If Macario makes the team as a midfielder, who are you leaving out? I'm guessing K. Mewis? or do you roster Macario as a Forward? But honestly, Pugh and Smith looked as sharp if not sharper. And if you add those in, who else are you leaving off? I have no doubt, Megan is in for the next WWC same with Morgan. Press? Williams? Tobin (who has not impressed me at all of late)? Also, Fox should be rostered along the back line. And who does she bump? I know the roster is expanded for WWC, but yikes. The next year of friendlies will hopefully be very telling.
While I too like speed in a midfielder even in a defensive mid it is not really needed much if they are able to anticipate well. We all have seen very good players that were/are slow. The big problem with a lack of speed come when the central defenders go on walkabout and a central mid must recover to cover. That is actually an issue with the USWNT as even our best central defenders lose their focus at times and push up too tight which gives space behind them and in front of the keeper. If our central defenders stay focused and cover their positions well then our defensive mids do not have to be fast. The real jobs of defensive mids on the USWNT are to break up attacks, free up the rest of the midfield to attack pretty freely and to start attacks with good and accurate passes to the players best in position to further the attack. Ertz has been, by far, the best the US has found for that set of jobs. Horan plays that position quite well BUT the rest of the team is so used to Ertz's skill set that Horan often looks pretty bad. If the players are expecting her to do what Ertz does then the passes look off. However Horan has at least one real advantage over Ertz, she can score. Ertz use to score pretty regularly but she has not scored any international goals I can recall in a LONG time. She has lost her scoring touch. She misses high and/or wide moor often than just about anyone on the team. When we face a team that bunkers or even just defends first and foremost we need all players that come forward from the defense or defensive midfield to be able to hit pretty long shots ON GOAL as a one touch on balls rolling toward them. Ertz has not even hit the goal on such a shot in a very long time. She hits the ball VERY high most of the time or tries to take an extra touch to get the ball calmed down. She did not used to do that. Also she no longer scores off corners. So two of her big assets are not able to be counted on. Horan, on the other hand, does bring good offense to the defensive mid position when she plays it. I still would prefer Ertz over all the rest but she is losing a lot of her luster. One more thing I do not think she should be moved back in the defense even though she has played there before. She loses concentration from time to time when playing defense. Just look again at Japans two goals in the Canadian WWC. Ertz was primarily at fault on both although it was worse on the first Japan goal than the second. Ertz has been and is a great defensive mid but that is the only position she can be effective in now. There are others, Horan and some others, that are actually better for the USWNT right now even at the defensive mid position. I believe that Ertz is also losing some of her edge. She is becoming "nice" and that is not a good trait for defensive mids. Now that we have had one bad tournament we need to retool the entire team and, as part of that, we need to either replace Ertz or at least play her a LOT less. She is good but she is no longer "the best" at her spot and we have several other players that should be getting most of the playing time so one of them, and I do think it will be Horan, will develop and become feared as Ertz used to be.
Yikes, I couldn't disagree more. Horan's scoring has never been about deep shots. That's the domain of Sam Mewis and Rose Lavelle and to a limited extent Pinoe. While yes Horan would be a better scoring threat in corners IF and only IF Vlatko doesn't have Horan attacking the near post only, like Ertz is relegated (And Andi in her goal off deflection last game). Ertz in the defensive mid as a previous center defender is way better at challenging than Lindsy. How many times have we seen Julie drop back and make a deep defensive stop? I would doubt we would ever see a deep drop into our box by Horan. This is also why I think they are taking another hard look at Andi. Again, this next year should be telling.
Not really, because She will be creating problems for the two centerbacks when she drops back into the midfield. If they follow her it will allow the outside backs to get in behind them. If one or both don’t follow her, she looks for Sam, Rose, or Lindsey. Plus while doing this she looking enough space to take her own space. This is what she has be successful doing with Lyon when they use her up top in a 4-3-3 formation.
Ok, so in your plan its a simple plug and play. I dont think we move in a way that would make the team better playing thru a false 9. I think it would make Macario look better though
So you are saying that our wingers are not geared to run into empty space created by the centerback(s) movement forward? From what I have seen from Pugh and Smith is they actually do that very well.
Well it would be nice to have a gap or space to dribble into behind those center backs on occasion. So what your saying is that all the NT has to do is have players that are fast, quick, strong, and selfish play a pressure defense while taking a lot of shots, hoping some will go in, is all that is needed to win. Well that certainly will easily win them a large majority of their games, but it is the other games I worry about, and especially the WC games in the knock out rounds.
I did not say that at all. I just gave you may rad on the players you mentioned. They can and will do whatever they want.
I don't know. The only real rankings or ratings I pay attention to are the Elo-based FIFA rankings for women. And I take notice of xG analysis when I come across them, but otherwise I don't follow "advanced" stats in soccer. But so Little has had both an ACL and a broken leg since going back to the UK. And it's ARSENAL. I mean, yeah, it's the women and not the men but the gloom of Arsene Wenger runs thick.
Going with Kim Little’s stats of last season; 5 goals(2 by PK) & 2 assists in 1267 minutes(so played 2/3 of an full, 1980 minutes season). as compared to team scoring leader Miedema(19 goals) & assists leader Mcabe(11 assists). So again, minus her NWSL creds, nothing so far really special from her with Arsenal, Scotland & the ever flopping, Great Britain. But this year might be different with an stronger lineup & of course if stays healthy. Arsenal gave up two if it’s Dutch players(van de Donk & Roord) but picked up in terms of starters & subs ratio, could be the most powerful front line in the world, clubs or national teams! You decide; Miedema-Heath-Mead-Parris-Foord-Iwabuchi they’ve moved from CB to DM, the very athletic Julie Ertz play-alike named Wilkerson, thus frees up Little to double up at AM with Nobbs(do Little’s stats might improve again) They’ve also brought in at CB, Wubben-Moy, who some might recall when playing CB for North Carolina, took the Marcario-Smith-Davidson led Stanford all the way to an 0-0 tie & PK shootout In the NCAA championship before succumbing, even though going into the game,Stanford was called by some ‘the greatest college team ever’. out of the other club teams you mentioned; Barca most likely will repeat as CL champs. Arsenal already beat Chelsea to take the WSL lead, PSG lost what was probably the best woso coach ever, Echouafni, thus they seemed to lose their edge lately. Several of Bayern’s German players are currently injured, & their usual strong international lineup don’t seem to want to comprehend Bayern’s over complicated, deliberate passing style. So that Swedish Jakobsson/Glas combo who’s fast direct soccer that destroyed the genius that’s Vlatko at the Olympics, but aren’t allowed to play like that at Bayern’s over wrought tactics. Lyon looks better than last season, that’s cuz they bought up the entire class of what could be a whole new Golden generation of young, French players, but i than PSG, it leaves the rest of league with barely any talent left over(which isn’t a good philosophy to have). another thing that could be telling is how well the Spirit do in the upcoming playoffs. Currently in 3rd place, they’ve been the surprise of the NWSL. So if they go all the way & win the championship, Vlatko will have to take a long hard look at particularly their stat leaders, Hatch, Rodman & Sanchez. Maybe play them together if he wants their chemistry with each other they got going
I attended the Racing Louisville v. Gotham FC game last night. Lloyd played the whole game, and she was a pleasure to watch. She is trying to squeeze every last drop from her career (wouldn't you?) Her quality was obvious, slthough she didn't score. Fox did not play. Midge Purce also stood out in a positive way. I look forward to seeing her on the USWNT.
Macario did not impress me in either of these 2 matches. Her passing was tentative and mostly misplaced.
Also do not forget Rodman. She is quite young but I see an huge upside to her future with very little downside, baring injuries. She does not appear, at least for now, to have inherited her father's mental problems that made him so hard to manage.
Don’t forget the U20 players many with so much potential could soon be in senior team in few years. Or sooner.
Until you see a U20 or younger player actually playing with and against top players it is really hard to even guess where their skills will end up. But you are right no one in any of the youth programs can or should be overlooked. However I thought the discussion had evolved or devolved to just discussing players that were already in club play at a high level.
Yes but Trinity Rodman was only 18 when she only last year was in U20 for example and is now a pro. So it’s something like you said shouldn’t be overlooked and they could suddenly be there next year. We will see how they perform hopefully by next year U20 World Cup. But let’s discuss the now as you said.
Updating since NWSL regular season’s over; according to the one Equalizer poster, Lavelle has taken 40 shots, but only 1 goal to go with the 11 shots on target. Official NWSL website has Lavelle taking only 30 shots, but they don’t count blocked shots(so assuming a quarter of all shots get blocked, than 40 shots would be accurate) seemed Balcar was headed to league scoring title, but then the rude Reign management down the stretch, switched her to sub. Thus she ended tied with two others for 2nd place, but still, 9 goals in 1185 min is impressive as compared to Hatch(10 goals in 1550 min) Daly(9 goals in 1335 min). What I don’t get is the Reign last game was against last place KC, but Balcar only came in at the 75 min. mark, replacing; you guessed it, the horror shooting Rose Lavelle ———————————————————— 22 year old Macario currently tied with three others as 2nd leading scorer in the French League with 5 goals. Two of them; Mallard(age 21) Bruun(age 23) are her own team mates, third is someone named Bussy, is only 20 years old. PSG’s 23 year old Katoto currently leads the league with 8 goals. So my point is; we might have one young hotshot in Macario, but the French got three! And question is; why are all the goal scorers over there around college age, whereas all our USWNT scorers are around mid 30’s age
You also might include Bacha who is 20 with 3 goals and 4 assists. Wouldn’t t be surprised to see her get a call up to the NT next time around. In her last 3 games for them she stated FB, FW and AM. Scrappy little player. She and Macario take most of the free kicks and corner kicks. Also if you count Champions League games too, Macario has a total of 8 goals in 11 games. You combine that with the 6 goals in 11 games last season(half), that would be 14 goals in 22 games. In the 28 games Rapinoe played for OL she had 8 goals. Also you might note that the average age of Reign players in their last match was 29.9, while OL’s was 25 in theirs. Youngest player for OL in the game was an 18 year old compared to Reign’s Cook at 24.