Personally, I think the best US players were Lloyd (33), Brian (22), Saurbrunn (30), Klingenberg (27) and Heath (27). Johnston (23) has a huge future. Holliday (28) is a force. Leroux (25) is going to get her chance with Morgan (26) up top and the two of them are far from kick and runners. I think the future of the women's game is bright and with this win, who knows the type of player they will get in the future.DC47 wrote:It is beyond obvious that luck was involved in the set-piece goals. Balls being shot between the legs of defenders, bounces that land right on a charging attackers foot -- this involves significant chance. This happens only in a very small fraction of set-pieces, even for teams that have big physical advantages, as USA did yesterday. Anything that is rarely done is by definition fortunate. Skill is also involved. But to do these things several times in the first few minutes, which makes it impossible for the Japanese team to play their possession game for the rest of the contest, is well beyond merely a bit fortunate. If you played this game 100 times, nothing like this would ever happen again.joeyclams wrote:Man, you're trying way to hard. To say that the US benefited from a 'couple lucky bounces' is pretty cynical. Those plays were rehearsed and carried out to perfection, especially the first. The second got the ball in the box and caused confusion which is an essential part of set pieces. put the ball in the box and good things may happen. It wasn't luck.DC47 wrote: [snip] America is a strong team as soccer is played currently on the woman's side. I think they'd win half the time if this year's World Cup was played over and over again, so that luck was evened out.
But the situation of 2015 is not static. The clock is ticking. Teams that have a skill and possession strategy advantage will routinely beat those with only a modest physical advantage, unless some factor aids the latter (e.g., loose refereeing, playing fields).
I think this is the fate that awaits America if countries other than Japan can get it right with youth development that focuses on skills and possession strategy at the same time that feminism produces a boost in female participation (boosting the talent pool), as Title IX (among other things) did in the USA in recent decades.
I think this will happen. It happened, from bare metal, in Japan. It's simply not that hard to get the skill and possession thing right. It takes some time, coaching talent, and player talent. There are scattered youth teams in the USA that do this, because there are special circumstances that support it. I know of a U14 boys team from LA that recently played evenly with the Barcelona academy A team in a Spanish tournament; the American team played with more skill and possession. I think there will be countries that will get this right. America's success in the current mode makes me think the odds don't favor our country being one of the first.
Japan had some mild luck against England, Germany had some mild luck against France, and USA had moderate luck against Germany (e.g., likely red card not given). Luck is a part of the game. Mild forms of luck are But there are degrees of chance evident in every contest. I've rarely seen a luckier team than the USA women in the fist half. I'll add that they were lucky that FIFA disdains the women's game to the extent that they played the finals at a game time where the sun would be in one keepers eyes in the first half; this was compounded by the American luck in winning the toss. Hence Lloyd's score from mid-field.in fact, the team you are holding up as the future of women's soccer was only in the final because of a huge piece of luck. and, they were played off the park by England, so i'm not really sure what the hell you are talking about.
Note by the way that even though the Japanese women had to modify their strategy to play some long-ball in hopes of getting errors from the American defenders, they outscored the USA 2-1 after the sequence of lucky plays I pointed to.
Who are the top American players? I'd say three stood out. Solo, Lloyd, and Rapinoe. Their ages at the end of this month are 34, 33, and 30. That is quite old in terms of soccer. The latter two will be ancient at the next World Cup for attacking players who rely on their legs. Morgan is seen by some as the hidden talent at this Cup, due to her injury (but note that Japan played without one starter). She has good technique but is very much a speed player, who will be 30 at the next WC. That's old for her style.Watch that game again if you have to and you'll see that some of the best players on the pitch for the US were in their early 20's and play the game on the ground, with great technical ability. The US is on it's way to combine it's edge in athleticism with improved technical ability. They showed that against Germany.
USA does have some younger players with decent technical ability. However, other teams do too. And my argument above is that the obvious physical advantages of the USA women are being moderated as more women play soccer in other countries, and as strength and conditioning take on more importance there.
The American women are going to have to get more technical and play with more possession if they want to remain a top team in an era where other countries improve their physical attributes, and work on their own technical and possession.
We all come at a game from our own perspectives. In any sport, even when I am emotionally attached to a team, I want to see the game played well. In the case of soccer, going back to the 70s I have been a player, coach, parent of a player, and consultant to a professional team. So obviously I think about something beyond the scoreboard when I watch a game. I happen to think that soccer in America is highly dysfunctional, from top to bottom, and I have years of observations to support my belief. So it saddens me to see a game that is so unlike a good game of soccer being played on a big stage. Just as the terminal Brazil game featuring pathetic soccer on the big stage of the semi's in the last men's WC saddened me (but for the part about Brazil being humiliated which I hope will help Brazil recover from its dysfunction). But I am doubly saddened by the women's final as I believe that this will entrench the USA even more in the emphasis on defense and physical attributes, over technique and possession attacking.Man, people really think way to hard about a game.
Those who are strong USA partisans, or who believe that scoring on set-pieces, defensive errors, and mid-field lobs represent the essence of the game of soccer and involve minimal luck, are of course free to replay yesterday's game in their minds as a triumph for the country and all that is good about the game.
And those that are strong cynics can look at a team that came to play yesterday and took the game to a really good Japan team and see luck. I choose to think that teams that execute at set pieces, defend in numbers, combine up and coming talent with solid veterans and utilize great athletic and technical ability are the future of the game. I can also look at France and Colombia as teams that the US need to keep up with in terms of technical and tactical ability but aren't anywhere near ready to compete at the level of Germany, the US and Japan.
I find it quite illuminating that you choose to only see what the US team lacks instead of what it brings. Saying that Japan had some 'mild luck' in it's win v England is really a quite ridiculous statement. Getting played off the pitch for huge portions of the game and then winning on an own goal in the 92nd minute. I wouldn't say that's 'mild luck' and I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone else that thinks that. Teams make their own luck. You put a ball in the box from a corner and good things happen, sure. But players have to be aware and put themselves in good positions to score goals. It's a part of the game that is planned and trained for.
Now, I'm not so blind that I can't see that the US has room for improvement and I know that the USSF is a bit antiquated. But I'm not willing to discount their achievement yesterday as down to luck or fortune. That's really disrespectful to the work and energy those women put in to be champions.