Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #293: USWNT v Colombia recaps

Episode Date: June 29, 2022

A double recap of the two friendlies versus Colombia. Big questions about the striker position and the midfield pretty well answered. Lots of crossing. Next is Haiti on the Fourth of July.support Scuffed on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedScuffed listener survey: https://forms.gle/sBXXSaJ8jnP6RZDY6 join the Discord: https://discord.gg/X6tfzkM8XU buy our merch: https://my-store-11446477.creator-spring.com/drop us a question at this link and we’ll try to answer it: https://forms.gle/rfzSEZJwsvnWSCxW7 Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the scuff podcast where we talk about U.S. soccer. Hey, hey, the U.S. women defeated Colombia in a two-legged friendly tie on an aggregate score of five to zero over the past week. These were tune-ups for the Conca Calf Championship, which serves as both World Cup and Olympic qualification on a series of formulas, which we won't get into right now. Greg, how are you doing? I'm doing all right, Bells. That was an enjoyable two legs. I feel like we learned a lot It was exciting It was fun

And the best part for me Is that I think there are real efficiency Gains we can make in the attack I don't know if I don't know if you know people might think that 5-0 is a little underwhelming And maybe as a final scoreline it is But I thought

There were more than enough There was more than enough Indication that this team And these sort of the young players Inheriting the mantle Or taking the mantle over are going to be able to put some exciting soccer together. Yeah.

Yeah, I thought clearly the commentators in both of these games, I think it was Ali Wagner and the first one in Julie Fowdy, have not been participating in the finishing discourse because they talked about finishing a lot on both broadcasts. And I thought, you know, we didn't, there were a lot of chances we did not finish, which of course, you know, happens in soccer. But I thought the first game,

game that we were a lot more, I don't know what the XG numbers, but we were a lot more dynamic in the attack than in the second game, didn't you think? Yeah, I think that's definitely the case, and I think, I mean, part of it was Columbia's goalkeeper absolutely stood on her head in both games. Yeah, she's good. You know, so, so that plays a part in how you're going to underperform sort of the goal total you might expect. But no, when I'm talking about the efficiency here, I'm not talking about conversion as people who listen to. You never talk about conversion, Greg. We all know that. I'm not criticizing conversion.

No, I'm, I'm talking about like the two, the two actions right before a shot. Yeah. So I thought, you know, just to kind of lay it out, I thought that we settled for hopeful crosses a lot more often than we should. I thought we passed up chances to walk the ball or very easily put the ball into the Man City assist cutback zone. And I think I'm hoping that we can. evolve and put more emphasis on getting into that space, which is super available to us with the

weapons we have. We open it up constantly, but we didn't really seem like we were intent on getting into it. Sometimes we still did, because again, we have a ton of exciting players who are very good at attacking. But I thought we were a little bit too complacent when it came to just being like, well, I've got the ball out wide. I have space to wind up and hit a cross, so I'm going to do it. And I thought we did it sort of regardless of what the number numerical situation was in the box.

regardless of what other options we had around us that could have improved, again, our attacking efficiency upside a little bit more. Yeah, lots of crosses from O'Hara and Huerta and Pickett. I thought maybe for me Fox was the wide defender who was a little bit more of an exception to that, like in general, but I won't die on that hill. She played it a little differently too, right? I mean, we'll get into more of the tactics maybe as we go, but I think she was, it felt to me like she was doing more of like the half space work

when she'd get up on the left side in that first match where she would step into the interior and then there would be another player wide of her keeping that space on the sideline. So it definitely felt like Fox was more comfortable getting into like a more combination play in, you know, pockets rather than just being like, oh, I'll hug the sideline waving across, which was mostly the MO for the other players playing that full back. Fox was lots of fun, I thought. Just really comfortable getting forward with the ball at her feet. Okay, so I guess any sort of questions you thought needed to be answered here?

I got a couple, but if you got any... Biggest one. Biggest one for me. Biggest one for me was what LaVelle Sanchez would look like sort of playing dual center mids together rather than maybe sort of thinking you could only have one on the pitch at a time. I don't think anyone really thought that would be the case, but in this game against Columbia, it didn't feel like a defensive liability.

Is that fair? Or where were you going to go? No, I think so. I don't think it was a defensive liability. I think they're both very willing, energetic against the ball soccer players, which is cool because they're both, because they're the two probably most creative

attacking players on the team. Yeah. I didn't think it was a defensive liability. I'm not sure it really, I'm not sure they were the problem, but it wasn't super clicking in the second friendly, the one last night. But I'm not sure that was their fault. I think the other, go ahead.

So in that second friendly, I'll kind of just get in this too, because this ties back to that sort of attacking efficiency issue that I thought was kind of cropping up. for me, some of our best attacks, some of our best buildups into that at the last sort of a couple of touches came from Iran, Sanchez, and Lavelle just playing really simple little triangles until they could then hit a vertical pass into the feet of Morgan. Usually, yeah, either Morgan or purse or Rapino. Sophia Smith. No, I'm sorry, not Sophia Smith. Rapino. Yeah, in sort of those pockets.

Like being able to find those pockets and hitting a really simple pass that didn't have any necessarily like immediate value. Like it's like, oh, you're hitting this to her, but she's surrounded by defenders. There's no way that anything's going to come of it. But by forcing Columbia to collapse on them, that's how we got like those wide players wide open in behind. So I thought that was like the very calm, deliberate passing from the three in that triangle in central midfield, Horan, Sanchez and Lavelle. Lavelle, I feel like, was, I think, more useful than when we would just either hit a long ball direct to the wide players first, or a lot of times I felt like we were just kind of hammering the ball up towards a high target, even centrally. And I thought those were just sort of fruitless. I don't know.

It's like, yeah, I mean, it's not even always fruitless. Like, it's just a little bit, like you're just banking on slop. Like, we'll just hit this up here. And then we will just out soccer them for the second ball, third ball. because we're the U.S. and we are probably better in, you know, almost every area of the field. Yeah. Well, another, go ahead. I think that, I think the more deliberate play will have more payoff against the better teams that we will, you know, that we are essentially trying to prepare ourselves for as we try to win the, you know, very big trophies at the U.S. women are attempting to win.

Yeah, as we attempt to dominate the world. Again. So I thought another big question was how would Ashley Hatch and Alex Morgan look at Stryker in the absence of Katerina McCarillo? And I thought, well, I don't think I'm alone in this. I thought Hatch was pretty disappointing and the first friendly. And not because she missed any chances or anything, but just in terms of connecting play and buildup. And I thought Alex Morgan was a pretty big upgrade in that department for at least in these two games. Although I still think Morgan is a big drop off from, from Macario.

So they're not going to, I guess we knew this, but they're not going to, those players are not going to replace Gatorina Macario before she's injured. At least not replace her in an equivalent way. Yeah, I think that tracks. I think it's, I think at this point it's got to be Morgan as a starter. in the most competitive games we'll have coming up in July. Okay. I guess we can save any other conclusions for the games one and two. Probably an abbreviated version of game one and then give everything we've got on game two since that was last night.

Is that all right? All right. Again, in game one, which was in Denver over the weekend, was Murphy. was Murphy and Goal, Kelly O'Hara, Alana Cook, Becky Sowerbund, and Emily Fox across the backline, Andy Sullivan as the six, Lindsay Horanin, Rose Lavelle, starting at the 8th, and then Sophia Smith, Ashley Hatch, and Mallory Pugh across the front line. Any surprises there for you? Not really, because, I mean, it's hard to know what Flotco is sort of intending to do with this.

group, whether, you know, this is the de facto starting 11, where they could start this game, get a little bit of a break, and then go into the Mexico tournament, like, fully rested and ready to go. Because it seems like it's pretty close, right? Like, the only question marks would be Hatch versus Morgan. I think it's Smith and Pew starting as those wingers. I think Sullivan starting as a six. So then you're just talking about, like, okay, is it O'Hara or is it Huerta?

and I think Cook and Sauerbrun and Fox are probably three of the four in the back line. Germa, maybe you could make a case, but I just, I mean, you're not benching Sauerbrun, right? I don't think so. For these games, like you want that veteran in that back line when she's still Becky Sauerbrun. Although it's worth pointing out, Germa was, Germa looked really good last night. I thought so, too, yeah. It's nice to have, I think, three. I mean, I thought Sonnet looked good too, so it's nice to.

to have those, but I think Sonet's probably going to deputize as the backup again for like three, all four spots in the back line. So, but it is good. It's good that Gierman is going to make us, you know, decide these things. Neyer versus Murphy, I think, was, is probably still an open question. Do you think it's open or do you think it's Neer? Boy, I have no idea, Greg. But, but Neyer did make a really nice save last night.

I don't think, I don't think Murphy did anything to reduce herself in the way. in Denver? Well, let's just say this. In Denver, Columbia put up two total shots. I don't even remember if either of them were on goal. Their average distance from the goal

was probably about 35 yards for their two shots. They had zero crosses. Like, they were not doing anything in that first game. There was no Columbia presence whatsoever in our defensive half of the field. Yeah.

And I would argue, I'm not sure I'm able to show my work here, but I would argue that a lot of that had to do with just how dominant Pew and Smith are on the wings. And, like, Columbia had no choice but to take shots from 35 yards and hope. Because if they got too far forward, it was punishing time. Much less so, I think, last night. Let me give the Columbia lineup. It was Catalina Perez in goal.

As we mentioned earlier, she was good in both of these friendlies. Daniela Arias, Jorelin Carabali, and Monica Ramos are the three centerbacks. The wingbacks were Carolina Arias and Manuela Vanegas, who was victimized a little bit last night. She was on the left, she was the left wingback. Those were the wingbacks in both these games. And then the deeper-lying midfielder's in Denver were Daniela Montoya and Lorena Beiroia Durango. and then the advanced midfielder was Liana Salazar,

and then Lacy Santos and Catalina Usme were the two strikers up top. Santos definitely the danger, the danger player for Colombia. She plays for Athletico Madrid, and also Santos and Usme were up top, but they got plenty involved in defense. So, I mean, immediately, Columbia not trying to keep the ball playing very deep, If the two shots from 30 yards didn't tell you that, then I'll tell you that now. They were not trying to get too forward. We got a couple decent chances in the first five minutes.

I thought Pew and Smith, Pew and Smith are just such a joy to watch. They're both just electric. I love it. I love watching them play soccer. Yeah. And again, it was an attacking clinic. And this is sort of the good and the bad here. Like within three minutes, I think, of this game, we free Kelly O'Hara up down the right side line.

And this is where, like, the thing I'm watching for is like, okay, what do we do? She's got the ball. Columbia are sitting back with a ton of numbers. And like, she can pick her head up and she just whips the ball into the box. And so this is, I'm going to be harping on this the whole time. It's like, what's the, what's the upside here? Like, what are we, is, is this really the best way that the U.S. can attack with this, with the talent edge that we have to just hit a hopeful ball in? or can we do more things that take advantage of a Lavel of a Sanchez,

you know, when Sophia Smith is in there? Like we have all these tricky players who can do so much more than just hustle for scramble ball in the box. Right. Yeah. The first big chance is, I think, around the 10-minute mark, I don't have the exact timestamp, but it's Smith who gets him behind on the right side

and hits an early ball. I think it's off of the counter press where we just win the ball off somebody. Smith is in behind or a Colombian defender makes a mistake. And she plays an early ball across to Pew who is wide open on the back post. And she misses an open goal just opens up too much. And I mean, she really could have,

I'll say it this way, could have been one to zero. It's a very good chance. And that's what we're looking for, right? that did we get to the ball to a player who has one touch to score and that was a very good chance that we created that's how that's how I look at things that's my worldview yeah so I see that as an like unequivocally positive event yeah okay well unequivocally all right okay is there no room for equivocation it's just it's just dice it's a dice roll at that point okay when you're talking when you're talking about again players who you already know are capable

finishing. If this was a, you know, some 18 year old college kid trying out, then you could have questions about it. Yeah. About their actual ability to do it. But that's, this is not where we are here. But I just want to say again, on this play, it started out with a really good, like the vertical passing game, vertical meaning just like on the floor, I'm talking about on the floor to the next player up in line. Not like shipping out wide of the, of their amoeba. Like this play started because Sullivan hits it directly up into the pocket to Lavelle, and then Lavelle gets to collapse the defense, draws the Columbia player three steps up to her,

which is enough to open up the room for Lavelle to hit it in behind. And then we get the square ball from the Man City Zone. We're in the box. We get a great look to a player on the weak side wide open, and that's what I want more of. Yeah, I mean, it wasn't from the Man City Zone, right? It was from kind of the edge of the box more, but yeah it's because I mean she's in all by herself at the edge of the box with like the lone centerback still in the play scrambling out to meet her yeah okay so I guess I'm just saying this isn't like a cross this is like a squaring it to a wide open player the square ball just came in really hot and kind of took pew handcuffed just a little bit on the short hop which added to the difficulty yeah far be it for me to say that this is easy to do I know it's for me it's not um the next thing I have on the timeline

is a 19th minute. Pugh wins a corner kick on a nice little bit of combination with Huran and who else? Yeah, Haran springs Fox and then she plays it in behind

for Pugh. She earns a corner and then an excellent corner kick from Pugh and Alana Cook gets a header about the six. I wouldn't call it a free header but she had a good chance to put it on frame

and she just couldn't steer it. So still zero zero. But this is good. good stuff where we're really testing Columbia's decision making. Again, we're not just testing how well they hustle. When you get that ball up to Horan in the pocket and they collapse, that's what opens up

the next two passes. So promising stuff here again. And this is what I'm hoping we see just a ton of, like I want to see a clear emphasis on this sort of buildup play in July. Right around the 21 minute mark, this is my big ding on Ashley Hatch.

is this moment. It's a great run from Emily Fox into that left channel, I mean basically down the left channel and she plays it on the ground to Hatch who's checking to the ball from around the penalty marker. Hatch has a couple options here. She has basically two options.

She can try to play a combination with Fox who's running into the box at that point or she could lay it off for Rose Lavelle who is wide open at the top of the box. you know with her left like her left leg is just trembling ready to hit this and and I don't think Hatch even sees Lavelle here and she and she tries to play it back to Fox and she plays a she plays a kind of clumsy pass to a player who's not really open and it it kind of it kind of sails by Fox at waist high and Lavelle is just left standing

there you know kind of pointing at the ground it's a it's a big chance missed. And I think that's a really suboptimal choice there from Ashley. Yeah. I mean, I don't think there's any disputing this. This is like how well you read the game, right? And this is, again, going to keep hitting this. Brilliant stuff from Fox, exactly what we want to see,

where she drives in, puts it into Hatch's feet. You know, she isn't trying to spring Hatch into goal here. It's very much just like, continue the move. You're putting Columbia in a really, bad situation where decisions have to be made, and Columbia has totally collapsed to Hatch and Fox, where they've got like seven players in the space around Hatch and Fox, meaning that you go out the other way and you've got wide open, Lavelle, Harrans arriving kind of centrally too. And this is exactly what you want to create.

And then you just need the execution on it. But you've done so much of the hard work here when Fox plays this ball into Hatch's feet. So it's, again, a really promising moment that hopefully, film, like you can see how it gets cleaned up. I do think Alex Morgan attempts this pass to a bell. I think Alex Morgan made huge strides in like her game understanding in these situations. Maybe like four or five years ago she like totally flipped a switch and it just, you know, the light bulb went off for her. You can tell like, I feel like you can tell that that light bulb went off a little bit late because she doesn't always have the technical chops to pull off the really tight passing stuff.

Yeah. But she's looking for it. So she would, I think Morgan would have been looking for this pass to Lavelle. Fair to say Macario would have too, right? I mean, yeah, Macario would hold it for three touches, bring everyone like all the way onto her and then lay it off for it to happen. Okay. There were some injuries that happened.

Pew got a bloody nose and Horan knocked heads with somebody, I forget who. And so there's a big, there's a big delay. 31st minute, we get a nice sequence from the U.S. Pew down the line. Hatch makes it plays a good layoff to Fox in this instance and a good first time pass from Fox to Lavelle who has a who has a quick turn quick two-touch turn with her left foot and strikes it right at the keeper but this is a you know this is a nice dangerous moment a lot of good stuff in it I thought yeah better for match recognizing that she's not going to get a shot off here so just extend the play and she extends the play really well another example of Fox being again in that central area in the box not hugging the sideline so this is this is the good stuff this is what we want to see we get get the ball to Rosalvel in the

box with with a little bit of time that's a that's a positive outcome yep so there's a you know there's a few other chances we get a we have a ball to O'Hara O'Hara ball to the backpost to Iran that draws a decent save a good ball from somebody, I think it was Pew to Hatch, who can't quite steer it on frame, and then a good play up the middle where Lavelle is just weaving past a player and then tries to outside the boot, hit it, and misses the frame wide. But then the penalty comes, well, do you have anything to say about that stretch of time? No. No, I mean, a couple of those were those sort of direct balls into the box. O'Hara picking out Hatch for the header, and then,

I'm sorry, picking out for Horan and then Pew sort of picking out hatch. So we were getting a little bit into like, all right, well, let's just cross it. And I do think you can get a tendency to do that as the scoreboard stays zero, zero. So, you know, it's not that these crosses aren't dangerous. I just think that they're in the long run going to be less efficient, as I've said. Yeah. Yeah, I totally agree with that. I think, you know, most people listening are going to agree too.

So the penalty comes in the 40, around the 43 minute. Mark. It's a loose touch from Sophia Smith, but she does get taken down. And Columbia was arguing with the call, but I think it was probably a penalty. And then Heran takes it

and it's saved by Perez, who was, again, quite good. And then Smith has a chance on the rebound and hits it with her left peg about a goal's width wide. And we go into the half zero zero and Allie Wagner's just being really tough

on tough on the ladies in the booth. She's a great commentator. She's, but she's tough, man. Oh, she's, yeah. She's, she's harsh.

She's, she's harsh. But I, but I think for me, that was a, I had really thought that was a very good half. And I do think it just, the narrative is going to be driven by the fact that it's still zero zero.

So now it's frustrating in this or that. But like, I thought we created some really good chances in, in ways that are reliably good for creating those chances. So, you know, if the penalty goes in, like,

suddenly a much better half of soccer. You know, if Pew hits that open net, like suddenly we're doing great and we're, you know, we're throttling. Like we were throttling them either way. We had chance after chance of high quality looks. So this was, I was just like, this is great. This is a really good half of tune up tournament. Yeah, that's what I mean when I say that Wagner and Fowdy haven't been,

you know, they haven't been on conference calls with the folks analysis evolved from American soccer analysis they they don't they're talking about it in that and much more in that narrative e kind of way um I agree it was a good good half a good half of soccer so at the half Alex Morgan comes on for Hatch and Ashley Sanchez comes on for Horan and Sanchez immediately is uh I think she pronounces at Sanchez at least that's the way they're pronouncing it on the on the broadcast I don't don't know. We'll figure that out. But she's just immediately a lot of fun in this game. You know, she, she, she does a dummy and leaves it for Fox at one point. She plays, she plays on the

half turn to release Fox into the, more or less, the Man City Zone. And Alex Morgan can't handle the cross from Fox. Alex Morgan is, you know, getting sucked out a little bit far from the, from the goal mouth on that play. 50th minute, Smith draws some attention down the left and plays it to Sanchez at the top of the box. She cuts her defender to her left and then tries to chip the keeper. Does beat her. Does beat Perez, but the ball tinks off the crossbar. So, I mean, she's just immediately saying, I'm here and I'm making an impact.

Yeah. And I love, again, I loved everything about this because Sophia Smith didn't settle for just whipping a ball into the box, right? She has it out on the edge of the box, could easily have just hit it across. I'm like, well, Alex Morgan's in there, let's see what she can do. But instead, she just continues to soccer, draws three or four Columbia players to her, and then plays it to the feet of Sanchez at the top of the box. And then, again, you're just extending the danger of the attack.

And I think Sanchez makes the right decision here, because she has a very intentional attempt here to finish. and these finishes sort of exist in a different world in the women's game because the goal, frankly, because the goalkeepers aren't as tall. So when you can loop a ball like Sanchez tries to do here over a keeper who's two and a half yards off of her line, like it can be directly down the center of the goal and it's really hard for that keeper to get back to cover her crossbar. So that's exactly what Sanchez is looking for here.

She's got this plan to finish, a good attempt, and misses it by a couple inches. Yeah. we get the goal the goal to go up one zero in the 54th minute and I'll describe it now it was a Columbia goal kick and then Alana Cook kind of some soccer tennis happened in the middle of the field Alana Cook heads it to Sullivan Sullivan heads it to Sanchez and she kind of flicks it it looks a little scary that she flicks it as she gets sort of like almost hit in the back of the head but I don't think I don't think there was actual contact to she flicks it on to Lavel And then Roosevelt does the really difficult part here.

She takes a good touch with her chest to eliminate a defender going forward and then plays a lovely, lovely ball on the ground in behind for Smith, who meets it and strikes it with her left foot through the legs of the onrushing Perez, the goalkeeper, and it goes off the inside of her left leg into the net. And that's Sophia Smith's fifth international goal, 1-0 USA. Yeah, and a really tough lesson for Columbia here, they'd been so defensively resolute, right? I mean, they've given up chances, but they weren't committing numbers forward. And then on this goal kick, on the scramble ball, like the nature of scrambles, like it doesn't feel like you're in any danger.

So they got a little bit naive and brought players up to challenge the scramble. And then when Sanchez heads that ball up to LaVelle, we've got five Columbia players out of the play. another one of the five who's back rushes up to Lavelle thinking she's going to beat her and once we beat her then Columbia sees what we're really capable of in full open field attack and Lavelle just did a just did a real like just brilliant throughball here to put to put Sophia's knife in yeah the weight the weight is the weight is absolutely perfect on this ball oh the weight that she kind of curls a little bit with her left on a bouncing ball but this I think like this is the big lesson for any of the Concafxcaf

teams watching this game is like do not give the USC's looks do not open the field up for them like you have to be extremely cautious uh because if you're if you get caught up field even a little bit on a nothing scenario suddenly you are carved up it's tough because you don't want to you just can't let the u.s you don't want to concede the entire center circle to the to the u.s either but yeah you get we get leaned a little too far forward and then that'll happen especially with smith and pew on the wings. Less so when Megan Rapino is

not that I'm talking not saying anything bad about Rapino but she's just not going to stretch the lines that way running in behind. No, no, definitely not. That's not going to be your game. But the reason I bring this up for the Conquitaph teams is because the way this tournament works again

is the top two teams advance and it's very likely that the top two teams in our group will be us in Mexico. But the the third place team will also get a chance to go qualify for the World Cup. So the third place team could very much come down to like goal difference. So even though you're not going to like, I mean, you're not, Haiti's probably not thinking we'll go in and actually steal a point from the U.S.,

but stealing a couple of goals on goal difference versus Jamaica could be the difference. I see. Yeah. All right, there's a couple poor set pieces from Malpue in here. It's just worth noting that the set pieces aren't always perfect. here. There's a long clip of Megan Rapino using her shin guard as a mouth guard to speak freely on the bench with Lindsay Horan and she's making she's making her laugh a lot. 60th minute we get the second goal and this is kind of again is very similar to the first goal in a lot

of ways. Lavel mugs a player at midfield and then takes just one touch forward and plays another gorgeous through ball. This one this one kind of bouncing into Smith's path from left to right and beats Smith's marker, Smith takes a touch just outside the box, into the box, and finishes with her left foot past the onrushing keeper. I do not think the keeper got any part of her body to this one. And that's a lovely finish, 2-0 USA.

I mean, and the lesson's just repeated here, right? So Columbia get caught on the ball by LaVelle, and so they still actually have five back. They've got a five-man backline racing back towards their goal, And then you just see the excellence of a Rose Lavelle who can take Alex Morgan's run towards the sideline that's drawing the centerback deep and out to create that gap. And she can just, I mean, pinpoint that curling ball into the pass of Smith, who's making a great run and does really well to take it on a bounce and open up her shot. So, I mean, when this team runs downhill, it is just terrifying. 61st minute

Sophia Huerta comes on for Kelly O'Hara and I know some people I trust particularly Tara on the Discord are big fans of Huerta over O'Hara I don't know that I

I don't know that I see that much difference between the two like do you do you we've gotten a pretty you know we got plenty of minutes from both players in this two-legged tie is one clearly better than the other for you

So it's tough I think I think Huerta is more comfortable like moving to the inside moving to the interior and playing with the border But I mean we you know I do think both of them Hit unnecessary crosses that I thought Huerta was doing that And it's I know it's gonna you're gonna get dinged because we got an own goal on one of those

Huerta crosses yeah For half of our goals in the second leg But I still want to say that's just a volume thing like if we're crossing way too much and we're the way better team we're still going to have some success on those crosses. I just think we would have had more success. I think the reason it was 2-0 instead of 4-0-0-0 is because we were relying too much on the low-efficiency play. Okay.

She has a very nice-looking cross. She hit the ball in that always is like, this is that's so dangerous. But in reality, they just aren't nearly as dangerous as getting it into the deeper space and cutting it back. Yeah, that one she played, we'll get to it, but that one she played to Alex Morgan in the second half. Last night was, that was one of those balls that just looks so, looks so good.

Okay, I mean, I think there's a lot of, there's a lot of nice stuff from Sanchez and the, through the rest of this game. There's, um, Rupino comes on for Pew in the 77th minute. Uh, I thought, one other note before I get to the goal, I thought when Christy Mewis came on, uh, she was definitely she definitely offers something more than Sullivan does in terms of like playing the ball she plays the ball over the top nicely and also between the lines that left the left foot of her is is a little more cultured than I think Sullivan's right foot is and her passing vision is a little more it's just a little more interesting I guess the argument is that Sullivan is a much more reliable defender than US so I don't know yeah that's and that's going to be the balance we're going to have to strike here. You know, do we have enough weapons? I mean, we certainly have enough weapons that a slight downgrade in attacking at the six isn't necessarily going to torpedo us.

It could just be game by game, opponent by opponent, where we feel like we need that defensive solidity versus where it's like, again, the second leg or the second friendly here against Columbia, where Haran's playing it. I think Horan is also, you know, nowhere near the defensive rock that Sullivan is, but it's just, it barely mattered in that first half that. her hand got because we had the ball the entire half and I'm not sure how often it is going to matter and you can you can build that you can really build an extra amount of rhythm when your six is is pinging the ball around do I sound like Greg Berlter you really build rhythm and that uh I think

can have a cascading effect down the field but anyway um the goal the third goal comes in the 90th minute uh Sanchez goes on a weaving run through three pretty tired defenders it looks like for 40 yards and then lays it back for Fox and then gets it back and then beats another defender and then gets fouled and on the ensuing free kick taken by Megan Rapino she drops a dime for Taylor Corniac who is six foot one and she uh she does I'll steal a phrase from Bob Morocco she does a comb over header to nod it into the into the far corner um three zero USA yeah what I mean It's just a player scoring under U.S. soccer debut, so there's barely any analysis needed here.

That's great. A really nice ball, too, from Rapino. So, you know, a lot of, as we mentioned, a lot of good stuff from Fox at Leftback. I thought Sanchez was really dynamic. Lavelle was excellent, of course. Cook and Sowerbone looked good at centerback, but weren't tested much at all. Should we move to game two? Let's talk about game two.

Okay, so the lineup changes quite a bit. It's a listenering goal and then Quetta gets the start. I'm calling it 10 changes. I know technically it's only nine changes, but because Horan moved from one center mid-roll to another, I'm calling that a change as well. So, it's a change. 10 changes in how we line the players up.

Lavelle, the only holdover from the previous lineup. Huerta gets to start it right back. Sonnet and Naomi Germa are the centerback. Carson Pickett The left back Pickett Worth noting is not going to be She's one of the players

Who's not going to be in the Concaf Tournament right She's just here for these friendly Correct And then so Lindsay Horan as you mentioned Was it's a six Rose Levelle and Ashley Sanchez Dual 8s

This is the fun Dual 8 setup And then MidgePers Alex Morgan and Megan Rapino Across the front line Columbia's I won't get into it

but Columbia's lineup was very similar, except they had a different advanced midfielder, Diana Ospina, and then Alexa Barr was the striker partner with Lacey Santos, and then they had a different, one of the centerbacks was different. Natsi Acosta, Acosta was one of the centerbacks. So I thought, you know, you thought Rupino wasn't very good in the first half,

I think you said last night. I liked how she was making stuff happen. There was like a back heel in there, And, you know, she does that, she does that one. Overhead around the 12th minute. Is that your entire about? Yeah. Yeah.

Well, she pops it up and then, and then volleys it over her head for Morgan. And Morgan just about got to it. And I mean that in the American sense of just about, not like she didn't get to it. Not the British sense where you, they say just about. And they mean that they, that they did. So I mean that she didn't get to it. I think you have absolutely hit on the two really cool things that Megan Rapino did in that first half. And they're like, they stick in your memory because they're like,

oh, that was cool. But again, this is the U.S. women playing against Columbia, where there's just going to be an outrageous volume of attacking chances. And I thought, aside from those two things, I thought she was not just like, you know, invisible but, you know, reliable. Like I thought she was kind of bad. Like she was hitting the ball directly into Colombian players over and over and over again under no pressure. So she'd like have it, look up, pick her pass out, hit it,

and it would go 15 yards to the only defender who was within 15. yards of her and it would just go right to them and I was like what's what's going on here with rapino like what's she trying to do there and I thought her set pieces were kind of off as well so I don't know I thought over the first half I didn't think she was giving us much at all and I thought she was kind of hurting us quite a bit. Hmm okay I haven't been able to do the full back like the full rewatch back of just her involvement but I'm I'm really eager to get that in because I'm curious if just if I had the opposite selective memory where those three sequences where she did just hit the ball directly to Columbia are sticking out too heavily in my mind.

Yeah, I haven't been able to do much rewatch either for complicated sort of household reasons and the fact that Y Scout hadn't dropped the involvement. The lightning delay was a killer, wasn't it? Yes. Yes. It's also why I'm outside, by the way. I don't know if you guys can hear the birds, but I'm in the woods of North. Georgia because I have a lot of relatives sleeping in various bedrooms in my house. Hopefully that adds some charm to the recording and isn't annoying.

All right, we get our, we get our, I also didn't think Sanchez was quite as good in this game as she was in the, in the second half of the first one. Like a little bit, she's a little bit loose with her passing. I did appreciate, like I mentioned at the beginning, how devoted she is to playing hard off the ball. Like she's coming back and winning the ball from people pretty regularly, but not quite as dynamic. Let's see, we got our goal in the 22nd minute. It's a Morgan does well.

Well, who played that ball into Morgan? Do you have that offhand? I don't have it. Okay. Well, Morgan receives the ball. let the kind of in the right channel just outside the box or just inside it like right around the box edge and does well to reach your foot out and stab it to get the ball and then plays it wide to Huerta and Huerta's in behind and has a lot of space and tries to cross it which is exactly what she should do

right in that case in that situation just try to just try to pump it in as hard as she can no this This is one where I do think this is the right choice, so I'm glad it worked out. Okay. So I don't remember exactly who hit the ball into Morgan, but I know that the buildup for this came from our little central midfield triangle being very calm and deliberate, passing it around, and then again hitting it into Morgan's feet a little bit off, but Morgan does well to salvage it. And this is what collapses Columbia.

I mean, they're playing a back five, so they have that deep, wide space accounted for in theory. But because that ball goes into Morgan in a danger area, it pinches everyone in. And that's how Sophia Huerta gets the whole, you know, right channel to play into. So we get it out to her. And now we have a chance to cross it behind the backline. We're not crossing into a set defense. The defense had come up to Morgan.

And so we can cross it in behind them on the defense's back shoulder to Rapino, who's, you know, got the edge. So if Vanegas doesn't make a play on this ball, it's going to be Rapino from point blank with her attempt. So a little bit of bad luck, but she has to go for it. And that's just, this is what I wanted. This is like why I thought this was a very promising play was because of the buildup to free where to in.

Okay. Okay. Well, the ball doesn't get to an American player because Manuel vanegas heads it in past Perez, completely wrong, Foots Perez, and it's one zero USA on an own goal, which is not a super satisfying way to go up. But that's another thing I notice is how much, how different the expectations.

are for the women's national team versus the men's national team. It's like we're only, for only beating Columbia two to zero or, you know, one to zero or something, everybody's kind of mad about it. One zero, but we scored it in the wrong way. Yeah, right. We had a couple of looks before this too. I know, I know we're cruising through here, but within like 90 seconds, I think we had midge purse in on goal, right, with a nice little, again, vertical combination, combining vertically directly up the center of the field that I think we, we, yeah, I think we, yeah, I Was that Lavelle who played her the pass in? I can't remember, but she had a chance to sort of chip the keeper,

but it was a tough, you know, it was a tough one. And even... She was in, she was in on Gold Island. And even before that, I think we had purse in behind in the Man City cutback zone, and she just made the wrong choice rather than, you know, the really sharp cutback back to Lavelle. She tried to square it more and it got cut out. But, like, we were getting in,

we were building into those real danger areas right away. Yeah. 30-ish minute purse misses a chance with her head I think it's a ball from Sanchez I want to say this one's picket if it's the one that purse just kind of jumps up Oh you're right it's picket yeah it's picket for sure

balloons it just pops it up Those are tough like a you know We've seen those happen on the men's side Through qualifying like when you're running full speed To get to it and then you have to still leap Like the trajectory of your body Just it's not as easy of a gimmie as You know

as sort of it might seem with the goal wide open. Yeah. I'm going to be a little harsher here and say it was a little easier than that. But yeah, it's, you know, heading the ball and the goal is always going to be a little bit difficult. Purse in the 36 minutes. So a lot of our dangers coming from Perce, I do think it's a pretty big drop-off from Sophia Smith to Midge Perce in terms of danger created and whatever. But she gets a good left-footed strike off after cutting in from the right wing,

beating a couple players. It flashes just wide of the post. That's in the 37th minute. 41st minute, we get a nice combination through the middle. It's Horan to Sanchez, back to Morgan, who turns and plays to Perse, whose ball across is right at Perth. So this is right at Perez. So this is another example of good sort of vertical combination.

to use your phrase to get somebody into the man city zone just purse his final balls isn't there in this case yeah and that's one again I think I think this is the kind of thing where if we put a huge emphasis on this the the willingness and you know urge to get into that zone and then talk about what the decisions should be once we're there I think this is going to be gold for the for this group of women the last thing I have in the first half is the is that Alex Morgan chance on the Huerta cross. Huerta does really well to mug Manuel Avenegas on the right side,

and then I think she megs her in the process and eliminates her completely and hits a gorgeous ball right across the face of goal. Morgan tries to take it with a high outstretched left foot, and it hits the crossbar. I think Julie Fowdy said this on the broadcast, and it certainly occurred to me. Why didn't she just take it with her head? but, you know, whatever. Yeah, it'd be the same kind of difficulty. It's like if you miss with one part of your body,

then everyone's going to think that you should have tried to hit it with the other part of your body. In my opinion, I don't think this is by any means like a gimmee of a header if she just runs through it. It seems like you'd have to lay out, and then you're putting yourself at the same risk of heading that over the goal as you are if you go with your foot. Yeah, that's true.

Well, I actually like the crossing decision here as well because, again, it's a transition moment. We have the defensive line from Columbia upfield. So this is a moment to cross behind them, which I think is a real important distinction on like the efficiency matter here because that is room where you're not just hitting it into a set defense and being like,

all right, whoever goes and wins the jump ball gets there. Here you have the space behind where Alex Morgan does have a very clear advantage to get to this ball. All right. The half comes and we get Christian Lewis on for Horan and Trinity Rodman makes her first appearance of the window coming on for Midge Purse. What next?

What's on your mind? Well, I just thought Trinity is just immediately adding a bit of a wow factor with her chance here, with her moment. Yeah, she does a guy and skitters a ball across, and it's, this is right in like the 46th minute. it's cleared to Alex Morgan inside the box so not cleared far enough from a Colombian perspective and Morgan shoots it, it's deflected up and Perez is kind of out of her goal at this point Rapino beats Perez to it, tries to flick it

so it's rainbowing up Rapino gets to it first tries to flick it into the goal and it's cleared off the line by a Colombian defender so you know some danger right off the bat yep it really exciting fraternity and then this was this was a good moment for a Pino so right after I think at half time I've been like I didn't think she was very good that half she comes out right away and forces a goal line clearance yeah so more is you

know more good one-touch pass to Rodman I think Robin kind of kind of waste the chance in the 53rd minute the 54th minute we get a big chance for the US an excellent combination down the right channel from Lavelle to Morgan and back to Lavelle. So Morgan just is able to get enough on it as she's kind of cleaned out by a defender to put it right back into the path of Lavelle. And then Lavelle chips it over the defender

to Rodman and she cuts it back. So it's a beautiful pass from Lavelle to Rodman. That's class. And then Rodman cuts it back beautifully. So she makes exact right choice here. She doesn't try to whip it across the six. She cuts it back for Sanchez who's arriving in the box And Sanchez it from 15 yards out

And you can guess here like how I'm gonna feel about this chance right like this is exactly the kind of advantage that the US has Because of the talent at our disposal where we can do these things like there's no way like Columbia is gonna do these things Columbia probably should be trying to cross the ball into the mix or any chance they get because that's gonna be their best chance to get a goal We have players who can do some outrageous things together And so I want to make I want to be giving them those opportunities and this whole sequence was that. Yeah, it was a lovely sequence and I'm I I back Sanchez to put the next one in the back of the net or you know one out of the next three or four at an acceptable rate Columbia gets a chance in the 55th minute Lacey Santos cuts in on Huerta kind of leaves her in the dust and takes a river

from 20, which draws a save from Neyer, who had been, I think, more or less hibernating back there up to this point. But on the stretch, she palms it just wide of the post. It looked like it was on frame to me, or at least it was going to hit the post. So good save from Neier. Kind of admire her for being ready, despite having not that much action up to that point. I mean, she's a World Cup champion, right? like this is this is we have we have some we have some talent in the in the in the

gold mouth too so uh going back to the the Columbia concept though this is exactly what Columbia needs to do if they're going to you know get anything from a US game is somebody needs to hit the shot of their life and Lacey Santos almost did only to be thwarted by Nairier yeah Santos is fun to watch she's a good player um a lot of like I said earlier a lot of finishing discussion in the booth from Fowdy. Just no, no, not one mention of variance or XG. I was very disappointed. So later on, Fouti's great, by the way.

I'm not trying to dump on her, but she also later got into like the crossing quality. And this is where I wish she had gotten a little bit deeper into it, just saying like we weren't picking out or actually, I feel like she was saying the crosses just weren't quite good enough. Like we weren't hitting them, you know, to the right person's head. and that's where I'm just want to be like, yeah, it's really hard to hit the cross right to the right person's head. Very few players can really consistently, you know, in a numerically even situation, hit the ball where only their attacker can get it. It's really just kind of throwing it in the mixer, you know, with varying degrees of a little bit better, a little bit worse at service.

But it's really just the play itself is the inefficient one. Yeah, yeah. People are going to come away from this podcast with some clear ideas. of where I stand on crossing. Yes, yes, they are. I mean, it's all very consistent, Greg. As usual, it all fits together nicely. 57th minute Santos cuts in from the right again,

tries a wall pass with a spina, a nice little moment of combination, or at least attempted combination from Columbia. And Sonnet, Sonnet ever responsible, you know, cuts it out and kicks it over the end line for a Colombian corner. kick. We get corneic on for Lavelle, Pew on for Rapino. Pugh is immediately just electric. Nothing much comes of it immediately, but she's making things happen on that left wing.

And then in the 71st minute, we get a hatch on for Morgan and O'Hara on for Huerta. And then we get a lightning delay, which was just, which is just brutal for everyone's evening. particularly over here on the East Coast. And then right after the lightning delay, which I don't know was like half hour, 45 minutes, something like that, we get our second goal of the game. And this is Sanchez playing a ball to the back post for Rodman, who nods it, so the Washington Spirit connection there,

she nods it back across. It's cut out, but it falls to O'Hara, who takes it on the volley. O'Hara, also from the Washington Spirit, takes it on the volley and swerves it in at the back post a very very nice hit totally unstoppable two zero USA so here's so do you think rodman's uh layoff here is intentional i feel like it is right or she's just i mean she's trying to just book in the danger zone yeah she was trying to lay it off to some she wasn't trying to lay it off to o'hara but she was trying to lay it off to somebody yeah so

so even here like it's a it's a decent ball in from sanchise but it's still just like it was very much just creating a scramble ball moment. I'm glad we won the scramble. I'm glad O'Hare gets her goal. I think she has like three in her career for the U.S. It's a great hit. Awesome hit. But again,

I still wish we would be trying to do a little bit more precise stuff going in. That's probably a little harsh here on the sequence, because Sanchez was picking her play here. Like she wasn't just firing it in. She clipped it deliberately to that back post. Yeah, I just think the fact that it ended up. up with that it went from Rodman to O'Hara was bit lucky you know that's that's the that's the lucky part but um but the ball from Sanchez to Rodman and then the hit from

oh ohara to the back of the net nothing lucky about either of those uh we get some half chances down the stretch here a couple of Corneac headers on crosses did you like those crosses to Corneac I guess if you've got Corneac like I'll take it I remember again I still remember the old Spurs days with Peter Crouch where they would just, that was their attack, just lob the ball into the box at him, see what he could do. Is it possible that

Corniac could play the six? She doesn't look like she does that for San Diego much, but. I don't, from what I've seen in these very limited, you know, minutes, I wouldn't say it's something where she's parking herself pretty thoroughly in that discussion.

Like, I don't think that she'd get in over an out of position Haran or Mewis even Okay I don't know I mean give me your take on her on her actual you know soccer Not just her ability to get her head to a I actually thought she was a little bit on tidy

Down the stretch in this game But you know she covers a lot of ground very rapidly It seems like she wants to combine And is generally pretty good at it I don't know I guess I I feel like something is lacking with Sullivan at the six. I want a little

more from our six in possession. I mean, it's the U.S. women's national team. Can we not be a little bit greedy? So that's my, so that's sort of the underlying thing here for me. Right. And so this is what I'd be like, if you, if that's what you're going for, then I think it would be a

Horan or Mewis in there. Okay. Fair enough. Especially because by doing like a heron there, then you're also getting, for sure, getting Sanjou, and Lavel on the field at the same time. Yeah. All right. I feel like we've covered all the conclusions.

The conclusions I have already as we've gone along here. I mean, I think the drop-off from Pew and Smith to the other wingers is significant. Morgan is better than Hatch, but neither is close to as good as Macario. I like Sanchez and Lavelle as the 8th. Well, we're still in a, like, a scenario here where even with that drop-off at the winger, you know, after Pue is Smith, like Perce Rodman and Rapino are still like outrageously talented backup wingers if that's what the situation is. Yeah, but Smith and Pew are their cheat codes, man.

They're nasty. What else? Anything before we get out of here? I mean, it's just going to be a little, as we get to Mexico and then the semifinal and final, presumably, you know, fingers crossed in this Concorda Calf Tournament. that's where we're going to see the defense test a little bit. I guess, you know, to be fair, Columbia did put us under a couple of times in the second half

where we were scrambling, where we were like, oh, they are going to get something out of this. But over the 180 minutes, it wasn't a huge test for the defense. And so that's going to be the next thing. It's going to be how well can we keep out teams that are a little bit more effective running at our defensive third? Yeah. Haiti on the 4th of July kicks off the tournament and you and I, Greg, will be recapping that late on the night of July 5th and then we'll be back to a more regular schedule of getting to the game, hopefully the morning after, from thenceforth.

And, you know, the U-20s, check out the recap of the U-20s win over Costa Rica last night. That's handled by Joey O from the Discord. Vince, who is the, you know, one of the stars. one of the two stars of the Monday review and another guy named Matt Scho Walter. If you are able, please consider supporting us on Patreon. The link is in the show notes. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see ya.