US Women

[Ret10Echo]

Go Ladys...


Side note....5 of the North Korean players were popped for steroid use...yeah...I know, "SHOCKER". Somebody needs to take the GDR coaches guide away from them.

And speaking of shocker, apparently the "struck by lighting" excuse has many applications.

1. The USA won the match 2-0 thanks to goals from Lauren Cheney and Rachel Buehler but the Koreans' coach Kim Kwang Min said they lost because several of his players were struck by lightning almost a month ago. (link)

2. (FIFA)...heard arguments that the steroids were accidentally taken with traditional Chinese medicines based on musk glands that were used to treat players struck by lightning on June 8 during a training camp. (link)

[Richard]

Originally Posted by Ret10Echo

2. (FIFA)...heard arguments that the steroids were accidentally taken with traditional Chinese medicines based on musk glands that were used to treat players struck by lightning on June 8 during a training camp.

No wonder their excuses stunk!

Richard

[incarcerated]

Halftime. Not a bad half. I’ll take it. Now we’ll see how good our game analysis and adjustments are…
Judy Foudy is killing me! Quit faulting the lack of finishing!! You’ve got good shot production: stay with the positive! A little patience…keep shooting, and the goals will come.

[kgoerz]

They sure look like they work out........a lot

[incarcerated]

Ouch.
Lessons learned: more focus needed on the mental dimension of the game.

yeah, and don't loose to a team that will beat you with penalty kicks.

[afchic]

Originally Posted by incarcerated

Ouch.
Lessons learned: more focus needed on the mental dimension of the game.

Disagree somstimes shit just happens. This was the best game thet played all tournament. They have absolutly mothing to be ashamed of.

[PedOncoDoc]

Originally Posted by afchic

Disagree somstimes shit just happens. This was the best game thet played all tournament. They have absolutly mothing to be ashamed of.

They played a great game, but should've capitalized more on our aerial attack and height advantage. The 2nd penalty shot was a disaster, and the 3rd was not well struck - I believe we choked in the penalties.

[incarcerated]

Originally Posted by afchic

Disagree somstimes shit just happens. This was the best game thet played all tournament. They have absolutly mothing to be ashamed of.

We will agree to disagree.
Yes, we played well. The technical and tactical dimensions of the game were fine. Personally, I don’t see our ‘lack of finishing’ as the problem that DeCicco and Foudy thought it to be. I don’t know what it is in Women’s professional soccer, but in the EPL it takes about ten shots on goal for one to go in. Thus the emphasis on shot generation in many offensive schemes.
And yeah, we do not have anything to be ashamed of. We dominated the shot count, much of the game, and played very well. But soccer is a game where you can dominate the shooting, possession, midfield, outplay the opponent, and still loose. In a low scoring, reasonably close game, the opponent can penetrate your defense just once and score. Sometimes shit just happens.

But…
We made two severe, unnecessary defensive errors around the six that accounted for one goal against.
We blew a one goal lead. Twice.
We made one penalty kick out of four.
IMO, these are all mental shortcomings. Had we won the match in PKs 1-0, these are items that would still need to be addressed. A good program does not permit success to obscure its areas for improvement.

IMO, a lot of soccer coaching is very parochial, and somewhat inbred. We do not do a good job of warm-up, for example. We tend to skimp on it. You will see very little or no pre-warming, and a lack of thoroughness in most warm-up routines. And while it is standard to find many training exercises that focus on producing a mental demand on the athlete (mostly running drills, mainly European in origin, many quite devilish), their use is limited, and I do not believe that you will ordinarily find this to be an area of program emphasis. IMO, if we are invested in developing athletes, it needs to be.

Dealing with pressure is a mental skill. I have seen this repeatedly and somewhat consistently over the last 30 years. In recent times, my daughter’s college team has blown a two-goal lead with 15 minutes remaining to loose a state championship, and overcame a two-goal half-time deficit to win a national championship. IMO, it’s all mental. This is an area in which we can do more. The Women’s National Team needs a Bear Pit.

[Sigaba]

Originally Posted by incarcerated

But…
We made two severe, unnecessary defensive errors around the six that accounted for one goal against.
We blew a one goal lead. Twice.
We made one penalty kick out of four.
IMO, these are all mental shortcomings.

IMO, there's no better way to display sportsmanship than to argue that the winning team had nothing to do with its hard earned and well deserved victory.

[Paslode]

To make the World Cup final (which is a crap shoot at best and almost requires an act of God) is quite an accomplishment, the only thing that tops that is winning the World Cup.

The US ladies did extremely well.

[afchic]

Originally Posted by incarcerated

We will agree to disagree.
Yes, we played well. The technical and tactical dimensions of the game were fine. Personally, I don’t see our ‘lack of finishing’ as the problem that DeCicco and Foudy thought it to be. I don’t know what it is in Women’s professional soccer, but in the EPL it takes about ten shots on goal for one to go in. Thus the emphasis on shot generation in many offensive schemes.
And yeah, we do not have anything to be ashamed of. We dominated the shot count, much of the game, and played very well. But soccer is a game where you can dominate the shooting, possession, midfield, outplay the opponent, and still loose. In a low scoring, reasonably close game, the opponent can penetrate your defense just once and score. Sometimes shit just happens.

But…
We made two severe, unnecessary defensive errors around the six that accounted for one goal against.
We blew a one goal lead. Twice.
We made one penalty kick out of four.
IMO, these are all mental shortcomings. Had we won the match in PKs 1-0, these are items that would still need to be addressed. A good program does not permit success to obscure its areas for improvement.

IMO, a lot of soccer coaching is very parochial, and somewhat inbred. We do not do a good job of warm-up, for example. We tend to skimp on it. You will see very little or no pre-warming, and a lack of thoroughness in most warm-up routines. And while it is standard to find many training exercises that focus on producing a mental demand on the athlete (mostly running drills, mainly European in origin, many quite devilish), their use is limited, and I do not believe that you will ordinarily find this to be an area of program emphasis. IMO, if we are invested in developing athletes, it needs to be.

Dealing with pressure is a mental skill. I have seen this repeatedly and somewhat consistently over the last 30 years. In recent times, my daughter’s college team has blown a two-goal lead with 15 minutes remaining to loose a state championship, and overcame a two-goal half-time deficit to win a national championship. IMO, it’s all mental. This is an area in which we can do more. The Women’s National Team needs a Bear Pit.

The Women's Team has gone farther than our men's team, and is far more consitent. There has even been talk that maybe a male "pia" would be good for the men's team vs a Bill Bradley.

As for warm up, I can't speak to it because I didn't see any of the teams warming up, as the talking heads took up most of the time. I am interested in where your thoughts on that subject came from.

As far as the mental, maybe the mistakes were mental, maybe they were not. We have showed mental toughness throughout the tournament. Many teams would have folded after the quarter final. We beat France with one day less of rest, and having to travel, when France did not. That took alot of mental agility. Yes some mistakes were made in the defense, but I am not sure that you could peg that as being mental.

It is easy when one loses, to point out all the things that COULD HAVE BEEN. In the end the US showed what they are made of. On top of it, they provide a venue for soccer in the US, that bring more of our youth to the pitch. Not sure any other US soccer team has an ESPY award, after only two day sof voting. Not saying the ESPYs are all that, but the fact they won speaks to how many people were paying attention to what they have beem doing for the past 2 1/2 weeks.

It would be interesting to see the statistics of the number of people who have watched the women's world cup vice the current men's tour that is going on.

I wish we had won, I feel that they had the heart, and the skill in this game to do it. But we didn't. Time to for them to lick their wounds, regroup, and get back out on the pitch and show the world what they are made of.l

Congratulations to Japan. If it couldn't be the US I am glad it was them. They play an elegant game, and they have given a nation ravaged a reason to smile, at least for a little while.

[akv]

My congratulations to the ladies from Japan. For our's we are proud of you, and finally my empathy for the homecoming the North Korean's will receive if it is anything similar to that of their men in 2010.