MakeAPlay
DA
After reading the article, I went back and watched the US Mexico game. I though Mexico was the better side, but the US had a couple of players with some flair (Pugh and Sanchez). Other than that I did not see alot of skill, or tactical awareness. Does not bode well fro the future NT. One difference, almost all of the French and German players play in professional leagues, PSG, O. Lyon, Wolfsburg, Bayern, etc. while the US players are ether playing for some club team, or a college team. Neither one of which comes close to duplicating the experience of playing full time under top notch professional coaching.
Both Germany and France a a professional development system, for both men and women, that has consistent philosophy . Nothing of the kind here, with clubs by and large being more concerned with wins and losses than development, and colleges limited by NCAA rules. So while French's "system" of play is really just long ball, 'm not sure you can teach players the nuances of the game, after years of poor coaching.
Lastly, when I first started watching women's soccer, we used to cream Mexico. I wonder how come the Mexican team can play much better soccer, with so many players US based?
You already know the answer. It isn't that we don't have the talent pool or the technical players. It is a matter of choosing the right players and implementing a system. With attacking players like Pugh, Sanchez and Watt we don't have many excuses. The weakness that I saw was in the midfield and on defense and of course tactics. Not to mention the team was exhausted after trying to press North Korea for the first 25 minutes. That may work in college with unlimited substitutions and multiple reentry, but with 3 subs that just doesn't work well.