Friday, September 28, 2007

The Day After

So I have plenty of time to think about the game yesterday. The one thing I have to say is that USA losing and playing like crap doesn't take away the fact that Brazil did great. The scored the first two goals with 11 players on the field.







The USA team was flat from the time I saw their exhibition game against Japan at Spartan Stadium. They were flat on the opening game against Korea, but for the Korean coach to say they can take the USA on is bogus. They got both their goals with a man(woman) down. I would like to see a rematch with a full squad 90 minute game.







They were better against Sweden. Could have played better against Nigeria, but the one thing I noticed was, there was a lack of a midfield. A lot of long balls.







Quarter final I thought they got their grove back and Hope Solo regained my confidence shortly after the Korea match. For the first time I thought they stood a chance of winning the cup.







However, you have to look at the catalyst of things. When Ryan decided to change the keepers out, the team was demoralized. Solo was understandably furious. Even Scurry had doubts of this change. Her teammates were questioning the decision. Former US players and coaches questioned the change. The only one who seemed to be confident in the change was Coach Ryan himself. I will take the bet that either Ryan will step down or USSF will fire him. I like to follow the philosophy that you never change a winning team. Ryan should have had that same philosophy. But like I said, there is enough blame to go around.







Osbourne headed the ball into her own goal. It could have been Solo or Scurry and it would not change the fact we had an own goal. Of course this probably demoralizes the cold keeper Scurry while Solo watches in horror.









Then Marta scores a goal which I felt Scurry could have reached if she was warmed up enough. Problem is she hasn't played much while Solo was Juiced with 3 shutouts in a row. Again, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

















Then if they were not demoralized enough, Shannon Boxx gets the second yellow card. A bogus card because Christiane' took Boxx down and even celebrated when the 2nd card took place. To her credit though in the 2nd half she did perform an excellent display in footwork.

So would USA won without all these controversies? Maybe, but they still would have had a major fight in their hands because as even Lilly quoted, "They were the better team."


Thursday, September 27, 2007

USA loses against Brazil

What happened you might ask. Well first let's look at the 24 hours prior. I'm watching the Germany vs. Norway and it turns out Ryan makes a decision to replace Hope Solo with Brianna Scurry. This didn't fly will with the keepers, the announcers, the teams, and the fans. Except for Ryan, I don't know who favors the change.

So we're stuck with this decision and to make matters worse, Osbourn heads the ball in her own goal. I would like to believe that Scurry called her off. It could have been Solo in the goal and I think it wouldn't have change this.

Then we had another goal scored against us. Then if that was not enough demoralizing, lose Boxx to a bogus call. I would really like to know how this Swedish gal, keeps getting the assignments when she blows them one after the other.

Then they start changing the defense and not the offense.

I guess you can say there is enough blame to go around.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Quarter Final Review

You're going to get a condensed version as I have watched all the games, but have not had time to jot my thoughts yet.

USA vs. England

It seemed as though USA was going to keep repeating the flatness while playing England. However, when Abby Wombach scored a goal it seemed to wake everyone in the USA and they had an explosive second half.

Germany vs. Korea

I'm not surprised by the outcome of this match. Korea was lucky tying the USA when Wombach was out getting stitched up.

Brazil and Austrailia

This was the best game of the weekend. Brazil scores, Autrialia answers. May have been a missed PK call for Austrailia but the angle was bad, I would have needed to see it from a different POV, namely the referee's. (If correctly postioned). Still Brazil won, will be playing the USA, but Austrialia was fun to watch.

Norway vs. China

Kind of good news going into the Semi finals as there isn't a stigma of playing the host nation. However the goal Norway got was a weenie goal. I challenge you all to take a look at the replay of the match. Norway midfielder passes the ball up to her forward. If you listen you will hear a whistle sound just as Norway was about to receive the ball. You will notice the chinese defender slowing down as if she thought an offside call was made. Then you will notice the Norway attacker take the ball to goal and the chinese defender realizing just a second too late that was not the referee's whistle.
I suspect it was a chinese fan that blew the whistle (and a good whistle as well). I think he was hoping to stop the attack, but it backfired and stopped the defense.

Looking forward to the Semi Finals in a couple of days.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

USA still flat as they tie Korea

You would think they would stay on guard as they enter the first game on asian soil, against an asian team. Wrong. They were flat. The management on the sidelines did a lousy job getting either Wombach back on the field or subbing. Wombach socred the first goal. Then gets a head injury which there is blood so she has to leave per FIFA law.
It takes well over 5 minutes to get her bandanged up and as a result they played a player down and Korea capitized on that not once, but twice. Luckly we tied it in the end, but like USA women, we take it as a loss.

The silver lining is the other two teams in the group of death also tied so it's almost a level playing field.

Japan ties England to a standstill...

...and quite frankly were the better team. Now I really had no interest in either team, but Kari Seitz and Jennifer Bennett were the officials for the match so I wanted to see how well they did. Jennifer really didn't have much work to do, holding up that sub billboard.

Kari had to make what John Kennedy used to call, "the moment of truth call." It came at the final minute of stoppage time. It happened so quick that even the replay didn't do it justice, unless you are a referee and know what to look for. What was found was the England defender held #9 of Japan as she was going up for the ball. However from the angle we were looking at it could very well look like two players going up for the ball. Where's the foul? Well if you took a close look at the play you will see the English player never really attempted to play the ball but did what she set out to do; keep the Japanese player from playing the ball. In slow motion you really could see it. Again, you need to know what to look for in a hold because not all holds are obvious. If what I say is not convincing, then look at this photo for a more obvious look.



And just bare in mind...Kari didn't have the luxury of a replay. Great call Kari and great guts in making that crucial call. Yes Crucial call. Because not only England committed a foul, but then choose to do a misconduct by encroaching the ball during the free kick in a desperation Kari would call the game. However it backfired on England because this occurred after Kari blew the whistle for restart, then had to caution the player. However, it doesn't say she has to blow the whistle twice and the keeper let her guard down as Japan took their final shot to score the tying goal.

Sunday, September 09, 2007

My daughter's team won their first game

We pulled a San Jose Clash. New team, new name, new season, and new beginning. As the Wildcats we managed to pull in our first game what we failed to do last year. Make our plays count. Make our passes count. Make our shots count and even make sure we had the goals.

The first half was a pretty hard fought battle and nobody scored the first half. We almost got scored on the first half when our first goalkeeper merely watched the ball coast on the line before she picked it up. However since we were cycling between keeper I took the first girl that expressed interest in keeping and I told her, "You see what she's doing, just waiting for the ball to come to her?"
She said, "Yeah."
I said, "Don't do it. That ball enters the box, it's yours for the taking." I was sorry I could only keep her there for one quarter because she in my opinion was the best keeper in that game. Another player who I put in the goal earlier played a close second as she was a bit weak on getting to the ball, but once she got it, she knew what to do with it. As a matter of fact she got an assist from it.
My two forwards really worked well together. Making connecting passes which resulted in a couple goals. One of my players followed up too.
It was a pretty close game, but I like to say we dominated the second half.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

USA is going to have their hands full

They are in the group of death like their male counterparts last year and what really sucks? Check out the video of last year's asian cup semi finals