Women's World Cup Thread

[Moranis]

Started today. Being cohosted by New Zealand and Australia.  Both won their opening match 1-0, with NZ bearing Norway and Aus beating Ireland.  The US opens with Vietnam tomorrow night at 9pm eastern (which is of course saturday morning local time).  Canada plays tonight at 1030pm eastern.  So Americans will get 2 very early morning games and one night game most days.  The US plays Netherlands at 9 pm on 7-26 and then the final games in group, the US plays Portugal at 3 am on 8-1.

Always interesting watching events on the other side of the world with the timing.

[RJ87]

The timing of this is going to be a doozy, but I don't usually miss WWC games (not even the 4am/5am ones).

[gouki88]

The timing of this is going to be a doozy, but I don't usually miss WWC games (not even the 4am/5am ones).

Welcome to the nightmare that is global sports meeting Antipodean timezones

[ozgod]

The timing of this is going to be a doozy, but I don't usually miss WWC games (not even the 4am/5am ones).

Welcome to the nightmare that is global sports meeting Antipodean timezones

Got to see a replay of your countrywomen beat Ireland without Samantha Kerr, was great to see that stadium Australia again, I remember watching the Olympic soccer final there in 2000 when I lived in Sydney (the only thing I could get tickets to  ).

I did see a few rugby games there too, it’s a beautiful stadium though the toilets were just one long trough against the wall where everyone jammed in shoulder to shoulder to have a wee during halftime. Definitely just keep your eyes straight ahead while doing your business and hope the inebriated people next to you had good aim 

[gouki88]

The timing of this is going to be a doozy, but I don't usually miss WWC games (not even the 4am/5am ones).

Welcome to the nightmare that is global sports meeting Antipodean timezones

Got to see a replay of your countrywomen beat Ireland without Samantha Kerr, was great to see that stadium Australia again, I remember watching the Olympic soccer final there in 2000 when I lived in Sydney (the only thing I could get tickets to  ).

I did see a few rugby games there too, it’s a beautiful stadium though the toilets were just one long trough against the wall where everyone jammed in shoulder to shoulder to have a wee during halftime. Definitely just keep your eyes straight ahead while doing your business and hope the inebriated people next to you had good aim 

That is (for better or worse) a quite uniform experience at our sporting stadium toilets. The MCG is the worst - a busy game of 80,000-90,000 people all going to the toilet simultaneously…

[Moranis]

US set to go in about 10 minutes.  Trinity Rodman is in the starting lineup. Her first World Cup. 

[boscel33]

I didn't catch any of the USWNT match, but I hear the lineup was questionable, think the tweet I read was it could backfire.

Anyone who watched shed any light?

[Moranis]

It was the first time the 11 had played together. The lineup had some players in weird spots. For example, Ertz started at center back.  She hasn't played that position in 4 years and has barely played competitive soccer the last 2 (but he wanted her experience after the regular pulled out with inury just before the Cup).

They seemed to lack cohesion as they had 28 shots and hit just 3.  Morgan even missed a penalty. 

Sloppy start, but if they figure it out, they could just steamroll everyone as the talent is immense though is very young. They need better cohesion if they are going to win the thing though, so it was a risky lineup.  Against Vietnam it just didn't matter though.

[Moranis]

Sloppy start for US as they were down 1-0 at the half, but they've come out firing in the 2nd half.  It is now 1-1 and they nearly had their 2nd, but Morgan was offside.  Great game if you are up still.

[Moranis]

Draw for US.  Dominant 2nd half, but could only get the 1 goal.  Probably a bit lucky they only gave up the 1 in the first half.  A game of two very different halves.

[ozgod]

Draw for US.  Dominant 2nd half, but could only get the 1 goal.  Probably a bit lucky they only gave up the 1 in the first half.  A game of two very different halves.

The Dutch clogged up passing lanes in midfield with their 3-5-2 in the first half but after the US made an adjustment by subbing in Lavelle for DeMelo they were able to get behind the Dutch a lot more frequently and they were basically carving them up, just couldn't score that winner despite applying a ton of pressure. I think they've got a great chance of going through, but Portugal will probably park the bus in front of the goal and it's always tough to score when teams do that. Both Holland and the US basically have to win and the Dutch need to have a greater than 2 goal differential to finish first.

[boscel33]

This USWNT just doesn't have that dominant feel that others did.  maybe it's because they lost a couple of key players leading up, but I think it will be surprising to see them make the final let alone win it. 

[RJ87]

At this point, I'm really not understanding why Rose Lavelle isn't starting. She's a game changer. I know she's on a minutes restriction, but I'd rather her help get us off to a good start than playing from behind. If we're not going to start with her, than we should start out with another defender so we can get Ertz back into the midfield full-time. We can't maintain possession against a solid midfield - you can get away with that against teams like Vietnam, but the Netherlands showed that's a red flag.

Vlatko only using 1 sub in last night's game is a head scratcher and his answers about why in the postgame were nonsense. Lynn Williams hasn't seen any playing time through 2 games. She's traditionally dominated the Netherlands but she can't get any time in a game we need energy in? It's like he forgot how to coach once he got the national job, not that he was great at club level but he was better than this. The 2019 team was so talented we won despite his mistakes, I don't know if that's the case this time around. Too many key injuries.

[Moranis]

Interesting matches last night.  US eeks it out with a draw to advance as the runner up to the Dutch.  Goal scoring has been an issue for the Americans. 

[RJ87]

Interesting matches last night.  US eeks it out with a draw to advance as the runner up to the Dutch.  Goal scoring has been an issue for the Americans.

Trinity Rodman and Sophia Smith are very talented strikers but neither are really great passers - which is understandable because neither of them are asked to do it on the club level. But both are young so they likely will improve as they get reps with the national team. Vlatko used Williams a game too late. To her credit, Alex Morgan as taken on more of a facilitating role and has had some great passes this tournament, but it's not what she does best. You'd think Vlatko would recognize this and make adjustments, but he's too busy watching his iPad during the game. We had success with the 4-2-3-1 formation during the run up to the WWC, but he's completely abandoned for some unknown reason.

How some folks around here feel about Mazzulla is how I feel about Vlatko.

Sweden is going to be tough. No Lavelle due to suspension. I could see us getting bounced.