• For more information on how to avoid pop-up ads and still support SkiTalk click HERE.

Women's Soccer World Cup 2019

James

Out There
Instructor
Joined
Dec 2, 2015
Posts
24,453
Well it started today! France rolled over South Korea. Some highlights from past wcups.

2011 US vs Brazil
Questionable calls galore. Hope Solo saves a penalty kick only to have it called back. A red card has the US playing with only 10 for 55 min. Rapinoe's left footed 45 yard cross to Wombach near the end of stoppage time ties it. Solo saves a shootout kick, US makes all 5. This game changed the view of women's soccer in the US.

2015 US hasn't win a wcup since 1999. In the final against Japan, US comes out guns ablazing. Carli Lloyd scores 3 goals in the first half. Including this from midfield over the goalie. US wins 5-2.

1999 US vs China, Final
90,000 people at the Rose Bowl.
Brandi Chastain scores the final pk shootout after Brianna Scurry saves one.
 

Bill Talbot

Vintage Gear Curator
Industry Insider
Joined
Nov 9, 2015
Posts
3,166
Location
New England
After Stanley Cup Hockey, the US WNT Football is the only other sporting endeavor I care to watch.
I've been onboard with the girls since long before the '99 madness.

These two ladies were all time favorites...

Joy.jpg
Michelle.jpg
 
Last edited:
Thread Starter
TS
James

James

Out There
Instructor
Joined
Dec 2, 2015
Posts
24,453
Overview of the tournament.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/04/sports/womens-world-cup-preview.html

Roster:
Goalkeepers: Alyssa Naeher (Chicago Red Stars), Ashlyn Harris (Orlando Pride), Adrianna Franch (Portland Thorns)

Defenders: Becky Sauerbrunn (Utah Royals), Kelley O'Hara (Utah Royals), Abby Dahlkemper (North Carolina Courage), Ali Krieger (Orlando Pride), Tierna Davidson (Chicago Red Stars), Emily Sonnett (Portland Thorns), Crystal Dunn (North Carolina Courage)

Midfielders: Sam Mewis (North Carolina Courage), Morgan Brian (Chicago Red Stars), Julie Ertz (Chicago Red Stars), Lindsey Horan (Portland Thorns), Rose Lavelle (Washington Spirit), Allie Long (Reign FC)

Forwards: Mallory Pugh (Washington Spirit), Carli Lloyd (Sky Blue FC), Alex Morgan (Orlando Pride), Megan Rapinoe (Reign FC), Tobin Heath (Portland Thorns), Jessica McDonald (North Carolina Courage), Christen Press (Utah Royals)
---------
https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/wo...cluding-united-states-england-france-germany/

Printable group schedule. First US game is vs Thailand on Tues at 3 eastern.
https://resources.fifa.com/image/up...xuhebhydx&_branch_match_id=627154935402712817
 
Thread Starter
TS
James

James

Out There
Instructor
Joined
Dec 2, 2015
Posts
24,453
Norway looked good, Spain not until they played against 10 Nigerians and got two pk's. France is very good. Though S Korea isn't good, France is legit and the favorite. They beat the US this winter 3-1.
 

Jacob

Out on the slopes
Skier
Joined
Oct 13, 2017
Posts
777
Location
Maui
I think this might be the year when the flaws in the US system (for both boys and girls) are highlighted for everyone to see. In the past, the US dominated the women's game mainly because of the athletic ability of the players. The US was one of the few teams that had top class female athletes playing for it, so even if a team was more skilled and better coached, the US could beat them simply by being bigger, stronger, and faster in every position.

Now, more and more teams are catching up to the US in terms of physicality, meaning that games against teams like France will come down to ball skills, tactics, and decision making rather than kicking farther, running faster, and jumping higher. And since the youth and adult coaches in places like France, Brazil, and Germany can draw on the many decades of experience and knowledge from the men's game, their teams will start to pull away from the US in this regard.

The US men's and women's teams still play a very old-fashion style of soccer that has been outdated for nearly three decades, and many of the players don't have the ball skills and positional awareness to be successful in a more modern style of play. It's the main reason I don't think the men's team will come close to winning a World Cup anytime soon, despite the fact that we now have high-level athletes playing the game on the men's side. Maybe, failure for the women's team will be the catalyst for a grass-roots change in the game in the US like the changes that followed the failure of England's "Golden Generation."

Unfortunately, I think the women will have to fail at two World Cups before the USSF gets the message.
 
Last edited:
Thread Starter
TS
James

James

Out There
Instructor
Joined
Dec 2, 2015
Posts
24,453
Italy beats Australia in the last 30 seconds! Pretty physical game.

The US Women have won three times. Out of seven. Winning in 2015 was the first time since 1999! The impression that they win all the time is just not true.
Germany has won twice, Japan once, Norway once.
I'd say players like Tobin Heath have improved immensely since 2015.
What tactics are you talking about?

The men's team has been a disaster for years now.


The goals leading up to 2019 wcup.
 

Jacob

Out on the slopes
Skier
Joined
Oct 13, 2017
Posts
777
Location
Maui
The US Women have won three times. Out of seven. Winning in 2015 was the first time since 1999! The impression that they win all the time is just not true.
Germany has won twice, Japan once, Norway once.
I'd say players like Tobin Heath have improved immensely since 2015.
What tactics are you talking about?

Out of the 7 WCs played so far, the US team has won 3, finished runners-up once, and finished 3rd the other 3 times. They’ve also won gold in 4 out of the 6 Olympic tournaments they’ve played and have never been lower than 2nd in the FIFA rankings. That’s pretty dominant for a team sport.

In terms of tactics, I’m talking about lining up in a 4-4-2 and playing a bunch of long balls. That works if the other team is doing the same or if there’s a big difference in athletic ability, but it doesn’t work when there isn’t a big gap in athletic ability and the other team lines up in a formation that allows them to dominate the middle, like a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1.

In that kind of matchup, the latter team tends to have more possession and more scoring chances.
 

Jacob

Out on the slopes
Skier
Joined
Oct 13, 2017
Posts
777
Location
Maui
Just watching Japan vs. Argentina now, and it’s like watching a U12 team dominate a U16 team in terms of the size difference. Argentina will be lucky if it finishes 0-0. The Japanese players are so technically superior.

Unfortunately, it appears that the practice of pretending to be injured is spreading in the women’s game. If it gets much worse, then I’ll probably stop watching as I have with the men.
 
Thread Starter
TS
James

James

Out There
Instructor
Joined
Dec 2, 2015
Posts
24,453
Argentina tied Japan 0-0!
Wow, really poor for Japan. I only saw the last 15 minutes. What good is possession if you don't score? Saw some replays- terrible finishing!

NHL players are now embellishing and diving. Men's Wcup has infected everything.

Nothing new with the women. Brazil got booed in 2011 for faking an injury near the end of time. It backfired when stoppage time was like 7 min and the US scored.
In terms of tactics, I’m talking about lining up in a 4-4-2 and playing a bunch of long balls. That works if the other team is doing the same or if there’s a big difference in athletic ability, but it doesn’t work when there isn’t a big gap in athletic ability and the other team lines up in a formation that allows them to dominate the middle, like a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1.
Well apparently since 2016 they've been using a 4-3-3 a lot. It's likely they'll be using it in France.

So far, England - not as impressive as we've heard in their win over Scotland.
Japan- pass it 6 million times but don't score.
Australia- lost to Italy! Big upset.
France has been the only inoressive one so far but S Korea was not good and they're short.

Every team gets better. We'll see.
US goal keeper is a big question.

Talk about under performing- England men are the poster child until 2018. US has been better.
 

Jacob

Out on the slopes
Skier
Joined
Oct 13, 2017
Posts
777
Location
Maui
Argentina tied Japan 0-0!
Wow, really poor for Japan. I only saw the last 15 minutes. What good is possession if you don't score? Saw some replays- terrible finishing!

NHL players are now embellishing and diving. Men's Wcup has infected everything.

Nothing new with the women. Brazil got booed in 2011 for faking an injury near the end of time. It backfired when stoppage time was like 7 min and the US scored.

Well apparently since 2016 they've been using a 4-3-3 a lot. It's likely they'll be using it in France.

So far, England - not as impressive as we've heard in their win over Scotland.
Japan- pass it 6 million times but don't score.
Australia- lost to Italy! Big upset.
France has been the only inoressive one so far but S Korea was not good and they're short.

Every team gets better. We'll see.
US goal keeper is a big question.

Talk about under performing- England men are the poster child until 2018. US has been better.

The point of possession, if you’re an attacking team, is to get into the final third in numbers a lot. If a team drops back and defends with 9 or 10, as Argentina did a lot, then it’ll be hard to score. But if you notice, Argentina didn’t really have any chances to score themselves, while the Japanese had at least a few, but not as many as they should have. So, Argentina was still lucky not to lose.

In terms of US tactics, changing formation is only half the battle. Lining up a team in a formation that’s designed to increase possession doesn’t work if the players don’t have the skill and positional awareness to play that style. It’s like putting a wishbone team in a shotgun formation and telling them to pass: you’re going to see a lot of interceptions.

If the USSF doesn’t want the women’s team to fall behind (and wants the men’s results to improve), then they need to focus on improving youth coaching around the country in order to develop tactically smarter, more skilled players. That’s exactly what the FA did in England 10+ years ago once they finally realised why their men’s team was underperforming. Now, they’re starting to reap the rewards.
 
Last edited:

crgildart

Gravity Slave
Skier
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
16,328
Location
The Bull City
^^^Also, when a team gets better at staying home, not getting pulled out of their positions and controls the ball (someone is always open), they waste a lot less energy running around and have more in the tank for that burst of speed when its really needed. Substitutions can be better managed, etc..

When I was coaching my kid's team U6 though U15 we spent the first 10 minutes of every practice playing a variation of human foosball where they had cones marking their position and had to stay within 10 feet of their cone. It worked well for those objectives.
 
Thread Starter
TS
James

James

Out There
Instructor
Joined
Dec 2, 2015
Posts
24,453
You see the Cameroon/Canada game?
Cameroon almost scored as much -1 as Canada on a set piece.

Fact is, if you lack offense, you can win on set pieces as long as the defense holds.

Reality of any game where you only score once is you leave yourself open to being tied or losing on a set piece. Or lucky goal.
Thus Italy beats Australia, and Cameroon nearly tied Canada.

There's a lot of questions on the US defense, and whether the midfield has enough.
The US front line- Rapinoe, Morgan, Heath is as good if not better than any right now. Probably better as they're healthy. They lack height, but there's Sam Mewis who's like 6' for set pieces.
Still shorter than the French.
 

Jacob

Out on the slopes
Skier
Joined
Oct 13, 2017
Posts
777
Location
Maui
You see the Cameroon/Canada game?
Cameroon almost scored as much -1 as Canada on a set piece.

Fact is, if you lack offense, you can win on set pieces as long as the defense holds.

Reality of any game where you only score once is you leave yourself open to being tied or losing on a set piece. Or lucky goal.
Thus Italy beats Australia, and Cameroon nearly tied Canada.

There's a lot of questions on the US defense, and whether the midfield has enough.
The US front line- Rapinoe, Morgan, Heath is as good if not better than any right now. Probably better as they're healthy. They lack height, but there's Sam Mewis who's like 6' for set pieces.
Still shorter than the French.

I didn't get to see the second match yesterday. But yes, if you're very good defensively and a little lucky, then it's possible to win on set pieces alone. If you're extremely lucky, then you might even be able to win an entire tournament, like Greece in the 2004 European championships. But statistically speaking, your chances are better if you've got the ball with numbers in the attacking third more than your opponents. And the way to get numbers in the final third is to move the ball up under control (not necessarily slowly, just under control rather than with long balls).

Against teams that pack the defense, I think the best strategy is to fight fire with a little bit of fire. Sit back on defense yourselves and let the other team move more players forward. That way, when you win the ball, you'll have more space to attack and fewer opponents in front of you. But, you have to attack quickly so that they don't have time to regroup. Against Argentina, Japan's best chances came when they won the ball in their own half and counter-attacked. When they won the ball in Argentina's half and had 9 or 10 Argentinians in front of them, they struggled to create chances.
 

doc

Out on the slopes
Skier
Joined
Nov 25, 2015
Posts
744
@Jacob: agree with your comments on US soccer. Each of my sons played more than a dozen years in high level club soccer and competed against other clubs on a national basis. Each ended up playing 5 years of college soccer at Division 1 schools, and both said they thought their club teams, although younger, would compete very well against the "boot ball" college teams who relied more on athletic ability and size than on soccer strategy and tactics, which were taught with much more acumen at the club level. Very disappointing. Frankly, I thought the US men looked like a college team against Venezuela and were exposed for all to see.
 
Thread Starter
TS
James

James

Out There
Instructor
Joined
Dec 2, 2015
Posts
24,453
The Thai goalie is way too short.

No such thing as saving goals. Glad Lloyd got one and Rapinoe. Rapinoe was a little off most of the game. Morgan had at least two very nice shots.
 

Sponsor

Staff online

Top