Honestly if the USA or any other country puts out a team that doesnt support their country maybe it's time to find different players. JMO
OT: 2023 Women's World Cup
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The principle of establishing both width and depth applies to all players: forwards, mids and defenders, both within their formation-group or across formation groups. Proper defensive shape, except in certain transient situations, requires depth. A straight line perpendicular to the touchline creates a situation where multiple defenders can be beaten in one instant by either pass or dribble penetration. As such, it's almost always a mistake, most especially in the center third of the field.
There are exceptions to all soccer principles. In this case, an example of a valid exception to the depth rule is that teams will momentarily sacrifice depth in the final moment of setting an offside trap. But it's a transient exception and quickly reestablishing some depth is critical once the ball is either passed into the trap or the ball is passed backwards by the first attacker.
The degree of depth (the distance) and which players are providing the depth (e.g. the third defender is often but not always the deepest) is subject to the circumstances, to the cues presented by the attacking players and the position of the ball on the field at any given moment. Most of the time, the degree of depth required for good shape in the center third of the field (typically by mids and forwards) is higher than what you want from the backs when defending in the defensive third. Because at midfield, you aren't nearly so worried about leaving an attacking player alone momentarily with the ball, while providing depth on the weak-side for instance, as you are near your own goal where an unmarked player can get off a good shot attempt.
In the case of the USWNT in the last two games, the midfielders were the players most frequently losing defensive depth and failing to quickly recognize and recover proper shape by providing that depth. That's what leads to situations where it seems like there's too much space between the defense and mids, and too many passing lanes. Get all the mids in a line, and it's trivially easy to get behind them with a good pass or bit of combination play. That happened too often in the first half of the match against the Dutch.
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Is probably best to ignore the political obsessives who are here to troll and ruin the thread. Don't fall into the trap of engaging with them.
Nothing really needs to be said, the performance was self-explanatory. Also, nobody has to be fond of the interjection of a political agenda into a game on the international stage. Crap performance and crap political gimmicks.
I somehow managed to not notice anything remotely political while watching the soccer match. Maybe you‘re doing it wrong?
Are you saying that people who don't sing the anthem don't support the country? That's a huge stretch. Or is it people who kneel to call attention to injustice, i.e., people who are protesting, which is a time honored activity for people who love this country and are trying to improve it. Even if you disagree with how some might go about protesting, do you really think such folks "don't support their country?" I don't.
Let it go. It’s a topic that has been lamely and pointlessly “debated” to absolutely no effect at least a half dozen times on the CE forum.
As I watched the Portuguese players all sing their anthem I then wondered why we are robbing a generation of national pride. We have people "representing" their nation, wearing the colors with USA on the jerseys and they are being robbed of having pride in that. Furthermore, they cannot use that pride to ask more of themselves while playing against players who are doing that.
It is sad for them.
Portugal is 1000x more accepting and understanding of the LGBT community hence they sing proudly. On the other hand the US is decades behind. I fin nothing wrong with using your platform to support a cause. I would argue they are American Patriots, speaking up for the little guy, willing to put their name on the line, knowing full well they will get **** on.
Throwing the total BS flag on that response. But, nice story, bro.
Sure…
I guess you can say the same about Vietnam since they all sang their anthem, too.
While there are certainly concerns, better finishing would hide some of them. Our xG that I saw was 8.0 to 0.6 in the group stage, with an actual of 4-1. We’re not deep enough to blow people away with the injuries we have right now, so need to grind it out. But remember that several of the other favorites have also throw up clunkers this week.
Kinda wish there was an online coaching board that we could use for these discussions. Trying to draw a mental image of your explanation in my head, but would make more sense to me if I saw the x's and o's.
There's a chapter you can skip to where he talks about the out of possession tactics against Barca. Are you talking about depth of the 3 mf like this?
They can do that on their own dime, not ours. They have weeks upon weeks to bring attention to their agenda.
It’s waaaay more simple than the video. Forget about soccer formations. Here…
Xo
That’s the first attacker (with the ball).
Xo O
And that’s the first attacker with the first defender marking him. It’s 1 v 1, there’s no team shape, no width, no depth.
Xo O
……………. O
That’s a first attacker, first defender, and a second defender (had to use periods to position the second defender, pretend the periods aren’t there). The second defender is properly tucked in behind and to the side of the first defender to provide close support, prevent through balls, and be ready to take over as first defender if the current first defender gets beat by the first attacker using dribble penetration. 1 v 2, it’s the beginning of defensive team shape, with the second defender providing both width and depth.
Xo O
….. O
That’s a simple example of poor defensive shape. The second defender is in line with the first defender. There is width, but no depth. That means the first attacker can easily make a through pass between the two defenders. Or the first attacker can dribble penetrate to beat both defenders at the same time. The solution is for the second defender to drop back and tuck in closer to the first defender.
Add a third or fourth defender in the same line, perpendicular to the sideline, and the first attacker can beat all four defenders with a single through pass or with dribble penetration. Because there is no depth to the defensive shape.
That’s bad, and the US players, especially the mids, kept getting caught doing that by the Dutch players. Especially in the first half. It improved a lot in the Portugal game, although still happened here and there.
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Sweden with a workmanlike (wormwomanlike?) 2-0 win over Argentina, while Italy and South Africa played an exciting wide open shootout that RSA won 3-2 in stoppage time on a terrible defensive lapse by Italy (it was 2 on 5 for RSA and they still scored), giving RSA their first advancement to the knockout stage ever. Sweden vs. USA up next, Sunday at 5 am.
Pride in your country is a lost art. It's not cool in the U.S and doesn't get you any endorsements, benefits, etc. Playing for team USA is no longer an honor but is just a gateway to woke riches. It's all a show.
Remember the African-American female wrestler in the last Olympics who after she won the gold she went off on how much she loved America and despite any of it's faults it was still the greatest country in the world?
What happened to her? Did she get any big endorsement deals? I can't even remember her name.
IMHO it's just sad.
To be honest I won't root against them but it won't upset me in the least if they lost.
Edit: I looked up that wrestler's name. Tamara Mensah-Stock. Ring a bell anyone?
Remember the African-American female wrestler in the last Olympics who after she won the gold she went off on how much she loved America and despite any of it's faults it was still the greatest country in the world?
What happened to her? Did she get any big endorsement deals? I can't even remember her name.
IMHO it's just sad.
To be honest I won't root against them but it won't upset me in the least if they lost.
Edit: I looked up that wrestler's name. Tamara Mensah-Stock. Ring a bell anyone?
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At this point of the tournament, England and Sweden appear to be the clear favorites. I would be shocked if England does not win this tournament. We will find out how good the US team is on Sunday. To date they look horrible and definitely a team in transition.
Great article. I personally Carli is brave for standing up and saying what needs to be said. She's got the resume to back up her words.
Sports columnist Jason Whitlock weighs in on the US team
What can I say?
Click bait?
Stirring the ****?
He makes some relevant points about Rapinoe and the team and then extrapolates into fantasyland. Title IX has certainly had some negative consequences impacting guiltless individuals. And sometimes it's enforced with a motivation of revenge rather than equity. But the underfunded and disrespected female athletic programs, with the exception of a few top level sports such as Olympic sports was a walking advertisement of the need for a change. And Whitlock is too young to have witnessed it.
Vegas has Sweden as shockingly large underdog against the US. Money line is +275. This is an even money game as far as I'm concerned.
Some top athletes prefer or need to be 100% focused on their game 24/7 to win. Seems that worked for Lloyd.
Other top athletes don't have that need and, outside of practices, training or games, could focus entirely on other stuff and still be great. Lloyd is projecting her approach onto other people as if everybody is the same, which is dumb.
She's entitled to her opinion, but she's no longer part of the team, she's outside the team so her opinion is worthless in terms of helping anything. And she's going to alienate some players on the team w/her publicly negative comments, which will cause them to reject whatever she says and ignore her, making her opinion even more worthless.
If she actually cared about helping, she'd make her comments privately to the players. Being so public about it is selfish, not helpful.
Figures you'd agree with that misogynist prick. He wrote the following which is an absolute load of crap, especially the part in bold.
"The American Nightmare has been 50 years in the making. The adoption of Title IX in 1972 was a plea agreement American men signed with radical feminists. We copped to a crime we didn’t commit. We swallowed the lie that the patriarchy owed angry women reparations. It’s not true. Men have not exploited women or denied them freedom and agency. The customs of the past reflected the harsh realities of life before men paved roads, built skyscrapers, replaced covered wagons with planes, trains, and automobiles, and made eating as simple as loading the DoorDash app."
Not surprised that you and most of the RWCJ on that heinous CE board WC thread feel this way. Your hatred of women, especially women who stand up for themselves and represent our country is sickening and sad.
When did singing the Anthem become the measure of patriotism?
I thought it was stand respectfully?
I would bet there are thousands of examples of all kinds of people who do not sing the anthem who were never considered unpatriotic
I think this is another example of faux outrage against a target certain people differ on their opinions
I thought it was stand respectfully?
I would bet there are thousands of examples of all kinds of people who do not sing the anthem who were never considered unpatriotic
I think this is another example of faux outrage against a target certain people differ on their opinions
If anyone heard me sing they'd say singing was unpatriotic. Stand respectfully, right arm extended over heart and you're certainly not disrespectful.
Where did I say I agree?
Reading comprehension issues by you.
Figures you would quickly discredit a Black man’s opinion , I’m sadly not surprised.
Normally, you post things you agree with. So, tell us what you think and if you disagree with what he's saying, I'll even apologize for jumping the gun, but if, as I suspect, you agree with him, then no apology for using common sense. And your last point is nonsensical, but that's you.
It does on the world stage in the World Cup when players are representing their country.
In this World Cup a major common denominator are teams that sing the anthem as a team.
We are talking even more liberal societies than ours. Nederlands, France, Germany.
The US Women decided to put their interests first and boycott singing but for 3-4 of them.
That’s a shame. They’ve been treated like royalty.
Hard not to compare Jamaica and USA. Both advanced to the 16. First time Jamaica was in the World Cup. Knocked out Brazil. We send 7 of the top 10 paid women athletes in the world. Jamaica on the other hand had to crowd find their team expenses because their country committee was unable to come up with the funding.
Watch Jamaica during their national anthem.
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Here is a site that supposedly details the protocol for when the anthem plays
https://starspangledflags.com/national-anthem-etiquette-what-you-should-know/
https://starspangledflags.com/national-anthem-etiquette-what-you-should-know/
I watched other videos of other countries during their anthem, and it was not universal that everyone sang the anthem.
Are you saying that every Olympics every athlete sang the anthem?
Agreed. They want the US to be like China and Russia, where patriotism is forced (and the previous POTUS would require this too, if he had his way). I couldn't give a rat's *** what our players do during the anthem - what I care about is they're playing for our country (where not everyone is forced to act the same way) and I want them to win.
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