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I blogged about the USWNT game last night vs. France. I shamelessly mentioned 3four3 a number of times.
Very disappointing style of play from the Women. I tweeted it reminded me of old generals fighting the last generation’s wars. Unless something dramatic happens I don’t see the US doing well this World Cup cycle. They need to get rid of the old aging stars, use more youth and play soccer: Not just try to get in behind (Which Foudy must have mentioned a million times).
USA no longer have the biggest, fastest, strongest butches… other countries have caught up. But no one wants to change…
Japan had practically non-existent program 12 years ago, yet in that time they built a women’s game based on positional futbol (regardless of height and size) and lo and behold! they have a wc title and runners up in Olympics…
Jason,
Nice blog post. Summed up a lot of the same thoughts I had when watching the game the other day…
I think the most frustrating part, as you mentioned, is that the US players have the technical ability to play a much better style but seem to lack the tactical understanding of how to best use those skills. I would argue that Lloyd, Holiday, Heath, Rapinoe, etc… are some of the most technical players in the world in terms of ability on and with the ball, but they don’t seem to have been coached how best to use that skill set. Too often their first touches, while controlled well, aren’t controlled in a way that allow them to manipulate the defense. Much of this comes down to body positioning before they receive the ball and know where they next touch needs to go. Personally, I think Ellis needs to take some share of the blame here because there should be some more work on her coaching staff’s part to correct some of these issues.
I’m not having high hopes for the world cup and it looks like the US will be a lot of wasted potential without the right changes made in culture and tactics.
One of my U13 girls told me she watched the game so I asked her to tell me what she saw. She said the USA women did things that I coach her NOT to do. I said be more specific and she said they played useless long balls out of the back and lost possession when they had the simple pass wide open. She also noticed how France was able to attack with quick simple passes and didn’t turn the ball over nearly as much as the USA. I just smiled
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