Good questions: What bugs me is Naeher's feet. She is great on PKs and can kick them too. She is just a liability on back passes. I like Albert as she works so incredibly hard to close down space in midfield. It isn't always pretty, but really useful. Who makes it moving forward will depend on health and form. Sonnett stayed fit and healthy and an example of the old guard still bringing it. There is no reason to write anyone off. Horan would be a great sub if she continues to decline, plus she is great at PKs.
Compare her to Ann-Katrin Berger. A comparable, if not better shot stopper, but absolutely horrible when challenged. I could tell the US told the forwards to challenge her when ever possible and she had some real howlers, even when not challenged.
She's 35 and Hayes doesn't seem to count on her. Unless Morgan plays to play until she'd 39 or 40, I can't imagine her making a comeback.
Morgan’s been done…even before WC. I know it’s a dead horse but her and Rapinoe's insistence on staying on the roster via that puppet Vlatko IMO is one of the main factors that cost us the WC. The league is rich with young prospects and we can see that Emma is willing to look overseas as well. DeMelo and Sanchez are worth revisiting but it’s hard to argue against Albert, with a goal and the winning assist. Would people be singing a different tune without that social media fiasco? Looking forward to the future like you, my bets for future camps are Sears, Stevens, and Sentnor.
FYI, their status as The Greatest Team in the Universe will NOT change (nor has it changed for the last 25 years)
I pretty much thought all year that the rumors of our weakness were greatly exaggerated and that we should expect semis or better. There's a lot of unnecessary pessimism expressed in these threads. I thought we'd be right there if a few little things went right. What I didn't expect was that so many things could go wrong, and we were still right there; that was truly heartening. "They furnished off an apartment with a two-room Roebuck sale. The coolerater was jammed with TV dinners and ginger ale. When Emma went to work the little players comin' worked out well. 'Ces't la vie' say the old folks, 'it goes to show, you never can tell!'" (Chuck Berry, Adapted)
Apparently, the US has returned to #1 in the FIFA rankings. They moved up. Some others (e.g., Spain) moved down.
I think the USA moved to number one around the quarterfinals, when I saw a computed ranking after the second group stage match that had the USA #2 behind #1 Spain by about 21 ratings points. After that Spain was tied by #23 Colombia and lost to Brazil and then Germany. In this tournament, in which games are worth four times an international friendly, the USA came out with six wins. No other team racked up more than 3 wins, and Canada (3-1-0) was the only other team that came out of the Tournament with no losses ( a loss in a shootout counts as a tie) every other team had at least two losses. Brazil won its silver medal with 3 losses. (Well, ok. They won the silver in the semis before their third loss)
Berger played for five years under Hayes at Chelsea, so most likely Emma knew every weakness that Berger possibly had—it’s probably why the German coach decided to open his team up in OT from the Cocoon like defense he played the first 90 minutes as to avoid an PK shootout. Ironically Sweden’s Gk, Muscovic, as well been under Emma’s/Chelsea stewardship for years, could or prompted the Swedes too not to go for the PK shootout, last WCif Emma was the coach back then)
the land of mass destruction of the English language—-down South of course interesting too, over 50 would be 7th graders inquired about Volleyball(she also coaches that too). Even the HS soccer coach came over & got parents permission to bump up two 8th graders to her high school squad as well an nearby Catholic school bought off her last season’s best returning player with an free tuition scholarship(they actually allowed to do this at the mid school level, lol). So she’s got her fingers crossed for her upcoming tryouts, otherwise she’ll have to turn her volleyball squad into soccer players(though they do look very athletic/currently unbeaten) ,
Her defensive prowess and work rate is underappreciated by many fans. Her absence in the first half was apparent.
Welp, as a rap to the Olympics, I must say, I was impressed. I think the ladies were awesome given the short game turn around format and limited bench. Going forward, the USWNT need a few players to get healthy, and a few to mature into being better back ups. If possible, Macario will be needed for the WC, if her knee isn't career ending. If not the Lilly girl needs to be convinced to join the USWNT, if possible. Need to find a starter for ole, slow poke Huran. Up front, Shaw needs to healthy up, Bethune needs to mature and get aggressive, and work on some quickness... Game feels to fast for her atm. Coffey & Sonnett can hold down defending midfield, but the US team must find another qualified center back to spell the now oft injured Davidson (and give the goat a rest from time to time, poor Girma). How long can Dunn continue? But there are potentially good back up in Nighswonger. Kruger is a great back up as well.
Brazil played much better than I expected. I give credit to their coach, Arthur Elias; he's a great tactician. I feel bad for Marta, but she did walk away with 3 silvers, which is nothing to scoff at. Unfortunately, she ran into the US buzzsaw all 3 times. She's not the same player she was in her prime, but she is leaving the game in a better place and has inspired the next generation. The USA played a little sluggish; all the extra minutes of the last 2 matches were showing. I would have liked to see more subs used for USA. I mean, USA's strength is their depth, but I understand why Hayes didn't want to mess with the game's flow. I'm ecstatic for Mal netting the game winner on her 100th cap. After the injuries Mal's faced over her career, it was a nice seeing her get rewarded like that.
I think Morgan is done, and should not get another roster spot. We just have too many talented, young forwards that we need to invest in going forward. Speaking of which, what happened to Alyssa Thompson? Was she even close to getting selected for this roster? Who were the next 4 players NOT selected by Hayes?
The problem with Morgan was always being offsides during critical points. Ironically, Smith has a similar problem, but was bailed out when Swanson beat an offsides Smith to the ball for the goal over Brazil. Smith's offside positioning just wasn't factored in as she didn't make a play on the ball. (can any poster verify this?) A healthy Swanson with a much higher soccer IQ than both Smith and Morgan and was the answer for this tournament anyway, IMO.
Yes but I think current interpretations and revisions of the rules are nonsensical. Nevertheless, here's former ref Christina Unkel providing the necessary mouthpiece-work for IFAB / FIFA and the other BigWigs and PooBahs of the sport -> 🧵If Smith was in an #offside position - the second part of offside analysis will be whether she interfered with play (here did she physically touch the ball) or did she interfere with an opponent (here prevent an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball). #USWNT https://t.co/vMOMDD6Fud— Christina Unkel (@ChristinaUnkel) August 10, 2024 I've started hammering away at this in the International Forum but I'll also probably take it up in one of the NWSL WoSo Ref threads. You're going to regret having asked, aren't you?!
Emma Hayes was open for the reason why she didn't use subs much in this tournament. She knew these players, and the unspoken part of that was that she trusted them and didn't trust the bench players. She masked it behind the idea of chemistry but it almost feels insulting at this point she thinks anybody believes that. There was no chemistry on the field for the US in that Olympics, at least none that was developed as a result of extended minutes on the field that would have been better spent in rest and rotation. They didn't play pretty soccer. They had good, clear instructions and individually executed them well, great defense and goal keeping, and got a few key moments on offense by star players. Dunn diagonal over the top vs Japan, where Trinity Rodman did Trinity Rodman things. Sofia Smith caught a German defender being lazy on a box out on a poor through ball from Swanson. Korbin Albert, who had the fewest minutes under her as every other player on the field for the US, hit a lovely pass to an offside Smith, who smartly veered away and let Swanson run on to it. Chemistry? Bah. The question(s) about Korbin Albert become: did she count among those players Hayes trusted before Rose Lavelle was hobbled with limited minutes. Did her goal against Australia change that? Would she have played if Cof wasn't forced to skip Japan? Did Hayes know her well enough by the time the final come around that's why she played her, or was Lavelle just done at that point and Hayes still was forced? Will she feature in Emma Hayes future plans or will Hayes hope to find someone even reasonably well suited to replace her? My guess is that we're going to see several new (and possibly older names) be called up in midfield in the next few rosters. From colIege, from the NWSL, from overseas. I think that's the area of the field right now that needs the most competition and the most depth developed. I think Hayes understands better than she's willing to let on how poorly Albert's name on the roster sits with fans and probably even some of the other players, so I will be very surprised to see Korbin Albert's name on the roster at the next WC.
I saw a serious from an actual reporter paid to write about WoSo for the Equalizer tweet about this yesterday where it seriously argued for offside because Sophia Smith was "emotionally in possession" and that was probably like the third or fourth time in my life I literally laughed out loud while interneting.
I would have thought that selling the dummy, which by definition involves not touching the ball, would count as interfering with play. Apparently, I'm wrong, but I am surprised. You learn something every day.