CWNT to take part in SheBelieves Cup in February

[red card]

15 hours ago, rkomar said:

I think Schmidt is just rusty.  She has been great for the Dash since she went there, and played a big part in their success.  It's too soon to write her off.  Our whole midfield got owned by the Americans in this game.

I have to agree with the previous comments praising Gilles.  I groaned a bit a the start of the game thinking "Just what we need, a total noob on the back line against the US forwards".  Boy, was I wrong.

American manager had a different view about the midfield:

Andonovski commented on the Canadians’ ability to control the midfield, forcing the U.S. to attack wide in order to work the ball downfield and look to find an elusive goal.

But Canada couldn't break them down. 

”One of the things that makes me happy from a defensive standpoint was that they didn’t break us down to create the opportunities,” he said. “We gave them the ball, they created opportunities. We made a mistake, they created opportunities. That’s the positive thing, but why [we gave] the ball away and how all that happened is something that we’re going to have to look into a little bit deeper.”

Argentina & Brasil matches will show if the newish players like Viens, Listro, Grosso can boss the midfield and actually score.

[rkomar]

1 hour ago, red card said:

American manager had a different view about the midfield:

Andonovski commented on the Canadians’ ability to control the midfield, forcing the U.S. to attack wide in order to work the ball downfield and look to find an elusive goal.

But Canada couldn't break them down. 

”One of the things that makes me happy from a defensive standpoint was that they didn’t break us down to create the opportunities,” he said. “We gave them the ball, they created opportunities. We made a mistake, they created opportunities. That’s the positive thing, but why [we gave] the ball away and how all that happened is something that we’re going to have to look into a little bit deeper.”

Argentina & Brasil matches will show if the newish players like Viens, Listro, Grosso can boss the midfield and actually score.

Huh!  I have a lot of respect for Andonovski, and he knows at least 10x more about soccer than I do, so I'll watch the game again on CBC on Saturday and try to see what he saw.  I remember a lot of times where our midfield players would pause about half a second to assess the situation and lose the ball to an American sweeping in from behind.  The Americans were on their toes and swarming whichever of our midfielders had the ball; they just seemed to react faster to the situation.  We also had no answer to their taller midfielders heading every ball that was launched in there (Horan was especially good at that).  It seemed like most of our good attacks were started by booting the ball over the midfield and through the back line for our forwards to run onto rather than building from the center of the field.

Maybe I was watching with a too critical eye on our play, so it probably would be good to watch the game a second time.

[scooterlawrence5]

A great first challenge for Priestman who comes out of the USA game bolstering her credibility.  Gilles was a revelation.  I counted at least a dozen strong "header clearances" by her.  Quinn was a workhorse and Chapman a beast.  The rest were ho hum.  Beckie was horrific.  The other young players up top have speed which is the "one way" we can beat the USA but once they were subbed off, our threatening advances were relatively weaker.  All in all, it was a pleasant game after such a long hiatus.  I expected a stronger match from the world champions so I'll take it.  We should learn more about our roster vs Argentina and Brazil.

[The Ref]

14 hours ago, rkomar said:

Huh!  I have a lot of respect for Andonovski, and he knows at least 10x more about soccer than I do, so I'll watch the game again on CBC on Saturday and try to see what he saw.  I remember a lot of times where our midfield players would pause about half a second to assess the situation and lose the ball to an American sweeping in from behind.  The Americans were on their toes and swarming whichever of our midfielders had the ball; they just seemed to react faster to the situation.  We also had no answer to their taller midfielders heading every ball that was launched in there (Horan was especially good at that).  It seemed like most of our good attacks were started by booting the ball over the midfield and through the back line for our forwards to run onto rather than building from the center of the field.

Maybe I was watching with a too critical eye on our play, so it probably would be good to watch the game a second time.

Interesting discussion about the midfield.  A great coach Bitchi Borghi always says that games are won or lost in the midfield.

[MtlMario]

Just watched the highlights of the game and boy did Beckie miss some goals my grandma would of scored (and she's been dead 40 years). I certainly hope she doesn't start the next 2 games. Let someone else show what they got.

[Stoppage Time]

2 hours ago, MtlMario said:

Just watched the highlights of the game and boy did Beckie miss some goals my grandma would of scored (and she's been dead 40 years). I certainly hope she doesn't start the next 2 games. Let someone else show what they got.

Those two misses, especially the second one were mind boggling. Sinclair is on the decline, but she would have buried at least one of those opportunities.  Wow!

[rkomar]

I have seen Beckie put away many goals playing for Man City.  She definitely has talent and isn't as hopeless as she appeared in those chances.  I doubt that Priestman is going to write her off based on this one game.  Same as Andonovski isn't going to write off all those American forwards that flubbed their excellent chances.

[narduch]

Reminder CBC is doing a replay of the USA match at 4pm ET today.

[narduch]

Well this kinda sucks

 

[sting]

19 hours ago, rkomar said:

I have seen Beckie put away many goals playing for Man City.  She definitely has talent and isn't as hopeless as she appeared in those chances.  I doubt that Priestman is going to write her off based on this one game.  Same as Andonovski isn't going to write off all those American forwards that flubbed their excellent chances.

Problem is that for a lack of a better term, she chokes when playing for Canada. This is not first time she should have scored goals for Canada and failed to finish. 

[narduch]

One Soccer has a pre game show starting at 5:30pm

 

[top cheese]

22 hours ago, Stoppage Time said:

Those two misses, especially the second one were mind boggling. Sinclair is on the decline, but she would have buried at least one of those opportunities.  Wow!

Price had a number of chances as well where she never pulled the trigger or fumbled the ball in her feet. 

[top cheese]

On 2/20/2021 at 6:05 AM, The Ref said:

Interesting discussion about the midfield.  A great coach Bitchi Borghi always says that games are won or lost in the midfield.

I think Canada’s mf did it’s job on the night but I do think they need more mobility there. Scott and Schmidt are a step behind the pace now. Quinn seems to have a very awkward running style and gets caught in possession. Fleming looks like she could be a real talent. I wonder with the performance of Gilles  would Canada consider playing 3 at the back and letting lawerance have some more freedom forward or would they think about giving Buchanan a run as a dcm.  There seems to be a real transition with the core of this team getting older. It will be intresting how the new coach handles this 

[narduch]

 

Edited February 21, 2021 by narduch

[rkomar]

Not a good first half for the team.  They just aren't executing well; poor passes, out of sync, taking too long on the ball,...  I hope they can regroup during the intermission and come out playing better.

[_Vic_]

0-0 half-time

The link I posted the other day has a stream.

The top link in the list I have on a big screen and the quality and steam are good.

You get the feeling that as Canada is to the USA, Argentina is to Canada.

Good enough to hang in there but probably won't win one for 20+ years.

Edited February 22, 2021 by _Vic_

[_Vic_]

Can't help but wonder why we aren't getting the ball to Fleming in zone 14 and having people running off her into the box.

In a game like this she could pick their back line to shreds.

[Ed_S]

Pretty sloppy but we'll take it.

 

[dyslexic nam]

Good to get the win but still a lot of room for improvement.  Seemed like we needed someone willing to have a quick shot.  

[toontownman]

Painful. Sorely need some leadership and composure. We needed some leadership in the middle but Schmidt was not it. If we do anything in training the next couple of days we need to work on composure and finding some killer instinct in front of goal. Some truly shocking decision making at times tonight. We managed to put out a polar opposition performance than the USA game. I feel like the life was sucked out of me tonight. Still a wins a win lol

 

 

[_Vic_]

Felt bad for Bev Priestman as the game was wearing on into the late stages. 

When you play the USA you quickly find out where your problems are. They'll expose them pretty quickly. Usually playing weak opponents doesn't show you much but tonight it did.

And if you think we can't score... late in the game I think it was Labbe or someone who was out for a soda by the side of our 18 and the goal line and played the ball right to an Argentinian player at the top of the box. Who had a fully 100% wide open net to just knock the ball into... and she proceeded to not just miss the net but almost hit the corner flag.

I get the sense from Priestman she is pure business and will do whatever she feels is right, regardless of political correctness, what someone did in the past, relationships, etc. And I like it.

[The Ref]

17 hours ago, _Vic_ said:

Felt bad for Bev Priestman as the game was wearing on into the late stages. 

When you play the USA you quickly find out where your problems are. They'll expose them pretty quickly. Usually playing weak opponents doesn't show you much but tonight it did.

And if you think we can't score... late in the game I think it was Labbe or someone who was out for a soda by the side of our 18 and the goal line and played the ball right to an Argentinian player at the top of the box. Who had a fully 100% wide open net to just knock the ball into... and she proceeded to not just miss the net but almost hit the corner flag.

I get the sense from Priestman she is pure business and will do whatever she feels is right, regardless of political correctness, what someone did in the past, relationships, etc. And I like it.

Interesting your comment about Labbe.  I don't know how she raised to fame but she is one player I always found unsuitable for National Team level.  Sophie Schmidt is another one.

[narduch]

Match starts in about an hour on One Soccer. Replay Saturday on CBC.

 

[Kent]

I missed a pretty big chunk of the game today, but this team still doesn't show much promise offensively. Things should be helped with Lawrence and Huitema in the lineup, but it's definitely something that needs to be improved.

[The Ref]

2 hours ago, Kent said:

I missed a pretty big chunk of the game today, but this team still doesn't show much promise offensively. Things should be helped with Lawrence and Huitema in the lineup, but it's definitely something that needs to be improved.

A very young team and somewhat needing more experience.  I hope coach Priestman got a good view of who has potential and that can be brought up to speed fairly quickly.