Holy Hell What a Start To This Match

[Augustus McCrae]

Up 4-0 already, barely 20 minutes in.

 

[UpTheMiddlex3Punt]

Just hope we don't get sloppy. Keep it to 4-1.

 

[MissStFan87]

Feels a bit like the Auburn game last season. One of those, 'Is this really happening?' starts to the game.

 

[PineGroveBully]

Carli getting fitted for a Golden Sombrero

Nt

 

[thatsbaseball]

Bravo girls , Well Done !

 

[SwampDawg]

Our girls were fantastic! I marvel at their ball handling skills and constant pressure. However that second half was IN TENTS!!!!

 

[patdog]

Un-17ing-believable! I'd say the USA has our revenge for 2011 now.

 

[UpTheMiddlex3Punt]

Carli was so close to getting the golden boot. Sasic scored her hat trick against the worst ranked team at the tournament (in a 10-0 victory). Carli got hers in the freaking final, the first time ever.

 

[BiscuitEater]

I am far from a serious Soccer 'fan' ..

Bravo girls , Well Done !

Been a casual fan for a couple of years; followed men's World Cup; some premier games and this Women's World Cup.

will say that the women actually seem to play cleaner and 'better' than the men. WHOLE lot less 'flopping' around on the ground with 'life-threatening' injuries.

 

[patdog]

They expanded the tournament from 16 teams to 24 this year. There were teams that had no business being in a World Cup in this tournament. Germany drew 2 of those teams in its group. It skewed the stats, and it skewed the comparison of the 3rd place teams to determine which 4 advanced to the knockout stage. They should have kept the field at 16, or at the very least expanded only to 20.

 

[Seinfeld]

So can someone who understands soccer strategy better than myself

tell me... did we go into defensive mode after going up 4-0? It just seemed like our girls were in full attack mode for the first 15-20 minutes, they slowed down and played keep away for awhile, but then as soon as Japan got within 2, we turned the afterburners back on. It was amazing to me as to how easy they made it look as soon as Japan made it 4-2.

 

[FQDawg]

Most games are pretty in tents for the first 15-20 minutes...

Then they settle down a bit... The difference last night was that we were able to convert most of our chances to go up 4-0 (and it was almost 5-0 on that header that Lloyd missed).

I think it was obvious from the get go that we were the better team but Japan is no slouch either, so it's not surprising that there were periods of the game where they played well. But generally speaking, we did a good job defensively, so even when they had spells of the possession, they didn't threaten too much.

That fourth goal from Lloyd was something else.

 

[patdog]

The difference last night was that we were able to convert most of our chances to go up 4-0

No doubt there is some truth to this. For the first time all tournament, we scored more goals than we "should" have from the expected goals stat (we "should" have won 2.7 - 0.6. But we really sat back and coasted from the 4th goal to halftime. Played pretty good in the 2nd half, and it just seemed like we turned the switch back on when they got the OG to cut the lead to 4-2. I just really had the impression that this team was not going to lose this game, or even allow it to be close.