Women's World Cup: USA - Colombia

[mildone]

But out of any country playing soccer in the world today - the US should be the most accustomed to playing on turf. It's hard to find grass fields anymore... It's a none excuse Philaphan. The ladies are playing poorly and their lack of technical ability and soccer smarts is getting exposed.
But it's a great thing that we are having this discussion in this country because it will force the system to transition to a better style of play , like what happened to the men's game

They are playing ugly and poorly. That's true.

But I do not agree that they lack technical ability. And I'd be willing to bet that they have plenty of tactical understanding of the game. They are being coached to play a particular style of soccer. If they were coached to play a more controlled style, they could no doubt do that. But for some reason, Ellis feels that her approach is the way to go.

It's easy for me to critique the game, as I did above, from my position here in the cheap seats. But Ellis is an experienced coach that knows the game well and she has reasons for what she's doing. We'll see how they do. If the win through, then she'll be proved right.

 

[mildone]

Is it just me or is the TV commentary whiny, carping criticism almost all the time? There should be more description of the action and some rules clarification for the newbies this level of event attracts. Yes, the team is underperforming but the commentators need to back off from constant know-it-all fault-finding. Sounds like they're auditioning for the coaches job.

I think what's happening is that nobody's happy with the ugly style of play, including the commentators. But Ellis has only one goal - win the tournament. She could care less if the world dislikes the US style of play as long as they keep winning.

Having said that. I agree that the commentary has been pretty annoying.

 

[mildone]

Oh, absolutely - Colombia played really aggressive defense and were laying everything on the field, energy-wise. They were also laying everything on the field, body-wise, as often as they could - totally separate thing, but the connection was made in jest.

One of the announcers made an accurate comment about the Colombian players. I'm paraphrasing, but basically he pointed out that they use their bodies well.

What he meant by that was that they were positioning themselves between the ball and the US player attempting to dispossess the Colombian player of the ball. Which means that the US was having to constantly go through the Colombian player from behind to get to the ball. Which is a foul. It's not always called, but it's a foul nonetheless.

So yeah, the Colombian players were going down very easily (oh the puns this will lead to). But they were also being fouled on most of those occasions. There were some dives, sure, but that's a part of the game and has been forever. US players do the same thing.

I actually didn't feel like it was all that poorly an officiated game. There are always going to be some bad calls, but I didn't observe anything that led me to believe the refs were biased in any way. And there were plenty of opportunities to exercise bias where it didn't happen.

The ref was calling chippy little fouls - but they were still fouls. The US players failed to adjust to the officiating in the first half. The Colombian players did not fail to do so and they took advantage of the slowness of the US players to adjust.

 

[rudad02]

RU's Julie Filigno playing for her native Canada.

 

[PhilaPhans]

The trap is the easiest thing in the world to beat in soccer. Flat line D = horizontal run. Diamond D = diagonal run. We've been teaching this to the girls we coached (HS) for years. With the US speed up front playing the trap SHOULD lead to two or three easy goals a game.

But the US isn't used to going over the top with turf field. And the ball skips too much. Strictly on Ellis for not prepping them well enough, and on anybody mistiming their runs.

 

[NorthernKnight]

Our midfield play is a real problem. The center mids can't decide who is going to hold and who is going to attack and they're always chasing...I love Carli but she looks slow and is many notches down in intensity this World Cup.

We need to find a right half and have them stay wide. I'd try Leroux or O'Reilly there...Press is getting lots of Press but she's not ready for prime time.

Not sure Boxx has the stuff to replace Holiday for a whole game and Brian isn't ready yet. I'd probably drop Tobin Heath in that holding midfielder slot and make her a ball distributor. Just let Lloyd attack.