September 26, 2011 – 9:58 pm
Canada are weak in the wide areas and in the absence of quality outside backs coach John Herdman will have to provide more cover for Wilkinson and Sesselmann.
When Chapman and Zurrer are available, Herdman may consider using Moscato as Schmidt’s partner at holding midfield and Matheson and Parker playing wider.
Schmidt has good potential. Her composure [...]
September 23, 2011 – 11:54 am
Canada put up a good fight and rode their luck at times in Portland last night but in the end USA exposed their flaws. With the Canadian midfield not putting enough pressure on the ball and lapses in concentration, the US defeated Canada3:0 (2 goals from Wambach and 1 from Morgan).
From the opening whistle USA [...]
September 19, 2011 – 4:18 am
Pia Sundhage introduced new center midfield pairing of Lauren Cheney and Carli Lloyd but both were devoid of ideas and Cheney was guilty of losing possession to Kelly Parker who set up Canada’s goal. Inconsistent Lloyd gave away possession in the danger area and Canada’s Lauren Sesselamann should have done better having been set-up by [...]
August 21, 2011 – 10:07 pm
On paper WNY may have a better squad than Philadelphia but in Paul Riley Philly have an astute coach who knows how to setup his teams.
Philadelphia will get an opportunity to show that teams with the biggest stars but average tactically, will not always beat well organized teams, such as Philadelphia is. With commitment, pressing, [...]
August 20, 2011 – 7:14 am
With Atlanta signing and releasing players en masse, I’m thinking about how more pro teams can replicate what Philadelphia do in terms of signing players.
Philadelphia are arguably the best in WPS at getting players who fit in Riley’s system and style of play. They look for and sign hard-working, tough players. Playing hard, by the [...]
August 19, 2011 – 5:50 pm
Thinking about what Atlanata and Sky Blue need to do this off-season.
Defensively, Atlanta isn’t bad. With everyone healthy their back four can compete. Playing Chalupny in her natural position would only strengthen Atlanta defensively and add to their attacking options.
Atlanta’s difficulties come from poor midfield and it needs revamping. Assuming that the US will qualify [...]
August 15, 2011 – 9:16 pm
So the US Soccer has hired Steve Swanson as U20 WNT coach. This hiring indicates to me that US Soccer is only semi serious about women’s football and does not deem player education and development full time responsibilities. Having college coaches in charge of national team programs is very difficult. You can’t serve two masters [...]
The first task for Sundhage, as she prepares for Olympic qualifiers, will be to not allow the lingering euphoria from its dramatic win over Brazil to cloud reality.
I have previously asked how long this current USA squad can continue to perform at the top level, with the average age of the long serving players considerably [...]
So Japan are the World Cup champions.
They played simple, on the ground, in control of short passes from player to player.
But USA played well, and especially in the first 25 minutes, and created major problems for Japan with their movement.
The under pressure Japan needed an outlet, somebody to hold it up and to alleviate the [...]
I will copy what I wrote after the US was defeated by Sweden.
“Once again, this result was not unexpected. Casual fans tend to overlook poor performances, such as v Colombia and Korea, as long as goals scored were spectacular. Few noticed that all three goals v COL were results of naïve mistakes by COL not [...]
