Vic Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Carol Anne Chenard is in the middle for the Sweden/Japan semi at 2:45pm EST tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoachRich Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 ^ That's awesome news!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtlfan Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 USA are heavy favourites with bookmakers at 1.90 3.25 4.20 (bet 365) while Sweden are also favoured at 2.25 3.25 3.20 My question is can the defense of USA contain the French attack? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kj52 Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 USA are heavy favourites with bookmakers at 1.90 3.25 4.20 (bet 365) while Sweden are also favoured at 2.25 3.25 3.20 My question is can the defense of USA contain the French attack? So far they have (end of first half) but the French have dominated territorily and in possession. U.S. goal was against the run of play and was the French right back's fault. French should be leading this game, U.S. cannot get untracked. The French seem to always have 3 or 4 players surrounding the ball. It should be interesting to see if the U.S. makes any changes, France has had good scoring opportunities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terpfan68 Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 I have to think that the French team was keeping secret how good they were so they could sneak up on the other teams. The definetely belong in the final four. The announcer also said that by reaching the semi-finals they have qualified for the Olympics next year in London. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kj52 Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 French get well deserved goal to even it up. Again outplaying the Americans at the start of the half. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free kick Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Number 14 (Necib) France. what a player! Superb ball distributor. My pick for the best women's player that I have seen in this tournament. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtlfan Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 USA will need another miricle or a French collapse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kj52 Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Wow, Americans unbelievably lucky, Hope Solo makes rare gaffe that should have resulted in French goal! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free kick Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 USA will need another miricle or a French collapse. This game that we all love here does not always reward the better team On any given day with a win. France are so much better and have better individual talent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kj52 Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 U.S. scores on corner again against run of play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free kick Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 This game kind of speaks to state of the women game today. The has been a quantum leap in overall quality but the athleticism and size still counts for too much in women's soccer. The difference was the US size and strength, not the soccer skills. France has the soccer players, the US has the athletes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tuscan Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Definitely not happy with the result of the US - France match. France played better football over the course of the match but the US's athleticism still proved to be too much. Aside from a horrendous keeper and poor marking on corners, the French were well in it the whole time. I'm hoping Japan beats Sweden, as I think the Japanese are the only team that could take the yanks right now. They also play excellent football, and I hope they win the whole thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kj52 Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 I think France's lack of experience in big game finals was what did it. The U.S. hung on by their fingernails and used their experience to get an undeserved victory. I don't think Canada got outplayed as badly as the Americans did against the French but the Americans seem to have a guardian angel in this tournament and it won't surprise me to see them win in the the final. Watching teams like France and Japan shows how far our WNT has to go still to get into the small group of countries that have a solid chance at winning a WWC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free kick Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Another things I noticed. The rankings are ****ed up, we may complain about mens rankings a lot, but it's worst for the women sides. No way is brazil the third best team. And we are not number six. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terpfan68 Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 To say the Americans get an undeserved vistory shows a denial of how the result of a football match is determined. The team that scores the most goals will win every time. If the result were to determined by a vote of judges, like figure skating, France would have had an overwhelming victory. Looking good is often not enough to win games. And by the way athleticism is and always will be a part of the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul-collins Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 This game kind of speaks to state of the women game today. The has been a quantum leap in overall quality but the athleticism and size still counts for too much in women's soccer. The difference was the US size and strength, not the soccer skills. France has the soccer players, the US has the athletes. I think that's a bit overstating it; France's soccer players were more skilled and less athletic than the US soccer players, but I wouldn't say the US were purely athletes. The French back 4 looked suspect to me under pressure, and their method of controlling that weakness was basically to keep the play in the US half of the field. It seemed to me that the US played the second half rope-a-dope and in the last 20 minutes the French tired and became much less precise than they had been. Once that happened, their passing started to get picked off, their back 4 got exposed on reversal of play, and that resulted in the corner that brought on the crashing Wambach header and, later, Morgan's breakaway. Morgan and Rapinoe especially exposed the right flank of the French back 4. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free kick Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 To say the Americans get an undeserved victory well I didn't quite used the word "undeserved". The finishing is still not that great in the women's game nowadays, and you can see this by the number of balls that sailed over the net in this tournament. Also goal keeping is not consistent, the USA had a good one today and France did not. Saw lots of goal keeping gaffs in this WWC. And sure, athleticism will always be part of the game but there is greater discrepancy in size and athleticism in women's soccer such that corners and set pieces become a more critical aspect of the tactics than it would be in the mens game hence play construction and creatively is less valuable. The usa won this on a corner and because of wambach's size and athletic ability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kj52 Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 It's interesting to read the American forums after this game. There seems to be a lot of concern over the way their team plays and a fear that if they don't technically improve they will suffer in the future. They appear to have an aura of destiny though about them this year, it's been a long time since their last World Cup trophy and regardless of how they play, that team looks like they have a very strong belief in themselves. Mental toughness goes a long way in sports at major events. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amacpher Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 To say the Americans get an undeserved vistory shows a denial of how the result of a football match is determined. The team that scores the most goals will win every time. If the result were to determined by a vote of judges, like figure skating, France would have had an overwhelming victory. Looking good is often not enough to win games. And by the way athleticism is and always will be a part of the game. That doesn't change the fact that sometimes the luckier, not the better team on the day wins. And the point that was made was not that athleticism and strength isn't part of the game but that it counts for way too much in the women's game. A point with which I agree 100%. I don't even think the US players like soccer. They are just good athletes and this is a good way to make a living. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terpfan68 Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 To free kick: kj52 used the phrase "undeserved victory". As an aside I started out rooting for the USA (they're Concacaf afterall) but switched to France later. Then it was clear that the French were running out of gas (they had the extra day off too) and their keeper and defense were suspect. I think the way things were going that if it would have gone to overtime their tank would have been completely empty. France had a fine tournament and I hope they win the bronze medal. It looks like it was bad luck for Canada to be drawn into that Group. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terpfan68 Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 I think amacpher is being a bit unkind to the American players. Most of them probably did not grow up in a soccer environment. You know: A family history of rooting for Liverpool or Arsenal, but it was probably the first sport they played and they probably have been playing it since they were 4 years old. The US model for success -- Large population, good weather conditions, rich families, female's treated fairly, support for high school sports, equal treatment of genders for college scholarships and a pro league has got them where they are today. Unfortunately only two of those conditions exist in Canada (rich families and female's treated fairly) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul-collins Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 The game is 90+ minutes. You gotta play them all. France's goaltending was pretty shocking, the first two goals very suspect (she certainly should have been able to punch away that header) but I won't fault her much on Morgan's chip. But, as I said before, the back 4 was weak inside the box. The only one I really liked was the goalscorer, Bompastor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vic Posted July 13, 2011 Author Share Posted July 13, 2011 Yes 68 that's a good analysis of systems. It doesn't mean we're incapable of succeeding though, it just means we're incapable of being Americans. The USA are not pretty like French or Italian football, but I doubt they care right now. Everyone knew months ago the French achilles heel was their goalkeeping. Clarefontaine may be the bees knees but they left out a chapter in the textbook. The Americans are in the final because they score when they need to score. And considering Wambach didn't score for them for eight months before the tournament began, she's just produced two of the most devastating headers the women's game has seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free kick Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 That doesn't change the fact that sometimes the luckier, not the better team on the day wins. And the point that was made was not that athleticism and strength isn't part of the game but that it counts for way too much in the women's game. A point with which I agree 100%. I don't even think the US players like soccer. They are just good athletes and this is a good way to make a living. I agree, but your last two sentences is taking it way too far. I completely disagree with with the long standing view that you hold that everything from Europe is genius when It comes to soccer and here in Canada and the US we are just a bunch of rubes. It shows up in all your posts. The soccer culture in the USA is the same as as ours. Sure at some level there isn't the philosophical reverence for the game and the history as point of reference. But that is at a certain level only. There is a lot of crap soccer everywhere in the world including Europe. You make it sound like we should all give up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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