U.S.'s reunion with Pia Sundhage puts more pressure on coach Jill Ellis http://sports.yahoo.com/news/u-s--s...e-pressure-on-coach-jill-ellis-235636727.html
Want more Pia quotes? Here's Sweden's pre-match press conference where she explains herself (btw, previous interview was in April):
Funny. Yeah, she could talk about how she saw carli Lloyd's PK land in the upper deck. She really Launched that one
That was my first thought. The team needs to watch the tape and make judgements based on objective reality not use pia's words for motivation. If Carly and Abby need Pia to get them going then they won't be hoisting anything after the final and will probably overpress and lose us this match and/or get injured in the process. This was clearly a psychological tactic.
I watched her press conference. pia is a treasure for women's soccer. If you have not listened to the press conference, do it
Yes I agree. The "leaker" took the quotes out of context AND made a while ago and tries to start a controversy. Still, some things are better left unsaid.
So I figure we will see a Lloyd goal and a couple of Sweden goals because Lloyd neglects her position and is up field trying to score.
If I'm Jill I run a 4-3-3 and just try to score as many goals as possible. Nigeria is no picnic and with our slow backline, I can see a World Cup contender get surprised and embarrassed. Bank the 6 points in match day 2 and it probably wont matter what happens in match day 3.Unleash Arod, Sydney and Christen up top. Rapinoe, Lloyd and Tobin in the midfield and god help the back line. Just take it to sweden.
I notice there is only about a 4 month average age difference between the USA and Sweden (29.3 vs 29 years) Take away Rampone and Abby's age and we are a younger team. That doesn't happen often.
Excited to see if US makes one or two changes. ...in my opinion holiday sits cannot cover ground behind Lloyd who is a better CAM. 1st game holiday runs around asking for the ball but then she make s a negative pass backwords. Drives me nuts stops flow of game. Put Brian behind Lloyd young legs
Also TIME To Bench wambach... Throw Press up top...she is hungry and hustles. Heath can jump in and start and move the ball Heath is one of the most skilled woman players in the game along w rapinoe.
Why would pia need to run her mouth about players she no longer coach s...talk tactics not personal feeling. Hope us slams her 5 zip.
Well, Sweden was certainly exposed in the back against a speed team. I would hope that the US examines that and what is the best way to exploit it. I would agree with those saying that Abby should sit to start this game. In regards to the Aussie game, though, I've said this before -- Ellis is managing a tournament as well as individual games (I hope she is), starting Abby and giving her 90 puts Ellis in a better position to sit Abby later, we'll see. The US midfield, IMHO, was exposed in the Aussie game. They were run over in the first half. I would expect Sweden to exploit that. I hope that the US examines that and figures out the best way to avoid it. This thread has focused almost solely on the attack -- but that midfield was a shambles until Australia ran out of gas. Not sure what we do to correct that, or if we know that Sweden doesn't have the capability to expose our midfield or not, but if we yield the chances we did to Australia to Sweden, Hope or not, I would expect Sweden to convert more of them. You build a team from the back, I think our defense was actually OK, but the midfield was a sieve. How is that going to be addressed? Is replacing Press with Heath enough to correct that? Whether you replace Abby with Press is a different question. Or, do we just expect the team to play better -- I am a bit concerned that some (Ellis included) will see the improvement in the second half as the players finally started playing better. While that may be some of it, more of it seemed to be Australia tiring.
Well, let me become the 1,000th person to say that Press should start as a forward (with Leroux) and the right midfielder should be either Heath or O'Reilly. I would prefer O'Reilly as she's good on defense -- but she's played so little recently its hard to know whether she's still any good. I think Lloyd has to hang back to help Holiday out. Defend the middle, advance on the flanks might be the best strategy.
The attack can be somewhat fixed with the personnel we have. The midfield has a lot more issues that have been long-standing and apparent and is one of the areas that Ellis has been even more inflexible on.
I wish I had your optimism. I think Holiday and Wambach start again. Press will also start, but as a winger. I have no faith in Ellis
OK, in looking at the 'Tactical Lineups' Australia was supposedly in a 4-3-3, but it seemed to me to behave a lot more like a 4-5-1 (which is really often the case IMHO). That 5 in the middle overran us. Sweden played in a 4-4-2, do we expect them to change that formation? Would we ever change our formation, or is 4-4-2 written in stone?
Yes, agree with this. For all the obsession with benching Wambach and inserting Press as forward, that was not even the problem with the Australia game at all. I agree fully that we need to be using Tobin Heath all 90 minutes every match, she is incredibly skilled. She did lose the ball once or twice by being cocky and taking on like 4 other players but for the most part she doesn't do that. We definitely need to get a DM role going asap as well. I concur that hopefully the MidField and Defense begin to coordinate more. I think some of our side defenders should not be all the way up the pitch so much. I like Klingenberg's attacks but it's still so risky. Did you watch the entire Australia match? LeRoux was atrocious out there aside from her assist and one or two decent interceptions/tackles. She was not good, slow, got beat numerous times, wasn't even involved for long stretches, giveaways. Honestly why do people harp on Wambach but praise LeRoux? Bizarre
My two cents. For those that say bench Wambach, I agree. But we need a strategy that goes beyond kick the ball up to a forward and see what she can do. That worked in the women's game 20 years ago, when the level of fitness and skill was much less. Today it does not work today. I thought the defense poorly organized against Australia. Solo needs to get more control over the defenders.
I don't know if was apparent in the game broadcast, but late in the first half and through the second half, Solo was having a lot of conversations with her defenders. I suspect it did not show up on the broadcast. I think your observation she needed to get more control of the defenders is right, and I think she figured that out too. (Thanks for posting about this, I had meant to mention it earlier.)
The problem with fundamentally changing our strategy is probably a longer-term one that isn't going to get solved in the middle of a tournament? I agree with you but basically it boils down to the fact the USA is just not anywhere close to as soccer-savvy as Europe or South America or even Africa. We don't have the passion, drive, gutso, etc. Our weird college system means we don't have players going pro at appropriate ages. Etc. These are not things Jill Ellis can solve.
She wasn't the only one having a lot of conversations out there. Lloyd spent most of the first half pointing to the spaces Holiday was supposed to be filling or who she should've been marking. The midfield is what it is. Ellis has flat-out refused to address the obvious holes that have been there for close to a year now. We just have to hope that Lloyd and Holiday somehow manage to control the midfield.
This is the second time you referred to Leroux as being slow. I would never use the word slow and Leroux in the same sentence. Whatever her flaws she is not slow. She didn't have a brilliant match by any means. She shanked a great opportunity in front of goal. She had a couple of bad touches. She doesn't seem to have good chemistry with Abby. But she was a critical player to the outcome of the match. She accelerated past her defender and basically created the winning goal. That's the goal that swung the momentum of the match. She also put consistent pressure on Australia's back line when they were in possession which disrupted their flow in the second half. Overall, in my opinion she was one of the five best players in the match (along with Pinoe, Becky, Hope, and Tobin).
I figured it must have been going on as I did see improvement (and now that you mention it, I think it was mentioned on the telecast). My wife and I kept making bad taste jokes during the game, which basically came down to "Hope should tell her defenders to play better or else she will cut them" (I am an Italian American, I can make that joke, the rest of you cannot).
My $0.02: 1) Pia's comments were pretty mild. If we need that to get pumped up, worrisome. But I guess you have to do what you have to do. 2) No worries about cards. We need to win this group. If we do, we get a 3rd place team in the round of 16, and the winner of the 2A (China/Can/Ned) vs. 2C (Swi/Cam) match in the quarters. I guess 2C could be Japan, but I doubt it. Point being, if we win the group, we get a fairly easy path to the semis (assuming Canada and Japan win their groups). Now, we probably get Germany in the semis, but that is for later. But we should be planning for three things: 1) win the group; 2) no suspensions for the SF; 3) somehow try to play Abby and Morgan into sharpness along the way. Which leads us to lineup talk. 3) Lineups: a) Heath should start at LM. We were much better on that side once Press was off the field, and her goal came from a forward position. b) CM was a problem. Don't know if it was 4-4-2 vs. 4-3-3 or what. Not sure what we can do about the pairing, as I think they are the best we have (Lloyd certainly must be out there). We could go 4-3-3, but I wouldn't yet. Haven't been dialed in enough lately to make a real good suggestion, but CM was te cause of most of the problems, and Press did zilch at RM. Anyway, I'd give them another match to see if things get straightened out, if not, then I make changes in the 90, and for next match. Maybe Holiday gets another card and the problem fixes itself. c) The backline + the Loyd/Holiday fulcrum need more time/cohesion to figure things out. They should stay together. d) Hope and Rapinoe are obviously going to start, and Syd created well once she got wide and the Swedes are vulnerable to speed. She's an obvious starter. e) That leaves the other F spot? If we start Morgan, we then have two speed players up top, and she may not be fit. A-Rod is another option, but seems buried down the depth chart. Press was better up top. But I think we'll give Abby another run out with Syd. Subs will be Morgan for Syd and Press for Abby late. Abby's going to want to start after the comments. And if she has another bad game, Ellis has ammo to sit her later. -------------------Solo---------------- Krieger---Sauerbrunn--Johnson--Klingenberg ----------------Holiday-------------- Heath----------Lloyd----------Rapinoe --------Leroux------Wambach--------- The 4-3-3 is interesting, but would be go all out in attack (Abby, Syd, Morgan). If so, then one of two best players last game (Rapinoe/Heath) have to sit. I guess I'd go Abby/Syd/Heath and move Rapinoe inside but let her drift around and play-make. 4-3-3: --------------Sol0------------------ AK----BS----------JJ-----Klingenbery ----------Holiday--Lloyd------------ --------------Rapinoe---------------- Heath---------Abby---------Leroux Haven't been on the ball enough with the USWNT lately to know the likehood, or preferred personnel, in the 4-3-3, especially with Morgan and Abby iffy.