USWNT

NG, that is interesting for sure...the tape is not lying...but what do you make of the fact that she won the Herman Award in college and still is the all time leading scorer in the history of Stanford and was Rookie of the year in one of the women's leagues???...Maybe these drills are not capturing the whole picture...
 
NG, that is interesting for sure...the tape is not lying...but what do you make of the fact that she won the Herman Award in college and still is the all time leading scorer in the history of Stanford and was Rookie of the year in one of the women's leagues???...Maybe these drills are not capturing the whole picture...
IDK what to make of it. I thought Press was more technical than that and left dumbfounded. My guess is she is more athletic than I thought she was.

Now I see why the US WNT can't play possession attacking soccer.
 
IDK what to make of it. I thought Press was more technical than that and left dumbfounded. My guess is she is more athletic than I thought she was.

Now I see why the US WNT can't play possession attacking soccer.

Press has nifty tricks for sure but what does she do in games against top level defenders? To me that is what defines a great striker.
 
Maybe (actually I am pretty sure) her touch has evolved tremendously over the past 4-5 years. I would definitely say she is one of the least athletic players on a team that defines its style of play as athletic though.


@ 1:05 was one of her best goals IMO even given that it was against a low, low level team.

With Whitney Engen, well she was never really a star/large/big time player for the team, even though she was in the pool a very long time.

But back to Press, to me, she's always seemed like an on or off player, kind of like how one could say about Carli Lloyd. She has her big moments (for Carli, it was the WWC for Press it's smaller big moments big goals creative moves etc) and then it seems like other times she's barely impacted the game or even worse shouldn't be in the game. I think the latter applies more so to current Carli Lloyd IMHO and previous Christen Press because I'm starting to see a better and better Press who's more consistent and simply better all round in her creativity, playing with her back to goal, etc. In fact, I would say, and even before she started noticeably improving IMO, that she tries to make up for her lack in physical ability in technical prowess, however, especially before, there is only so much she can do without being more athletic, and I think that's why she's had such a difficult time beating the other USWNT strikers for starting spots and time.
 
Maybe (actually I am pretty sure) her touch has evolved tremendously over the past 4-5 years. I would definitely say she is one of the least athletic players on a team that defines its style of play as athletic though.


@ 1:05 was one of her best goals IMO even given that it was against a low, low level team.

With Whitney Engen, well she was never really a star/large/big time player for the team, even though she was in the pool a very long time.

But back to Press, to me, she's always seemed like an on or off player, kind of like how one could say about Carli Lloyd. She has her big moments (for Carli, it was the WWC for Press it's smaller big moments big goals creative moves etc) and then it seems like other times she's barely impacted the game or even worse shouldn't be in the game. I think the latter applies more so to current Carli Lloyd IMHO and previous Christen Press because I'm starting to see a better and better Press who's more consistent and simply better all round in her creativity, playing with her back to goal, etc. In fact, I would say, and even before she started noticeably improving IMO, that she tries to make up for her lack in physical ability in technical prowess, however, especially before, there is only so much she can do without being more athletic, and I think that's why she's had such a difficult time beating the other USWNT strikers for starting spots and time.
PSP, Those were some
Spectacular goals thanks for posting !
 
Maybe (actually I am pretty sure) her touch has evolved tremendously over the past 4-5 years. I would definitely say she is one of the least athletic players on a team that defines its style of play as athletic though.


@ 1:05 was one of her best goals IMO even given that it was against a low, low level team.

With Whitney Engen, well she was never really a star/large/big time player for the team, even though she was in the pool a very long time.

But back to Press, to me, she's always seemed like an on or off player, kind of like how one could say about Carli Lloyd. She has her big moments (for Carli, it was the WWC for Press it's smaller big moments big goals creative moves etc) and then it seems like other times she's barely impacted the game or even worse shouldn't be in the game. I think the latter applies more so to current Carli Lloyd IMHO and previous Christen Press because I'm starting to see a better and better Press who's more consistent and simply better all round in her creativity, playing with her back to goal, etc. In fact, I would say, and even before she started noticeably improving IMO, that she tries to make up for her lack in physical ability in technical prowess, however, especially before, there is only so much she can do without being more athletic, and I think that's why she's had such a difficult time beating the other USWNT strikers for starting spots and time.
Being a great ball striker doesn't mean she is technically great. Sure she could have improved her skills the last 4-5 years, but she was already in her early 20s. Meaning she isn't a natural with the ball. I relate it to golf, being great ball striker with your driver and iron play, doesn't mean your great around the greens or putting.
 
China is now beating our YNT.
http://sports.qq.com/kbsweb/kbsshare/game.htm?mid=100002:15181

1st half and 2nd half game are located on the bottom of the page. Click and scroll back up to play. A new window will not open.

Embarassing ball-watching by our defense, and some heads up runs and simple passes by the Chinese, result in 4 of their goals. We can no longer rely on athleticism and individual talent to overcome poor coaching, and we need to stop selecting players based solely on their ability to play 1v1 soccer in the US Soccer "scrimmages" masquerading as tryouts and training sessions. Clearly, nothing is changing.
 
Embarassing ball-watching by our defense, and some heads up runs and simple passes by the Chinese, result in 4 of their goals. We can no longer rely on athleticism and individual talent to overcome poor coaching, and we need to stop selecting players based solely on their ability to play 1v1 soccer in the US Soccer "scrimmages" masquerading as tryouts and training sessions. Clearly, nothing is changing.
China's 2nd goal was sweet, reminiscent of goals scored by Barcelona back in the Xavi era.
 
We do not want to awaken the sleeping dragon. With 1.2 billion people if they start liking the taste of success we might never catch up again.
I liked that China played a 4-2-3-1 formation. A lot of Euro men pro teams play the formation and not an often used formation in the womens game.
 
China is now beating our YNT.
http://sports.qq.com/kbsweb/kbsshare/game.htm?mid=100002:15181

1st half and 2nd half game are located on the bottom of the page. Click and scroll back up to play. A new window will not open.[/QUOT
We do not want to awaken the sleeping dragon. With 1.2 billion people if they start liking the taste of success we might never catch up again.
MAP you are correct but I would add it's already underway. China's President is a huge soccer fan. China has the world's largest soccer boarding school-Named " Evergrande " staffed with a bunch of Spanish coaches as the non-Chinese name of the school implies. President Xi wants to have something like 50,000 schools with strong soccer programs by 2025.

For those who are curious and interested here is an overview of their long range plan: https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/01/04/world/asia/china-soccer-xi-jinping.html
 
Wow, that right back for the US on the last goal had a terrible sequence. First, her bad positioning holds the Chinese striker on side. Then she stops and (wrongly) signals off side for the ref while the girl she was supposed to be guarding slips right past her for the easy goal. upload_2017-7-17_15-7-19.png
 
MAP you are correct but I would add it's already underway. China's President is a huge soccer fan. China has the world's largest soccer boarding school-Named " Evergrande " staffed with a bunch of Spanish coaches as the non-Chinese name of the school implies. President Xi wants to have something like 50,000 schools with strong soccer programs by 2025.

For those who are curious and interested here is an overview of their long range plan: https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/01/04/world/asia/china-soccer-xi-jinping.html

I'm not a fan of communist but you have to like Xi's will to improve the country. Thank you for sharing.
 
Bigger, faster, stronger...Isn't that why the Asian teams have closed the gap? Oh yeah, that's American soccer.
Funny, a player that a few of us on this board know quite well was told in PNG at last years U20 WC that she was too small to play in the midfield by our tool of a coach as Japan and North Korea ran our asses of the pitch. It would appear that nothing has changed.
 
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