[ColoradoTree]

First off, the goals and the celebrations are different things. It's your job to score as many goals as you can, as long as goal differential is used as a tiebreaker. What if you just start kicking the ball around after 7 goals, but Sweden scores 8 against Thailand and they are in position to win the group with a draw against the US? (Especially after Sweden completely parked the bus in their end against the USWNT in the 2016 Olympics, it strikes me as the prudent thing to do to assume Sweden will play similarly and you may have trouble breaking them down for a goal, meaning you need the better goal differential to take the group.) I have absolutely no problem with the scoreline. What happens if you play keep-a-way most of the second half and then you struggle regaining your edge against Chile? In a tournament setting like this, I think it's dangerous to give anything less than 100%. We have to keep pushing and working on things, or we don't get any better for when it matters in the knockout stages. 

I think we need to take individual circumstances into account as well when we're talking about celebrations. When Mallory Pugh scored the team's 11th goal, it was her first career World Cup goal. Should she be denied a celebration of that? It was also the first World Cup match--and first World Cup goals--for Rose Lavelle (2nd and 7th goals), Sam Mewis (4th and 6th goals), and Lindsey Horan (3rd goal). They all deserve to have their accomplishments celebrated. And when Alex Morgan scored the game's 12th goal, it was also her 5th of the match, tying the record. That's pretty cool, too! (And it was a team record as well, as the previous WC record was an 11-0 German win.)

Ultimately, I suppose there's a case to be made that Carli Lloyd shouldn't have celebrated much when she scored the team's 13th goal, but she also set a record by scoring in her 5th straight World Cup match (now extended to 6th straight after the Chile win). But I just can't bring myself to be too outraged about it.  What got less attention than the kerfuffle over the celebrations is that our players comforted the Thai players after the game, and the Thai coaches and players said they had no problem with either the scoreline or the USWNT's celebrations. 

The women's game is full of disparity. You have well-funded competitive teams at the top, and teams getting little to no support from their national federations at the bottom. I think there's an argument to be made that in beating the crap out of weaker teams, you're helping the women's game overall, by forcing other countries to spend more on their women's teams to be competitive. 

If FIFA allowed more than 3 subs, we would have used them. (I think FIFA should consider allowing an additional 3 subs to make it like a friendly once a team is up by a certain number of goals and the match is no longer in doubt.) And as it stands now, Sweden no longer has an incentive to hunker down and play exclusively in their own zone--they need a win to take the group, while a draw is good enough for us.

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At the time of the match, I was a little confused by Jill Ellis's choices on subs against Thailand--subbing on three forwards rather than resting O'Hara (who has struggled with injury) or getting some of the other World Cup rookies some time. But by the end of the Chile match, every field player on the roster had made it into a game. And given that we often play Press-Lloyd-Pugh as a hockey-style second line, it makes sense to get them in and try and keep them sharp in working together. 

The Thailand scoreline gave Ellis lots of flexibility for the Chile match, and she used it, with 7 lineup changes. (Welcome rest for O'Hara, too.) That match should have been even more lopsided than it was, but Chile might have the world's best goalkeeper, and Christen Press in particular had to be stunned some of her excellent efforts didn't find the back of the net. 

And as Alyssa Naeher's howler against Chile proved (thankfully and correctly, the goal was ruled offside), we don't exactly have Solo or Scurry in net, so this is a team that is going to need to outscore people rather than relying on some key saves. We need all of our forwards sharp and feeling like they can all score when they need to. 

Against Sweden, it'll be interesting to see the tactics. We'll come out firing, of course, but will Sweden try to win the group? Or will they be content with second place, sitting back for a draw and attacking mostly on the counter? The group winner gets a likely date with host France in the quarterfinals, so I could see Sweden being content with a, say, Netherlands-Germany-Canada path to the final rather than Spain-France-England.

[ColoradoTree]

First off, the goals and the celebrations are different things. It's your job to score as many goals as you can, as long as goal differential is used as a tiebreaker. What if you just start kicking the ball around after 7 goals, but Sweden scores 8 against Thailand and they are in position to win the group with a draw against the US? (Especially after Sweden completely parked the bus in their end against the USWNT in the 2016 Olympics, it strikes me as the prudent thing to do to assume Sweden will play similarly and you may have trouble breaking them down for a goal, meaning you need the better goal differential to take the group.) I have absolutely no problem with the scoreline. What happens if you play keep-a-way most of the second half and then you struggle regaining your edge against Chile? In a tournament setting like this, I think it's dangerous to give anything less than 100%. We have to keep pushing and working on things, or we don't get any better for when it matters in the knockout stages. 

I think we need to take individual circumstances into account as well when we're talking about celebrations. When Mallory Pugh scored the team's 11th goal, it was her first career World Cup goal. Should she be denied a celebration of that? It was also the first World Cup match--and first World Cup goals--for Rose Lavelle (2nd and 7th goals), Sam Mewis (4th and 6th goals), and Lindsey Horan (3rd goal). They all deserve to have their accomplishments celebrated. And when Alex Morgan scored the game's 12th goal, it was also her 5th of the match, tying the record. That's pretty cool, too! (And it was a team record as well, as the previous WC record was an 11-0 German win.)

Ultimately, I suppose there's a case to be made that Carli Lloyd shouldn't have celebrated much when she scored the team's 13th goal, but she also set a record by scoring in her 5th straight World Cup match (now extended to 6th straight after the Chile win). But I just can't bring myself to be too outraged about it.  What got less attention than the kerfuffle over the celebrations is that our players comforted the Thai players after the game, and the Thai coaches and players said they had no problem with either the scoreline or the USWNT's celebrations. 

The women's game is full of disparity. You have well-funded competitive teams at the top, and teams getting little to no support from their national federations at the bottom. I think there's an argument to be made that in beating the crap out of weaker teams, you're helping the women's game overall, by forcing other countries to spend more on their women's teams to be competitive. 

If FIFA allowed more than 3 subs, we would have used them. (I think FIFA should consider allowing an additional 3 subs to make it like a friendly once a team is up by a certain number of goals and the match is no longer in doubt.) And as it stands now, Sweden no longer has an incentive to hunker down and play exclusively in their own zone--they need a win to take the group, while a draw is good enough for us.

---

At the time of the match, I was a little confused by Jill Ellis's choices on subs against Thailand--subbing on three forwards rather than resting O'Hara (who has struggled with injury) or getting some of the other World Cup rookies some time. But by the end of the Chile match, every field player on the roster had made it into a game. And given that we often play Press-Lloyd-Pugh as a hockey-style second line, it makes sense to get them in and try and keep them sharp in working together. 

The Thailand scoreline gave Ellis lots of flexibility for the Chile match, and she used it, with 7 lineup changes. (Welcome rest for O'Hara, too.) That match should have been even more lopsided than it was, but Chile might have the world's best goalkeeper, and Christen Press in particular had to be stunned some of her excellent efforts didn't find the back of the net. 

And as Alyssa Naeher's howler against Chile proved (thankfully and correctly, the goal was ruled offside), we don't exactly have Solo or Scurry in net, so this is a team that is going to need to outscore people rather than relying on some key saves. We need all of our forwards sharp and feeling like they can all score when they need to. 

Against Sweden, it'll be interesting to see the tactics. We'll come out firing, of course, but will Sweden try to win the group? Or will they be content with second place, sitting back for a draw and attacking mostly on the counter? The group winner gets a likely date with host France in the quarterfinals, so I could see Sweden being content with a, say, Netherlands-Germany-Canada path to the final rather than Spain-France-England.