Olympics: Canada vs USA - Monday, August 2nd - Kashima, Japan - 4am Eastern / 1am Pacific

[Onelessstar]

6 hours ago, JohnnyFranchise said:

The grosso sub I didn't mind because it was a huge upgrade from Quinn who made more passes to American players than Canadians all game.

But someone needs to tell huitema that when you get subbed on with 5 minutes left protecting a one goal lead you put your foot on the gas and you don't take it off, she was jogging around out there. Leon, on the other hand, hit the field like she'd been shot out of a cannon.

THIS.👍👍

[vancanman]

12 hours ago, Sinc_Tanc_Olympic_Action said:

I'm not exhausted at all.  I am ready to celebrate this historic win!  Too bad nobody in my real life care enough about women's soccer to watch this in the middle of the night, so I have nobody to celebrate with right now, except for internet fans, but still... you guys are awesome.

I'm sure there will be a discussion ad to whether or how Canada will beat likely Sweden, but perhaps that is a conversation for another day.  I am just enjoying this win right now.

This result is going to make talking to my American colleagues tomorrow a lot easier.

[The Ref]

6 hours ago, JohnnyFranchise said:

The grosso sub I didn't mind because it was a huge upgrade from Quinn who made more passes to American players than Canadians all game.

But someone needs to tell huitema that when you get subbed on with 5 minutes left protecting a one goal lead you put your foot on the gas and you don't take it off, she was jogging around out there. Leon, on the other hand, hit the field like she'd been shot out of a cannon.

Right on the money.  Huitema does not measure up, does not have the umph for it.

[red card]

6 hours ago, JohnnyFranchise said:

It's pretty funny looking back now. When Sinclair picked up the ball I was like "OK, it's her team, she should take it". Then she walked past the spot and I thought "oh f*ck, she's giving it to Beckie". Then she turned to Fleming and I jumped out of my seat and started pumping my fist already. Hahaha

Franch plays with Sinclair in Portland. So Franch has probably seen all of Sinc's moves.

Plus, Sinclair just missed a penalty vs Brazil. I thought Gilles was probably a good choice. Thankfully, this time, she didn't pick Beckie.

Edited August 2, 2021 by red card

[Greatest Cockney Rip Off]

Top story on cbc website. 
 

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/summer/soccer/canada-women-s-olympic-soccer-usa-semifinal-analysis-1.6126695

[Unnamed Trialist]

On 8/3/2021 at 12:52 AM, The Ref said:

Right on the money.  Huitema does not measure up, does not have the umph for it.

It's a bit unfair when senior players like Beckie coast through entire matches, and Huitema gets garbage minutes and the demands are so extreme on one while the other gets a pardon. 

Huitema had as good a club season as Beckie, won league, went further in Champions, is younger. True, she doesn't have pace, but we start about 3-4 with poor pace every match and it's not a problem. 

[Unnamed Trialist]

Wanted to say, the play by play in Spain was done by the same guys, including colour commentary (without a third voice the add for Spain matches) as all the other men's games. They were very well prepared, knew the Canadians in Europe, were fully respectful and no fawning over the US legends. Was quite pleased. 

There's an interesting debate going on here about the women's Golden Ball. Hardly any of the top players in women's Champions has stood out in the Olympics. FCB women won the treble but Spain didn't classify for the Olympics. Otherwise, if Spain had made it and shown well, the leading candidate would be Alexia Putellas. Lieke Martens had a weak tournament. I'd say only Sam Kerr had a great season and Olympics. Adding, to be clear, both Lawrence and Buchanan, who should make a world top 10 for the year. For whoever wins the final, their keeper should be top 2021 keeper. 

As the Olympics are like a mini WC for the women, they need to raise participation to 16 teams asap. 

 

[_Vic_]

12 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

It's a bit unfair when senior players like Beckie coast through entire matches, and Huitema gets garbage minutes and the demands are so extreme on one while the other gets a pardon. 

Huitema had as good a club season as Beckie, won league, went further in Champions, is younger. True, she doesn't have pace, but we start about 3-4 with poor pace every match and it's not a problem. 

She's really young and you have to give her a lot of credit for her commitment. Give her a while to put it all together. Lots of players in this tournament who were nowhere near her at this age. Hope there is someone on the team mentoring her and giving her advice. Oddly you don't get that feeling.

[Unnamed Trialist]

13 minutes ago, _Vic_ said:

She's really young and you have to give her a lot of credit for her commitment. Give her a while to put it all together. Lots of players in this tournament who were nowhere near her at this age. Hope there is someone on the team mentoring her and giving her advice. Oddly you don't get that feeling.

Jordyn is one of our first players to go this young to a top pro team. If she dedicates herself to developing and aspires to be a starter, and a major contributor, then she'll surpass Beckie. Not sure that will happen but let's see. 

For Canada at the Olympics, I appreciate when you are originally on a supplement list where you are told you can't play, but go anyways as a wallflower, it is a bit hard to feel the coach is really there for you. The more senior players like Schmidt must feel this even more. Obviously for a keeper it matters less as you know the deal. 

[_Vic_]

"There's an interesting debate going on here about the women's Golden Ball"

And if Norway had qualified Graham Hansen would have a look too.

Historically it was a weak voting structure and I think there were only three different winners in the first 10 years (Marta x 5, Prinz x 3 and Hamm x 2). Weak because women's soccer turn of the century was pre-Youtube and no one ever watched anyone play so it was just known entities. Some winners were pretty undeserving.

Kerr scored 21 for Chelsea and Miedema 18 for Arsenal. Australia went farther than the Netherlands in Tokyo though, but Miedema had the luxury of four goal games against Zambia and China and had 10 goals. Harder a longer shot, not the year she was expected to put in.

2020

1. Lucy Bronze
2. Pernille Harder
3. Wendie Renard
4. Vivianne Miedema
5. Delphine Cascarino
6. Dzsenifer Marozsán
7. Sam Kerr
8. Caroline Graham Hansen
9. Jennifer Hermoso
10. Saki Kumagai

2019

1. Megan Rapinoe (Reign FC and USA)
2. Lucy Bronze (Lyon and England)
3. Alex Morgan (Orlando Pride and USA)
4. Ada Hegerberg (Lyon and Norway)
5. Vivianne Miedema (Arsenal and Netherlands)
6. Wendie Renard (Lyon and France)
7. Sam Kerr (Chelsea and Australia)
8. Rose Lavelle (Washington Spirit and USA)
9. Ellen White (Manchester City and England)
10. Dzsenifer Marozsan (Lyon and Germany)

Edited August 5, 2021 by _Vic_

[_Vic_]

7 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Jordyn is one of our first players to go this young to a top pro team. If she dedicates herself to developing and aspires to be a starter, and a major contributor, then she'll surpass Beckie. Not sure that will happen but let's see. 

For Canada at the Olympics, I appreciate when you are originally on a supplement list where you are told you can't play, but go anyways as a wallflower, it is a bit hard to feel the coach is really there for you. The more senior players like Schmidt must feel this even more. Obviously for a keeper it matters less as you know the deal. 

I think one of the main reasons we are in the final is the combination of great personalities and the synergy that comes with that. Players off the top 11 can either drop you off a cliff or take you to the moon.

Also interesting in that Sweden is the Canada of Europe, and Australia (and NZ) is the Canada of the Southern Hemisphere. Too random to not be something in that.

Edited August 5, 2021 by _Vic_

[_Vic_]

On 8/2/2021 at 12:31 PM, JohnnyFranchise said:

The grosso sub I didn't mind because it was a huge upgrade from Quinn who made more passes to American players than Canadians all game.

Yeah not her best day at the office, but when we played GB in the build-up to the tournament she was so far and way the best player on the field it wasn't even funny. What came to mind was Lukaku calling Alphonso a cheat code. She can boss a midfield.

If you look a teams that do well in a lot of tournaments, they always have different people stepping up when others can't. Not even the best players in the world can put in an elite 90 every game. Kerr is a good example, up for top player in the world and didn't have a great outing against the Swedes.

[Unnamed Trialist]

Don't want to get off track, but it is a shame that no Canadian will make the top 3 of the Golden Ball even if we win the gold. In part, I'd say, because we don't have a "best" player.

This tournament is in 2 weeks. We probably do need a World Club Cup for the women, but this would be close. The club cup for men was the Toyota Cup for years and I think it was just corporate sponsored, then Fifa stepped in. So you could have a non-official cup for the women like that used to be.

https://www.internationalchampionscup.com/womens-schedule

 

Edited August 5, 2021 by Unnamed Trialist

[_Vic_]

Yeah something beautiful about your whole team being MVP.

17 years of golden ball have been dominated by a select few 'brand names': Marta, Hamm, Prinz, Wambach, Morgan, Sawa, Lloyd, Hegerberg, Rapinoe.

At one point I think Marta could have won it if she never played a game.

Only once has a goalkeeper made the shortlist of three, Nadine Angerer who won it in 2013. And no slight on Solo or Endler but they couldn't tie her cleats.

I think the only other time the golden ball has ever gone to a non-brand name was in 2014 to Nadine Kessler (who is now head of women's football in UEFA). There wasn't much on that year - no World Cup, no Olympics, no EURO. Kessler's Wolfsburg won the UWCL beating Tyresö (who were captained by Sweden's captain Caroline Seger). Sinclair was fifth that year.

A defender has never made the shortlist. You could say Lucy Bronze is but it's pretty soft.

Long story short the golden ball doesn't have a great history in terms of accuracy. Voting is a wide net of international country reps and media, many of whom know very little about the players they're voting for. If they fixed that it would definitely help.

[The Ref]

I would have liked to seen Erin McLeod in goal in the win against the U.S. so she could rub the 6 seconds on their faces. 

[Sinc_Tanc_Olympic_Action]

On 8/2/2021 at 5:19 PM, red card said:

Franch plays with Sinclair in Portland. So Franch has probably seen all of Sinc's moves.

Plus, Sinclair just missed a penalty vs Brazil. I thought Gilles was probably a good choice. Thankfully, this time, she didn't pick Beckie.

Thinking about this, I am now glad that Beckie missed the penalty against Chile, because that was what got her off the job as the PK taker.  Missing against Chile was no big deal because we ended up winning that game anyway and that miss made Fleming the new PK taker.

Can you imagine if Beckie had taken the PK against USA and missed?  I probably would have cried.

[Cblake]

4 hours ago, Sinc_Tanc_Olympic_Action said:

Thinking about this, I am now glad that Beckie missed the penalty against Chile, because that was what got her off the job as the PK taker.  Missing against Chile was no big deal because we ended up winning that game anyway and that miss made Fleming the new PK taker.

Can you imagine if Beckie had taken the PK against USA and missed?  I probably would have cried.

I think a lot of people would have cried, getting to that point and not getting over the hump. PKs are such a crapshoot as we saw in the Gold Medal game. I am not really a fan of them in general. 

[Sinc_Tanc_Olympic_Action]

I just listened to an interview where Sinclair said that the team planned in advance for Fleming to take a PK if needed against USA, because USA were probably expecting Sinclair to take it and would try to figure out what moves she would make.  She said that she had missed and Beckie had missed, and because Fleming had not missed, Fleming got the job.  I guess it wasn't a last minute decision to dump that responsibility on Fleming to take the PK like I originally thought.  It just looked like it because Sinclair had grabbed the ball initially and it looked like she was going to take it.

Also, I just watched yesterday's NWSL game and Sinclair had to take a PK against Sheridan.  Sheridan knew exactly which way Sinclair would go but it went in anyway.  I am just relieved that Sinclair is taking PK's again.  This shows that she can absolutely take PK's against a teammate.