2019 Women's World Cup in France ... June/July

andyt said:

Julie Ertz is out with a minor injury

Click to expand...

!!!!!!
What did I fear most for this team? An actual important game with Ertz unavailable. Now they have to go try and score a ton on Sweden, who are a truly good defending team.

Not that the USWNT can't or won't do that, it's just the pinnacle of hubris to not have a single backup DMF on a roster this deep with attackers.

And oh ... Canada. Suck it. I hope you get done by Sweden in the knockouts.

jeffbear said:

!!!!!!
What did I fear most for this team? An actual important game with Ertz unavailable. Now they have to go try and score a ton on Sweden, who are a truly good defending team.

Not that the USWNT can't or won't do that, it's just the pinnacle of hubris to not have a single backup DMF on a roster this deep with attackers.

And oh ... Canada. Suck it. I hope you get done by Sweden in the knockouts.

Click to expand...

Even though Mewis is the nominal sub for Ertz, I bet Horan ends up as the de facto 6. She basically played there in the Thailand match with Mewis and Lavelle across the midfield when Ertz had to play center back. But Sweden ain’t Thailand and that minimizes a very good attacking option.

1-0 US at the half the US had possession but didn't do much the offense died on the left hand side Heath pressed in a bit but No one moved to give and out IMO and the D made some mistakes and several bad TO's in the back half..

Lloyd in Morgan off.

Lloyd Should have been called for offsides On Heath's goal great play by Heath though...

US 2, Sweden 0 ... job done

Yeah, you can complain about some stuff here, but welcome to the actual tournament, folks. The other teams won't suck from here out so not everything is going to look smooth and pretty. The US absolutely dominated that game. They out-chanced the Swedes by something like 15-2 or so, and while they made the odd bobble in possession they controlled the flow of play rather emphatically. The US took a bit too long on the final pass a lot of the time, largely because the Swedes back flow and cover their own mistakes as well as anyone in the game. They get beat but they almost never lose composure and they recover better than anyone in the world. They also got physical with the US forwards, which I didn't always think was called. Morgan went out with a knock caused by a shove, Lloyd got knocked over a bunch ... and she ain't easy to knock over, let's be honest ... and I didn't like O'Hara getting stomped a couple of times. Whatever ... the US flooded the wide channels and caused all manner of reacting by the Swedes and the midfield of Horan, Mewis and Lavelle were just too good to handle. The three of them covered each other really well, then they received, turned, burned and passed with precision and intent. That's as good a midfield as there is in the women's game ... and it's not even the US's best without Ertz to boss proceedings physically.

After that ... even with the knocks to Morgan and Ertz ... the message to the rest of the field is loud and clear. Bring it. The US has its issues defending to be sure, but everybody else has to deal with the US going forward with the ball. Good luck with that.

Catching up with the rest of group play. Chile needed to win by 3 goals to make it as a wildcard of goal diff ... and they got 2 goals up and then absolutely clattered a post, but nope. Nigeria are through as the last 3rd place team. Chile 2 Thailand 0. And honestly, if you can't get 3 past Thailand you don't deserve it.

So the knockouts look like this:

The Tough side

Norway vs Austalia
England vs Cameroon

France vs Brazil
US vs Spain

The Not Tough Side

Italy vs China
Netherlands vs Japan

Germany vs Nigeria
Sweden vs Canada (aka ... the Whinging US Women Hating Bowl)

And a huge "well done" to FIFA for royally screwing up yet another tournament with horsebleep officiating, questionable VAR application and group seedings clearly done by blind people.

Sweden was missing 2 starters from the back 4 and it showed. They really didn’t have an answer for the US forwards and mids.

So Spain on Monday and a win sends them to Paris to face France on Friday, assuming they get past Brazil.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

andyt said:

Sweden was missing 2 starters from the back 4 and it showed. They really didn’t have an answer for the US forwards and mids.

So Spain on Monday and a win sends them to Paris to face France on Friday, assuming they get past Brazil.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

Everybody seems to be just casually throwing France into the semis, but they don't defend all that well when the other team actually has some of the ball and can match their pace. Brazil can run and absolutely will generate possession. That's by no means a given for the hosts.

Spain is not that high a bar for the US, so at least they'll have the opportunity to sit anybody who might be less than full tilt. Because, again ... aside from Ertz, who is unique on the roster, they've got depth out the ears. Might as well use it. Not that Spain are bad or anything. They're good with the ball and they play a cohesive system. They just don't finish well, which means they're the kind of team you can blitz early, grab a lead and then settle down to a grind on. The US women do that better than anybody in the game.

FIFA has decided that no cards will be issued for keepers coming off the line in penalty shootouts. So that’s progress.

andyt said:

FIFA has decided that no cards will be issued for keepers coming off the line in penalty shootouts. So that’s progress.

Click to expand...

So they got those compilation videos that people have been tagging them on in various social media outlets? Turns out that, upon further review, pretty much no keeper in the history of ever has ever saved a PK without at least lifting their heel off of the line. If you went back and retroactively corrected this issue, you'd reverse the resorts of so many championship trophy games it would boggle the mind.

I've never seen a keeper not come off the line. Not once. I've seen them so egregious that the ref should have been able to see it without VAR on numerous occasions. I hate VAR because it doesn't allow for judgment. A keeper takes a small step off the line, who cares. A keeper is five feet off the line when the shot gets taken, sure. France won the men's world cup because of a VAR handball that should never have been called and a dive for a free kick.

Good time to once again point out that "review everything" in order to "fix all the problems with refs" just leads to even more chaos than we already have.

The round of 16 gets going today. Germany and Nigeria are battling now and Noway faces Australia it 3:00 eastern. That one will be a battle of styles, for sure. The buttoned down Norwegians face yet another offensively dynamic attack. I guess France was good practice for this one, but Sam Kerr doesn't look like she's ready to go home. That matchup could be fun, or really frustrating. It's soccer so that's always an option.

Germany 3-0 Nigeria
Norway 1-1 Australia. Norway advances 4-1 on penalties. Norway kept Kerr bottled up all day and she sent her penalty try back to Paris from the stadium in Nice.

Germany draws the long straw. Not only do they have the easier side of the draw, they have the longest time between matches, getting 7 days off. By comparison, if the US beats Spain on Monday, they’re back in action on Friday.

Norway did to Australia what they tried but couldn't do to France. Nice team defensive effort, but from here out they're going to actually have to produce possession to beat anyone.

England beat Cameroon 3-0 in a ugly, ugly game. England looked like garbage, but rather than capitalizing the Indomitable Lionesses came unglued in the face of some more VAR shenanigans. Yes, the ref was bad. Yes, you probably lost a goal by about the width of a shoelace in a VAR offsides review. Yes, England got to keep a goal after a similar review. And ... that crap happens in International's soccer. Keep your heads and keep playing and you have a real shot at that game because England left the door open for you. Instead they just blew up.

Another VAR situation in the France Brazil game...
My origional thought was it went off the French players arm before the shoulder and therefor should have been disallowed. It was disallowed but due to possession?:shrug

Second half VAR gave a goal to Brazil... (On a bad offsides call.)

Nice save in extra time after the Keeper was beat by France. (Mbock?)

The US is back in action, playing Spain at noon. Sweden v. Canada in the other match.

Marta gave what amounts to an impassioned retirement speech after the match yesterday, imploring the next generation of Brazilian girls to step up. If only her federation were that impassioned. But the greatest generation of Brazilian women (probably) walk away without winning a single major tournament. 2 silvers at the Olympics, a 2nd and 3rd in the World Cup.

https://youtu.be/r4LlSB7cCtU

Tryamw said:

Nice save in extra time after the Keeper was beat by France. (Mbock?)

Click to expand...

That was your game winner, honestly. Debinha got freaking robbed by Mbock Bathy, and I think France would have been cooked if that had gone in. They were getting more and more tense by the second at that point.

One thing for the US (or Spain for that matter) ... that France back four looks even more suspect than everybody makes out the US's group is. And they show more frayed nerves than pretty much ANY US side I've ever seen. It's not a given that the US beat them in front of a rabid home crowd, but they aren't anything like unbeatable.

Soft, soft penalty, even though upheld. Should never have needed it, though.

HNIM said:

Soft, soft penalty, even though upheld. Should never have needed it, though.

Click to expand...

She got cleats into Lavelle's leg ... not sure why that's soft? It wasn't much to look at, but it's pretty much an automatic call. If anything the ref was comically lenient with Spain's defenders. Should have been a straight red to their left back on O'Hara for just a cynical leg chop, and their CB Parades basically got away with murder all game. How the heck she managed to draw only one yellow on upwards of 20 hard fouls is a mystery. If Spain wants to make a case, then they have to defend that BS first.

Still, the US didn't play anything like their best. BAD turnover by the combination of Naeher and Sauerbrunn led to Spain's goal. Otherwise they gave up some possession out wide but didn't yield a lot of actual chances for Spain. In the meantime they lacked patience against the high backline Spain was playing. They got deep on them early but didn't really combine their passes well and take it to them as the game went along. I also don't think the US looked for the overlaps nearly enough. That was there, but they kept banging away at the middle. Morgan was not great and probably should have been subbed a lot earlier, and despite the two PKs I didn't think Rapinoe played particularly well either. Her decision making was too slow all day. If those two are going to be that blunt, then they need Heath and O'Hara to be running wild on the right wing but we just kept funneling everything left for some reason. I know Spain concentrated on throwing speed at Dunn down the other side so the attack was starting there 90% of the time, but there's this thing called switching the ball. They could maybe look into that between now and Friday.

So ... moving on, but not exactly with the momentum they brought into the game. Spain were good, but everybody knew they were dangerous with the ball. The fact that a simple high line in the back can throw the US off that much is a testament to just how soft everybody else has played them in the tournament thus far, I guess. France won't be soft, but they aren't all that well organized in the back either. Like the US, they look most comfortable blazing forward with numbers. Could be a fun game with loads of back and forth IF everybody plays open. If France drops two midfielders back and tries to clog it up, then it could also be super boring. We'll see.