1-0 halftime. US not showing much signs of life in trying in playing possession. But I think its cuz their trying to practice their counterattack game in advance of the England/Wembley match
You might well be correct but to "practice" counterattacking it would be well to do it against a team that actually tries to attack in numbers. A few practice scrimmages would be a LOT better than this fiasco. The strange thing is that it looks like the US forwards are almost missing on purpose. Nigeria is "better" than that. They at least hit the goal; unfortunately for them it was their own goal. Now it is 1-1. It has been coming for quite a while. If the US were to play like this against a truly good team they could easily lose by 4 or 5. Contrary to what the chatterboxes in the box keep pattering on about Nigeria is really no better than middle of the pack and they are only recently learning discipline.
Oh, no. Another challenge for the Rapinoe haters here. But I'm confident they'll find a way to demonstrate that she is the worst player ever in the history of the sport.
So is most of the rest of the US. Nigeria is playing without a LOT of their starters/best players and the US has almost everybody and is playing at home and simply cannot assert any real dominance.
A disappointing match that the US could have easily lost but they barely won it 2-1. Rapinio hit one great pass and a couple of decent ones and the rest she screwed up. She is simply not up to play at this level any longer. Since the last WWC the US simply has not played well at all.
If this was the World Cup, the US would of high pressed them, but in this case they let Nigeria come over mid line so they can practice their fast breaks a bit more. Got to hand it to Nigeria though; they weee missing their big star striker, Oshoela, do to injury & played quite a few inexperienced ones instead
I am not convinced that the US, with this coach and player pool, can be effective high pressing a team like Nigeria. Yes they can high press most teams but a team with some skill and good/great speed like Nigeria seems to no longer be the kind of team the US can dominate. Yes they "should" but they make too many "safe" or "meaningless" passes and choices and that kind of play does not beat good fast teams. But the US has a habit of finding a way to win even when they play badly. Against 90% maybe 95% of the teams in the world the US is almost never in danger and the other teams seem to often just be waiting for something bad to happen. When Nigeria scored the own goal the look on several faces was quite obvious that they were thinking "Here we go again" but the US did not apply any real pressure and let Nigeria believe in themselves. That meant that the US spent the entire second half just scrambling around trying to avoid the tie. Yes they dominated the possession but I would say that in real chances to score the US and Nigeria were equal and both seemed to be looking for novel and unique ways to screw up attack.
Actually I thought she had quite a good game-- only she had the one unfortunate moment that allowed them to tie it. I guess I'd give POTM to Horan; but this was the kind of game where people generally played OK but nobody was highly creditable. Rose, Fox, Pugh, Morgan, Cook, Girma, Smith, Pinoe, most everybody earned their paycheck; nobody really pushed for a raise. But that's OK-- it is soccer, and as we get more parity we will get more 2-1 scores-- that's a good thing. Scores really aren't supposed to be 7-0. It was way more entertaining than the Georgia-Oregon handegg game. We celebrate the ability to sell out Wembly in record time-- well, that implies more and more competitive scores. Shouldn't celebrate the one and bemoan the other.
Though I do think the own goal could of been checked by VAR(which should be at Wembley) for offside, otherwise the US did dominate the stats-16 to 5 shots taken/7 to 2 on target, but definitely felt more like an practice session than an real competitive one. Vlatko is an more-to each his own-type coach, Some of his stuff was a bit peculiar. as to why he didn’t sub more than 3? or/used the same five attacking starters vs an Nigerian squad that had several u20’s playing. Guess maybe for more cohesion?(but those same five looked better in the first game). One thing Vlatko is NOT preparing his squad is just how physical upcoming England & Germany are; after a while, your not going to see Rose Lavelle make those runs with the ball when she encounters the likes of Georgia ‘studs up’ Stanway(it’s the kinda of stuff they allow these days over there) or any American player who gets hold of the ball wi be clobbered by so called professional fouls. to be sure both ENG & GER tend to be vulnerable to quick counters do to their Total Futebol concept with overlapping fullbacks, leaving their flanks suspect to counters(and that’s why I think Vlatko was so busy working on) but those forthcoming opponents will try to contain fast breaks with instant fouls England vs USA at Wembley should be fascinating, almost a prelude to the World Cup final?
I cant see how anybody can think this was a good result? This was a team that was missing 6 or 7 starters and had a few "Nigerians" that either are on US college teams, had been on US college teams or were in the US NAT youth program at younger levels. Yes we has a lot of possession but also had to rely on a Nigerian own goal to tie and finally got one to go ahead. So we managed to squeeze out win against a weak, undermanned but athletic team. That is simply not good enough for this team. I was not happy with the number of good shots that tested their goalie. Way too many from distance, little else. Morgan seemed lost in space again and Vlat needs to have a plan B. She used to be a break away player but when there is little transaction, she becomes ineffective. Even if she did get a step, she was run down from behind. Morgan is not a 1/2 field player. I thought the whole attack was Pugh and Smith and Rose. Nigeria makes Horan look like she has lead weights on her legs. Another area of concern. I will cut Rapinoe some slack as it was her cross that got us the win. She did that well..... little else of note... but that was good.
I agree on Horan. But he seems to love her. Rapinoe can be a game changer for 20 minutes at this level now. I can respect this role for her. She brings energy and technical precision on the service.
I agree. The US looked about even to this Nigerian side in spite of us having most of our current top team and Nigeria missing at least six primary starters. Yes we were missing Ertz, Dunn and some others. Using the Ertz position as an example our holding midfield was I think Horan and skill wise she is about even with Ertz, maybe even a bit better. l believe Ertz is NOT the holding mid goddess that people say she is. She makes a number of mistakes each match but she is athletic enough to usually recover. However shots from distance is not the problem. Rather it is the fact that the US misses the goal on those shots. Of course they also miss the goal from close in as well. Lets see: US takes and misses a number of outside shots and they also miss a number of shots from close in. I think that the US spends too much time and energy on "team" play and not nearly enough on actually producing goals. For that I blame the coach. He seems to have the whole squad so concerned about "team" that they forget to take advantage and take a chance when the team play actually works, which is all to seldom. The US wins most possession battles but they produce very few goals, or even "shots on goal," from all that great possession. What they do produce is "shots at goal" that usually miss or are blocked or miss the target badly because the other team is given plenty of time to get their defense organized and the defense becomes easy for them. I do not think it is the personnel that causes the lack of attack but rather it is the choices they are instructed to make. When you mostly always choose possession in attack and have the quality to maintain the possession if you do not take chances you will not score. This US side is strong, very strong, but they allow opponents to believe they have a chance so they do have a chance. It is a mistake to practice possession against a team like Nigeria. Against that kind of team we should attack and press as hard as we can at all times. Yes that could well result in 8-1 type of results but at a major tournament like the WWC when you can run the score you should and you need to practice that just as much as you should practice defending a one goal lead. The way this team is playing right now they could possibly beat or tie the other good team in their group but fail to advance because of not clobbering the pipsqueaks. Yes it is hard to change styles during matches so the US should go all out to win the match as early as possible and then coast to victory. This should be the pattern in EVERY match so the team gets used to scoring early and often. Japan and the US (and several other teams) suffer from the problem of simply not shooting (on target) enough. But they pass up good chances looking for the "perfect" chance and so end up with a poor or weak or missed chance. I think we, and others, have forgotten the simple soccer adage: To score you must shoot and you must shoot (on goal) to score and you then simply have to shoot more often than the other team. The only way a team that does that loses is if the other team does it better or they have a hot goalkeeper. One more thing. The whole team does not look to be having "fun." Without "fun" soccer becomes just a game.
I thought for sure Morgan was done after the Olympics honestly. She hasn’t been effective at this level in a long time. She played well enough (for the first time in many years) for her club team to get called in, and Macario tearing her ACL basically guaranteed her time on the pitch. I think Macario is the first choice striker though. I think Press also has more to give when healthy but it seems she is being iced out for non-football reasons. It’s interesting Press was not being considered as an alternative to Macario, as they play a similar style of play making false 9. Instead we are back to the typical Morgan/Hatch more direct player while Vlatko waits for Macario to get back to fitness.
If I can get this physically close to a Women’s World Cup Champion and the accompanying Aura of Complete and Total Awesomeness - - - I may live to the ripe old age of 218!!!!..........214 if I continue to attend AO Night Before Match Parties. This bold claim is confirmed by recent research conducted by the Mayo Clinic up in Minnesota. For obvious reasons, I’m titling this photo “McSkillz Ladies” And to Vlatko’s detractors, naysayers, critics, haters, cynics, disparagers, belittlers - - - YOU CAN ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL BITE ME D*mn Skippy I’m contemplating changing my username to jackVlat. On to Jolly Old England!!!!!!!!!!!
It's a bit strange to me to have so many posters trashing the NWSL season leader in goals, but it's what I've come to expect from this board. Honestly, I think Macario would be starting over Morgan were she to be healthy, and I think she might still start in 2023 if she can get back to full form (but timeline-wise, getting to full form is iffy). But there's no way Morgan isn't making the roster, and deservedly so. Also as for why Rapinoe is here: we've been told the reason by both Rapinoe and Andonovski. She's here to mentor the younger players and as a difference maker as a sub. Whether or not they'll still need her to fill that role in 2023...we'll see.
I thought the US played well. The ball movements, the players' movements were good. The last passes and the finishes were off but I am still hopeful that they will come. We also have a bright spot at def mid: Sam Coffey. She was good in defense, not afraid of getting into the tackles and on offense, willing to show as target for the backs and help in the ball movement. If she keeps it up, she can challenge Sullivan for the spot.