Soccer in the United States - A Fan's Perspective (Post 2026 World Cup Exit)

What's wrong with the USMNT.

I say that not with a question mark but with a period because I know. I know what's wrong with the USMNT.

The problem is...

You know what? Before I tell you what's wrong, let's back up a little.

As I'm writing this, it's been just a few days since the United States Men's National Team exited the stage that is the FIFA World Cup with a 4-1 defeat to Belgium in the Round of 16 in Seattle. I would say that it's because I didn't want to write my immediate emotions, but I was atypically calm about the entire game. I do like to do some research though and the past few days have provided that chance. 

The USMNT won their group stage after just their second game, winning both of their first two group stage games against Paraguay (a 4-1 victory in Los Angeles) and Australia (a 2-nil victory in Seattle) before losing to Turkiye (a 3-2 loss back in L.A.) while resting most of their starters. The US then played Bosnia and Herzogovina, getting a 2-nil victory in the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium. 

In that game against Bosnia and Herzogovina, USMNT player Folarin Balogun was issued a red card based on a VAR review of a moment between Balogun and Muharemović which determined that Balogun's inadvertent stepping on Muharemović's ankle was a reckless challenge. The USMNT played the final 26' + 11' of stoppage time down a man, but extended their lead from 1-nil before Balogun's ejection to 2-nil on a magical free kick by Tillman from just outside the penalty area. 

In the ensuing days, people discussed whether it was or wasn't a red card, could the USMNT appeal the card or not, and generally is VAR helping or hindering the sport these days. There seemed to be a general consensus from the broadcast personnel and their "Soccer Rules Analysts" that VAR likely broke protocol by showing Brazilian official Raphael Claus the still images of the exchange between Balogun and Muharemović before showing the full speed exchange. So Belgium and USMNT players prepared for their game without Balogun. Until Sunday, when it was announced that his red card would be suspended for the game with a 1-year probation period to follow. Rumors and reports followed consisting of the President of the United States making a call to FIFA President Infantino to look into the red card. Suddenly, and surprisingly, the USMNT's top scorer was back in play.

Belgium then went out and bossed the USMNT all over the field, getting their first goal just 9 minutes into the first half. The USMNT would claw one back in the 31st minute, again from a Tillman free kick, only to concede minutes later to go back down. Mauricio Pochettino had tried to change the momentum by making a substitution at halftime, but to only moderate and temporary success. Belgium would add a third goal in the second half on a spectacular mistake from USMNT GK Freese, and would then tack on a fourth in stoppage time from second half substitute Lukaku just for good measure, emphatically putting an exclamation point on the domination of the game. Christian Pulisic left the game minutes after Belgium's third goal with a leg injury (now reported as a bone bruise and microfracture).

Which is where we find ourselves today. Talking about a USMNT that, once again, made it to the Round of 16 but no further. 

So what's wrong with the USMNT?

If you've listened to the talking heads (including many former players) and the internet, everything. I've heard:

• Pulisic didn't step up. As "Captain America," people expected more from him. He needed to play injured.
• Pochettino didn't select or play the right players and/or didn't make the right tactical decisions, including his decision to not play the starters in the third group stage game.
• Balogun's red card was a distraction.
• The President of the United States messed with the soccer gods and karma struck back immediately.
• This "golden generation" of soccer players for the USMNT just don't have the fight, the mentality to compete against the top teams in the world.
• The US wasn't sufficiently tested in the lead-up to the World Cup because they were automatic qualifiers.
• The United States' youth development program is a shambles and worthless.
• The United States doesn't have its best athletes playing soccer, they're playing other sports like football, basketball, baseball...
• We call it soccer instead of football.
• We don't have promotion/relegation in the country.
• Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

The answer to what's wrong with the USMNT. It's really easy. 

NOBODY REALLY F**KING KNOWS!

Why would I know the answer? I'm just a guy who writes about his local club for the past baker's dozen years, but has played the game, refereed the game, coached the game (albeit to little kids), watched the game, and discussed the game for nearly the entirety of my life. So I do have some thoughts.

Maybe it's a little bit of all those things in that list. Maybe not, and in some cases, probably or definitely not. It takes some legit mental gymnastics to buy into the "best athletes are playing other sports" thing when arguably one of the greatest to ever play the game is 5'-7" and 150 lbs. Messi doesn't fit the "best athletes" physique those folks have in mind, but there's no denying his ability, skill, and instinct around the goal. The karma thing could be real though. As we like to say in America for other sports, "ball don't lie." Getting politicians involved messed with the karma. I have sports superstitions so I can buy into that one.

Maybe it's as simple as the United States played a bad game against a good team at the wrong time and they were beaten. Having lost to Belgium earlier this year, albeit with some slightly different players, lends credit to the fact that maybe the USMNT just didn't match up well against this Belgium team.

Maybe Belgium took the momentum from their late comeback win against Senegal and the anger/frustration about the Balogun reinstatement and used it all as fuel to play the kind of soccer a Top 10 ranked team can play despite having some struggles in the group stage.

Maybe, and I'm just spit balling here, maybe it's really difficult to win in world soccer. 

Maybe, just maybe, the top teams in the world are the top teams in the world for a reason. Maybe they've just been able to pull all the right strings together to get the right resources with the right players at the right time with the right culture to consistently win games. Maybe that's not easy to duplicate even with some number of any of those factors aligning for other countries.

The World Cup has been played 22 times before this iteration. Eight (8) countries have won it. Eight. 

• Brazil (5 - 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002)
• Germany (4 - 1954, 1974, 1990, 2014)
• Italy (4 - 1934, 1938, 1982, 2006)
• Argentina (3 - 1978, 1986, 2022)
• France (2 - 1998, 2018)
• Uruguay (2 - 1930, 1950)
• England (1 - 1966)
• Spain (1 - 2010)
• And only 5 other countries have ever made the final game (Netherlands runners-up 3 times, Hungary 2 times, Czechoslovakia 2 times, and Sweden and Croatia 1 time each)

Let's look at this another way. Looking at the official FIFA rankings from June 11th, right before the start of the World Cup, 30 of the top 34 teams in the world made it into the expanded field of 48, with only Italy (ranked 12th), Denmark (21st), Nigeria (26th), and Ukraine (32nd) not making it into the tournament. There were 6 additional teams inside the top 50 of the rankings, with the final 12 teams consisting of teams at a ranking of 50 or higher (Uzbekistan at 50 up to New Zealand at 85). For refence, the United States came into the tournament ranked at 17th.

Digressing slightly, Italy is a four-time winner and didn't even make it into the field. Since they won in 2006, they've exited the tournament twice in the group stage, and haven't qualified the past 3 tournaments. Germany is also a four-time winner and after winning it in 2014 didn't make it out of the group stage in 2018 or 2022 and lost in the Round of 32 this year. And US fans were upset about missing the 2018 tournament...

Back to my larger point, in the Round of 32, there were four teams that were ranked in the Top 32 that didn't advance: Uruguay (16th), Iran (20th), Turkiye (22nd), and South Korea (25th). So those four plus the four that didn't even make the tournament, otherwise 24 of the 32 positions were filled by countries that were ranked in those positions pre-tournament. The other 8 positions in the Round of 32 were rounded out by teams ranging from the Ivory Coast (33rd) to Ghana (73rd). 

Favorites vs Underdogs Results

The Round of 16 was filled by 10 teams that were ranked in the Top 16. The United States (17th), Switzerland (19th), Egypt (29th), Canada (30th), Norway (31st), and Paraguay (41st) made it into the Round of 16 from outside the Top 16 rankings. 

Of the Round of 32 games, only Paraguay's win over Germany (9th) was from a team with a lower ranking. From the Round of 16 games, only Norway's (31st) win over Brazil (6th) and Switzerland's (19th) win over Columbia (13th) were games with wins by the lower ranked team. 15 of the 16 Round of 32 games were won by the higher ranked team, and 6 of the 8 Round of 16 games were won by the higher ranked team. The above image was created before the France/Morocco game, but that one also was won by the higher ranked team, France.

As we like to say here in Indiana during the NCAA March Madness tournament, this World Cup is "going chalk." The higher seeded teams are generally winning when they need to win. Sure, there have been some amazing games. Argentina has been pushed to the brink twice by significant "underdogs." England v Mexico is probably still my favorite game of the tournament so far. But the higher seed has prevailed most of the time.

The United States (17th) played to chalk too. They beat a Paraguay (41st) team 24 spots behind them. Chalk. 

They beat an Australian (27th) team ten spots behind them. Chalk. 

They lost to a Turkiye (22nd) team five spots behind them in the rankings after conceding a 90'+8' goal. So they nearly got a draw from that game with a highly rotated squad. Almost Chalk. 

They beat Bosnia and Herzegovina (64th) despite being a man down for a significant portion of the second half and stoppage time. Chalk. 

The lost to Belgium (9th). Chalk.

Like most USMNT fans, I was disappointed and frustrated at the loss on Monday night to Belgium. "It's the hope that kills you," right? I let myself get excited for the "why not US" propaganda that FOX has been feeding us because of how well the US was playing in the early games of the group stage and that they overcame the struggle of the red card to still advance. Like most soccer fans in this country, I wanted to see them get over the Round of 16 hump, but it just didn't happen. However, I didn't feel like the sky was falling Monday night and I still don't think the sky is falling today. I think the USMNT got outplayed by a better team, which has been a theme for much of this tournament. Cape Verde gave Argentina as much as they could handle, and Egypt did the same until Argentina's class finally kicked in in the 79th minute, but with only a couple of exceptions, the world class teams have come through each time in this World Cup.

So where does that put us as it relates to the USMNT?

Last year, I wrote an article about my local club, Indy Eleven, where I discussed Expectations versus Reality. With very little effort, what I wrote about Indy Eleven can apply to the USMNT, so I'll reiterate it here with the appropriate edits:

I have had versions of this conversation over the years with various people, but the following quote has been the most eloquent way I have heard to say it: "Conflict arises when expectations exceed reality."

There's an expectation that Indy the USMNT is one of the top clubs teams in the league world. As a result, there is an expectation that Indy the USMNT should be consistently at the top of the standings and winning most of their games. When that doesn't happen, people want to blame the coaches or the players or any number of reasons for them not meeting the expectation. The reality is that Indy (not counting the USL W league team or the Academy teams)  the USMNT has only had a modicum of success, spread out over just a few seasons in the twelve-year history of the team tournaments. Indy The USMNT have a history of expectations exceeding reality. While this year's team is underperforming based on last year's results, t The reality is that they're right where history has told us this team will be: 

With the exception of the 2018 World Cup that the US didn't qualify to play in, the team has only not made it out of the group stage once since their quarterfinal run in 2002 (exited in the group stage in 2006), and have been a consistent fixture in the Round of 16 (4 out of 4 times they've been in the tournament). The expectation was that they should be progressing further than their predecessors because they're the "golden generation," the best the United States has ever fielded. The reality is that while this team improved, they're not the only ones. It's not a stagnant finish line that they're chasing. The other countries in the world have a say in this too.

So where does the USMNT go from here? Tuesday was officially Day 1 of the next World Cup cycle. 

Will Pochettino be around? His contract with the USMNT has expired but the US Soccer Federation has offered him an extension through the 2030 World Cup. Whether he takes it or moves on is still to be determined.  

What players from this team continue to be part of it? The average age of the team was 26-years old so there are clearly some players who will be age eligible to continue their time on the team. At 38 years old now, Tim Ream is, likely, not one of those players, but nobody thought he would be there this time. Cristian Roldan will be 35 years old so maybe he's not in the mix either. Matt Turner will be 36, but goalkeepers age differently in this sport so he might be a possibility, but he wasn't even the starter for this World Cup. After that though, every other single player on this roster will be in their late 20s or early 30s. 

I can hear some of you now, get rid of all of them. Why would we keep trying to use players that can't get it done? "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Because until some players step up and displace them, they were determined by Pochettino to be the best (or healthiest at the selection time) available. As I argued in my earlier Expectations vs Reality article for Indy Eleven, the USMNT have talented players. Saying they don't is foolish and you're basing your opinion on the last result, which for 47 of the 48 teams in this tournament will not be as World Cup winners. When healthy, Pulisic is still a dynamic player. In the first two games, Weston McKennie was the engine that drove the team. Tyler Adams covers a lot of mistakes that others make. Freeman, Tillman, Balogun. All of those players deserve to make a case for themselves, and I think they will all continue to be part of the team for the foreseeable future. Whether that extends to 2030 will be dependent on who steps in, steps up, and takes their positions from them.

I don't think he was fully healthy, but I think there's going to be a place on the team for a guy like Diego Luna. He's fearless, which can be enough to unsettle opposing defenders. Much like Emma Hayes has done for the USWNT, the early stages of this new World Cup cycle should be met with bringing in a lot of players from wherever they can find them. At one point last year, Hayes had given 32 players their first cap. The old guard is starting to give way to the new guard, and I know there are players around the country (or playing in other countries) that deserve the chance. I just assume that the men's team's old guard aren't quite ready to concede their positions yet. 

Though given the vitriol I've seen towards some of them lately, I don't know why they would want to continue to put themselves through this shit. It's a lot of fans' prerogative, but if you're an American wanting them to fail, then you and I are on different wavelengths on what we think is good for the sport. 

Which gets me to my final point.

Go support soccer. Call it soccer if you want. Call it football if you want. Find a team, preferably local because there are plenty of them at all levels of the US Soccer pyramid, and go to games. Watch games on television or the internet. Find a foreign club if that works for you (I support Motherwell in the Scottish Premiership).

Some of you may have found soccer for the first time in any real way with this World Cup. Welcome. Welcome to the madness. Try to not let some of the gatekeepers hold you back. If you have questions about the game, there's somebody, not a gatekeeper, who is more than willing to share their knowledge with you about the game. To talk about the game. To laugh and cry about the game. 

I've explained it a few times on this site over the years about how I arrived at the name of my site, the Game Beckons, but I'll summarize it again here.

I had reread Finding the Game: Three Years, Twenty-five Countries, and the Search for Pickup Soccer, by Gwendolyn Oxenham and watched the companion documentary Pelada, when I was thinking about names for my site. I remembered a quote from Luke when they were in Marseille, France, when Gwendolyn writes the exchange in the book (the same exchange occurs in the film):

"Five or six games stretch across the park. We stand there watching, weighing, still wondering whether or not the jersey once belonged to Drogba. A ball skips towards us. Luke takes off after it and volleys it back. He's quiet for a second. Then he says, "When the ball comes toward me, I consider the game beckoning me - the game wants me."

There's another point in the book where Gwendolyn writes about an exchange while they were in Italy talking to a writer, Cristiano, who reads from his own book and then helps them understand his meaning (emphasis mine):

"He pours us grappa and translates the meaning, hands gesturing, "It is a story about an old man who imagines what he'll say to his grandson...that there is a god for the soccer fields, a kind of magic. Not the big ones - the small ones in the provinces." Head cocked to the side, he smiles, shyly like he's telling us something personal, emotional: "Soccer will give you much more than you can give it."

Soccer in the United States is going to be fine. It might not be the meteoric rise that some would like of it, but the USMNT will get better. I believe they will eventually make it beyond the Round of 16 again. They might also not qualify again. Germany and Italy have proven how hard qualifying and performing in the World Cup can be. 

I, personally, believe that the USMNT will get better. But I plan to be here either way.   

If the World Cup beckoned to you, enjoy it. As somebody who has continued to have the game beckon to me for the past 50 years, I agree with Luke and Cristiano. The game will beckon you and it will give you more than you give it. That I can promise you is true.

USMNT vs USWNT

This image was introduced this week ahead of the USMNT's game against Brazil, where Jozy Altidore has the possibility to join a very distinguished group of players to reach the 30 goal milestone. What's not included in the graphic is that McBride only played three more games and didn't score another goal (95 C / 30 G); Wynalda only scored 4 more goals in his next 23 caps (106 C / 34 G); Dempsey can still add to his total, but currently sits at 48 goals and 119 caps; while Landon reached 57 goals in 157 caps.

This is where I segue into a post that I've had in my head for awhile.  Landon scored nearly 60 goals for the USMNT, but that would barely crack him into the Top 10 for the USWNT, where Abby Wambach has tripled Landon's total and currently sits at 184 goals in 251 caps. Landon would be just behind Shannon MacMillan (176 C / 60 C) and right before Carin Gabarra (117 C / 53 G). If (when) Jozy gets goal number 30, that would put him in a tie for 17th place with Brandi Chastain (192 C / 30 G), albeit at a much higher rate than Brandi.

Statistics Sorted by Goals (first MNT player highlighted)

Put another way, the Top 5 USMNT goalscorers only have 15 more goals COMBINED than Abby. It's not just a function of caps either (though I'll get to that in a minute) because Abby has scored at a rate of 0.7331 goal/cap, while Dempsey leads the top men goalscorers with a 0.4034 goal/cap. What differentiates Landon from the other top USMNT scorers was his ability to also provide assists to his teammates (LD had 58 assist and Cobi Jones finished in 2nd with 22 assists) giving him a 1.0955 points/cap.  Landon would finish in 5th place in the Pt/Cap category of the Top 5 USWNT goalscorers and there are other USWNT scorers further down the list that have higher pt/cap totals, notably Alex Morgan at 1.5109 pt/cap (92 C / 53 G / 33 A) and April Heinrichs at 1.7609 pt/cap (46 C / 35 G / 11 A).

Statistics Sorted by Pt/Cap (first MNT player highlighted)
Note - Table created using only the data from Top Scorers.

Michael Bradley recently celebrated his 100th cap with the USMNT, which Alexi Lalas commented was a great achievement for a USMNT player. Donovan finished his national team career in 2nd place in caps for the USMNT behind Cobi Jones (164), but Cobi would be in 17th place on the USWNT between Carla Overbeck and Cindy Parlow. The USWNT's cap leader is Kristine Lilly with 352 caps or 31 more caps than Landon and Cobi combined. Lilly isn't alone in her cap total with 10 players exceeding the 200 cap milestone. I'm not sure where Bradley would fall on the USWNT list (now at 105 caps) because their list online stops at 30th place with Angela Hucles at 109 caps.

Statistics Sorted by Cap (first MNT player highlighted)
Note - Table created using only the data from Top Scorers. Other players are missing.

The differences are amazing when I started looking into them. I wish I knew why the USWNT players stay longer and score more than their male counterparts, but I don't. Is it competition level or tactical philosophies or something else entirely? I'm sure there are reasons, but I'm a numbers guy and the numbers are staggering. I've written on this site about the consistency (lineups and rosters) that can breed success in the NASL and I would assume that those play at least a part in the successes of the US National Teams as well. They women stick together, play together for longer, and success is bred from that and the culture to be the top team in the world. Though it doesn't hurt from the goal scoring aspect that the women never take their collective foot off the gas until the final whistle sounds.

Again, I don't know the difference between the two teams, but I hope you got something from my data dump.

Source Data:
WNT Records
MNT Records

Women's World Cup - NYC Parade

I took some screen captures of the USWNT ticker tape parade thinking that some of them wouldn't look as good as I had hoped. Some did end up being a tad fuzzy after I converted them as best I know how to do, but I'm still going to include them here.  This was a cool thing for the USWNT to be able to experience less than a week after winning the World Cup.  You might notice that I had a favorite group. I also thought that I had captured everybody during the parade portion, but I don't see Abby Wambach in them. Though I did get her during the presentation portion of the activities.

Lauren Holiday

You don't have to read this blog much to be able to determine my favorite USWNT player. Two days after winning the Women's World Cup, that player announced she would be retiring from the National Team at the ripe old age of 27. While I appreciate Lauren Holiday's desire to devote more time to her family, I'm certainly going to miss watching her play in the biggest soccer games on the world's stage. I've talked about her in the past on some of my other blogs, so I thought I would take the opportunity to include portions of them here and update and expand on them.

Lauren attended the same high school that I attended, though more than a decade behind me. I'm proud of my high school soccer program and its recent successes that were built on the foundation that was laid during the time frame around my high school career. There wasn't even a girls team until my sophomore year and the boys team was basically a club team until my freshman year.
The program has come a long way since those days. They have been ranked in the state, they have had regional, sectional, and county success, and are starting to get players recruited by major universities. They have a game field and a usable practice field, a concession stand, a press box, team locker rooms, and lights (mere pipe dreams when I attended; our practice field had the occasional 2- to 3-inch diameter rocks and definitely none of those other items).

By far, the most decorated soccer player to ever come out of my high school has been Lauren ('05), who I was fortunate to watch a couple of times when she was there. I had heard the talk about her and I have to say, she was good even back then.  In high school, there are wide gaps between the good players and every one else and she clearly stuck out.  That gap narrows at the college level, and it narrows even further at the international level.  Yet, every time I see her with the ball, I think she has the ability to do good things with it.  She seems to make good decisions most of the time and doesn't force too much. Obviously, I can see a much more mature player in her now than when I saw here over a decade ago.  By the time Lauren graduated, she had helped take the girls' team to semi state, was all-everything locally, was a Consensus #1 recruit, Parade All-American, the Gatorade National Player of the Year, and the NSCAA/Adidas National Youth and High School Player of the Year. Not bad.

We've all grown accustomed to seeing her become one of the best midfielders in the world. Routinely described as the best #10 on the United States team, and by extension, the world.  Yeah, that's not just my opinion. Just 9 months ago, the Soccer Gods 25 placed her at #11, saying, "Lauren Holiday may be the best women’s soccer player in the world."  Adding later:

Unfortunately for Holiday, versatility comes with a price: neglect from a public eye that has little time for a more nuanced talent. Coming out of college, she looked like a target striker. At Germany 2011, Pia Sundhage used her on the left wing. Since, she’s often playing in central midfield for her country, though she’s now being cast as a regista — as if playing the world’s best number 10 out of position is something that makes sense on any level.

To her credit, Holiday is up for the challenge. Unfortunately, that willingness will keep her from getting the attention she deserves. She won’t put up Wambach’s numbers. She doesn’t get the celebrating camera time of Morgan. She has too far to go to catch Marta’s celebrity. She may be the best in the world, but that world leaves her overshadowed.

Not by us, though. Greatness is great, no matter the guise, and while U.S. head coach Jill Ellis may miss the virtues Vlatko Andonovski has leveraged in Kansas City, Holiday is the same player, regardless.

"Coming out of college, she looked like a target striker..."  Holiday went to UCLA and in the words of her bio on the UCLA site, "enjoyed one of the finest freshman seasons in UCLA history". She earned individual honors of first-team NSCAA/Adidas All-America, first team Pac-10, Pac-10 Freshman of the Year, and SoccerBuzz Freshman of the Year. Then she proceeded in her sophomore season to be named SoccerBuzz Player of the Year as UCLA went to the semi-finals of the college cup, Pac-10 Player of the Year, Soccer America's National Player of the Year, U.S. Soccer's Young Female Athlete of the Year, finalist (one of four) for that year's Honda Award recognizing the top soccer player in the nation, one of three finalists for the M.A.C. Hermann Trophy, and NSCAA/Adidas All-American. The accolades didn't stop there either as Holiday finished her college career as UCLA's:

1. All-time points leader (a record she still holds)
2. All-time leader in goals (a record she still holds)
3. 2nd all-time in assists
4. All-time leader in game-winning goals
5. 2nd all-time in shots
6. 2nd all-time in multiple goal games
7. 2nd in NCAA tournament points
8. 2nd in NCAA tournament goals
9. All-time leader in NCAA tournament assists, and
10. UCLA's only four-time first-team All-American

Her professional career has been just as stellar.  For her two assist effort in the game, Holiday was awarded last year's NWSL championship game MVP. Which should look nicely beside her league Golden Boot and MVP trophies from the 2013 season, as well as her back-to-back Best XI awards. Through the first two seasons of the NWSL "(and, for Holiday, 39 games), but she is the league’s all-time leader in both goals (19) and assists (16). She is the player you’d want to build your team around…"

Oh, and she's been a part of two Olympic gold medal winning teams for good measure.

I'm going to miss all of that, but I'm also going to miss watching her be the first one to celebrate with teammates after they score.  Catching them in her arms and embracing their triumphs. Sydney Leroux's reaction and sprint to Lauren after her goal in the 2012 Olympics is just one of dozens of times she's been the first one there to revel in their success.

I'm going to miss these three together...

I'm going to miss this.

I'm going to miss celebrating the best player to ever come out of my high school.

Women's World Cup Final - U.S. vs Japan

There's so much that can be said about this game, but it all comes down to the above photo. The United States found their offense, found it early, found it in bunches, and rode that wave to its first World Cup Championship since the famous 1999 victory against China. A generation of women who watched that 1999 game aspired to do the same thing and finally found the promise land.

Remember when the United States men scored a goal in 30 seconds in last year's World Cup against Ghana, scoring so quickly it seemed to take them out of their game plan?  From my experience, the USWNT does not have that problem.  If you score early, that just means that you have a lot more time to score again.  If you score in the 3rd minute, then you can score again in the 5th minute. If you do that, you might as well score in the 14th minute.  While you're at it, score again in the 16th minute just to make sure that everybody remembers that the United States knows how to score. Then let the defense that has carried the load to the Final do their part too.  While a couple of rare defensive mistakes lead to two Japan goals, this game was never really in question before it reached its quarter mark.

Carli Lloyd drives me crazy, but when she's feeling it, she's one of the most dangerous midfielders in the world. The run that she did for the first goal was a thing of beauty. She ran from 35 yards out on a beeline through the penalty spot towards the 6-yard line to get the ball.


The second was putting herself in a position for a rebound, which she did.

The hat trick goal?  Are you kidding me?  To even attempt that shot, that's somebody who is bristling with confidence.


I said it on Twitter, but lost in the Lloyd hat trick was a spectacular goal by Lauren Holiday. A goal that FIFA agreed was one of the Top 10 in the tournament. I've seen comments about it not being a good goal, but it's not nearly as easy as she made it look. A first-time strike on a ball dropping from 35-feet in the air and hitting it before it ever hits the ground with so much pace that it goes right over the goalie before they have time to react? That's world class even if she made it look simple.

This was a total team win, highlighted by the early onslaught of goals, that finally shed the 1999 monkey on their collective backs.



Photo source, source

Women's World Cup - U.S. vs Germany

WWCGraphics

When Carli Lloyd gets on a goal-scoring streak, the goal must seem like it's twice as big for her.  While her 69th minute goal was from the penalty spot, there was no doubt about it.  Even if Angerer had chosen to dive the correct way, there was enough pace on Lloyd's strike that I don't think Angerer would have saved it.  Then she turned around 15 minutes later, made a defender miss, went end-line, and served up a perfectly placed ball at the 6-yard line for second half substitute Kelly O'Hara to effort her way to her first international goal. After the game, O'Hara indicated that she saw the pass go into Lloyd and thought that it might come across the goal face and knew she needed to get there to try and make a play on it. For a player who played every minute of the 2012 Olympics, but has struggled to see playing time recently, she's the poster child of the depth and desire of this American team. Get your chance and make the most of it.

Alexi Lalas has repeatedly said that Julie Johnston is his MVP of the American team during this World Cup tournament, but I disagree.  It seems like every recent tournament has produced a "break-out" player and Johnston certainly fits that description for this tournament. She's a beast and I think the center-back position is in good hands moving forward as Rampone is likely to retire. I also don't think it's Rapinoe nor Lloyd who are the MVP and have seemingly done most of the scoring in this tournament.

Sauerbrunn.

Sauerbrunn is my MVP. It seems to me that Sauerbrunn is the foundation for a defense that has not given up a goal in 513 minutes (and counting). In a game pitting #1 (Germany) vs #2 (U.S.), the top scoring offense (Germany) in the tournament vs the top scoring defense (U.S.) in the tournament, the defense won and won soundly.  The pundits and hacks (I'm looking at you US Today writers) may say that the ref gifted the United States two breaks (more on those in a minute), but the United States was the better team during the game. For me, that all results from a confidence that the defense is going to play well and that starts with Sauerbrunn.  She may not win any MVP awards, but her leadership is the key to that scoreless streak.

Now about the two PKs.

Yes, Johnston pulled down Popp. Yes, it was deserving of a yellow and a penalty kick. I don't think, however, it was deserving of a red because I think refs are discouraged from double-penalizing a team. The yellow and PK penalized Johnston and the U.S., but a red card would have doubled that call by also forcing the team to play a player down. It may not be a popular decision, but I believe it was the correct one to penalize the way it was done.

Morgan's PK was close.  It's the assistant referee's responsibility to help the head referee determine whether the player was in the box or not, especially if the referee is blocked.  By the replays I saw, the foul was close enough to the line that from the two ref's angles, it likely looked like it occurred within the box. You don't like to award a PK if it isn't deserved, but it didn't appear that Morgan flopped and a lot of times that call with go to the offensive player. Missed calls can be debated forever and with the benefits of replays and a dozen camera angles, we forget that there are only four sets of eyes that have the final say.

The USWNT played a great game against a great opponent and deserved to be in the Final. They'll likely be favored against Japan in a rematch of the last World Cup Final, but without the "team of fate" label associated with the Japan team. Should make for an interesting game though.

I'm predicting 2-0 United States.

American Woman

In Michael Jordan's biography, Driven From Within, once he made his decision to go to Nike, he was Nike thru and thru.  The book recalls an incident where a friend comes to his house wearing something other than Nike (I think it might have been Adidas) and Jordan makes the guy take them off and gives him Nike shoes to wear instead.  I don't have his fanaticism about my brands, but I'm finding that I lean more towards Adidas in my purchases.

Though I still like a good commercial when I see one.  And I like this one:

Women's World Cup - U.S. vs China

WWCGraphics

The United States won this game 1-0 thanks to a Carli Lloyd header in the 51st minute, but this game was really never in question.  The United States dominated from start to finish, thanks in large part to the spark created by the addition of Amy Rodriguez, Kelly O'Hara, and Morgan Brian into the starting lineup as a result of Rapinoe and Holiday having to sit due to yellow card accumulation.

A-Rod had a horrible shank that should have been a goal in the 2nd minute and a few offside calls against her because of her eagerness to push forward and push forward as fast and as hard as possible.  O'Hara was equally disruptive to the Chinese midfield and defense.  Brian had a few rough touches at times (something I've seen others accuse of Holiday), but overall, was very solid in her defensive midfield role, thereby allowing Lloyd to push forward. Heather O'Reilly was freed from the bench and played well too.

In a game that really never felt in doubt, more of a "when" the goal happens and not "if" the goal happens, I'm not going to talk about it much.  Except to say that this was the type of game that the U.S. needed to get some of their mojo back.  They looked impressive at all positions and with much more pace and effort than has been visible during the rest of the tournament.

With that in mind, how do they move forward against Germany?  Nearly everybody has said that Holiday is the team's best #10 and that Rapinoe is one of the most creative on the team. Yet the team looked markedly different with them watching from the stands. Markedly better.  So do you play your best players or the ones who are playing better together?  Or was the lineup against China the perfect one against that team, but won't be as effective against a team like Germany?

Tony DiCicco correctly stated during the broadcast that Carli Lloyd is a streaky goal scorer and is one of the most talented midfielders in the world when she's on a streak. How do you take her out? I don't know how you keep Rapinoe and Holiday out, but does O'Hara, Brian, and Rodriguez's efforts go unrewarded by sitting them back down on the bench?

Personally, I put Holiday back in for Brian and let O'Hara and A-Rod start against Germany.  Let them continue to press the German defense like they did against China. They're basically rested and hungry. By doing so, maybe they can release both Holiday and Lloyd together to not have to drop back so far to help the back four.  Then I rotate Press and Leroux (who is also hungry to play in Canada) in for Morgan or A-Rod and Rapinoe in for Heath.

I've been saying that a lot though. Use the team's depth and speed at the forward position (and no, Wambach is no longer included in that) and run the German defense ragged.  With the spectacular play from the United States' defense, release the midfield and forwards to attack, even against the number 1 in the world (and most offensive) team in the tournament.

Women's World Cup - U.S. vs Colombia

WWCGraphics

The sky is falling!

The sky is falling!

The sky is...wait, what?  They won? So why is everybody acting like they lost?

They only scored two goals? With a man advantage for the entirety of the second half?

Maybe it's because it's hard to get into any kind of damn rhythm when you keep getting fouled, but none of them are called and the only calls that were whistled were against the United States.  I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but does anybody else find it amazingly convenient that the only two American players coming into the game with yellow cards have such "horrendous" fouls that they both get booked IN THE FIRST HALF!  By a ref whose native country (France) could potentially see the United States in the semi-final...  I'm just saying.

22 to 12.  That was the fouls called count.  I watched the game and that was not how I saw the game. Just because a player falls, it doesn't mean they were fouled. Even my 7 year old asked why some fouls were called and others were not. Cards for the U.S. that looked exactly like non-calls for Colombia.  I'm just saying...

I'll agree that this is not the prettiest of soccer from the USWNT. I'm not sure why Heath, the right winger, spent so much time in the middle of the field. Colombia clogged the middle with numbers so the flanks were always open. That could have been attacked better. I'm starting to see people's point about set pieces when Wambach is in that they might not normally do with her out, but between her and Julie Johnston, they make a formidable pair in the air.

Cat Whitehill wanted to see a "statement" game out of the U.S. Her "statement" game apparently consisted of a 3-0 win or more. What I think she got was a gritty, grind-it-out and advance statement from the U.S. against a team that had some nice segments and possession, but ultimately never really tested the goal.  Everybody wants to see the U.S. score a lot of goals, but the way the defense and Solo are playing, it may not take a lot to win.

Let's talk about the goal scoring for a minute in this tournament.  The narrative today has been that the U.S. only scored 2 (one from the penalty spot, that could have been two (or more depending on your opinion of the Rapinoe fouls)), while France and Germany scored 3 and 4, respectively.  Guess what other teams scored multiple goals in the Round of 16; England (2).  Four games out of the 15 played had multiple goal scorelines.  So how did everybody look in the group stages? I think you have to throw out Germany's 10 goal effort against Thailand and everybody in Group C's effort against Ecuador as being anomalies. If you do that, high scorer in each group looks like this:

• Group A was China with 3, 
• Group B had Germany had an adjusted 7 or 8 and Norway 8 (who also put a 4-spot on Thailand), 
• Group C had Cameroon with 9 and Switzerland with 11 (10 of which came against Ecuador)
• Group D had 3 of the 4 teams with 4 goals (and Nigeria with 3)
• Group E was Brazil and Korea with 4 goals
• Group F was France with 6, England and Colombia with 4

The high scorers in the group have fared as follows in the Round of 16:

• China - 1
• Germany - 4
• Norway - 1
• Cameroon - 0
• Switzerland - 0
• Australia - 1
• Sweden - 1
• Brazil - 0
• Korea - 0
• France - 3
• England - 2
• Colombia - 0

Goals are hard to get as you progress in the World Cup and the U.S. hasn't allowed a goal since the 27th minute mark in the Australia game (the U.S.'s first game of the tournament).  Colombia had two shots on goal and I wouldn't say that either of those were very threatening.  Two goals by the U.S. was a good result for this stage of the tournament.

Source

I'm not worried yet.  I was nervous during the game considering how how many dives the Colombia team was taking and that it could have resulted in other undeserved cards or a set piece near goal, but I'm not nervous yet for the long-term.  It's going to be interesting to see how the lineup gets changed for the game against China with Rapinoe and Holiday out, but this team's depth has always been a strong suit of this team.  It could be the perfect time to switch the tactics to include another forward and let them attack the China defense with abandon and clear out some of the space in what could be a crowded midfield again.  Though I think I said that before the Columbia game too.

The sky's not falling yet.  That's just the sound of high expectations.