer. Until then the National Team has to pick scattershot from what WPS and college can produce, which frankly is inadequate because it's not an intense full time, 10 month a year enterprise for the vast majority of players.
Been around the womens game for 25 years, and our game has weakened as other countries have grown stronger. In the first womens world cup there was essentially USA, China, Norway, Sweden. In those years, the Nordic countries and USA, China pushed the womens game. The culture of many countries did not embrace the womens game. What has happened to the womens game since China has been tremendous. I was at the final between USA and China, and I saw many WNT games in the 90s. The best womens soccer player in WNT history was Akers, hands down. If you were at that final China could have and probably should have won in regular time, the loss of Akers during the game was exploited by China, but fortunately USA prevailed. Akers, to my amazement, is a largely forgotten figure in womens soccer, but Hamm is deified. The USA game since that era , has devolved into a fitness/track team mentality. Bigger, stronger, faster above all always. What about players< real players. Get rid of Wambach, our game has been to kick it to the biggest player on the field and hope for the best. Boxx? Please. I could go on but I wont. The last Mens WC is indicative of our football philosphy. I wonder pound for pound- who was more athletic- Spain or USA. We want to be able to measure 40 times, and vert leaps and broad jumps and bench presses, but this is a game that humbles and trumps all of that.