Oh USWNT, there you are.

There’s the team that’s capable of beating up on teams – despite their FIFA ranking – with relative ease. There’s the defensive shape, the midfield cohesiveness, the line of creative forwards ravenous for goals. That’s the team comprised of players that always heed the call of duty, despite the amount of caps next to their name. That’s the only team in the world that considers a 1-1 draw a loss and goes into every match knowing anything other than a win is thoroughly unacceptable. That’s the United States Women’s National Team we’re lucky to call our own. (For us Americans, that is).

A lot of those lingering questions posed after the USWNT’s poor 1-1 result mid-week were answered tonight. Perhaps those initial concerns were merely outliers. They certainly don’t seem to be trends. The team had a very good match tonight. Megan Rapinoe made me feel guilty about never really buying into the Pinoe hype. And Abby Wambach…well, you know. She’s pretty good and stuff.

The team kept its shape tonight throughout the game which was the one thing I was really hoping to see. Goals are almost always guaranteed with players of this quality. But consistent tactical organization seemed to be a legitimate concern after the team’s second half performance last Tuesday. There were also a few much-improved individual performances (Lori Lindsey’s name should probably go here).

For some reason I kind of checked out of the second half so any anoraking will have to wait until tomorrow after I re-watch it. (Funny how my occasional ADD only surfaces intermittently during the 45-80 minutes of soccer games I actually need to pay attention to or any lectures from professors I need to pay attention to). But here are a few things of note:

• What would this team be without Abby Wambach? Not nearly as threatening, not nearly as productive, yes those are obvious. But Wambach is at times the most creative playmaker on the field which is extraordinary for a player who only starts up top. No doubt she also provides her team with a psychological edge too. Knowing you have a striker who is almost guaranteed to score every single game can only do wonders for a team’s collective confidence.

• Ali Krieger could be the answer at right back. The cold, hard truth is that Kate Markgraf isn’t going to get any faster in 2011. Same goes for Heather Mitts. Fullbacks typically run more than any other player on the field. That’s why fullbacks are often converted to center-back after they hit 30. Krieger is immensely fit, very physical, tactically adventurous and is a fine passer of the ball. She’s also who Alex Morgan will look like in 5 years time.

• Heather O’Reilly didn’t really cut in from the flank. I’m not sure how I feel about this. Her diagonal runs into the box are always exciting and makes defenses quiver. She didn’t really do that tonight, instead preferring to keep play wide and send in hopeful, at times errant crosses into the box. Meh. It was also a weak night for HAO-Face which is never a good thing.

• Captain Rachel Buehler had a major confidence boost. Buehler became just the 12th person in the history of the USWNT to don the armband and she wore it well. She had a fantastic game tonight and made a few key offensive contributions as well which was interesting.

• Lori Lindsey is boss. Lindsey had the best game in a USWNT kit tonight. At least of any that have been televised. Her long ball to Rodriguez was perfect. She also got stuck in quite a bit which is always fun.

• But the USWNT could still use a holding midfielder. I know this point will likely be moot after this performance but one has to remember that this was ultimately Sweden’s B side. A few key midfielders were missing in tonight’s game so it’s safe to presume the match would have been different had they been there. Playing with just 3 bands of players (i.e. a 4-4-2 or a 4-3-3) is rare these days and there’s a reason for that. Good thing the U.S. has a good corps of DM’s in its pool: Osborne, Averbuch, Huffman if played correctly, hell, even Buczskowski.

• Megan Rapinoe is a proper winger. Yes, at times she can be pretty wasteful in front of goal and a little too ostentatious in her dribbling but tonight she showed how good she can be when she hits her mark. Ditto for her goal celebrations when they hit the mark.

• Meghan Schnur will only grow into her position. Schnur looked good at the beginning and had an ultimately decent game, particularly after having to deal with Sweden’s best player of the night in Josefine Oqvist. She’s still coming off of an ankle injury so expect her to be even better. Definitely a step up from Stephanie Cox’s performance.

• Again, I need a repeat viewing but I’m not sure I’m sold on the 4-4-2. Sweden again looked much more dangerous in the second half when they shuffled their players around in a new formation. In tactics triangles always beat straight lines and the USWNT mostly had straight lines tonight. It’s just that a lot of the Swedish players attempting the triangles weren’t first choice. It’s a wonder what would have happened if they had been.

• Lori Walker is a great analyst and she needs to commentate every USWNT game from here on out. Jenn Hildreth gets a lot of crap. Some of it is warranted while a lot of it is not. Regardless, Walker is capable of articulating herself from a coach’s perspective. That’s actually quite difficult for a coach to do sometimes. And she complements her commentary with anecdotes that are actually relevant and that provide some color to the broadcast as opposed those who resort to name-dropping in an attempt to conceal one’s ignorance about matters such as basic formation changes or player analysis.

Ok, more tomorrow. G’night.

View Original Post at allwhitekit.wordpress.com

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• Soccer, Sports, WNT, FIFA

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