Anonymous wrote:Wow. The France-Australia match was incredible. I have no regrets about getting up at 3:00 am.

TWENTY penalty kicks!!! A world record for both sexes.

I’m so sad I slept through it. Those penalty shootouts are always so exciting.

Anonymous wrote:Wow. The France-Australia match was incredible. I have no regrets about getting up at 3:00 am.

Really? By minute 50, it was obvious neither team could score from the run of play unless the other made a catastrophic error. Fitness seemed good, and there's no questioning the teams' commitment. But the soccer was mediocre. Can't blame Australia too much - they are what they are and Sam Kerr's injury is a real loss - but France were disappointing. They have quality but were reduced to hoping a long cross would miracle itself onto Renard's head.

PKs were something though.

USWNT generated 3 million but will take home 7 million.

These last two games were amazing! Aussie goalkeeper is the epitome of poise. Interesting that she suffers from hearing loss

England take on giant killers Colombia on Saturday in front of a sell-out 75,000 crowd at Stadium Australia in Sydney, and the clash is likely to pull in a big UK TV audience
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/lionesses-say-best-yet-come-30684784

This is good new Australia TV viewership was 5.6 million or 71.3% of all viewership!

Anonymous wrote:A new coach would help tremendously. Andonovski had no idea what he was doing.

So the rumors was he was a peace maker pick. There was a lot of problems on the team from style of play, older player vs younger, activists vs non, big personalities, etc. The older players did not understand what the younger players were doing. It was like this is how we play, not that passing sh#t. You younger players need to know your place.

Wow. The France-Australia match was incredible. I have no regrets about getting up at 3:00 am.

I posted the list to show that there are Americans on foreign national teams that made it further than amaericans on the US national team.

Oh - The irony

A new coach would help tremendously. Andonovski had no idea what he was doing.

Anonymous wrote:At the 2023 Women’s World Cup, there are 53 American citizens who will be representing 13 teams outside of the United States. Of course, when you add the USWNT, that brings the total to 76 players representing 14 teams at the World Cup. That’s a true testament to the sheer number of women’s soccer players we have in the United States who are elite enough to play at the international level on the world’s brightest stage.

Argentina (1) - Sophia Braun

Canada (1) - Simi Awujo

Colombia (2) - Ángela Barón, Elexa Bahr

Haiti (5) - Chelsea Purpris, Danielle Étienne, Lara Larco, Milan Pierre-Jérôme, Noa Ganthier

Ireland (5) - Chloe Mustaki, Courtney Brosnan, Kyra Carusa, Marissa Sheva, Sinead Farrelly

Jamaica (11) - Allyson Swaby, Chantelle Swaby, Cheyna Matthews, Kameron Simmonds, Kayla McCoy, Kiki Van Zanten, Lyla Brooks, Peyton McNamara, Solai Washington, Sydney Schneider, Tiernny Wiltshire

Netherlands (1) - Damaris Egurrola

New Zealand (1) - Ali Riley

Nigeria (4) - Ifeoma Onumonu, Michelle Alozie, Toni Payne, Yewande Balogun

Panama (2) - Carina Baltrip, Riley Tanner

Philippines (18) - Alicia Barker, Carleigh Frilles, Chandler McDaniel, Dominique Randle, Hali Long, Isabella Flanigan, Jessika Cowart, Kaiya Jota, Katrina Guillou, Kiara Fontanilla, Malea Cesar, Olivia Davies-McDaniel, Quinley Quezada, Reina Bonta, Ryley Bugay, Sarina Bolden, Sofia Harrison, Tahnai Annis


Switzerland (1) - Noelle Maritz

South Korea (1) - Casey Phair

No. That is crazy talk. This just shows the programs in many countries are not developed. Most of those countries have a pretty strong relationship with the US.- Philippines, Panama, Jamaica, Ireland, Haiti and South Korea and do not have a domestic league. These countries have large populations in the US that are eligible to play for different countries in the World Cup. This does not mean those teams are competitive or even good. Of the teams in the quarterfinals there are 4 American players out of 184. I do not see a lot of elite American players. There are 5 women out of 184 who play in the NWSL. Clearly NWSL is a second or third tier league.

This is the problem. Americans think American women’s soccer is the best in the world. It is not. It does not pass the eye test. The problem is bigger than that. US women’s soccer(including travel, ECNL and college) does not even realize there is a problem. The players, style of play and coaching lack sophistication. The Europeans(and the rest of the world) see this and are not scared of the USWNT. They really do not respect the on field product. The US does not play or understand the game at the same level.

Anonymous wrote:It will be quite long before US WNT wins the World Cup. I didn't think they were going to win it to begin with. They are not as good as they used to be. Other countries are pouring money into their programs. To make it worse, they came in thinking they were the best. Bad attitude. Lack of focus. Bad coaching. List goes on and on.

I am not particularly impressed with Sophia Smith and other younger talent. She has lot to learn, if she works hard. Otherwise, she is just an average player. I am not even going to get into others, because they are equally bad if not worse.

At the end of the day, this team was hyped by media and many. Reality is they weren't that good.

Good points, especially regarding Sophia Smith. For all of the talk (and complaints) about the older players, this was the time for a 22 year old who is the reigning US Player of the Year and NWSL MVP to shine. I just don’t think she’s good enough technically to be a dominating force in a World Cup. For instance, on the ball that found her near the back post vs Sweden, she was unmarked and should have been alone with the keeper. Her touch on the ball, though, was so heavy that the ball ended up going about 8-10 yards towards the keeper and nothing came of it. That’s the type of play that needs to be made.

^ I should add DD at U12 has gotten better and better in her club and her personal training coaches comment they feel she should be on a higher team. They say she has great potential. She's not on a bottom team but not on the highest of a very competitive club.
She's fast, strategic thinker, a lot of talent in terms of ability. She is technical without really working hard at it. But I am realistic that here in club DMV soccer land, if she's not the tallest and the most aggressive, she is not going to make top team. I'm alright with this because DD loves the game but doesn't really want to be pro or anything. She has known soccer starting rec at age 5, all her life, so soccer is part of her ID but ultimately, but she isn't looking to be a soccer star. But I also sometimes think, how would she fare in another kind of program, overseas..?

Anonymous wrote:At the 2023 Women’s World Cup, there are 53 American citizens who will be representing 13 teams outside of the United States. Of course, when you add the USWNT, that brings the total to 76 players representing 14 teams at the World Cup. That’s a true testament to the sheer number of women’s soccer players we have in the United States who are elite enough to play at the international level on the world’s brightest stage.

Argentina (1) - Sophia Braun

Canada (1) - Simi Awujo

Colombia (2) - Ángela Barón, Elexa Bahr

Haiti (5) - Chelsea Purpris, Danielle Étienne, Lara Larco, Milan Pierre-Jérôme, Noa Ganthier

Ireland (5) - Chloe Mustaki, Courtney Brosnan, Kyra Carusa, Marissa Sheva, Sinead Farrelly

Jamaica (11) - Allyson Swaby, Chantelle Swaby, Cheyna Matthews, Kameron Simmonds, Kayla McCoy, Kiki Van Zanten, Lyla Brooks, Peyton McNamara, Solai Washington, Sydney Schneider, Tiernny Wiltshire

Netherlands (1) - Damaris Egurrola

New Zealand (1) - Ali Riley

Nigeria (4) - Ifeoma Onumonu, Michelle Alozie, Toni Payne, Yewande Balogun

Panama (2) - Carina Baltrip, Riley Tanner

Philippines (18) - Alicia Barker, Carleigh Frilles, Chandler McDaniel, Dominique Randle, Hali Long, Isabella Flanigan, Jessika Cowart, Kaiya Jota, Katrina Guillou, Kiara Fontanilla, Malea Cesar, Olivia Davies-McDaniel, Quinley Quezada, Reina Bonta, Ryley Bugay, Sarina Bolden, Sofia Harrison, Tahnai Annis


Switzerland (1) - Noelle Maritz

South Korea (1) - Casey Phair

I think it's important to note that the US is the size of like 300M people or something. And we have A LOT of girls who happen to play sports, of which one is soccer. We have Title IX allowing this, thus female college teams and a pro woman league. We have a lot of people in this country playing. You take a country like Brazil who do not have a flurry of girls. Well, talent wise, it makes sense that the US will have players the rest of the world would field. Notice they are not playing for US

On some level, you have to weigh how good are these girls? The home countries ie Philippines, Jamaica and Haiti, - they are just developing their infrastructure for women soccer so if they are going to have a team currently, it likely is not local. As they develop as US did post Title IX, watch out!

DD at U12 asked me how it was that US has been so dominant and I told her it very much that years ago, Title IX inspired girls to move forward with opportunities to play sports at a high level. She also asked me why the US wasn't that good LOL to which I responded well, I think in US, soccer is not a sport that is embedded in our culture. I don't see girls just randomly playing pick up games like inner city boys play basketball. To an extent, I don't feel there is a specific passion culturally for soccer in the US as in rest of the world.

So once the other soccer savvy countries tap into large populations of female talent, they will have more depth than us. We have more players currently that can play with some aptitude, but I'm not convinced we train effectively. I manage my expectations about US soccer, men and women. I love the game but I love to watch other countries play

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who says size does not matter in soccer? Watch teh japan game.

So japans loss is attributed to their size?

You do understand that they won many games despite their size

Watch the game. It took Japan 3/4 of the game to adjust to the size difference. It was not just one or two players and an inch of two. It was almost every player and 6-8 inches and 15-20 pounds. Also Sweden took their foot off the games in the 2nd up 2 goals.

1 goal on poor clearance
1 goal on handball
Japan missed PK
Japan barely missed free kick
Japan scored 87 minute

Japan barely lost. Size had nothing to do with it.
1 goal

Lol sure. Why do you think there was poor clearance? Have you ever had to take a Pk against someone who was 10” taller?