He may have been the right person at the right time. He will be missed.
USWNT
- Thread starter soccerobserver
- Start date
NoGoal
DA
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.
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.
Bad Hombre
BRONZE
Bigger, faster, stronger...Isn't that why the Asian teams have closed the gap? Oh yeah, that's American soccer.
Dos Equis
GOLD
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.
NoGoal
DA
China's 2nd goal was sweet, reminiscent of goals scored by Barcelona back in the Xavi era.
MakeAPlay
DA
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.
NoGoal
DA
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.
soccerobserver
GOLD
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. 
A beautiful horizontal crossing run. Our girls had no idea how to defend it.
MakeAPlay
DA
I'm not a fan of communist but you have to like Xi's will to improve the country. Thank you for sharing.
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.
NoGoal
DA
Japan and now the Chinese have hired Spanish coaches. Yet, we keep on hiring the English coaches....go figure.
We did hire a German too and gave him a long rope. You would agree, not much better.
NoGoal
DA
In all fairness to Jurgen, it's not his fault a lot of English coaches train our youth players at the club level.
The parents love the British accent. It makes their wallet fly open.
Her awareness, especially being on a youth national team, should have been much greater. It seems like a lot of defenders forget that you're not just defending the goal from the ball, but where the ball can and to who it can go to as well. Those who do, I feel as though miss out a lot on ynt experience, because of size of physical lacking. There's more to soccer than that, the biggest strongest girls aren't always the best. Take Rose Lavelle, no real significant YNT experience, or any?, and easily keeps up with the other elite nations and should be a consistent starter on the team IMO. She's fast and strong, yes, but doesn't really have any significant muscle mass (take in comparison to Morgan, Lloyd, or say Short), but somehow
manages to get past defenses with her vision and technique, and knowing when to use her speed and strength. Imagine!I'm, of course, not saying that there shouldn't be a balance between technique and physicality/strength in elite players, but simply put the coaching and scouting needs to improve. I don't get into these conversations a lot, but here it is. We cannot win by just outrunning the opponents, or being more physical. France's teams all the way from the youth level to the full wnt is stacked with speedsters (we all remember the SheBelieves Cup). These girls need to be learning and understanding the game better than ever before, isn't that the whole point of a YNT in the first place?!?! Women's soccer evolves, and it's simply disappointing that it seems like we, who lead the pack and got women's soccer to where it is today, are falling behind. We have the talent.
bruinblue14
SILVER
Can't remember which age it was, but at the YNT vs Japan games at Stub Hub a few months ago, it was clear that height wasn't much of an advantage. The Japanese players were super tiny and quick in comparison to the US players. And the way they moved the ball.... phew, made it look like our girls are light years behind.
MakeAPlay
DA
Her awareness, especially being on a youth national team, should have been much greater. It seems like a lot of defenders forget that you're not just defending the goal from the ball, but where the ball can and to who it can go to as well. Those who do, I feel as though miss out a lot on ynt experience, because of size of physical lacking. There's more to soccer than that, the biggest strongest girls aren't always the best. Take Rose Lavelle, no real significant YNT experience, or any?, and easily keeps up with the other elite nations and should be a consistent starter on the team IMO. She's fast and strong, yes, but doesn't really have any significant muscle mass (take in comparison to Morgan, Lloyd, or say Short), but somehow
I'm, of course, not saying that there shouldn't be a balance between technique and physicality/strength in elite players, but simply put the coaching and scouting needs to improve. I don't get into these conversations a lot, but here it is. We cannot win by just outrunning the opponents, or being more physical. France's teams all the way from the youth level to the full wnt is stacked with speedsters (we all remember the SheBelieves Cup). These girls need to be learning and understanding the game better than ever before, isn't that the whole point of a YNT in the first place?!?! Women's soccer evolves, and it's simply disappointing that it seems like we, who lead the pack and got women's soccer to where it is today, are falling behind. We have the talent.
Rose LaVelle was a YNT player. She was on the 2014 U20 WWC team and was on the U18 WNT prior to that. I understand your point though.