OT: Women's World Cup -- USA v AUS

[UConnCat]

USA plays Australia tonight (7:30 on FoxSports1) in Winnepeg. Alex Morgan is available to play though likely won't start.

USA hasn't won the WC since 1999 (Rose Bowl, China, Brandi Chastain . . . I was there!).

USA is in the so-called group of death. Sweden (coached by former USA coach Pia Sundhage) and Nigeria played to a draw earlier today.

Go USA!

 

[Orangutan]

Morgan is indeed on the bench. Leroux and Wambach start at striker.

 

[VAMike23]

Love Sydney Leroux.......!!!

Be still my heart

 

[RockyMTblue2]

I hope we beat them, but I could listen to beautiful Australian women talk all night. Pregame predictions from the Aussies in the booth: 2-1 USA.

 

[UConnCat]

Goal Megan Rapinoe!

Rapinoe and Solo have been the best US players so far.

 

[vtinct]

This has been a great game so far. Hopefully we can get a little more of a flow going in the second! I'm sure Abby wants that close header back. Solo has saved us on a few occasions. Let's go USA!

 

[VAMike23]

GGGGOOOOOOAAAALLLLLL!!!!!!

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Aussies pressuring USA now. What goal, am I on delay!

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Yup, nice goal. Aussie should have fouled the passer, but hindsight is 20-20.

 

[MilfordHusky]

I'm still learning from my son, but I thought our defense looked shoddy when we gave up the goal. The U.S. needs to tighten things up a lot to compete for gold.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Rapinoe again!! Now we're talkin'!

 

[CTyankee]

USA is now playing their game... Wondrous what a lead can do for a change in the tempo of the game...

 

[CTyankee]

Great win... Now up two goals on goal differential to Sweden...

 

[stamfordhusky]

Good to get a 2-goal win but they will have to play a lot better if they want to win the Cup. The first 35 minutes were particularly dreadful - reminding us why they couldn't beat South Korea in their previous game and why they couldn't beat Iceland in the Algarve Cup. After that, they played OK but certainly not great. Australia finally wore down, and Tobin Heath gave the U.S. 25 good minutes off the bench.

 

[Orangutan]

Rapinoe was outstanding -- besides her two goals she was instrumental in the other goal by setting up Leroux with a 1v1 that led to the pullback for Press.

I didn't get home until the 2nd half, so I missed the patches were we really struggled.

The passing got much better when Heath came in but I don't blame Press, she's a goalscorer and she took her goal very well. We didn't seem to get any traction out of playing long balls to Wambach, either here or against Korea. It seems like the obvious solution is to start Heath at right midfield and Press at striker, leaving Wambach on the bench. I doubt that will happen, though.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

My attention was called away from much of the game and made the mistake of not hitting the Record button. I did take in remarks by one of the announcers that she was struck at how both teams were plunging forward with low probability offensive attacks rather than pulling the ball back for another try. Anyone have an opinion on that?

 

[stamfordhusky]

My attention was called away from much of the game and made the mistake of not hitting the Record button. I did take in remarks by one of the announcers that she was struck at how both teams were plunging forward with low probability offensive attacks rather than pulling the ball back for another try. Anyone have an opinion on that?

I think that was more the U.S. Australia made a lot more use of holding mids and connected a lot of shorter passes in the first half. In contrast, the U.S. game plan seemed to consist of only two elements: long balls in the middle towards Wambach and long diagonal balls to outside mids or sometimes overlapping defenders. Lloyd rarely saw a pass directed towards her. In the end, the greater U.S. talent - and some good earlier saves by Hope Solo - put the U.S. on top. Still a lot of room for improvement.

 

[meyers7]

I think that was more the U.S. Australia made a lot more use of holding mids and connected a lot of shorter passes in the first half. In contrast, the U.S. game plan seemed to consist of only two elements: long balls in the middle towards Wambach and long diagonal balls to outside mids or sometimes overlapping defenders. Lloyd rarely saw a pass directed towards her. In the end, the greater U.S. talent - and some good earlier saves by Hope Solo - put the U.S. on top. Still a lot of room for improvement.

The Aussies pretty much overran the central midfield in the first half. USA's conditioning paid off in the second half. Han's sister kept us in the game until then. They need to improve a lot or Japan and France will shred us.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Harsh evaluation of USA team here:

The knock was that the USWNT play uninspired, boring, kick-it-up-and-hope-something-good-happens soccer. That they rely on athleticism at the expense of skill. That they rely on goalie Hope Solo to bail out their inability to maintain possession. That their Plan A is to kick it to Abby Wambach’s head and there’s no Plan B so to speak of.

And on Monday night, in a scrappy 3-1 win over Australia, they proved everyone right.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/fif...f-they-play-like-that/ar-BBkREKW?ocid=u220dhp

 

[meyers7]

Harsh evaluation of USA team here:

The knock was that the USWNT play uninspired, boring, kick-it-up-and-hope-something-good-happens soccer. That they rely on athleticism at the expense of skill. That they rely on goalie Hope Solo to bail out their inability to maintain possession. That their Plan A is to kick it to Abby Wambach’s head and there’s no Plan B so to speak of.

And on Monday night, in a scrappy 3-1 win over Australia, they proved everyone right.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/fif...f-they-play-like-that/ar-BBkREKW?ocid=u220dhp

That's pretty much how they played last night.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

I thought they were playing this afternoon, but I don't see it. Gotta check out the FIFA schedule.

PS. I looked - go here for schedule: http://www.fifa.com/womensworldcup/matches/index.html

 

[Kmoney]

I wish the USA the best of luck in this tournament, but I fear the worse. They looked leaky in the back and the long ball game isn't going to work against better teams. Offensively, they totally bypass the midfield and surrender possession cheaply. With a team full of older players, the pace of The games will surely start to take its toll if they make it to the later stages

Other countries have caught up to us athletically and surpassed us technically. I really hope I am wrong about this.