I think as more young women and girls are raised playing soccer around the world, the traditional dominance that the US women’s team enjoyed for so many years will end. It makes for great competition and more enjoyable games, though!

Anonymous wrote:Anyone that allows Lynn Williams to be the forward deserves to lose

That's harsh IMO, and she was more deserving than Pugh to make the roster at least.
Watching the match this morning, though, I kept thinking they should put Davidson in at left back and move Dunn to the front line. Dunn admittedly struggled mightily with her passing decision and execution today out of the back (and much of that IMO is because the central midfield wasn't coming back to provide additional options--virtually never saw Horan on the screen at the same time as Dunn), but she is more naturally an attacker and faster than Morgan/Lloyed. Sweden neutralized her wing-back attacking stregnths by having their right side get way forward. And with the US struggling to provide the defense a way to link to the midfield and not opting to try long balls forward as a way to stretch Sweden and keep them honest, the entire backline was set up to fail with a team pressing high and a midfield too lazy to get open to provide passing lanes.

I knew the Sweden match would be a banana skin when the night before they were replaying the 2012 London gold medal match: USA v. Japan, and on the pitch were O'Hara, Rapinoe, Lloyd, Heath and Morgan. Sauerbrunn came on as a sub in that match. That was nine years ago. the other players on the pitch that day were:
Solo*
LePeilbet
Rampone
Buehler
Boxx*
Wambach*

*It's unlikely we've upgraded at those positions in the past 9 years.

All that said, I don't think it's "over" -- this is what has been coming for a long time: the rest of the World has caught up and good teams can make other good teams look silly on any given day. The hardest gold medal or World Cup to win is always the next one being played.

Anyone that allows Lynn Williams to be the forward deserves to lose

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And these observations undercut those who argue, on the men's side, that the US would dominate in soccer if our best athletes played soccer instead of other sports. There's much more to the game than athleticism.

Of course not dominate but competitive, yes. All the other countries are starting with their best athletes as the player pool, then among those best athletes the process finds those with the best non-athletic attributes. The result is great athletes + other attributes. In the US, the starting pool is missing many of the best athletes because they play other sports, so when you take the ones with the best other attributes, it's some good athletes but not the best + other attributes.

No, you have it backwards. They start with the best soccer players. From those, the ones with the necessary athletic attributes progress.

You don't know at 15 who the best athlete is, that is what our problem is. We think we can pick soccer players like we can football or basketball. You can't wait until they grow in soccer before you pick them. You have to develop all who show promise and then let nature take its course.

Anonymous wrote:And these observations undercut those who argue, on the men's side, that the US would dominate in soccer if our best athletes played soccer instead of other sports. There's much more to the game than athleticism.

Of course not dominate but competitive, yes. All the other countries are starting with their best athletes as the player pool, then among those best athletes the process finds those with the best non-athletic attributes. The result is great athletes + other attributes. In the US, the starting pool is missing many of the best athletes because they play other sports, so when you take the ones with the best other attributes, it's some good athletes but not the best + other attributes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One loss in how many games again? Oh, that's right, 45 games.

Amazes me how many people do not realize just how impressive the past few years have been for USWNT have been yet you want to act like one loss is the end.

Wow. We truly live in a village of idiots these days. SMH.

People have been warning of this for some time based on both style of play, age of team and how they performed late in the last World Cup and after.

How they lost to Sweden falls perfectly in line with what most critical observers have been noticing for a while now.

+1

And these observations undercut those who argue, on the men's side, that the US would dominate in soccer if our best athletes played soccer instead of other sports. There's much more to the game than athleticism.

As our window closes and other countries surpass us perhaps we can put the "our best athletes" argument to rest. Soccer attracts a huge chunk of our best female athletes currently.

It is much more than athletes and moving forward the difference will be technical and tactical skill and IQ. These are the two things we are not interested in developing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One loss in how many games again? Oh, that's right, 45 games.

Amazes me how many people do not realize just how impressive the past few years have been for USWNT have been yet you want to act like one loss is the end.

Wow. We truly live in a village of idiots these days. SMH.

People have been warning of this for some time based on both style of play, age of team and how they performed late in the last World Cup and after.

How they lost to Sweden falls perfectly in line with what most critical observers have been noticing for a while now.

+1

And these observations undercut those who argue, on the men's side, that the US would dominate in soccer if our best athletes played soccer instead of other sports. There's much more to the game than athleticism.

Anonymous wrote:One loss in how many games again? Oh, that's right, 45 games.

Amazes me how many people do not realize just how impressive the past few years have been for USWNT have been yet you want to act like one loss is the end.

Wow. We truly live in a village of idiots these days. SMH.

People have been warning of this for some time based on both style of play, age of team and how they performed late in the last World Cup and after.

How they lost to Sweden falls perfectly in line with what most critical observers have been noticing for a while now.

One loss in how many games again? Oh, that's right, 45 games.

Amazes me how many people do not realize just how impressive the past few years have been for USWNT have been yet you want to act like one loss is the end.

Wow. We truly live in a village of idiots these days. SMH.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cocky, entitled, complacent. Had to end sometime, reasons are pretty obvious. Zero energy or hunger. They've been on top for so long and team essentially unchanged, lack advancement in play. Happens to all previously great teams. Hope they get back for US soccer sake.

The best thing for US Soccer's sake would be for them to be eliminated and move forward trying to progress the sport from the Stone Age style they currently are playing.

Rip the band-aid off and start making serious changes.

There are no financial incentives in place to change how soccer in the us is structured and operates. Our talent needs to go somewhere else to develop.

The USNT can be more progressive and smarter about their ID and selection process. Clubs who fancy themselves as NT pipelines will alter their talent ID and development priorities to suit because getting kids called into camps is good for the glory of the club.

And to head it off at the start, we need athletic, fast and strong players but that is no longer enough. We need smarter technical players trained in more sophisticated styles of play.

The other problems will have to sort themselves out but are even harder to change.

College Soccer cannot be the developmental pathway in the future. Kids need to play pro as soon as they can either here or abroad. The pay disparity will always be an issue but if the professional product on the field improves viewership will also improve.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Posting you “suspect there might be some attitude problem” is amazingly uncool.
She wore the C on her arm at multiple levels.
She was injured during the e player selection training pool in 2020 and plays at the logjam forward position.

Very uncool escalation by you

I said I don't know. She has been hampered by injuries. Maybe her attitude is great. When she didn't make the Olympic qualifying roster, Vlatko Andonovski said:

"Mal was competitive and she did well but there were other players I believe that performed better,"

“Sometimes you are in form or sometimes out of form,” he added. “For Mal, consistency is crucial for being on this roster. She needs to be more consistent day-to-day.”

Her coach called her out for not being consistent day to day. Maybe she had a great attitude, but isn't consistent. Maybe it's attitude. Maybe it's a mental issue.

Where did her coach say “it’s a mental issue” or an “attitude” issue.
Your comment has gone from attitude to “maybe her attitude is great” to “maybe it’s a mental issue”.
Still a baseless accusation

So do you think Andi Sullivan or Ali Krieger have mental issues?
Does anyone who doesn’t make a team have mental issues???

This is the knowledge base of this board and why it is worthless to get into anything before the trolls and the unwitting trolls come out to hijack a thread into the USWNT lost because a player on the team maybe has an attitude issue

DP Pugh is not on the team. The poster was wondering why she was not selected. There has been a lot of rumours/talk about that player. It is about her attitude towads her teammates

It seem you are new to soccer but more of a fan of the WNT. In countries where soccer is a major sport the players performance is critique and questions are asked when they are not selected. The USWNT players have never really been critiqued. So this may seem unfair to you but it is a sign the game is growing.

On the men's side the 1/2 time analyst will call players out. They will break down film and show what happened and why. They are brutal. There is a video break down of the third goal that shows one player walking when she should have ran back to help on defense. This is new to the USWNT.

The Mexican national team has not brought a very talented player to camp because of attitude problems. Apparently he needs to apologise to the coaches. It's soccer this stuff happens all the time..

Anonymous wrote:Campbell
Purce
Cook
Macario
Sullivan
Krueger
Smith

Alternates get ready mystery injuries coming up next loss

Olympics are allowing alternates to play w/o injuries, so effectively a 22-man roster than is 18 on game day. I imagine there will be changes by Saturday with Macario and Williams on the or then we will know who is running this team.

They got away with a hybrid team of old and young in France due to good fortune and penalties that papered over serious issues. They were outplayed in the quarterfinals and semifinals and achieved narrow wins without run-of-play goals.

One of the issues is that Dunn is stuck as a left back because Hinkle was not allowed on the team and there is no suitable replacement. Having Dunn in the attack would change the dynamic as would Purce and the alternates. But they weren't going to be on the initial 18. The fallout would have been immense. Whether it is Vlakto sticking to the old guard or it being expected they would make the team, this is the current situation for this tournament.

It takes a game like this to see the cracks fully. You have to be exposed to understand how staid the team has gotten. This performance will give them some cover to start moving forward with a new generation, even if they do recover and win the tournament, which is very possible. The old guard won't go easily. I wonder if Rapinoe, Morgan and Lloyd are self-aware to see the writing on the wall and accept it. They've been propped up on social media and elsewhere to believe they're more than just soccer players. But opponents don't care about that on the field.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cocky, entitled, complacent. Had to end sometime, reasons are pretty obvious. Zero energy or hunger. They've been on top for so long and team essentially unchanged, lack advancement in play. Happens to all previously great teams. Hope they get back for US soccer sake.

The best thing for US Soccer's sake would be for them to be eliminated and move forward trying to progress the sport from the Stone Age style they currently are playing.

Rip the band-aid off and start making serious changes.

Agreed

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Posting you “suspect there might be some attitude problem” is amazingly uncool.
She wore the C on her arm at multiple levels.
She was injured during the e player selection training pool in 2020 and plays at the logjam forward position.

Very uncool escalation by you

I said I don't know. She has been hampered by injuries. Maybe her attitude is great. When she didn't make the Olympic qualifying roster, Vlatko Andonovski said:

"Mal was competitive and she did well but there were other players I believe that performed better,"

“Sometimes you are in form or sometimes out of form,” he added. “For Mal, consistency is crucial for being on this roster. She needs to be more consistent day-to-day.”

Her coach called her out for not being consistent day to day. Maybe she had a great attitude, but isn't consistent. Maybe it's attitude. Maybe it's a mental issue.

Where did her coach say “it’s a mental issue” or an “attitude” issue.
Your comment has gone from attitude to “maybe her attitude is great” to “maybe it’s a mental issue”.
Still a baseless accusation

So do you think Andi Sullivan or Ali Krieger have mental issues?
Does anyone who doesn’t make a team have mental issues???

This is the knowledge base of this board and why it is worthless to get into anything before the trolls and the unwitting trolls come out to hijack a thread into the USWNT lost because a player on the team maybe has an attitude issue