Just saw this article today. Explains the method to the madness a little bit. Or at least for now, the result speaks for itself. https://sports.yahoo.com/i-want-the...nspired-uswnt-to-olympic-final-234452624.html
My daughter’s a mid school soccer coach, only five 6th graders stopped by her her booth at the new students meet & greet earlier t his spring. Hopefully this win will inspire more to show up for her tryouts next week
One more stat: Ridiculously, incredulously, against truly all odds this stat still stands: the USWNT has never, in the history of women’s soccer, not followed a World Cup loss with an Olympic gold medal— Claire Watkins (@ScoutRipley) August 10, 2024
I think we always got good players, but the old veterans let the team become too toxic and not focused on soccer in 2021-23.
If they do, i think Girma should get it. She only has had one somewhat bad match and that was the final but, even there, she solidified and played a mostly exemplary match. It is the offensive player that always get the accolades but, in this case, it was Girma, with a strong assist from Naeher, that allowed the attacker the freedom they needed to shine.
While Swanson '24 and Rodman '24 are much better than Morgan '23 and Rodman '23, it's still not that simple: 1. Smith '24 is MUCH better than Smith '23. Her ability to pass and combine is so much better just a year later...makes me eager to see improvements over the next couple of years 2. Coffey '24 is better than Sullivan '23. 3. As good as Girma '23 was, Girma '24 is better. 4. Fox '24 is much better than Fox '23. 5. Defying age, Dunn '24 was much better than Dunn '23. 6. Tactics are much better, at least in two big ways: (1) Using two midfielders with significant defensive responsibilities is much better than what we did in '23 (except for Sweden game), (2) many fewer prayer crosses and offense isn't centered on them anymore.
I'm going to keep pointing out that there were two undefeated teams at the World Cup, and neither of them was Spain. (US and Nigeria.) We've been a defensive team since 2015, and just won three straight 1-0 games to win this championship, two of them in extra periods... And another thing: if the Olympics wants to stick to 18 and a compressed schedule, they really need to reboot the golden goal. There's no logical reason why a team that couldn't produce a win in regulation needs to be accorded a chance to restore a tie in bonus time-- and forcing 15 or 20 more minutes on a team that just broke the tie is unnecessarily abusive. At most give 'em any accumulated stoppage time and call it.
Which presumably means Morgan and Sauerbrunn; and this team could have really used both of them--or Dahlkemper-- at times. O'Hara not so much.
Early on, before the WWC actually started and before Emma actually arrived I, and others, stated that we believed we could play for the gold. However I, and the others i think, did not foresee just how dominate our defense would be. It has not been just the defense that has been good but also the offence as well. The real change, I think, has been the interplay between the two and the fact that by attacking early and strong we did not give our defense time to get pulled out of position or to be lulled into complacency. That is we took, mostly, the first good chance to attack and did not kill attacking chances by pulling back the ball simply for possession as we have for the last several years. It is clear that Emma feels that maintaining pressure on attack is more important than simple possession while Vlatko clearly felt the other way. That is the main difference between then and now. There is also the fact that under Vlatko we hung onto underperforming ancients much longer than we should. However I think we would have done much better, even with the escapee's from the old folks home, if we had oriented more toward attack than possession. It seems that Emma is, right now, the ideal coach for the USWNT and I think she will guide us into another dominate decade but it will not be as easy as it once was. We cannot even count on being absolutely dominate in CONCACAF as several team are showing a lot more talent than we have seen before and their coaching is improving. But we are the USA and that counts for a lot particularly in CONCACAF It will be a fun period between now and the next WWC.
A very nice win, they grew stronger as the game went on! Nice effective desperation defending at times with some key saves. Biggest problem was that the midfield was not great in the tackle nor in possession. The 3 up front are just all really good. However, if "tired legs" was a drinking game, everyone watching would be unconscious... It took 85 minutes for Julie Foudy to mention that the tired legs were a self-inflicted wound! Just bad commentary.
Is this the end of Alex Morgan? They didn't need her in this tournament. Who do you guys think are vulnerable as we now shift our focus to the 2027 Women's World Cup? I've never been a fan of Horan and I thought she had a mediocre performance in the Olympics so I feel like she's going to have to really work to earn that roster spot for the Womens World Cup. Also, not really impressed by Korbin Albert so I'd like to see DeMelo come back into the camps. As a bias Angel City fan, I'd like to see some of our gals like Kennedy Fuller, Madison Curry, Gisele Thompson and Alyssa Thompson get into some of the camps in the next 15-24 months and see what they can bring. I think our front three are pretty solid but obviously we'll have to grab some backup ballers in case of injuries or other things out of our control. I want to see Cat Macario back as well and see how she does with the squad. So excited about our new coach Emma Hayes and our new crops of players, we should be very competitive moving forward.
Also, always a lynn Williams fan. Happy that she got some run and made the cut. She was the right choice over Morgan. This was Emmas best decision. agreed on this too, but really think you need a bit of luck as well Offense is really much harder to find and Swanson was able to deliver. I think she makes Smith better as does the Hayes. It is fun to be a fan right now