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D'Angelo vs Labbe


MrsC

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I love to be proven wrong like this 😏.  Although we weren't really wrong then. But she got a lot better (for me it seemed to happen after training with the Foothills) and I'm glad she got the chance to grow into the job.

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On 8/7/2021 at 4:42 AM, Joe MacCarthy said:

Like many who have suffered the effects of depression she has likely done a whole lot of thinkin'.  I highly doubt she subscribes to the old, lame, psych out/intimidation stuff that others might try. ie Barbara from the old days.

The BBC was going on about how calm and happy she was prior to the American game and that the Americans were tense.  I have no way of knowing but I don't think it is an act (false confidence) and it doesn't look like it.  The field is where she probably feels most comfortable and in control (her happy place)

She would likely subscribe to the McLeod school, where nobody expects you to make a stop so anything else is a bonus and you're the hero.  You're never the goat if you can't stop a penalty only the shooter is, if they miss.

I think her shtick is to go to the edge of her box, arms up, to make herself bigger in front of the shooter, looking at the net (like a hockey goalie cutting down the angles)  She has a big genuine smile that shows no matter what happens "I'm good"  That could rattle some people because you can't fake sincerity, so the mind is thinking "she's good but I'm sure as hell not right now"

Take much of the above with a grain of salt, just speculating.

I think you are very much going in the right direction here. 

I would even say that since she stopped penalties vs. Brazil, and had done so before the Seger penalty, one Swede blasting it over the bar and another off the post was all part of things: if a keeper is good you think you have to do something more than just pick a corner and drive into it, and then you overthink it. This also happens in open play quite often, if a keeper shows they can handle certain shots you try to aim more and you miss. But for penalties, the psychological factor is enormous. 

BTW, the Spanish men's keeper also did fairly well stopping penalties in the Eurocup, look at the terrible miss by Richarlison in the final. You don't miss like that if there is no pressure, and if the keeper you have in front of you has not already staked a claim.

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2 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

I would even say that since she stopped penalties vs. Brazil, and had done so before the Seger penalty, one Swede blasting it over the bar and another off the post was all part of things: if a keeper is good you think you have to do something more than just pick a corner and drive into it, and then you overthink it. This also happens in open play quite often, if a keeper shows they can handle certain shots you try to aim more and you miss. But for penalties, the psychological factor is enormous.

I agree with much of this and although I think there is no set path to success in scoring on penalties, I'm of the opinion to just go up there and blast it and not get too cute.  Grosso was the evidence for that as Lindahl guessed right and got a piece but just couldn't stop it.  Going from memory here but Lindahl planted a little suggestion in one of our missed kicks.  She jerked to her left (screen right) twice just before the run up and then she went right, the shot went to Lindahl's right and was stopped.

I think there are too many variables to be truly successful at stopping penalties but if there is a way to be able to read body language in split seconds, I think it could be possible.  I follow a group on YouTube called the Behavior Panel and they make reading complex physiological actions simple.  One of their videos (Canadian story) that might interest some here was their analyzing Jim Smyth's interrogation interview with Russell Williams (later they interviewed Smyth himself)

Edited by Joe MacCarthy
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The reason Lindahl only got a deflect on it is because she was gassed from the previous dives. She lost her focus plain and simple. The shot was placed far too near her. Try being a billion percent focused and diving to one of the posts a handful of times and then getting up and see how it affects you. 100% focus and she keeps that out of the net every time.

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I do wonder if the strategy was instead of guessing where the shot is going or trying to read the foot, that the keepers were taking a step forward as the kick was taken to cut down the angle and then reacting to the direction of the shot.  If the kick is too close to the centre and not a rocket, a good keeper should be able to pick these off.  Perhaps Lindahl did this but only had enough time to get one hand out.

Edited by AvroArrow
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Another thing Labbe seemed to do (not sure if other keepers do this too) but she had the ball sitting on the 6 yard box, and she was standing right in front of it nice and tall, and waited for the shooter to walk up and pick up the ball off the ground. She's forcing the shooter to either make eye contact with her as she is smiling away, or to purposefully avoid eye contact, either way it seems like a power move. Then the shooter has to essentially bow to her to get the ball off the ground (or at least this shooter did). If you really wanted to get into it, I suppose Labbe's strategy there could backfire if a significantly taller player came up, and just got right in her face and stared her down before taking the ball, and the bowing could be nullified by taking it with your foot and only picking it up after you've turned around. Anyways, I loved that intimidation tactic. I can't remember if the shooter scored or not, and the way things were shown it was hard to see how many times she did this.

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58 minutes ago, rkomar said:

I just saw that TSN is reporting that Le Parisien is reporting that Labbe is about to be signed by PSG.  Nice!  Apparently PSG lost a bunch of keepers so have had to scramble for a replacement.  Wouldn't it be great if she backstops her new team to a repeat title?

She would be following the steps left by Endler.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I just rewatched the PK shootout between Canada and Brazil.  Did you guys notice that Steph didn't really do any "shenanigans" to the Brazillians?  (I say "shenanigans" because that is the same word Fleming used last weekend at the Allstate soccer show when describing goalie mind games.)

I am actually glad that Steph didn't use shenanigans against Brazil, because then Sweden would expect it.  I am guessing that these shenanigans aren't new in soccer, but they still work.

Does anyone know if Steph has used these shenanigans in any shootouts or PK's in general?  I know Canada and Sweden were in a shootout a few years ago, before the 2019 World Cup.  What did Steph do in that shootout?

I've said it once and I'll say it again - it's not easy for a team to win two shootouts in the same tournament.  Sure, it has happened in both men's and women's soccer, but not often.  This is why I am really proud of Steph for doing what she did.  Canada, being in their second shootout, had a disadvantage, but Steph also had something up her sleeve.

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  • 4 months later...

Best retirement video ever. Better than most things TSN/SN produce. If she wants to, OneSoccer should hire her.

As a player, Labbe frustrated me at times with her decision-making. But she cleaned this up in the most recent years. Hearing her speak more in the past year, she is my most respected national team player. 

 

 

Edited by red card
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I think the first thing that will come to my mind whenever anyone mentions her decades from now is that she is the polar opposite of a quitter.

She took the hand she was dealt and went through hell and came out not just on the other side but on top of the world. And is immortalized as a lead in of one of the greatest Canadian fairy tales of all time.

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Retiring just because she didn't get The Best award is to me a bad knee jerk reaction.  I blame the CSA.  Some CSA staff must have convinced her she was going to win for sure.  There was no way she will win with just a good year's performance against many years of Endler being in the top of the world with a closet full of top world awards already.  To me this was the time for Labbé to continue her good goalkeeping work.  Sad to see her go.

 

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32 minutes ago, The Ref said:

Retiring just because she didn't get The Best award is to me a bad knee jerk reaction.  I blame the CSA.  Some CSA staff must have convinced her she was going to win for sure.  There was no way she will win with just a good year's performance against many years of Endler being in the top of the world with a closet full of top world awards already.  To me this was the time for Labbé to continue her good goalkeeping work.  Sad to see her go.

 

Who said she retired "just because she didn't get The Best award"?

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Pretty sure the award was for 2021 only.

I've seen both live a couple times. Endler is a great keeper but her 2021 was winning the French League where there is only one other team in the running. And they only beat one team of any merit in the Champions League - the same French team. She lost every game in the Olympics.

Labbe backstopped Canada to an Olympic gold medal where they were underdogs in almost every single game they played. I don't believe that's ever been done before in either gender.

I saw the voting by country for the MVP and coach was published. Is keeper the same? Or is it determined another way?

Edited by _Vic_
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I checked and the awards are definitely for player of the year, it's not like other awards where what someone has achieved in the past means something. If you think Endler had a better year than Labbe, I'm not going to change your mind and won't even try. I'm on the other side of the fence this year though.

As a few people have mentioned though, the awards are just a popularity contest. I did review the votes for coach and MVP in detail and it was pretty depressing. You can tell right away there is a very large portion of the voting pool who have never seen any of these players even play during the year. And considering one of the best 11 they voted for didn't even play last year, that's about all that needs to be said on that topic.

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