Well our best midfielder is sitting on the bench. Makes no sense.
Start Lavelle and sub her off in the 60th minute...don't bring her on late.
Not having Sauerbrunn is killing us as well.
Because then Ertz is playing DMF and cleaning up everything in the middle.
Yeah, it makes no sense when playing against one of the best midfielder teams in the tournament, and I know even with a lose the USA has a good chance to move on, but why not play the better hand.
Both points good but I think your second point is the key — having to play Ertz in the back is tough (though obviously she is really good there and saved our ass late on today). The midfield is so much more solid when Ertz can play as the destroyer. Sullivan is not bad exactly, but a clear step down. I wonder who’s the next woman up in the back line. Can they trust that player back there enough to take Sullivan out and move Ertz up?
The minute Ertz was playing center back against Vietnam it boded ill for your question. It says coach doesn't believe in the next center back. He put Ertz back there against a team who would have been happy with one shot on goal.
Exactly right!
Also, I hate Rodman as a winger. Start Lynn Williams or Alyssa Thompson there (I'd start Williams).
I get Rodman is too good to keep off the field, but she's got to play a striker role. Just figure out a rotation with her and Morgan and no one else has to play that position all tournament. Just let them own it together.
It's funny – I don't really know any sport where people second-guess the game-day starting lineup selection as much as soccer. We don't have any idea what they've been doing in practice, whether someone's not feeling well, or whether there's a specific match-up the coach is trying to create or exploit, but we're all sure that this coach doesn't know his team as well as we do.
Not necessarily meaning to challenge you guys. You clearly know way more about the US team than I do. But it is interesting that instead of sitting back and, at best, asking why so and so isn't playing ("I hope she's not hurt," or "I wonder what Andonovski is doing here?"), the assumption is we know what he's doing, and we know how/why he's doing it wrong.
:-)
I'd +10000 this if I could
Soccer, unlike many sports has the starting lineup in for 45+ minutes. It's not like you can quick sub for a player after 10 minutes. There are only so many subs you get.
And typically the subs you make around the 60 minute mark are made for an injection of energy, or depending on the score, a change of strategy.
Soccer substitutions can alter the game more than pretty much any other team sport. You can sub in more defensive minded players to protect a lead, or vise versa.
By lead you mean holding on to a 1 - Nile game.
Subbing in soccer pales to deciding who to pitch in the ninth, or DH in the 7th
i mean you’re right, but it’s what people do
with like …. everything
100%.
soccer has become the sport where most-actively avoid the comment sections. i don't know what it is, but it seems like there are more smug HAWT TAKES in soccer than any other sport.
lineups, substitution patterns, roster construction...it's always presented as this binary, "we'll never win again" / "this is the worst thing ever because reasons" thing. it's really exhausting.
Good post. But I'd say basketball second-guessing has to rival lineup questions in soccer. I'm sometimes floored by the chutzpah required to say flat out what a Juwan Howard is doing wrong as if people know when they are riffing.
But there may be some reasons for this--in American football you can sub in and out constantly, and there are dozens of people playing. In soccer, it's 11 with very few changes; who's on the field is going to matter a lot. In bball, just five guys, and it's bound to be tempting, especially with the growth of available stats. With experience may come some humility, though. I've noticed that Dylan at UMHoops, for example, is much more cautious than he once was about using player percentages to criticize personnel decisions. After all, the coach's job is to train 'em up to improve on those percentages; they see the possibilities in practices we don't have a chance to attend.
Still, for me the lack of humility in anonymous fan criticism is sometimes. . . absurd.
I'd argue American sports fandom in general is built on that assumption, that we as fans know more about what should be happening with our teams than the actual coaches. I'm not sure we know how to operate any differently.
Women need to pick it up. Don't know that I've seen us look this bad since we lost to Sweden in 2011...
Goalllllllllll
Goaaaaaaaaaal
Damn it. What a great run.
Can't watch because I drop live t.v. every summer, but I'm rooting for the USA women!
This is the first summer we dropped live TV. We'll need it in the fall, but I don't miss it right now.
I don't know soccer well but it seems as if when the USA is attacking, it's hit & miss, while the Netherlands attacking seems more organized.
Go (RedWhite&) Blue!
We have definitely looked disconnected at times in the attacking third. Seemed to be coming together over the final 20 minutes or so so hopefully that's some momentum they can build on.
You are spot on, Blue Vet. US plays hero ball with lots of long ball / home run / quick strike attempts. Not too surprising since it's a youngish team. It needs to learn patience.
I noticed the same thing regarding hero ball. Too many runs that just end up going nowhere because passing attempts are passed up.
Only caught a little bit of it but man the USWNT needs to pick it up. Sloppy play and being lazy on 50/50 balls won’t cut it later in the WC.
Tale of two halves...21mph winds played a part.
It was even up until the Dutch scored and then when they throttled down, the US never changed their tactics and allowed the Dutch to pick them apart and hold the ball all half.
As I mentioned above...not starting Lavelle is asinine. If she can only give you a half, take the first half. It's soccer, if you're up at half, you can always sub her off for a defensive minded player to hold your lead.
Anyway, the second half was much better. That said, we still can't connect the final pass and convert. It's been like that all year.
Part of the issue is we play too narrow. Losing Mallory Swanson was brutal because she provided width. You bring Rodman in, who is ultra talented...but she needs to be in front of goal.
Basically, Kobe Bufkin got hurt and we replaced him with Tarris Reed and wonder why the paint is so clogged. Hunter and Tarris can play together, but floor spacing isn't going to IMPROVE with them on the floor together.
This team is missing its best players and it shows. Add Macario, Sauerbrunn, and Swanson and this team is clearly the best team in the tournament. Now? They've got to win on more than talent.
England has a similar list of injuries.
Agree with everything regarding tactics and formation, but would slightly disagree with the best team in the tournament.
England with their three stars would be a tough out. IMO Spain with Patri, Mapi, and a handful of the other 12 players sitting out, is the best, most talented team in the tournament. Rooting for a Spain-US showdown at some point in the tournament and excited for the 2023 Womens International Champions Cup.
As I mentioned above...not starting Lavelle is asinine. If she can only give you a half, take the first half. It's soccer, if you're up at half, you can always sub her off for a defensive minded player to hold your lead.
and what if you're not up at the half?
look, lavelle is my favorite player on this team, and it's not close. i'd love to see her for 90 minutes, but she's not ready to do that. so bringing her in with fresh legs is an eminently defensible approach. she brought a big jolt when they sorely needed it, and i'm not sure she would've had the same effect if she'd been in there from the jump.
I've never liked the Dutch.
- The Netherlands is famous for cheese. ...
- The Netherlands is the world's largest exporter of flowers. ...
- Heineken is the world's second largest beer company. ...
- The Netherlands is known for its flat land. ...
- The Dutch are the tallest people in the world. ...
- There are 1000+ historical windmills in the Netherlands.
And their ovens, too.
My wife isn't a big fan of "dutch ovens"!!!
I appreciate the Dutch. A couple of my ancestors went to the Netherlands for safety.
Not sure why but I find this very funny. Well done.
When it comes to women’s soccer and field hockey… I respectfully disagree. Orange is a great color - and, the game is quite easy to watch.
This doesn’t imply I root for them over the US - just that I appreciate their squad and style of play.
There are only two things I can't stand in this world: People who are intolerant of other people's cultures and the Dutch.
Cruyff
That last 10 minutes were very exciting, it gives us a glimpse of how well this team can be if they can control the game and keep the pressure on! The midfield is very worrisome the farther into the tournament they go.
by far the most anticipated group stage game of the World Cup and it didn’t disappoint! The young talent is there, and knowing some of these key players Morgan, Rapinoe could be in their last World Cup makes it that much more exciting and stressful, wanting to see them go out on top!
watching Mia Hamm in 2003 lose to Germany and the USA finish third was heartbreaking, growing up she was by far my favorite female soccer player and helped the women’s team become what they are today!
Formation match-up: our 4-3-3 vs their 3-5-2. They had their way in the midfield.
Thank the fútbol deities for Horan headers! I was thinking you don't want to piss her off, then she scored. Curious that she and Van de Donk are club teammates.
I wonder about Ertz starting at CB vs the 6. Sullivan went in to challenge on the Dutch goal, but she was late. Either she's got to stop their run, or drop back to contest. They got a free run up the middle. I wish Sam Coffey had gotten more PT prior to the WC, maybe she might've made the roster?
Wonder why soccer players lift a leg to try and block a shot when so often it goes under that leg. Maybe keep both feet down?
I wish Alex would hold up her runs. She's got speed, she could still get there.
As a former player, I can answer the lifting the leg question. The goal is to get as wide as possible. You obviously have to keep your arms tight to your body so the only way to be wide to attempt a block is with a leg.
Alex's game is built on speed - she is not a technical genius like say a Tobin Heath with the ball on her foot. More speed and force. She is getting older so it will be interesting to see how she stands up the next 2 years. She looks like she has lost half a step right now.
The Matildas are having an ... interesting game. Really unfortunate that Sam Kerr got hurt. I wonder if their saying she'd miss the first two games was optimistic.
Nigeria’s win just made group B very interesting! It’ll put the host country in a must win vs Canada their next game.
This isn’t the best team that the USA could’ve had at the World Cup. I wonder what the USA roster would’ve looked like if Mallory Swanson, Samantha Mewis, Catarina Macario, Becky Sauerbrunn and Abby Dahlkemper had been available.
But several other nations have lost star players due to injuries and that makes this World Cup intriguing for me. The Netherlands was missing one of the best players in the world, striker Vivianne Miedema who suffered an ACL tear in December and who plays for the team I root for (Arsenal).
There are several teams that could win it all. I wouldn’t be surprised if the USA doesn’t finish first in its group and has trouble getting to the semifinals.
We have +2 more GD than the Dutch, so hopefully we beat Portugal, and if the Dutch win, we have a goal to give. But no more. We currently have two yellow cards to their one, so we don't want to go to that tiebreaker.
Vietnam won't get a shot off vs Dutch just like they didn't vs USA. It just a matter of how effective their deep block is - they were doing nothing but parking the bus. Could see Dutch winning by 4 or 5 if they score. They were so beautifully organized first half, much better than the US at any point vs Vietnam.
USWNT is going to go as far as Rose Lavelle can take them. Minute she came in vs Vietnam they woke up. 2nd half USA woke up when she came in. She has the soccer IQ a lot of these others don't seem to have. Really missing Ertz as a defensive midfielder. The Sauerbaum injury was pretty devastating and is affecting the offense.
Edit: I typed this before reading the thread. Response #1 is on point!