Well, that may have been the single worst performance I’ve ever seen from the USWNT. Vlatko should be utterly ashamed of himself: This team has no style, identity, or cohesion. He’s gotten tactically thrashed by coaches overloading the midfield with both a box and a 3-5-2 because of how useless the US midfield is and has no idea how to handle it. Not sure this gets solved by personnel shifts, but I’d go Rodman-Smith-Williams just to allow Soph to play centrally in space, especially with Rose suspended.
I’ve never seen a US team so lacking in confidence going forward. It’s all so slow because there’s never any options, there’s no interplay because it never seems like they don’t know where to be, and random individual presses leave gaps going the other way because the team doesn’t seem to have specific triggers. Almost happy they’re playing Sweden now rather than getting bailed out with a bad second place team. Girma the only bright spot.
Yeah, the WNT has kind of always had a hero-ball approach, and as Thorntree points out, that goes back to the Wambach Era, when the "tactics" consisted of "huck in crosses until Abby gets a head to one...". The US typically outworked their opponents and then relied on individual brilliance to convert.
Now much of the rest of the world has the benefit of sports physiology, too. Their fitness is as good or better, and they're putting effective tactics to use as they find they're no longer just run off the pitch by the Americans.
It's the unforced errors that get me. That's not even "tactics", that's Soccer 101. Move to space, hit the open player with accurate passes. SO many times that US players failed to latch onto poor service, or, worse, passed right to Portuguese players. Painful to watch, and not promising when a similar piss-poor outing means a penalty crapshoot or worse...
Right, but “tactics” isn’t just another way to talk about formation and style: It’s how a team sets up, what the press triggers are, where players find space in response to pressure, how the team shifts etc etc. Individual errors are directly linked to a lack of a cohesive tactical setup because a lack of confidence/knowledge in where your teammates are inevitably gonna lead to misplaced passes, slow build up, rushed passes, and defensive gaps.
So yeah...teams of old did have the benefit of better conditioning and physicality than most -- though crucially not all-- other countries, but they also knew what they were good at and how to exploit the opposition. They’d suffocate teams, but reducing it down to “they were the fastest and the strongest” unfairly takes away from how skilled and tactically sound those teams were. They certainly weren’t playing like Japan or Spain do now, but they were plenty sophisticated.
For their time, perhaps. But I think we tend to forget how much the WoSo levels have risen in the past twenty years. I'm not sure that the 1991 champs would get out of a 2023 group stage, the general level of play is so much better. Even on a shorter time frame. Look a Colombia; a joke eight years ago, beating Germany this year.
A lot of the earlier editions of the USWNT found space and time because they could run all day and their opponents couldn't. The typical US game plan had to be "how do we break down this bunker", because that's what a whole bunch of US opponents felt they had to do to survive.
I don't see that happening this time. Nobody seems frightened, all the opponents in the group outside the hapless Viets and Filipinas seem capable of taking their game to the Americans.
The US has almost always been tactically decent. It was the relentless pace that made them so formidable, though. Now? I don't see that level of difference.
For sure. I definitely agree that the world has caught up physically and the tactics have passed American-trained coaches by for the most part. There’s probably (definitely) a discussion to be had about whether the US women can stay near the top without the type of sophisticated youth development Europe has. It’s the same discussion we’ve had with the men for ever.
But....I also think that you put Emma Hayes or the Japanese coach in charge of this team and they’d look just fine. They’re still much more talented soccer players than the majority of teams in this tournament and it’s hard for me to blame the players too much for the complete lack of style and identity this group has shown since Vlatko took over. He just doesn’t seem to have any grasp on what his best players are good at or how he wants them to play.
Which is weird, because his FCKC squads were technically and tactically the best in the NWSL until the Damned dynasty. Took a bunch of decent players and won two championships by pure tactical nous and making the best use of his squad players. Did something similar in Seattle after that.
Vlatco had some pretty good players on those KC teams, Lauren Holiday was more than decent. When Holiday went out for a few games with some undisclosed problem (it may have been the precursor to her tumor) the wheels came off for Vlatco's KC. The Thorns obliterated them once in 2014, courtesy of Vero and Jess McDonald. They were playing without Holiday.
Yep. Made this point above, and it’s an oddity of international soccer. Some coaches just can’t replicate their style when they make the transition. A lot of people would have said the same about Berhalter for the men.
It’s always been about individual play, from Wambach and even before. If anybody didn’t know it, Rapinoe confirmed it after the bronze game: For some reason, individuals didn’t make plays(paraphrasing), she said. Somebody make a great pass, somebody make a great finish. If it’s all kinda crap in between, so what. That worked when the world wasn’t very good. The world is a lot better now. No disrespect intended but, Portugal. Jeez Loieez, Portugal.
Yeah I mean the “rest of the world catching up” is definitely a big aspect of it, but it’s also reductive to say that a team won 3 out of 4 world cups on individual talent alone- That’s just not how high level soccer works. To your point about it just being Portugal.... yeah! The individual talent gap is massive and Vlatko just got his ass kicked tactically. The players don’t even look like they’re having fun!
Four goals in three games and three of those against Vietnam. Here’s how. Always play to the wings where somebody will cross (great pass) to a Morgan, Williams, Rodman etc. (great finish). Horan attempt a long pass over the top (great pass) to a Smith (for a great finish). Rapinoe in midfield long ball (great pass)to streaking Morgan sandwiched by two defenders. (Great finish)
There are no other tactics. No build up, no combination play. No cohesion. Throw in some terrible passes, bad decisions, and soon you look a team that met for the first time in the bus parking lot.
I would agree team defense is much better. But it’s the mentality (fostered by the likes of Julie Foudy) that they have to win every game 10-0 that doesn’t work anymore on the world stage.
To me, the USWNT issue is lack of cohesion. And that's no surprise given that Vlatko continued to tinker and test out new players and lineups right up to and INTO the World Cup, with Savannah DeMelo as Exhibit A (and Julie-Ertz-as-centerback as Exhibit B). If we look like a collection of excellent players who haven't played together much, it's because that's exactly what we are. Vlatko needed to settle on a roster at least by last fall and get the players reps together in the last half-year or more so they know each others' playing patterns. I just don't understand why he kept on with his experimentation ad infinitum.
Jill Ellis said something illuminating, at least to me, in her interview on Tobin and Pressy's RE-CAP show (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9qGpfsW-OA). She said one of her USWNT training goals was that if you asked anyone on the team "How do we score goals?", they would all be able to answer, and everyone would have the SAME answer. It doesn't feel like this year's team has that, at all - not in the strict sense of having playing patterns down so they could do them in their sleep, but also not in the more general sense of being a unified whole rather than just a collection of parts.
The podcast discussions by Linehan and Kassouf after the Portugal match were good. Much more substantive than usual. Careful to point out that it's not an individual problem (except, as Tobin says, they're playing 11 different styles at once). Rather, it's an organizational and cultural one, probably an NWSL-related one, and quite likely a Vlatko one. There's a quote from Rapinoe about the importance of having someone who "passes on the blueprint" from one generation to the next. I think Linehan said perhaps it's time to tear up the blueprint.
I find it hilarious that the Spanish women have the *exact* same problem as the men do (plus, ya know, all the extra federation BS). I guess that’s what happens when an entire country has a unified soccer philosophy: The peaks are high and the valleys are low. They probably got the better second round draw tho- they should handle Switzerland comfortably.
Japan are awesome. The odds were always out of wack at the start of the tournament -- they should never have had worse odds than Norway and Canada-- and they’ve proven it. I love how tactically flexible they are: completely comfortable in and out of possession, great defensive shape, and able to adjust style based on opponent. They play a little more horizontal and possession based against the teams they’re clearly better than, and more vertical and low-block against the Spains of the world (23% possession!!). They also never waste passes or time: Everything they do is so intentional and with pace, regardless of shape. Really impressive. Anything can happen with Norway’s talent, but I don’t see a world where they can handle Japan.
Hard to know who is the slowest out of Coffey, Moultrie, Porter, Sinc, and Rocky lol.
Honestly, not really sure I want Sinc back on the field for our league game against a young and quick NCC, esp not after the very underwhelming, or just bad, performance from Canada....Rocky, I haven't watched the final CR game to see how her form is progressing, but she didn't look herself at all in the 30' she had prior.
It will be nice to have them both back though, if not just for their leadership at practice.
Who do you put in midfield with Liv and Coffey for that game?
Yeah I absolutely agree there. I’d like to see a Coffey/Rocky/Dunn midfield for us sooner than later so she definitely needs game minutes. I hope that’s the case, although she was hardly used before her injury and Sinc was given those minutes.
Not only do I think it's possible, but actually likely that the WC ends for the US this coming weekend. They are so poorly managed, I just don't see Vlatko having a plan for Sweden. Especially true without Lavelle in the midfield. They play as 10 individuals because a cohesive team game plan doesn't exist. You can't play Alex Morgan with Sophia unless you're gonna do a 2-striker formation. Sophia is not a winger, she's playing a striker-playing-on-the-wing, and looked so out of place. Felt really bad for her last night.....and throughout this tournament. This was supposed to be a big breakout for her, but she's been poorly managed and Vlatko has managed to make her look unready for the int'l level. Her touches have been poor and her confidence looks low. Frankly, they don't really deserve to go much further with these sorts of performances. I saw a stat that said the USWNT completed 63% of their passes last night! 63%!! That's....so bad. Julie Ertz with a 58% pass completion rate. You just can't have that from a starting CB. Here's a graphic with how all the starters did: https://twitter.com/chris_awk/status/1686422263950647296
They need a hard reset, starting with the coach. Feel really bad for some of the players who will probably have this be their last WC experience. The good news for the Thorns is that we might get Soph and Crystal back before our next league game....the bad news is that every other NWSL gets their players back as well, and the coaches/teams have figured a lot more out on the coaching front at this point of the season than we have. Laura Harvey, for example, would get Quinn, Huitema, Rapinoe, Sonnet, Cook, Huerta, and Lavelle back before their next league game. Mike Norris still exists here....
Who do we think the next USWNT coach will be? Personally? I'd consider Sean Nahas. I like his style of play...it's scrappy, super cohesive, and he knows how to get a lot out of players who are either young and/or without a ton of individual talent. Players look fit, and he can essentially plug and play. I'd be curious what he could do with a ton of talent. People shout for Laura Harvey....but I honestly don't know if I like her style of play. It's so stale and obvious for me...and she still hasn't won in knockout style games in the NWSL.
Ertz hasn't played CB in how many years? Dunn hasn't played left fullback in how many years? She wasn't stellar last night, either.
If you're going to call up Julie Ertz instead of Sam Coffey (and you shouldn't), then FFS, play her at the 6. No coach that thinks Sullivan at 6 is a better call than Cook at CB has a freakin; clue.
If the US somehow gets past likely round-of-16 opponent Sweden (and Norway has no answers for the Nadeshiko), that'll be teh quarterfinal match-up...and I'd expect a slaughter. The teams are polar opposites right now: the US is a collection of world-class players who play as if they've just met the same morning. Japan, while having some elite players (Hasegawa, for example), play as if they're 11 bodies sharing a single mind.
Japan is coached by a flexible, insightful coach capable of shaping a strategy designed to exploit the opponent's weaknesses. The US has a coach that deserves to be photoshopped into the Simpsons' sea captain "I don't know what I'm doing" meme.
Japan has relatively unheralded players who are stepping up and rising to the occasion (Hinata Miyazawa in the lead for the Golden Boot? Who had THAT on their card?!?). The US has Naomi Girma rising to the occasion...and that's about it.
- We’re honestly fortunate that Soph hasn’t been shunted wide in favor of Sinc or anyone else at club level. She’s so much more dangerous when the opponent can’t use the sideline as an extra defender.
- I like Nahas, but people forget how Vlatko’s calling card during his time in the NWSL was his tactical nous and flexibility/ability to adjust in-game......which are all of a sudden his main flaws. Similar to Berhalter with the men, sometimes the international game is just a different beast....I’d go international and stay out of NWSL with the next coach. Hell, try to poach the Japanese coach lol
- Sullivan is just not good. I’d stick Ertz in the midfield and just let her fly around. Who knows why Fox is on the right and Dunn on the left! Makes no sense! I’d also try Sanchez over Demelo against Sweden.
I agree with a almost all of your points and Yes! Nahas has done well and I am not sold on Harvey. But maybe a European coach might be better.
Soph did look super frustrated and down. As Kielbj noted Soph out wide allows defenders to use the sideline as a additional defender. The ref was not calling any fouls in the first half and in the second half was handing out yellow cards like orange slices. Right now, I would sit Smith in the first half at least.
As to who replaces LaVelle, I don't think it matters only a massive mind meld by this team prevents them from going home after the next game. I am usually optimistic, but the problems I saw last night look like they can't be fixed in three days. Girma is the only one that looks like a World Cup player. Even with LaVelle, Portugal's midfield outplayed the US by a large margin and our shot advantage, while it looks good on paper, most of those shots looked more like unanswered prayers.
A late game Portugal shot and the goal post saved their spot in the knockout round. A few inches to the left and they would have been homeward bound. 'They need a miracle to get past Sweden now and will have to go without the help of a suspended Rose Lavelle. Hoping for one but ready for reality to slap my face. They are just not performing like champs.
Sinc blaming Canada's underwhelming performance in group play on the need for change in the Canadian Federation and the lack of a national women's league seems an agenda in search of a crisis.
Yes, the Aussies have a national women's league, but the best Matilldas have played elsewhere for a long, long time. And... does Nigeria even have a national women's league?
I get that this was a disappointing, even shockingly poor, group play performance by Canada. That in itself is a sign that Canada do have plenty of world-class talent, who should have provided a better accounting of themselves. This was a relatively healthy and complete Canada side compared with those of many other countries.
Simply put, the Matildas, playing at home, came out and got it done today, while Canada laid an egg.
Nigeria does have a women's football league, since 1994 in fact, the Nigeria Women Football League (https://thenwfl.com/). There are even second- and third-tier leagues, the NWFL Championship and NWFL Nationwide.
I think that rather than having a league where homegrown players can develop to their potential, the point Sinc was making was about inspiration: if you have a league, girls will watch it and then play, and as they grow up soccer gradually becomes a part of the culture. More people would play it as kids and teens, and talented players would start improving their skill earlier and develop farther, even if they do go elsewhere as pros. I doubt this happens much now; the national team gets press when they play and of course Christine Sinclair is always news, but the NWSL, even with all of its Canadian players, gets little if any attention in Canada.
Cheers for the edification. Much appreciated! And I do not in any way disagree with Sinc's views. She knows. However, the need for change is not the reason why they lost 4-0 without Kerr playing at all today.
More I think about it, the more I think Soph needs to start at the 9 next to Williams and Rodman on Sunday. I don’t think Alex is washed (seeing a lot of Rapinoe/Morgan getting grouped in the same “too old to play bucket on Twitter, which is stupid), but Smith has been nearly twice as productive as the second best NWSL striker in most metrics over the past two years. Play your best players at their best positions.
I don’t think they beat Sweden, but Vlatko needs to change it up. I’d go:
Rodman-Smith-Williams
Sanchez
Horan-Ertz
Fox-Girma-Cook-Dunn
Cook is a risk, but I want Sullivan off the field at all costs. This is where not having a competent backup 6 bites Vlatko in the ass. And please no more Pinoe. Give Thompson some real minutes if you need a spark.
Maybe the US should start taking their best players to these tournaments. There are 4-5 players that are good players, but not our best. Some past their prime, some seem to be favored by the coach for one reason or another
Saw one this morning: "I'm going to tell anyone who asks why I'm groggy this morning that I was smoking crack last night. That's better than admitting I stayed up to watch that shitshow."
Yeah, coming to work today after that mess was pretty hard haha.
By contrast, my favorite part of coming to work exhausted yesterday after staying up for the Japan/Spain match was that a Japanese coworker of mine who I've been encouraging to watch Japan (and the Thorns) told me she was hooked after turning on that match and seeing Japan just surgically dismantling Spain. She's asking when the internationals come back so she can come root for Hina at a Thorns match!
Another 4-0 match. Canada went from gold to out cold. Only WWC team to ever do that. That is harsh. Ribbons Raso had herself a first half brace. I stayed up all night and will surely regret it lol.
I am so bad at this. My brackets are totally trashed and I picked Popp to win the Golden Boot. Is this 2023 World Cup field so flat or am I just so clueless?
But if the US is eliminated, I am all in for Japan, even if Espana es mi segunda casa. I like Spain's team, but Vilda is a villain.
We use YouTubeTV and got the one-month free trial of 4K for the Cup. It is fantastic- both picture quality and sound. The outfit that does video for FIFA has to be the world's best. Someday, in my dreams, NWSL will reach that level. Maybe start with the Final?
Well, that may have been the single worst performance I’ve ever seen from the USWNT. Vlatko should be utterly ashamed of himself: This team has no style, identity, or cohesion. He’s gotten tactically thrashed by coaches overloading the midfield with both a box and a 3-5-2 because of how useless the US midfield is and has no idea how to handle it. Not sure this gets solved by personnel shifts, but I’d go Rodman-Smith-Williams just to allow Soph to play centrally in space, especially with Rose suspended.
I’ve never seen a US team so lacking in confidence going forward. It’s all so slow because there’s never any options, there’s no interplay because it never seems like they don’t know where to be, and random individual presses leave gaps going the other way because the team doesn’t seem to have specific triggers. Almost happy they’re playing Sweden now rather than getting bailed out with a bad second place team. Girma the only bright spot.
This is the worst pass map I’ve ever seen: https://twitter.com/Odriozolite/status/1686317514643660801?s=20
(Also, this is always a given, but fuck Carli Lloyd and her coded nonsense)
Yeah, the WNT has kind of always had a hero-ball approach, and as Thorntree points out, that goes back to the Wambach Era, when the "tactics" consisted of "huck in crosses until Abby gets a head to one...". The US typically outworked their opponents and then relied on individual brilliance to convert.
Now much of the rest of the world has the benefit of sports physiology, too. Their fitness is as good or better, and they're putting effective tactics to use as they find they're no longer just run off the pitch by the Americans.
It's the unforced errors that get me. That's not even "tactics", that's Soccer 101. Move to space, hit the open player with accurate passes. SO many times that US players failed to latch onto poor service, or, worse, passed right to Portuguese players. Painful to watch, and not promising when a similar piss-poor outing means a penalty crapshoot or worse...
Right, but “tactics” isn’t just another way to talk about formation and style: It’s how a team sets up, what the press triggers are, where players find space in response to pressure, how the team shifts etc etc. Individual errors are directly linked to a lack of a cohesive tactical setup because a lack of confidence/knowledge in where your teammates are inevitably gonna lead to misplaced passes, slow build up, rushed passes, and defensive gaps.
So yeah...teams of old did have the benefit of better conditioning and physicality than most -- though crucially not all-- other countries, but they also knew what they were good at and how to exploit the opposition. They’d suffocate teams, but reducing it down to “they were the fastest and the strongest” unfairly takes away from how skilled and tactically sound those teams were. They certainly weren’t playing like Japan or Spain do now, but they were plenty sophisticated.
For their time, perhaps. But I think we tend to forget how much the WoSo levels have risen in the past twenty years. I'm not sure that the 1991 champs would get out of a 2023 group stage, the general level of play is so much better. Even on a shorter time frame. Look a Colombia; a joke eight years ago, beating Germany this year.
A lot of the earlier editions of the USWNT found space and time because they could run all day and their opponents couldn't. The typical US game plan had to be "how do we break down this bunker", because that's what a whole bunch of US opponents felt they had to do to survive.
I don't see that happening this time. Nobody seems frightened, all the opponents in the group outside the hapless Viets and Filipinas seem capable of taking their game to the Americans.
The US has almost always been tactically decent. It was the relentless pace that made them so formidable, though. Now? I don't see that level of difference.
For sure. I definitely agree that the world has caught up physically and the tactics have passed American-trained coaches by for the most part. There’s probably (definitely) a discussion to be had about whether the US women can stay near the top without the type of sophisticated youth development Europe has. It’s the same discussion we’ve had with the men for ever.
But....I also think that you put Emma Hayes or the Japanese coach in charge of this team and they’d look just fine. They’re still much more talented soccer players than the majority of teams in this tournament and it’s hard for me to blame the players too much for the complete lack of style and identity this group has shown since Vlatko took over. He just doesn’t seem to have any grasp on what his best players are good at or how he wants them to play.
Which is weird, because his FCKC squads were technically and tactically the best in the NWSL until the Damned dynasty. Took a bunch of decent players and won two championships by pure tactical nous and making the best use of his squad players. Did something similar in Seattle after that.
So I’m not sure why his Nats look so unfocused.
Vlatco had some pretty good players on those KC teams, Lauren Holiday was more than decent. When Holiday went out for a few games with some undisclosed problem (it may have been the precursor to her tumor) the wheels came off for Vlatco's KC. The Thorns obliterated them once in 2014, courtesy of Vero and Jess McDonald. They were playing without Holiday.
Yep. Made this point above, and it’s an oddity of international soccer. Some coaches just can’t replicate their style when they make the transition. A lot of people would have said the same about Berhalter for the men.
It’s always been about individual play, from Wambach and even before. If anybody didn’t know it, Rapinoe confirmed it after the bronze game: For some reason, individuals didn’t make plays(paraphrasing), she said. Somebody make a great pass, somebody make a great finish. If it’s all kinda crap in between, so what. That worked when the world wasn’t very good. The world is a lot better now. No disrespect intended but, Portugal. Jeez Loieez, Portugal.
Yeah I mean the “rest of the world catching up” is definitely a big aspect of it, but it’s also reductive to say that a team won 3 out of 4 world cups on individual talent alone- That’s just not how high level soccer works. To your point about it just being Portugal.... yeah! The individual talent gap is massive and Vlatko just got his ass kicked tactically. The players don’t even look like they’re having fun!
Four goals in three games and three of those against Vietnam. Here’s how. Always play to the wings where somebody will cross (great pass) to a Morgan, Williams, Rodman etc. (great finish). Horan attempt a long pass over the top (great pass) to a Smith (for a great finish). Rapinoe in midfield long ball (great pass)to streaking Morgan sandwiched by two defenders. (Great finish)
There are no other tactics. No build up, no combination play. No cohesion. Throw in some terrible passes, bad decisions, and soon you look a team that met for the first time in the bus parking lot.
I would agree team defense is much better. But it’s the mentality (fostered by the likes of Julie Foudy) that they have to win every game 10-0 that doesn’t work anymore on the world stage.
To me, the USWNT issue is lack of cohesion. And that's no surprise given that Vlatko continued to tinker and test out new players and lineups right up to and INTO the World Cup, with Savannah DeMelo as Exhibit A (and Julie-Ertz-as-centerback as Exhibit B). If we look like a collection of excellent players who haven't played together much, it's because that's exactly what we are. Vlatko needed to settle on a roster at least by last fall and get the players reps together in the last half-year or more so they know each others' playing patterns. I just don't understand why he kept on with his experimentation ad infinitum.
Jill Ellis said something illuminating, at least to me, in her interview on Tobin and Pressy's RE-CAP show (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9qGpfsW-OA). She said one of her USWNT training goals was that if you asked anyone on the team "How do we score goals?", they would all be able to answer, and everyone would have the SAME answer. It doesn't feel like this year's team has that, at all - not in the strict sense of having playing patterns down so they could do them in their sleep, but also not in the more general sense of being a unified whole rather than just a collection of parts.
The podcast discussions by Linehan and Kassouf after the Portugal match were good. Much more substantive than usual. Careful to point out that it's not an individual problem (except, as Tobin says, they're playing 11 different styles at once). Rather, it's an organizational and cultural one, probably an NWSL-related one, and quite likely a Vlatko one. There's a quote from Rapinoe about the importance of having someone who "passes on the blueprint" from one generation to the next. I think Linehan said perhaps it's time to tear up the blueprint.
Thanks for the synopsis, and the laugh.
Fun to see all those former Thorns on the Aussie team: Raso, Carpenter, Catley, and Foord all started, and Polkinghorne subbed in late.
I find it hilarious that the Spanish women have the *exact* same problem as the men do (plus, ya know, all the extra federation BS). I guess that’s what happens when an entire country has a unified soccer philosophy: The peaks are high and the valleys are low. They probably got the better second round draw tho- they should handle Switzerland comfortably.
Japan are awesome. The odds were always out of wack at the start of the tournament -- they should never have had worse odds than Norway and Canada-- and they’ve proven it. I love how tactically flexible they are: completely comfortable in and out of possession, great defensive shape, and able to adjust style based on opponent. They play a little more horizontal and possession based against the teams they’re clearly better than, and more vertical and low-block against the Spains of the world (23% possession!!). They also never waste passes or time: Everything they do is so intentional and with pace, regardless of shape. Really impressive. Anything can happen with Norway’s talent, but I don’t see a world where they can handle Japan.
Spain doing Spain things.
Good News! We're getting back two of our internationals early.
Bad News! They're our slowest midfielders.
Hard to know who is the slowest out of Coffey, Moultrie, Porter, Sinc, and Rocky lol.
Honestly, not really sure I want Sinc back on the field for our league game against a young and quick NCC, esp not after the very underwhelming, or just bad, performance from Canada....Rocky, I haven't watched the final CR game to see how her form is progressing, but she didn't look herself at all in the 30' she had prior.
It will be nice to have them both back though, if not just for their leadership at practice.
Who do you put in midfield with Liv and Coffey for that game?
I'd put in Rodriguez in a heartbeat. Even if she isn't 100% back up to speed yet, getting her back up to speed should be a priority.
Yeah I absolutely agree there. I’d like to see a Coffey/Rocky/Dunn midfield for us sooner than later so she definitely needs game minutes. I hope that’s the case, although she was hardly used before her injury and Sinc was given those minutes.
Not only do I think it's possible, but actually likely that the WC ends for the US this coming weekend. They are so poorly managed, I just don't see Vlatko having a plan for Sweden. Especially true without Lavelle in the midfield. They play as 10 individuals because a cohesive team game plan doesn't exist. You can't play Alex Morgan with Sophia unless you're gonna do a 2-striker formation. Sophia is not a winger, she's playing a striker-playing-on-the-wing, and looked so out of place. Felt really bad for her last night.....and throughout this tournament. This was supposed to be a big breakout for her, but she's been poorly managed and Vlatko has managed to make her look unready for the int'l level. Her touches have been poor and her confidence looks low. Frankly, they don't really deserve to go much further with these sorts of performances. I saw a stat that said the USWNT completed 63% of their passes last night! 63%!! That's....so bad. Julie Ertz with a 58% pass completion rate. You just can't have that from a starting CB. Here's a graphic with how all the starters did: https://twitter.com/chris_awk/status/1686422263950647296
They need a hard reset, starting with the coach. Feel really bad for some of the players who will probably have this be their last WC experience. The good news for the Thorns is that we might get Soph and Crystal back before our next league game....the bad news is that every other NWSL gets their players back as well, and the coaches/teams have figured a lot more out on the coaching front at this point of the season than we have. Laura Harvey, for example, would get Quinn, Huitema, Rapinoe, Sonnet, Cook, Huerta, and Lavelle back before their next league game. Mike Norris still exists here....
Who do we think the next USWNT coach will be? Personally? I'd consider Sean Nahas. I like his style of play...it's scrappy, super cohesive, and he knows how to get a lot out of players who are either young and/or without a ton of individual talent. Players look fit, and he can essentially plug and play. I'd be curious what he could do with a ton of talent. People shout for Laura Harvey....but I honestly don't know if I like her style of play. It's so stale and obvious for me...and she still hasn't won in knockout style games in the NWSL.
Ertz hasn't played CB in how many years? Dunn hasn't played left fullback in how many years? She wasn't stellar last night, either.
If you're going to call up Julie Ertz instead of Sam Coffey (and you shouldn't), then FFS, play her at the 6. No coach that thinks Sullivan at 6 is a better call than Cook at CB has a freakin; clue.
If the US somehow gets past likely round-of-16 opponent Sweden (and Norway has no answers for the Nadeshiko), that'll be teh quarterfinal match-up...and I'd expect a slaughter. The teams are polar opposites right now: the US is a collection of world-class players who play as if they've just met the same morning. Japan, while having some elite players (Hasegawa, for example), play as if they're 11 bodies sharing a single mind.
Japan is coached by a flexible, insightful coach capable of shaping a strategy designed to exploit the opponent's weaknesses. The US has a coach that deserves to be photoshopped into the Simpsons' sea captain "I don't know what I'm doing" meme.
Japan has relatively unheralded players who are stepping up and rising to the occasion (Hinata Miyazawa in the lead for the Golden Boot? Who had THAT on their card?!?). The US has Naomi Girma rising to the occasion...and that's about it.
All good points. To hone in on a few:
- We’re honestly fortunate that Soph hasn’t been shunted wide in favor of Sinc or anyone else at club level. She’s so much more dangerous when the opponent can’t use the sideline as an extra defender.
- I like Nahas, but people forget how Vlatko’s calling card during his time in the NWSL was his tactical nous and flexibility/ability to adjust in-game......which are all of a sudden his main flaws. Similar to Berhalter with the men, sometimes the international game is just a different beast....I’d go international and stay out of NWSL with the next coach. Hell, try to poach the Japanese coach lol
- Sullivan is just not good. I’d stick Ertz in the midfield and just let her fly around. Who knows why Fox is on the right and Dunn on the left! Makes no sense! I’d also try Sanchez over Demelo against Sweden.
I agree with a almost all of your points and Yes! Nahas has done well and I am not sold on Harvey. But maybe a European coach might be better.
Soph did look super frustrated and down. As Kielbj noted Soph out wide allows defenders to use the sideline as a additional defender. The ref was not calling any fouls in the first half and in the second half was handing out yellow cards like orange slices. Right now, I would sit Smith in the first half at least.
As to who replaces LaVelle, I don't think it matters only a massive mind meld by this team prevents them from going home after the next game. I am usually optimistic, but the problems I saw last night look like they can't be fixed in three days. Girma is the only one that looks like a World Cup player. Even with LaVelle, Portugal's midfield outplayed the US by a large margin and our shot advantage, while it looks good on paper, most of those shots looked more like unanswered prayers.
A late game Portugal shot and the goal post saved their spot in the knockout round. A few inches to the left and they would have been homeward bound. 'They need a miracle to get past Sweden now and will have to go without the help of a suspended Rose Lavelle. Hoping for one but ready for reality to slap my face. They are just not performing like champs.
Sinc blaming Canada's underwhelming performance in group play on the need for change in the Canadian Federation and the lack of a national women's league seems an agenda in search of a crisis.
Yes, the Aussies have a national women's league, but the best Matilldas have played elsewhere for a long, long time. And... does Nigeria even have a national women's league?
I get that this was a disappointing, even shockingly poor, group play performance by Canada. That in itself is a sign that Canada do have plenty of world-class talent, who should have provided a better accounting of themselves. This was a relatively healthy and complete Canada side compared with those of many other countries.
Simply put, the Matildas, playing at home, came out and got it done today, while Canada laid an egg.
Nigeria does have a women's football league, since 1994 in fact, the Nigeria Women Football League (https://thenwfl.com/). There are even second- and third-tier leagues, the NWFL Championship and NWFL Nationwide.
I think that rather than having a league where homegrown players can develop to their potential, the point Sinc was making was about inspiration: if you have a league, girls will watch it and then play, and as they grow up soccer gradually becomes a part of the culture. More people would play it as kids and teens, and talented players would start improving their skill earlier and develop farther, even if they do go elsewhere as pros. I doubt this happens much now; the national team gets press when they play and of course Christine Sinclair is always news, but the NWSL, even with all of its Canadian players, gets little if any attention in Canada.
Cheers for the edification. Much appreciated! And I do not in any way disagree with Sinc's views. She knows. However, the need for change is not the reason why they lost 4-0 without Kerr playing at all today.
Brazil out. Jamaica and and South Africa moving on. Two African countries with R32 matchups against their colonizers. Wild stuff!
(Also maybe the Thorns should try to snare Lorne, I’m it sure it would make Smith happy!)
More I think about it, the more I think Soph needs to start at the 9 next to Williams and Rodman on Sunday. I don’t think Alex is washed (seeing a lot of Rapinoe/Morgan getting grouped in the same “too old to play bucket on Twitter, which is stupid), but Smith has been nearly twice as productive as the second best NWSL striker in most metrics over the past two years. Play your best players at their best positions.
I don’t think they beat Sweden, but Vlatko needs to change it up. I’d go:
Rodman-Smith-Williams
Sanchez
Horan-Ertz
Fox-Girma-Cook-Dunn
Cook is a risk, but I want Sullivan off the field at all costs. This is where not having a competent backup 6 bites Vlatko in the ass. And please no more Pinoe. Give Thompson some real minutes if you need a spark.
Maybe the US should start taking their best players to these tournaments. There are 4-5 players that are good players, but not our best. Some past their prime, some seem to be favored by the coach for one reason or another
How Vlatko’s “tactics” are making me feel about this team:
https://twitter.com/kimischilling/status/1686291354249306112?s=20
Saw one this morning: "I'm going to tell anyone who asks why I'm groggy this morning that I was smoking crack last night. That's better than admitting I stayed up to watch that shitshow."
Yeah, coming to work today after that mess was pretty hard haha.
By contrast, my favorite part of coming to work exhausted yesterday after staying up for the Japan/Spain match was that a Japanese coworker of mine who I've been encouraging to watch Japan (and the Thorns) told me she was hooked after turning on that match and seeing Japan just surgically dismantling Spain. She's asking when the internationals come back so she can come root for Hina at a Thorns match!
Hahaha, so so real
Another 4-0 match. Canada went from gold to out cold. Only WWC team to ever do that. That is harsh. Ribbons Raso had herself a first half brace. I stayed up all night and will surely regret it lol.
If there's a way to set up an elimination bracket contest on Stumptown Footy, that would be fun.
Posted above, but here ya go- password is stf
https://fantasy.espn.com/free-prize-games/sharer?from=espn&challengeId=234&context=GROUP_INVITE&edition=espn-en&groupId=f2f94c0d-ae34-421c-94bf-7b99f25001ef&joinKey=b819f2b7-c166-3f21-850f-1fd4109906c0
Cool, thanks! I'll post one for me and one for the mrs.
I am so bad at this. My brackets are totally trashed and I picked Popp to win the Golden Boot. Is this 2023 World Cup field so flat or am I just so clueless?
But if the US is eliminated, I am all in for Japan, even if Espana es mi segunda casa. I like Spain's team, but Vilda is a villain.
You're not the only one. I had Germany in my top-tier contenders, along with the US and England. England is the only one still in that tier.
OK so I am going to call it now Lauren James wins the Golden Boot and England the World Cup. Don't worry folks I am terrible at this.
Memo to Italy: Consider not spotting your opponent an OG upon taking the lead. Played hard as hell throughout and it cost them their tournament.
Congrats to the Lego pieces for making it to round of 16 first time since [checks notes] 1995. And how about Haiti? What a gutsy run.
We use YouTubeTV and got the one-month free trial of 4K for the Cup. It is fantastic- both picture quality and sound. The outfit that does video for FIFA has to be the world's best. Someday, in my dreams, NWSL will reach that level. Maybe start with the Final?