Wednesday, August 6, 2008

U.S. versus Norway

What a nightmare start for the U.S. women.

I'm not covering the U.S. games for articles, because my assignment is to report on the other teams in the tournament (North Korea just missed a PK), but I do have the U.S. game on in the background.

Unfortunately for the U.S. the jitters of starting the match were fatal. Norway took advantage and scored twice in the first ten minutes. The U.S. hasn't been able to get on the board yet.

57 - Kai with a cross that gets cut off. At least the U.S. is showing a little more on the attack. Norway is definitely getting the job done at this point.
59 - ARod is in for Tarpley, but she's seen little of the ball and has been unable to make an impact.
61 - Kai in the box, but her awkward shot is high.
62 - O'Reilly with an outside shot - high.
64 - Lloyd from just outside the box, but the strike has little bite.
67 - Good U.S. build-up, but Kai's final shot is a bit weak.
68 - Kaurin comes out for Knutsen
72 - CK for the U.S.
73 - Lloyd plays it short and then the U.S. gets a great cross - that absolutely no one touches.
74 - Solo with a save on the other end. Outlet reaches Kai in the box, but she can't get a good strike off.
75 - US FK. Lloyd sends it in but Norway clears.
77 - Cox is out, and the player I've been waiting for, Tobin Heath, is in. Tobin may not be able to change the game, but she's fun to watch.
80 - Lloyd with a double chance in the box, but she's a bit unlucky with the shot hitting the goalkeeper both times.
81 - Norway FK. It's cleared away with some difficulty by the U.S.
87 - Boxx from the outside, rebound cleared for a corner. Norway clears it.
90 - Well, this could be a wake-up call or a death knell for the U.S. team's hopes. It's only group play, but the margin for error is now nil.
90 + Hucles with a good shot, forces a parry out for a corner. Norway clears that. Lloyd with another outside shot - this one bends just wide.
Final Whistle.


23 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought Hope solo could make those saves...

truth said...

So much for all those people who said we'd be so much better without Abby Wambach.

Anonymous said...

I'll vote for a wake-up call, as the long undefeated string (and any resulting overconfidence) is now past. The US must take the next two games very seriously, but both are very winnable. We'll still advance, and when the KO rounds arrive, we should realize that we have to be on guard for the entire 90/120 minutes.

Anonymous said...

I'll just assume that anonymous doesn't know anything about women's soccer.

Hope is the best goalkeeper in the world.... by a good amount.

Anonymous said...

phillip, hey genius. Find out what anon was referring to before you make comments...

Anonymous said...

I know what he/she was referring to.

Scurry would still be in her wheelchair roaming around the sidelines aimlessly.

ghostwriter said...

Yikes! Team looked pretty out of sync in the first half. Lot's of passes to nobody, hold over long ball. Neither Kai nor Hucles seemed to be able to get a good first touch on much of anything. Probably a bad choice for Hope to come out and challenge on the first goal. She was late, didn't get anything but Chulupny's head and the ball looped up over her and in. 2nd goal was just an AWFUL play by Margraff hitting a blind back ball toward her own goal under pressure right on to the foot of a breaking opponent when she could just as easily have kicked it out of touch. A play anyone who's ever been her coach wailed out loud on when she did it. The resulting shot was high in the side netting. Not sure if Hope got out far enough on the angle but the Norweigan had time enough to chip her if she committed too early, so somebody more astute than I am would need to make that call. Bad bad play from the D and a great shot.

The only US player who looked good was Mitts. She made some nice runs down the wing from her right back spot and created some pressure. Lloyd and Hucles had a nice one-two in the box, but Angela leaned back a bit and shot it wide and high at the far post. Margraff (or somebody) also had a great strike from outside that had the Norse goddess who was playing goal for Norway flying in reaction. Had the ball been a couple feet lower, her leap would not have sufficed. Alas, not to be.

Didn't see the second half, but they really will need to pick it up from here on in or they'll cost Pia her job playing like this. I'd like to see Pia go with the kids: Heath and A-Rod all day every day.

Anybody know how bad Chalupny is hurt? Concussion?

rtt281 said...

I just don't know...

They picked it up in the second half, but then again, they had to. With Norway packing in the defense they couldn't get but a few good chances.
I don't have deep technical knowledge of strategy, but to me they looked poor on corners and crosses. Seemd without Abby to draw defenders, they weren't sure where space would open for someone to run into. That's not a good sign I beleive.
Also I wonder about starting Hucles up top. She's played very well recently yes, but overall forward is not what she's used to and she was nowhere today. Plus the team looked slower - perhaps cause the first 5 took the air out from them.
I love Heath's skills also, but I think down 2 she can't get the freedom she needs to create. I might try starting her in midfield and Tarp or A-Rod up top.
Mitts was good - they looked to be testing her and she met the challenge. HAO also was working hard and did some good things, but Norway did a good job of sealing her off.
Chupa is my fave - I hope she's OK.

Boy I said a lot for someone who doesn't know much :)

Joseph D'Hippolito said...

BTW, a.c. and l.b., did you know that something is wrong w/your site? Apparently, the screen cuts off after the post entitled, "Glitch." No previous posts are available; neither are any comments for "Glitch."

Anonymous said...

This may have been the best thing that could happen to this team. Now they know what they need to do. I'm betting they don't lose again.

Anonymous said...

"You know the kind of team that does nothing but bad things and wonders why the team sucks, well thats team usa. Everytime something good happened to them, somethin bad was always waiting around the corner. Karma. Thats when they realized they had to change. So they made a list of everything bad they ever done to Hope Solo and one by one they are gonna make up for their mistakes. They're just trying to be a better team.

My name Earl Wambach."

Anonymous said...

Somebody beat me to it. Yeah, I'm having trouble with the website also.

A.C. said...

Those who have been having trouble with the website - do you have Internet Explorer? IE has been having trouble with our blog, even though he haven't changed the code. Try another browser and see if it works. Firefox seems to display us fine.

rtt281 said...

I was using IE at work earlier and could not see the whole page. Now I'm home on a Mac and it looks fine in Safari.

Anyone hear about Chalupny?

Anonymous said...

Everybody has Explorer. Do we have to download and run this Foxfire from now on? I don't have loads of space on my computer. Can you fix your site? Please? :-)

xoxoxo
Bofo's Sister

Anonymous said...

Man, at least leave initials. Too many anonymouses to reference, but the Earl Wambaugh guy, did you graduate high school?

A.C. said...

We're not trying to make things tough for our readers, but the reason this blog is on the Blogger platform is that we don't know a lot about coding. So we can't fix whatever Explorer is having a problem with because we don't know what it is. I've tried different things today, including removing the sitemeter that tracks our page views. Nothing has worked, but only Internet Explorer has a problem. Netscape, Safari, Opera, Firefox - they're all fine with our site.
Last time this happened. IE just eventually fixed itself. Keep checking back and hopefully that will happen again.

Anonymous said...

by the way, did anyone notice how foggy (i.e. smoggy) the field looked?

amazing.

bfos said...

Haha! Karma came back to get Amby, and now it gets the rest of the team!

All of that sorority team-building BS really meant a lot, didn't it? Maybe they'll stop pretending this is a club and play the dang game.

ghostwriter said...

This is just a pretty young, pretty inexperienced team (without a closer) that's just trying a bit too hard all the way around. Even Hope looks a bit that way, maybe a bit too "conscious" (those of you who've played goal in one sport or another will understand).

They need to relax, let the game come to them a bit, and do what they can do. Somebody will step up.

Anybody else think they might profitably switch to a 4-5-1alignment, adding Tobin in midfield to both clog that area up and look for quick counters off them? Particularly if Lori does not return at left back.

And, btw, if I haven't said it before: Karma Shmarma... maybe they all (or at least those 7 who were involved at WC) will come back in another life as warthogs, garden toads, or dung beetles, but Karma's got not a damn thing to do with the present...

ghostwriter said...

Too much editing. My hope for the 4-5-1 is clog, GET TURNOVERS and counter. Left out the middle step...

Anonymous said...

Don't ever dismiss Karma! Ask Earl.

BTW, I use IE & have had no problems with your site A.C.

Anonymous said...

O.K., now I see what Joseph means, no posts after the post titled "Glitch" & no comments for Glitch either.

Other than that, all seems fine?