The “never puts a foot wrong” is where I disagree and what frustrates me about Brunn.
For a player of her c.v. I’m always unpleasantly surprises how often she’s caught out of position, coughs up a pass right to an opponent, or gets skinned.
Is she a “Reyes’ first match” trainwreck? No. But that’s kind of the point; given her experience I’d…
The “never puts a foot wrong” is where I disagree and what frustrates me about Brunn.
For a player of her c.v. I’m always unpleasantly surprises how often she’s caught out of position, coughs up a pass right to an opponent, or gets skinned.
Is she a “Reyes’ first match” trainwreck? No. But that’s kind of the point; given her experience I’d expected her to be the rock of consistency she’s typically described here, and to have imparted that degree of stability to her defense.
So when that didn’t happen I was sure it was some sort of artifact. Surely she WAS doing all those things, it just looked different.
Now? I’m not sure.
I WANT it to be true. We need that calm organization in back.
But so far this season? I honestly haven’t seen it.
"Never puts a foot wrong" is commentator talk, not us critical people here at STF. It's easy to magnify a player's or a team's reputation with the passage of time and forget the flaws, be it Becky, Sincy, or previous iterations of the Thorns. Sauerbrunn's performance at Portland has generally been in line with her previous seasons, adjusting for aging.
In 2019, Thorns defense went into a bad skid. In 2021, with Menges/Brunn as our primary pairing, we had the fewest GA and most SO of any season. I'd even argue that Hubly and Kling have been more consistent in the last 2 seasons than previous and Bixby took over as the #1 in mid-2021. We've won silverware of some sort in both of the last two seasons. We've been in the top defenses of the league in the last two seasons. That's pretty consistent. But then we have very high standards at STF.
I don’t think I agree with that- She’s not perfect, but she’s rarely, to my eyes, out of position because of an individual mistake. She (and Hubly, and Menges) are frequently isolated 1v1 because of the lack of midfield and FB support, but that’s part of the structural defensive problem- CBs shouldn’t be left 1v1...which the Thorns CBs have been all too often as of late.
She’s also in her late 30s and isn’t Naomi Girma, Sarah Gorden or whichever hyper-athletic CB you want to name, so she doesn’t have the pace to cover up her mistakes or those of others, so I think it looks worse when she has a speedy attacker running at her. “Never puts a foot wrong” is an exaggeration (she makes the occasional errant pass and isn’t always perfect in the tackle), but I do think they severely miss her organization and calmness on the ball.
The “never puts a foot wrong” is where I disagree and what frustrates me about Brunn.
For a player of her c.v. I’m always unpleasantly surprises how often she’s caught out of position, coughs up a pass right to an opponent, or gets skinned.
Is she a “Reyes’ first match” trainwreck? No. But that’s kind of the point; given her experience I’d expected her to be the rock of consistency she’s typically described here, and to have imparted that degree of stability to her defense.
So when that didn’t happen I was sure it was some sort of artifact. Surely she WAS doing all those things, it just looked different.
Now? I’m not sure.
I WANT it to be true. We need that calm organization in back.
But so far this season? I honestly haven’t seen it.
"Never puts a foot wrong" is commentator talk, not us critical people here at STF. It's easy to magnify a player's or a team's reputation with the passage of time and forget the flaws, be it Becky, Sincy, or previous iterations of the Thorns. Sauerbrunn's performance at Portland has generally been in line with her previous seasons, adjusting for aging.
In 2019, Thorns defense went into a bad skid. In 2021, with Menges/Brunn as our primary pairing, we had the fewest GA and most SO of any season. I'd even argue that Hubly and Kling have been more consistent in the last 2 seasons than previous and Bixby took over as the #1 in mid-2021. We've won silverware of some sort in both of the last two seasons. We've been in the top defenses of the league in the last two seasons. That's pretty consistent. But then we have very high standards at STF.
I don’t think I agree with that- She’s not perfect, but she’s rarely, to my eyes, out of position because of an individual mistake. She (and Hubly, and Menges) are frequently isolated 1v1 because of the lack of midfield and FB support, but that’s part of the structural defensive problem- CBs shouldn’t be left 1v1...which the Thorns CBs have been all too often as of late.
She’s also in her late 30s and isn’t Naomi Girma, Sarah Gorden or whichever hyper-athletic CB you want to name, so she doesn’t have the pace to cover up her mistakes or those of others, so I think it looks worse when she has a speedy attacker running at her. “Never puts a foot wrong” is an exaggeration (she makes the occasional errant pass and isn’t always perfect in the tackle), but I do think they severely miss her organization and calmness on the ball.