Lavelle needs to realize that she is NOT going to get the calls she keeps fishing for. She really needs to try much harder to simply stay on her feet. If she does that she might actually get the ball much more often. We still are behaving like "The Gang That Can't Shoot straight."
I thought I posted the halftime subs. I didn't hit post in another tab. Halftime changes...🔛 @JaedynShaw11 ↩️ @Savannah_DeMelo 🔛 @miafishel10 ↩️ @sophsssmith pic.twitter.com/o0CX6luBK4— U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (@USWNT) December 2, 2023 She said she needed to finish her opportunities. She even caught herself when she nearly said "we" and said "I." What more do you want her to say? She was obviously disappointed in herself.
Olivia Moultrie's debut for Rose Lavelle Debut, x2 🇺🇸 https://t.co/93P5F3SvQR pic.twitter.com/8t9iUNdO5U— U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (@USWNT) December 2, 2023
I actually want her to say less, a LOT less. Almost all the time players should talk with their play and keep quite otherwise. Looking back I guess, given the stupidity of actually requiring players to interact with the press, I guess she did about all she could to avoid saying anything. I know speaking to the press is required by USA Soccer but I wish we did not have that requirement as it detracts from almost everything about the match.
All our dominate play finally pays off. We get a "dirty" deflected pass to Rodman that she taps into goal. If I could have gotten there I could have finished that one. I think Murphy just made her first "real" save.
2005 - Jaedyn Shaw and Olivia Moultrie are the first pair of players to make their @USWNT debut at 18-years-old or younger in the same calendar year since Amy Rodriguez and Stephanie Cox in 2005. Connected. pic.twitter.com/D1MMuM32Cs— OptaJack⚽️ (@OptaJack) December 2, 2023
3-0 final. It was OK but it could have been a LOT better. At least we held China to almost no shots on goal. I think they had one, maybe two, but I think only one even remotely tested Murphy.
For someone who thinks it's meaningless, you sure have a lot of interests in it!! You are like the girl who goes out with a guy whom all of your girl friends make fun of so you have to put him down before they laugh at you.
We have some young players that are pretty good in tight spaces and from a technical perspective. They are only going to get better. Add Mal and Cat, assuming they come back at full strength, and it's going to be pretty crowded in the forwards and attacking MF. Will be interesting to see how it all shakes out between the vertical speed merchants and the more technical players. Krueger and Abby were instant upgrades over what we have been rolling out there lately IMO. That new kid Nighswonger appears to me to better on the ball than Fox. If she can play defense against the big boys she is going to be a pretty good international and will be pushing for the starting spot IMO. We really need to play against some top shelf teams ASAP so we can get a better handle on where some of these players stand.
Just because the match was meaningless does not mean that it is not fun to watch. Or, another view: Player development is always interesting to watch but I believe that the USWNT would be better served to just have scrimmages. But that would not fill the USSF's pockets.
Imagine being paid to lead the US and you choose O'Hara over Kruger for the World Cup. Unbelievable. Kruger looked very good today, and she looked good for the Red Stars. O'Hara hasn't been able to play 90 minutes at outside back in two years. She doesn't even play for Gotham when she is healthy. Yet, she made our WC roster.
Liked everybody's outing but Fishel's-- she looked mostly confused, spinning like a turnstile. Back it up and try again, we have a lot of hope invested in you... This may have been Horan's best game ever, even without the goal-- excellent passing all game. A very promising debut for Moultrie, and a passable one for Nighswonger. (Suddenly we have a surfeit of folks who can take corners well.) Abby adds an important extra dimension to the offense, and she is not even back to WWC form yet. I have bummed on Kreuger as much or more than anyone else here, I think-- but no more. The offensive needs she used to fail at over and over she is now succeeding at most all the time; and that allows Fox to move back to the left side, where she is much more effective. Smith is who she is-- creates more chances than you can toot a vuvuzela at, but pisses almost all of them away. You play her and live with it, because she does score on some of them, and when she's pissing them away, the other team is not scoring. And someday she may get past it and pour goals in like its through a funnel. But I didn't think she was anywhere near as good when in the middle as Morgan. I think we need to get a bronze plaque and engrave it with "Girma is fabulous" and carry it horseback to every match, like some ancient Persian war-token... not sure anything less will ever be adequate.
Interesting stat line. Reported during the game, in 2023 USWNT allowed just 2 goals for the entire year.
Right. If we beat China again on Tuesday we'll be undefeated for the year 14-0-4, I think. One sort of garbage time goal to Brazil, and one serious one to Netherlands. Our "terrible" WWC outing was actually pretty good...
I feel like there has never been a time that needed a series of intense intrasquad scrimmages than right now. There are so many options at so many positions and I just don't know their relative strength in the national team context. Normally there are lots of options, but its easy enough to just default to the players that have played together and been successful, much to the chagrin of many. But right now there largely isn't a group that has been truly successful together, so there is no default.
I thought Nighswonger looked good - she looked very comfortable out there. Abby gave us a presence back there that we have been missing next to Girma. I loved Ertz, too, but she was a better 6 for the US. I think Shaw has a really bright future. Going from speedy Smith to Fishel was quite a change. Fishel is just too slow and stiff in her movements for me. Smith is lighting in a bottle and looked free in the middle vs being stifled on the wing at the WC.
One thing I noticed is more of a question: Kreuger, on the attack, almost all of the time turned in towards the middle near the top of the box, rather than trying to go end line. It surprised me, as I remember her going end line more. I wonder if that was a tactical change. Unlike others, I though Fishel looked ok. She is a very different type of player, more back to the goal, than is typical. It is something we do not see a lot of these days anywhere, but she seemed pretty good at it. I agree with taosjohn's comment about Moultrie. She is very composed for an 18-year old. I also was pleased with Nighswonger. The main thing I noticed about the team, however, was that they seemed to be having fun playing. That is something I have not seen for quite a while. Something I do not agree with is making intra-squad scrimmages play a significant role in player selection (if that is what was being suggested). I am not against intra-squad scrimmages, but I think the physicality part of the game is completely different when it is your own teammates. Because of that, I do not think it provides an accurate picture of how players will perform against another team. Rather, I think we have to use the friendlies as the medium for player selection. That means we have to be less focused on winning friendlies and more on using them to test players and combinations of players. And, it means fans have to have the maturity to understand that. (Good luck with that!)
When we were first seeing her on the field instead of burning up drills, I worried that she might stay slght and slim and be easily bounced around. But she actually looks like she has more than a passing acquaintance with free weights now, and is as likely to be the bouncer as the bouncee...
Yeah you can't pick a team based on training sessions. What we really need is as many friendlies against top teams as we can get. A trip to Europe similar to what we did last Fall would be ideal. Have to take what we can get though and this group needs a lot of time together. Particularly if new ideas are being introduced. Competition for spots is going to be fierce and those training sessions are going to be legit. The more they train together in the short term the better IMO. Lets just hope that the Fed can line up some solid friendlies between now and the Olympics.
I think that any friendlies scheduled, no matter who we play, will be nearly meaningless if we play them at home. Playing a home friendly is about as useful as the teats on a boar hog, except it does make money. However playing friendlies is better than not playing any matches. But friendlies are only needed if the coach cannot create a sufficiently competitive practice environment. Really I think friendlies are only needed to evaluate "bubble" players.
Link of full match replay from Dec. 2nd. USA vs China women’s international friendly football live - YouTube Match begins at 28:20 mark.