[old spanish trail]

The USA - Italy WVB match last night was awesome, and just group play! Akinradewo played well. Paola Egonu was a beast for Italy, though accuracy a bit off. Going to try and make time to catch more of WVB matches, just remarkable athleticism on display.

The match was fantastic and the US showed a lot of heart to come back and win, especially after the overturn of the overturn which was so demoralizing. Well worth watching Olympic WVB.

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Good analysis of the US women's soccer match against Canada.  I believe that is three out of five matches in the Olympics the USA team did not score a goal.   My uneducated 2 cents:  Either the wrong offense is being used for this team's personnel or the USA simply isn't as good as advertised prior to the Olympics.

I mean, we're the top-ranked team in the world, we just won the World Cup in 2019, and we entered the Olympics on a 40-some game unbeaten streak (against some great teams, too). In the Olympic qualifying final in February 2020, we beat Canada 3-0, and we beat them 1-0 in the SheBelieves Cup earlier this year. We have the best collection of talent of any national team in the world. It's not that we're not as good as advertised. And the results under Vlatko to date suggest that our general tactical approach has been working. 

But obviously I can't say it worked here. Something was just plain off this tournament, and it's not something that really emerged in 2020 or 2021 in the runup to the Olympics. We looked dominant in every game coming in except for a 1-1 draw with Sweden in Stockholm in April (which, I dunno, man, sometimes when you play a top 5 team in the world on the road, you do well to get a draw). 

Maybe that's the main thing--we'd been too successful, and just like the NCAA basketball tournament, you want to take a loss at some point so your team experiences that feeling and regains the hunger to fix it. We did seem to lack a certain confident hunger, and we also lacked the ability to adjust to unexpected tactics. When Sweden beat us in Rio, we responded by revamping tactics and becoming a much more possession-focused team that would build through the back, rely on our midfielders, and get better chances that way than the old "just bomb it into Abby Wambach and she'll head it in" days. That's what won us the World Cup in 2019, and that's basically who we've been since. Possession has been pretty easy for a few years now. Against Sweden, it was impossible. They were anticipating passes and cutting off lanes, swarming attackers, etc. Standard stuff, but they stuck to it and we just couldn't respond. Then, my goodness, this Canada match. We had a good 10-15 minutes at the start, but after that, it was like our mids forgot how to complete passes and handle the ball. I don't know how a team just sort of collectively forgets the basics, but I'm all ears if someone has an idea. The mentality just wasn't there, and it's hard to pinpoint why. Like we'd just woken up and our body and brain weren't quite on the same page yet. 

Bizarre that it happens with this roster, too, since we basically ran it back with the 2019 version of the team. If anyone was going to be experienced enough to respond on the fly and not be overwhelmed by the moment, it was this group. Anyway, after the Bronze medal match, that likely means the end to competitive matches for the USWNT for Rapinoe, Lloyd, and maybe Sauerbrunn, and I'd expect a lot of new faces coming into the mix before 2023, with that generation of O'Hara/Press/Heath/Morgan potentially starting to see some turnover, too.

It was bizarre to watch the US in this tournament. As you said the team was on a 40 win / 4 draws / 0 losses run including matches against the same teams they faced at the Olympics. And the US players have been playing well at the club level too. I don't think it was a single thing, but one thing that stood out for me was a lack of fitness. I'm used to the US being the fitter team and wreaking havoc with their pressure, but the extremely high humidity in Tokyo seemed to sap their energy quickly. Maybe the age of the squad combined with covid-related interruptions affected the US more than other teams but it seemed like a lot of the listlessness wasn't lack of desire or effort but literally lack of physical energy. It just didn't seem that the group coped with the conditions well at all, which trickled down to what tactics they could employ effectively and to their execution of said tactics.

I agree with your take DC. They were late to the ball and our better player was often outquicked in contested possessions. Age often takes a hit in very hot conditions.  Knew they wouldn't but but hoped they would put in Macario. She is going to be the face of US soccer. Her footwork is technically amazing, and beautiful as well. In retrospect, she could have helped them today.

[old spanish trail]

The USA - Italy WVB match last night was awesome, and just group play! Akinradewo played well. Paola Egonu was a beast for Italy, though accuracy a bit off. Going to try and make time to catch more of WVB matches, just remarkable athleticism on display.

The match was fantastic and the US showed a lot of heart to come back and win, especially after the overturn of the overturn which was so demoralizing. Well worth watching Olympic WVB.

---

Good analysis of the US women's soccer match against Canada.  I believe that is three out of five matches in the Olympics the USA team did not score a goal.   My uneducated 2 cents:  Either the wrong offense is being used for this team's personnel or the USA simply isn't as good as advertised prior to the Olympics.

I mean, we're the top-ranked team in the world, we just won the World Cup in 2019, and we entered the Olympics on a 40-some game unbeaten streak (against some great teams, too). In the Olympic qualifying final in February 2020, we beat Canada 3-0, and we beat them 1-0 in the SheBelieves Cup earlier this year. We have the best collection of talent of any national team in the world. It's not that we're not as good as advertised. And the results under Vlatko to date suggest that our general tactical approach has been working. 

But obviously I can't say it worked here. Something was just plain off this tournament, and it's not something that really emerged in 2020 or 2021 in the runup to the Olympics. We looked dominant in every game coming in except for a 1-1 draw with Sweden in Stockholm in April (which, I dunno, man, sometimes when you play a top 5 team in the world on the road, you do well to get a draw). 

Maybe that's the main thing--we'd been too successful, and just like the NCAA basketball tournament, you want to take a loss at some point so your team experiences that feeling and regains the hunger to fix it. We did seem to lack a certain confident hunger, and we also lacked the ability to adjust to unexpected tactics. When Sweden beat us in Rio, we responded by revamping tactics and becoming a much more possession-focused team that would build through the back, rely on our midfielders, and get better chances that way than the old "just bomb it into Abby Wambach and she'll head it in" days. That's what won us the World Cup in 2019, and that's basically who we've been since. Possession has been pretty easy for a few years now. Against Sweden, it was impossible. They were anticipating passes and cutting off lanes, swarming attackers, etc. Standard stuff, but they stuck to it and we just couldn't respond. Then, my goodness, this Canada match. We had a good 10-15 minutes at the start, but after that, it was like our mids forgot how to complete passes and handle the ball. I don't know how a team just sort of collectively forgets the basics, but I'm all ears if someone has an idea. The mentality just wasn't there, and it's hard to pinpoint why. Like we'd just woken up and our body and brain weren't quite on the same page yet. 

Bizarre that it happens with this roster, too, since we basically ran it back with the 2019 version of the team. If anyone was going to be experienced enough to respond on the fly and not be overwhelmed by the moment, it was this group. Anyway, after the Bronze medal match, that likely means the end to competitive matches for the USWNT for Rapinoe, Lloyd, and maybe Sauerbrunn, and I'd expect a lot of new faces coming into the mix before 2023, with that generation of O'Hara/Press/Heath/Morgan potentially starting to see some turnover, too.

It was bizarre to watch the US in this tournament. As you said the team was on a 40 win / 4 draws / 0 losses run including matches against the same teams they faced at the Olympics. And the US players have been playing well at the club level too. I don't think it was a single thing, but one thing that stood out for me was a lack of fitness. I'm used to the US being the fitter team and wreaking havoc with their pressure, but the extremely high humidity in Tokyo seemed to sap their energy quickly. Maybe the age of the squad combined with covid-related interruptions affected the US more than other teams but it seemed like a lot of the listlessness wasn't lack of desire or effort but literally lack of physical energy. It just didn't seem that the group coped with the conditions well at all, which trickled down to what tactics they could employ effectively and to their execution of said tactics.

I agree with your take DC. They were late to the ball and our better player was often outquicked in contested possessions. Age often takes a hit in very hot conditions.  Knew they wouldn't but but hoped they would put in Macario. She is going to be the face of US soccer. Her footwork is technically amazing, and beautiful as well. In retrospect, she could have helped them today.