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Olympic Soccer Thread

US women get through to the medal round with a tense 1-0 win over Japan that went the full 120 minutes. Trinity Rodman made a bit of magic happen in the first extra period, finishing a lovely switched pass from Crystal Dunn and aided by Lindsey Horan making a bulldozer cut into the box which got Rodman single coverage and room to cut inside. She made it work, even though she had mostly been a frustrating presence in the game. Japan sat low in a 5-4-1 which was really more of a 7-2-1 when the US got into the final third. There was no space to breathe much less make tricky combination plays. Of course, Japan is also really good in transition so they generated some looks of their own, but choking down their passing game out of midfield probably cost them in the end.

Oh ... and let's see if FanDuel has a prop bet on how long Julie Foudy will keep complaining about the US' lack of squad rotation. I can guarantee she's still going. It was literally the only thing on her mind today despite Jon Champion's best efforts to steer her onto literally ANY other topic. And let's review a second. The US were effectively down two subs due to injury and suspension, Jaedyn Shaw was on the bench but I've got no idea if she could have actually played. In fact, she obviously wasn't really ready since Nighswonger went to midfield when she did come in. Emily Sams has no caps and is there as a break glass in case of emergency sub on defense. So who the eff do you want playing, Julie? I guarantee she'd have said to sit Rodman and Dunn at the half because they both had been kind of frustrating in the first half, but who ended up combining on the goal? Normally I can tune that stuff out, but she ... just ... wouldn't ... shut ... up ... and thus earns a bit of my ire.

The US gets the winner of Germany/Canada. Fun.
 
Forgot to follow up with the men.

France beat Argentina 1-0 to advance, and the Argentines decided to trigger a (soccer) brawl afterwards. After all the nonsense at the Copa this summer, maybe somebody needs a nice chat with the entire COMNEBOL federation to ask them what they think they're playing at. Behave. Spain marched on by drilling Japan 3-0 and Egypt gutted out a shootout win over scrappy Paraguay, who didn't actually cause any trouble during or after the game. Paying attention, Argentina? Probably not.

The semis are set
Spain gets Morocco and France gets Egypt and if France get through they get a blood match either way. Heck, it's been a minute but Napolean invaded Egypt too. History is a fun thing, innit?
 
Women's semis are set ...

Marta-less Brazil nipped the host French 1-0 and will face the favored Spanish after they held off Columbia in PKs. Speaking of PKs, Germany sent Canada home on penalties as well after a 0-0 effort. 4 games, 4 nail biters with only Columbia holding a lead for any significant period of time. Bonkers stuff.

So, the US faces a rematch with Germany and Spain matches up with a Brazil side that has a fully rested veteran talisman. Games are at Noon and 3pm Easter on Tuesday.
 
Meg Linehan from The Athletic confirmed with FIFA that Marta’s suspension is 2 games for serious foul play. So she will have 1 more match to play, it will either be in the final or Bronze medal match.
 
All present and accounted for at the USWNT practice ahead of tomorrow‘s rematch with Germany.
 
Caveat ... being able to practice isn't exactly the same as being fit to play a full 90. We'll see how Hayes handles it but given Davidson's history in particular, I'd be surprised to see her back unless it's for a planned 45 minutes or something. I've got no idea what Fox's issue actually was, and Krueger isn't much of a drop-off so I'm not concerned much about that. It would huge to have Shaw as a legit option off the bench though. Her quality and ability to play 3 or 4 different positions without a quality drop-off would make a huge difference to the sub situation.

The rest of the knocks have been over-blown by a press corp champing at the bit to say I told you so about squad rotation. Can't remember the name, but I saw one guy freaking out about Korbin Albert's health when she obviously had simply cramped up in extra time. The trainer gave her the pickle juice shot and about 6 of those electrolyte gel packs for crying out loud.
 
Whoops ... my remember to update function is getting sticky

France and Spain are set for the men's final after fairly normal service resumed yesterday. Not much drama and no more fisticuffs. They've been the most consistently good teams throughout the tournament so it's a fitting finale.
 
First women's semi is in the books, and the US squeezed out a 1-0 extra time win over Germany. Squeaky game from start to finish, as befits two good sides who just saw each other a few days ago. Germany just never quite got the combos right to get clean in front but forced a lot of partial chances, while the US struggled to counter-attack quickly enough to break down an organized German defense. All the walking wounded did return for the US although Shaw still didn't see action off the bench. Given that both a forward and a defender slid into the slot she would have been covering, I'm still thinking she's not quite ready. Davidson played pretty well but only went to half time before being replaced by Sonnett. Fox went the distance and looked solid. Lavelle got subbed fairly early and was wrapped up, so I'm thinking her hammy might be an issue. She was not good when she was in. Dunn had some rough moments as her legs wore down and Horan also had a rough game as Germany flooded the midfield, as both were subbed off. Alberts and Nighswonger made a pretty big difference with the fresh legs and the US attack picked up after the changes started.

All in all ... nothing to complain about really. Smith finished a sweet pass from Swanson, who was the livelier of the front three. In terms of chances created it was about equal, but both teams played really solid D. Naeher was forced into a toe save off a set piece in the second extra session but otherwise mostly played catch. Berger on the other hand made a couple of stellar stops late to keep the deficit at 1. Dead heat, pretty much, but the US found a way again and are starting to believe in themselves a bit.
 
Oh, also ... kudos to Julie Foudy for finally turning her fire towards the IOC for the ridiculous schedule of this tournament. Not just the beyond stupid 18 player roster, but also the lack of recovery time, and mostly the moronic stadium scheme that saw teams bouncing all over the country like it was a World Cup.
 
The women's Final is set as Brazil win a wild 4-2 semi against Spain. Spain looked in control against Brazil in the group stage but that was the game when Marta got red carded, so maybe a bit of a false result. Either way, Brazil went all out to push the line higher and disrupt Spain's passing metronome and it worked. They yielded open space between their lines, but recovered well and closed down openings before Spain could settle. It was sort of a version of Bielsa-ball without the over the top physicality, and it worked.

No idea how Brazil will approach the US, who are far more comfortable in an argy bargy kind of street fight than Spain. But one thing is sure ... Brazil has been deep into their bench in every match and have maybe rotated more than anyone in the tournament ... sometimes by choice and sometimes because they had no choice due to suspension and injury. This one should be a doozy. Brazil/US generally is.
 
Canada got over the hump last time, can Brazil finally get the gold that’s eluded them forever?
 
Maybe, but it will be a remarkable turnaround within the tournament if they do. They barely qualified for the quarters after a mediocre group stage and took advantage of a very tight looking French team in the quarters before coming up with an entirely different shape and gameplan to throw Spain under the bus. Not sure this US side will be so easily sidetracked by that avant guard 3/4 jump-press out of a mid-block that confused Spain so much, but if they sit behind the ball and dare the Americans to run past them the way they did the French, I'm thinking the US front three will do just that. I'm certainly thinking it will be a MUCH more entertaining final than watching the US and Spain both play cat and mouse looking for tiny seams to exploit.
 
FWIW, the Behind the Crest series on the USWNT on YouTube has been fun to follow. Lots of footage of Hayes re-setting the structure behind the scenes. I love just how calm and steady she is.
 
Germany's women took the bronze today with a gutty 1-0 win over favored Spain. It wasn't pretty as both sides looked exhausted starting fairly early on, but Gwinn came through with a PK around the 60 minute mark and that was that. Spain had made some personnel moves through the tournament to save their legs for the medal games, but I think that all went out the window with that manic Semi they played against Brazil. Germany on the other hand may have been the only team to make less changes than the US and they came home with a medal. It's almost as if that whole narrative is kind of full of crap. Congrats to a scrappy German side though. They lost their best midfielder to injury right before the tournament and never really did manage to get their strikers involved and still came home with a medal. Mental fortitude pays off.
 
Following up on yesterday, Morocco took the bronze on the men's side with a convincing 6-0 walloping of Egypt. Great showing for the African federations to take two of the top four places.
 
Spain's men win gold in a wild one ... 5-3 in extra time after letting France storm back from a 3-1 deficit to force the late heroics. Rayo youngster Sergio Camello subbed in to get both extra time goals. Both on lovely passes, both on chips. Cojones.
 
And it’s gold for the US. Mal Swanson gets a 57th minute goal and it stands up the rest of the way. The Samba Queens can samba all the way back home with yet another silver medal. Marta didn’t start but came on in the 61st minute. They dominated much of the first half and the last 10 minutes but couldn’t find a goal. Naeher had 2 10 bell saves, one in each half.
 
Yeah, Bielsa Ball Feminine was good enough to sweep away the French and the Spanish, but not the US (and to be fair, I think the Germans would have stood the test as well). And for all the talk about Brazil wearing down the US with their first half pressure, it was the Americans who had the legs when it mattered in the second half. They also made a small shift up front, instructing Smith and Swanson to get on their horses a bit earlier to test the organization of that Brazilian back line. It paid off on the deciding goal as Swanson got two steps on her defender but was kept onside by a ragged Brazilian line. It also sprung the US for two or three other great looks that they couldn't quite finish ... one each for Smith and Rodman. It's almost like having a coach who knows what they're doing is a good thing. Interesting concept, maybe the men can try that.

And the thing is, this is a transitional US lineup and they were missing a few key parts thanks to injury. Add Maccario to provide competent service on set pieces and Fishel to provide an aerial threat up front and this group would score goals in dramatically different ways. With a job well done for her opening act, Hayes can start working on deepening the player pool and diversifying the goal threat so they aren't so dependent on those three forwards.
 
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