A few thoughts. Foxhoven did a great job in her interview, EXCEPT when she threw some unnamed teammates under the bus – it might have stung a little referring to this game, but when she piled on and said it was an issue throughout the season – Oh my. Morgan. I think she called Mia Hamm this summer for a training session in SoCal. She needs to call her again to learn how to handle the cheap shots. I remember one game against the Nigerian National Team when Mia was getting kicked, elbowed, tripped, forearmed, you name it – I remember yelling at the TV to take her out of the game. Early in the second half she was subbed out for her own safety. I don’t blame Morgan at all for reacting to the shots she is taking, she needs to learn how to channel it – don’t look at the ref – figuratively spit in the eye of the perpetrator. I think the mantra is ‘Don’t get mad, get even.’ Portland home vs. away. The next three games are on the road. Boston, with Lilly and Whitehill, WNY who have to win to guarantee second place and home field for the semis, and Seattle – maybe a Thrilla in Tukwila. Portland’s home-away difference in W-L and goals conceded may even up after the road trip.
The gossip at SB games was that if SB was a host team, esp finals, the game would be somewhere else than Rutgers. There are not too many choices, folks. One is the nearby minor league BB stadium where SB opened in '09 against Marta and the other is .. RB stadium. With the now open news of talks between SB and RB, and US Soccer's input, Red Bull may have been the choice. Maybe the same idea for FCKC, moving a final to the pro stadium.
billionaires helped out the mls. now, it's their turn to return the favor to the nwls. and here is the joke: they won't loose money because all nwsl teams are cheap teams aka the atlanta beat. sporting would make money off of the blues, just like the timbers are making bank off of the thorns. i don't know about red bull and sbfc, but even if they bleed 100k in a season, what difference would it make on their books vs. a small guy like sahlen using his team as a marketing tool. but i'm sure if the red stars did 3000-4000 in the past in fire stadium than sbfc would do no worst in bull arena. i'm guessing that is enough for the women's club to break even since the big salaries are covered.
Was this the play when Morgan wanted to do a quick restart after a foul and Scott just stood in front of the ball?
Morgan and Mia...I think a lot of the change in Morgan can be put at Mia's feet. Mia knew what was coming and tried to toughen her up to face. The problem IMO is Morgan and Hamm r different personality types. Hamm was very reserved and kept her emotions in. Morgan is more prone to letting her emotions out and it makes her look bad. Morgan needs to do three things, again, IMO. 1) She needs to play like she already has a yellow card. No retaliations...no kicking the ball...no cute antics that fly in men's games. 2) She has to focus the energy she wastes out bursts on punishing the defenders. 3) She has to learn how to lose. She's great after a win but try and find her for an interview her after a loss. She needs to be able to stand up there and answer the questions if she wants to be a leader on the Thorns.
Thanks for the GIF. Clearly on. At the time watching it live "offside" never occurred to me. Perfectly timed play. Just a great goal; one of the bet of the year.
Standing in front of someone to avoid a quick retsart is acceptable behavior in pro soccer, but D Scott did make physical contact with Morgan during a dead ball situation, which is not acceptable.
the other half of bs posters, of course, says she needs to learn to take the fouls and let the referee handle it, since it's the retaliator that most often gets penalized. beat them the mia hamm way - scoreboard, and let the officials handle the fouls. now, which advice she takes is up to her.
My question is why do defenders constantly let her go to her left side and shoot with her left foot? They know she has a hard, dangerous left foot. But when you make her go to her right she has to take extra touches to get it perfect in order to take a shot. Just stay on her left, you right, and don't let her take a shot with her left foot and you will be successful marking Alex Morgan.
I think what Morgan needs is an enforcer on the Thorns team. Someone that jumps in front of the perpetartor and handles the situation for the super stars on the team. If they get a yellow then they get a yellow. This would also alert the refs that the defender who committed the foul had done something underhanded.
In all honesty, I feel like the NWSL opposing defenders have done a great job in containing Morgan all season long. She has had over 80 shots, but has only 8 goals to show for it. This tells me that the defense is marking her tightly where she has to rush every shot or shoot at a difficult angle (similar to last night's goal). On the other hand, the best player in the league this year (Holiday) was left to roam freely on many occassions last night even though she's the league's leading scorer. That was inexcusable if you're Portland.
"Of the 33 goals FCKC have scored, Holiday and Tymrak have combined to score or assist on 28 of the goals." From www.ourgamemagazine.com/one-in-three-to-go/
While she prefers her left the problem isnt that they dont play her that way...the problem is she changes direction so quickly she can still get her shot away. She really requires either an equally quick defender like Rampone or a double team. IMO what Moragn needs to improve on is finding the open player when they double her. Making them pay is the best way to stop the double teaming.
I agree with the above. The only thing I'd mention is that Morgan did have 21 assists in 28 games with the national team last year. I think the difference is that Wambach, Rapinoe, Lloyd, etc. actually finished their chances when receiving a nice assist. For instance, in the Sky Blue match I noticed on 2 occassions where Morgan made a great turn along the side line and provided a nice pass in front of goal, but the shots were missed by both Shem and Heath. That being said I haven't seen too many assists between Morgan and Sinclair.
No, actually. If you overplay Morgan one way or the other she will smoke you. She is a scorer. As with all great scorers, the way to defend her is to keep her from getting the ball. I think the conventional wisdom is that strikers are supposed to shoot. And 8 goals puts her fourth in the league.
I'm sorry but the above is pure gold. You can just tell from the smile on Holiday's face that this is something they discussed in the locker room.
The GIFs make the point about the way Morgan responds. The dramatic spread of her arms is whining. If she kept her arms down. walked close to Scott, close enough to touch shoulders, and without actually looking at her said "That was bullshizit and you know it" , Morgan would be standing her ground and not retaliating with a foul. After that - scoreboard.
Like I mentioned before, Morgan had zero reaction to getting fouled last year and now has done a complete 180. Hopefully next year she'll settle somewhere in the middle.
That picture does not show a foul or the foul. I like Morgan like everyone else but you constantly see her jawing at players and referees.
Just rewatched the whole Scott/Morgan debacle on my DVR and whoever made the GIFs going around should have done one of the foul that was called on Desiree leading up the the restart. Alex is off-balance from avoiding Tobin before Des even makes contact and watching it full speed and slowed down it seems like Alex goes down a little to easy for D.Scott’s liking. It also appeared Alex initiated the contact on the foul, she could have taken an angle more around Desiree but instead went right into her. I’m just saying that set of GIFs is a little out of context from what actually led to the altercation.
Fouls are constantly called during run of play whether they are deserved or not. However, in a dead ball situation a player cannot just come and push another player after the whistle. Otherwise, it'll be a free for all on any free kick situation. Messi would be trying to take a free kick and someone would just come and shove him from behind without any repercussions. I don't know what the rule books says, but it should be a yellow card since the play has already been stopped for a foul.
Its hard to tell if Alex is saying something to them at the second bump or if Holiday is just enjoying watching the interaction going on. I wonder if the WNT players have learned and are telling their club mates what buttons to press to get on Morgan's case and can throw her off.
I think that the good thing is that this stuff seems to just stay on the field. We may make a big deal out of it trying to defend our teams/players, but perhaps D Scott believes she's doing her job by frustrating Morgan, while Morgan feels justified for speaking out. I don't see either player complaining about what the other one did after the match.