Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #297: USWNT v Jamaica recap, and we're going to the World Cup!

Episode Date: July 8, 2022

Greg and Belz break down a much-improved attacking performance from the USA, on a night where Mexico's failures broke our way and we earned qualification to the 2023 Women's World Cup. Fun midfield, lots of action in the Man City zone, Sophia Smith scores a gorgeous goal and Girma, Huerta and Sanchez make their case.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. Hello, we are here to recap the U.S. women's 5-0 victory over Jamaica, a pretty comfortable win over a team that had just beaten Mexico, and then Haiti beat Mexico 3-0 later last night, which auto-qualified the U.S. for the 2023 World Cup since we're now guaranteed a top-two finish in the group. So just like that, we're in. Mission accomplished. One of the missions accomplished. And it looks like Canada looms in the finals of the tournament, which would be a play-in game for the Olympics. I mean, that's a little premature, but it's kind of, that's the best guess, right? How you doing, Greg?

I'm good. I mean, I'm with you. The auto-qualification, even for the World Cup, kind of came a little earlier than I expected because Jamaica beat Mexico, it opened up that possibility of the three-way tie at the top. However unlikely, you know, the U.S. is, you know, the best team in this group. But if we had, you know, if Mexico had beat Haiti yesterday and then we go into the last game with Mexico and there was that possibility for three teams to be on six points, which means it's possible for six points to be third place and be out of the World Cup automatically or out of the auto spot. So there was like that, that's just tiny little bit of anxiety similar to when the men's team was going into the last window or was like, we should be okay. but there is this, you know, certain path that leaves us in the cold. So it was nice when Haiti beat Mexico to just be like, oh, that's done.

We are, we are in. Pretty sad for Mexico, too. I didn't watch the game, but I watched the highlights and it looked like Mexico hardly even threatened or at least the, you know, the highlight picker didn't, didn't pick those moments. And, you know, Haiti had a goal called back as well for off-size. I mean, yeah, this wasn't, this wasn't like a, a, fluke by any stretch. Haiti were better

and Jamaica were better and their win over Mexico. So this is just Mexico kind of bottled it on their home soil. I don't know if it's just the pressure of the moment. The other thing to keep in mind here is DeMorne is good. So I was watching her again against Mexico. She might have been the best player on the field

in the U.S. game with all that talent we have. It was like her and Morgan and then everyone else. And she was the best player on the field again against Mexico. She's something. So Haiti now, because of the way they managed the game against the U.S. are now in pole position for that second spot.

They played Jamaica on the last day, and they only need a draw because they are ahead on goal difference. I don't know if you noticed that during the U.S. game, but Haiti were very content at 2-0 down against the U.S. to continue to just kill the clock off. They weren't interested in mounting a comeback. I know they'd put together some scary moments in the first half, but in the second half, a little inside baseball for people listening.

When we rewatch games, whether it's Wy Scout, or streaming. You know, there's a lot of shortcut keys that you can use. And skip ahead 10 seconds was for sure my best friend watching through that Haiti game. Because every time the ball went out of bounds for Haiti's ball, you could hit it, you could skip ahead 10 seconds twice instantly and you knew you weren't going to miss anything. They wouldn't put it back in play yet. Even when Haiti's goalkeeper got the ball in her hands, she might not have been good for most of the game,

but she was very good at executing time wasting because you could skip ahead 10 seconds with the ball in her hands. and she still had it in her hand. So totally blatant disregard for the six-second rule in that match. But it kept the score line close, and now Haiti just need the draw, and they're in the World Cup automatically, which would be awesome, because I'm hoping to Mornay is in the World Cup.

Yeah, that would be awesome. I noticed she got fouled very cynically by Mexico last night. On a, maybe probably more than once, but there was one where she was bursting into space from about midfield on the left side line and she just got absolutely taken out. It was almost a dog so. I mean, she was that clear

and, you know, kind of happy to see that. See Haiti win that game? Let's see. Should we do the lineups for this game, the U.S. game? Yeah, let's talk about the changes for the U.S. So Ozener and goal,

replacing Casey Murphy, seems probably like a planned thing. Sophia Huerta, Alana Cook, Naomi Germa, and Emily Fox across the backline. Germa replacing Sauerna and Huerta replacing O'Hara. So, you know, a little bit of youth replacing experience, you might say. Well played. Yes. Yeah.

So, and Vlato mentioned before the game that some of these changes were pre-planned. And it's always hard to know if a manager really means that or if it's his way of taking the sting out of, you know, a a performance-based change because there were some performance issues, I think, for O'Hara and Sauerra where they were, you know, showed some limitations, maybe showed some of that age catching up.

And so we went younger, and I don't know that the differences in threat posed by Haiti and Jamaica were all to account for this, but Germa and Huerta both looked very comfortable in this game. Yep. Germa looks real good. Um, yes.

Horan was the six, so maybe a little bit of a surprise there, or at least a decision made by Vladko and then Lavelle and Sanchez as the eight. And then Sophia Smith, Ashley Hatch and Mallory Pugh across the front line. Hatch got a crack at it after Morgan was imperious in the previous game. So we're calling this the, we're calling this the fun midfield, right? That's what we're calling it when Lavelle and Sanchez start next to each other. Yes. Yeah.

And is it only the fun midfield if it's Horan at the six or does the six not matter at that point? It's just Lavelle and Sanchez, right? I think for me it doesn't matter who the six is. It's still fun. Okay. Just wanted to agree on this. Tara in the Discord was saying that even just having those two starting together seemed like it would make it less likely for us to just totally rely on crosses. And I completely agree with that going into the game because it is, and we'll see this throughout the timeline.

But Sanchez and Horan have such different movement cues, movement. triggers. So when it's Sanchez as that player next 12el, instead of Haran, like Sanchez's movement initiates attacking into that Man City zone. Whereas Haran's movement as a center midfielder seems way more likely to be sort of

stationary behind the play and then she'll arrive in the box late, which leads itself better towards like a crossing system. You know, or it's more effective there. And Sanchez is just like, no, I'm going to go join the ball wherever it is. I will burst into any scene that I can find when it's available. So she

is always doing this slashing forward that almost compels us to play into those prime assist zones. We get a ton of that tonight. Yeah, well, I know you've earmarked one that happens right in the first minute that we'll get to when we get to the timeline. But it did seem to me like Sanchez didn't get that involved in the first half. Like overall, she wasn't, it was, things were going fine. We were up two zero, you know, pretty quickly. But she wasn't, she wasn't getting on the ball that much. They weren't finding her in those runs forward to join the ball.

And I'll be interested to hear why do you think that is or what was going on there. Maybe we can hold off on that. For sure, for sure. No, you'll get into it on the events as they unfold. Okay. And okay, for Jamaica, it was Rebecca Spencer and goal, Tierney Wiltshire, Allison Swaby, Chantel Swaby, and Denisea Blackwood across the backline. Blackwood had a rough night trying to contain Smith and then Peeley.

and then Mitch Purse. Jody Brown, Chenyalu, Asher, Havana, Solon, and Trudy Carter are the band of four in the four-four-two, the band of four in the midfield in the four-four-two, and then Atlanta Primus and Bunny Shaw were the strikers. So to the timeline, why don't you take the first one? Here we go. So in the Columbia matches and in the first game against 80, like right off the bat, we got the ball wide and just whipped in a hopeful ball. and I was just like head and hands in those games. And then in this game, totally the opposite,

44 seconds and we're in the Man City zone. The MCZ, we're going to be calling it today. And Emily Fox got involved. She had limited involvement in the Haiti match on the ball. Just we kept everything going down the right side. Went down the left sideline right away. Fox has it wide at the edge of the attacking area. Pugh's ahead of her on the sideline.

Sanchez is in the left half space up high. and Fox plays her in. And it's super simple. It's just like Sanchez just, there's a big seam. She just slashes vertically up into it. And Fox just has an easy choice to lead her into that space. Fox's pass is a little bit underhit,

so it sort of forces Sanchez to hold her run. She can't run onto the ball. She has to just protect it towards the sideline. So you kind of miss the opportunity to get in behind, but no problem because Pew reads it well, it underlapser. and then Sanchez hits a very clever split rather than just again whipping a ball into the box.

She splits the two near defenders and plays a little seven-yard pass to Pew who's now in the attacking Man City Zone. And Pew actually takes a terrible touch and hits it 12 yards out of bound. But I don't care, right? I'm super happy because this is what I want to see. I want to see this emphasis on getting into these attacking spaces and we got it right off the bat. Yeah.

Sanchez plays soccer the right way. That's my position on it. I totally think so. And I really don't think it's purely an aesthetic thing. Again, like, I think this is how we get to our ceiling. As a team with the talent we have, we don't get to our ceiling by whipping ball into the box and playing hustle scramble ball. Any team can do that. Any team can hustle really hard and work.

We will get there because we can do that when it's needed. When it happens, I want us to be able to score ugly. But I also want us to be able to tap into this other vein of goals. scoring chances that other teams simply can't tap into. And we get a little bit of a glimpse of a willingness to do it right away. And that's all I want to see right now. It's just that willingness. It doesn't have to be perfect.

And it wasn't perfect tonight. But the number of times we tried to do it and the, you know, the chances that we did create out of it really promising for me. Okay. In this 90 minutes. Well, why? So, I mean, Sanchez doesn't come up too much in the timeline after this, at least in the first half.

I mean, she gets an assist late. She does some other good stuff here and there. But why wasn't she more involved in the first half? So I'm not sure. It might just be because of the way this play developed, happened to have Sanchez be the one leading that half space line. A lot of the times we keep hitting the seam, right? The seam is between their fullback and their centerback.

We keep hitting that seam throughout this game because they created, Jamaica left a big gap there, a much bigger gap than Haiti was playing with in the first. game. So Jamaica sort of invited. They invited us into that man city zone. And we were perfectly willing to do it. And a lot of the times in the rotation, it was either P or Smith. That was just in the lane to get into that space as we were building. Yeah. Okay. All right. Well, my, my first thing here is at the 245 mark, a nice play from Naomi Germa to put out a little fire started by Huerta and Horan. They just, they just, I think it was Huerta played it to Horan a little behind her.

and Horan, who's mobility, I think, is a little bit hamstrung at the moment. Couldn't quite get to it. And then it's kind of Bunny Shaw running at our back line.

But Germa and Huerta corral her, and then Germa takes the ball away and plays it upfield to Smith. So it's just like a very assured, calm centerback action to put out of fire. And then I noticed

Smith beats somebody, which she did a lot of, lot of in this game and then plays a slightly too heavy through ball for Ashley Hatch into the box. I can't Paramount Plus won't let you take screenshots and I don't know if we've mentioned this yet, but Weissout is not covering the Concaf W championship. It doesn't seem to be. There's no highlights up on Weissout from these games yet. So I can't give you this. I can't show my work, but Sophia Smith has Sanchez running in a big open space into zone 14. in this play and instead tries for the through ball it's a it gets it gets picked up by spencer before

hatch can get to it but um just a little you know a little nitpick with sophia there that she you know she should play that ball to sanchise and and that's what that's what i hope the next step is is the ability to like now fine tune and really calibrate those last the last the last the very last pass once we're into these danger areas uh you have the next one i think yeah so three 30 just since we're keeping track of Horan at the six here. It was another moment that she just shows that she's not like the pure six. And it's just like a simple bouncing ball at midfield that Jamaica is sort of half cleared up. And Haran's coming forward for it.

And Lavelle's coming back for it. And they are the two players with the chance of the ball. There's no Jamaica player who's actually going to win the ball. And they both pull out of the challenge. And so the ball bounces past both of them. And Jamaica do run onto that ball. And now they're attacking like two on four. So nothing comes of it.

But it's just another moment of if we're gauging Haran's competence and comfort level at the 6th, like that's one she needs to take control of it. She's facing up field and she's got to sort of be the one to make that play. Yeah. She doesn't, like I said, like I tried to say earlier, she doesn't look super mobile as a defensive midfielder either. I don't know. I don't know if that's, is that just who she is, or is that she's not at 100% right now? It could be both

I don't know I really am not sure if like If reading the defensive angles constantly is her Like I mean I know she's not a six by nature Right But I'm not sure if like if that's causing her To sort of look a little clumsier Than she would when she's in more of like the attacking role

I don't know Yeah Okay But we're going to keep watching that throughout the tournament If she gets more reps in that space In the fifth minute The US scores a goal And it's a beautiful ball from Naomi Germa to spring Smith wide.

She hits her in stride from about 40 yards. And Smith is running at Blackwood. She dinks it over her to the inside, which eliminates Blackwood, a really clever touch. There's a word in Spanish for that touch, right? Isn't there? No. I don't know. I think there is.

I'm hoping the crowd finds it. But I don't know what it is. Anyway, we got to figure that out. Just plays it over her. and then takes it on the half volley with the outside of her boot from a really tough angle, but just hits it super sweetly. Roots the keeper to the spot, bends it into the far corner, and it's one zero. And I know there was some debate about this.

Like maybe she was trying to cross it, but I don't think so. I think she was shooting. That's my, I don't know. Did she say different on the post game interview? I didn't hear, but the decision to use the outside of the right foot for me there, like, is, means shot. I got,

I gotta believe that's a shot because she's curling it back to the post with the inside of her right. Otherwise, there'd be no need. You'd just use, I mean,

the outside of her right. Otherwise, you'd just use the inside of your right to curl it back towards Pew who's, right, who's attacking the far post. It's gorgeous.

I loved it. Gorgeous. I'm usually, I'm usually like team, you know, squared to somebody. But that's, that's when the player hits like a boring,

just kick it at the goal as hard as you can from that angle. Sophia Smith, showing some imagination here. She had a plan. And I, And I can respect somebody trying that plan out. Yeah, she's on another level in a lot of ways from everybody she plays against. This was a good example of that.

And we needed because she didn't have a good 45 minutes against Haiti. Like she was pretty rough. Like very few things that you point to as like even positive moments. So it's great that she comes right back with this five minutes into the game. Can I touch on the buildup a little bit too? Yeah. So the buildup for me is again promising because it's showing a little bit of variety in how we're playing. Against Haiti in game one, it was all O'Hara up to Smith on the sideline.

Here we get a little bit of variation to find Smith into the danger space. And here it started out with what seemed like maybe a nothing pass from Atlanta Cook up to Ashley Hatch checking back in the center of the field. So we get this kind of interior pocket play that I love. It brought Jamaica's center back all the way up field with Hatch. Hatch just lays it off all the way back to Germa. but because hatches up and the center back followed her, Lavelle recognizes that from the right half space and she then slashes into the center area,

which is now vacated. Well, Jamaica's left back has to go with her, so she respects that run. And that's why Germa has this opening to hit Sophia Smith in behind. And then obviously Sophia Smith has a ton to do. But this is what you want. You want Sophia Smith attacking like a retreating, disorganized defense rather than just going from O'Hara,

Sophia Smith, where the whole defense of amoeba still is intact and just shifts over to it. This is way better buildup to initiate an attack. So I loved it right away. Yeah. Okay. 550, I think you have another moment here. Yeah, we get MCZ moment. Yeah, another MCZ moment, an MCZM, I guess, is what we're calling it.

So now on the left side of the field, Girm has got it again. She carries it across midfield and sort of the half space. Again, this big gap between Jamaica's right center back and her right back. Maybe they watched the film. Maybe they watched the Haiti game. They're like, the U.S. loves to get the ball out wide to these players on the sideline to hit and crosses. Let's deny that from it because their fullbacks were way too tight to our wide players too early. So their right back is really tight on Emily Fox up on the left sideline.

Pew now just slashes into that seam. Germa Fienzer, the pass is a little bit heavy. So Pew just gets there right as it's about to cross the end line. All she can do is whip it across. But it's definitely like the theme of the night is us getting into that scene between right back or between fullback and center back. And we were really going for it. I'm hoping that we take that lesson and try to do that against teams that aren't inviting it as much. But we'll have to see on that.

You know, it's an interesting question. If you're an opposing coach, are you going to try to deny the wide, try to deny the wide, the wide crossing or are you going to do what Jamaica did and or you know do what do what Haiti did and just let us have those crosses from wide I mean obviously we know what Greg Velasquez would do if he was the coach but yeah it's tough it's tough because the US is probably going to beat you regardless if you're if you're not you know one of the better teams in the world so it's just sort of picking your poison but for me with the talent we have I guess I would allow the wide crosses though you could say that right now if you if you are early in the game where the U.S. is just starting to do these things, you could risk it the way Jamaica did and see if the U.S. is just not clean enough.

Yeah. Not tight enough once they get into those zones to do anything with it. But man, once we start clicking on those last two passes, it's going to be lights out. Yeah. There's a lot of times where we could have done better in the last two passes. All right. 715 we get our Our second goal

And this one's not as pretty As the first one But it's a ball over the top From Huerta And the keeper Spencer I know It seems like she should have come for it A little sooner

But she didn't And Smith gets there first And tries to dink it past her I think it brushes Spencer's shoulder Or something And goes I think over the goal line I'm not 100% sure

It went over the goal line But it was ruled a goal By the sideline judge and then Var took a look at it. Nothing conclusive. So it's a goal. The goal line clearance was just maybe a moment too late. We'll take it.

Yeah, either a moment too late or just some bad luck on the call for Jamaica, but it was really close. And it was a good job of Smith to put this on frame. This buildup again really similar to that last one. We just flipped to the right side this time. But that same huge gap existed where their left back now is out really tight to Lavelle on the sideline. And so Sophia Smith just races into that scene. I mean, obviously we're doing a good job of rotating to do these things because it's Lavelle out wide this time.

Other times it's fullback. Other times it's the winger. But either way, like Jamaica Center Mid, who's not goal side of Sophia Smith does like a token job of like tracking her into that scene. But as soon as the ball loops over both their heads, she's just like, ah, not my player anymore. Like I'm not goalside. There's nothing I can do. And so that's why Smith is alone. Tough one for Spencer.

like she might have just stayed home altogether and just let Smith try to have a rip from a really tight angle while her defenders chase back. I don't know. I don't have a strong opinion on her decision either way to really tough finish from Smith once Spencer arrives. Yeah. Not even clear that Smith was trying to shoot on that play.

All right. 11th minute, Ashley Hatch, who had not been much involved. I know she made a couple runs that vacant. some space, but had not been much involved in this game. Takes one off her chest. It's a cross from Smith on the right, just kind of a hopeful, bouncing cross. Pew comes back to challenge for it, and the Jamaican right back, I believe it was Wiltshire. She has a really rough touch that goes right to the chest of Hatch.

Hatch takes it off her chest and then volleys at home with her left boot. but Pew was offside to come back onside to challenge for the cross. So that goes called back. Yeah, good spot by the AR because that's a tough one with Pew running behind the traffic to re-involve herself in the play. I'm still taking it as a positive that Hatch is less involved. So just because if we were just lumping in crosses from the get-go, Hatch might be more involved. But I'm still just seeing it as a good thing that we were trying, or we were at least, whether it was a an intentional thing or not.

We were playing way more pretty soccer in the buildup using our wingers and our center mids and our fullbacks and then just not quite making the right pass that ends up at Ashley Hatch. So I'm taking it as a good thing. Well, I guess I'll push back a little bit to say that we were still lumping some crosses in.

I mean, that was still happening. And I guess Hatch, when she did get the ball to her feet, I don't know, it was kind of a coin toss whether she was going to find a useful pass or not. I don't think she found a useful forward pass in the first half. I could be wrong about that, but I think she played a couple of passes back to the centerbacks.

She dropped in, received the ball, play it back to the center back. But that was about the limits of her on-ball capacity in the build-up, I thought. Maybe I'm being too harsh. No, that's fair. That's fair. I was just like, again, I was super focused on how successfully we were attacking the seams in the back line. So I just missed that Hatch wasn't as involved in that through the first 11. Yeah, I mean, sometimes dropping in, playing it back to the centerback is exactly what she's supposed to do.

And it creates space like it did for the first goal. So, you know, I'm not vigorously disagreeing with you, Greg. Far be it from me. I'm about it. 23rd minute, Sanchez intercepts a goal kick and plays it to Pew just inside the box. Pew has a little bit of an opportunity to square it for Smith at the back post.

I thought, I thought that was on, but she goes for goal, draws a safe from Spencer. It almost falls to Hatch. Hatch can't quite get to it. It gets cleared away, but falls to Lavelle on the back post.

Lavelle hits it on the slide. but right at Spencer, who's closing pretty quickly. So a pretty exciting sequence, but no goal for the U.S. Yeah, good industry by Sanchez right there to run through that weak clearance after the goal kick to create this whole thing. It was tough. I kept watching it in super slow motion to see when Pew might have been able to slide that ball across. I think Jamaica played it pretty well. Like as soon as Sanchez hits that really clever disguised ball to Pew, there is an opening right there if Pue were to square.

than it'd be two on, like two on zero on the weak side. But Jamaica's centerback didn't like scramble out to Pew. And I think defenders have gotten smarter about discouraging square pass because it's such the high percentage play. And essentially forcing the narrow angle shot, which is a lower percentage, even though it is, you know, the immediate shot. So Jamaica did okay there to at least limit what could what we could do or make it more difficult if Pew was going to pick out one of those square opportunities. So I'm just given to make a little credit there for not making it easy for us to capitalize on almost like a two and a half on one. Yeah. Yeah, if that's what they were doing like deliberately encouraging her to have the shot.

And that's that's pure genius. So 25th minute hatch nearly scores again on a corner kick. This is it floats all the way across Sanchez meets it at the backpost or beyond the backpost and taps it back across into the mixer. and it sort of falls to Sanchez and she, I think her shot is blocked by the keeper. What next? Yeah,

the Sanchez header goes to Cook who sort of chests it forward and then Hatch might have put it off the crossbar, but that's right. Again, we have good players here, so I'm not saying that we can't succeed in scramble ball. I think it's good that we have the players to do that, you know,

whether it's Cook or Hatch, we got some big kids who will, stick their nose in. What's the next one? What's the next moment? Okay, so at 2520, I'm just clocking all these interior pocket passes along with the Man City's own opportunities. And this was just another good one from from Cook all the way in the back line up to Sophia

Smith, who's in like the half space. And at this point, I just noticed, I paused it as it goes up to Smith. And the front line is now like Smith, Pugh, oh, I'm sorry. So the front line was now Fox, Pew, Hatch, Sophia Smith, Roosevelt. And Sophia Huerta kind of on the right side too. So it was almost like we had six high. Did you notice what the, what like our formation turned into in possession this game? A little different from Haiti.

No, I did not notice. What was it? So it was more of like a more of like a 415, whereas Haiti was like a 315 with Fox not involved. This was very much like a symmetrical, I thought, four. 1-5, where it was the back line just making a horseshoe around Haran, and then the front five just changing constantly from left to right. And so that's what I clocked here, was just how much interchange there was from that front five, who would be occupying which spaces. And, you know, speaking of Huerta, I know there's a, there's definitely a contingent

of people who think it's time for her to be the right back and for O'Hara to be her backup. And I'd I'm not quite, you know, I don't feel qualified enough to make that call at the moment. But I do notice that Huerta, you know, Huerta plays with a level of subtlety on the ball that I don't think we see from O'Hara, you know, some of her, it's not just her, like, her sort of beautiful bending crosses from wide, but she can, you know, she was playing a lot of passes into the channel and she can, you know, play like a little feathered ball over a defender to release somebody in behind. So she's fun to watch when she has a little time on the ball.

Just want to say that. I think she's going to jump O'Hara. And I don't know if it'll happen by the end of this tournament, but I feel like it's happening. And it'll just be sort of a wearing down of Lottgo that we just are just that little bit better in possession with Huerta than O'Hara. And I just think it's because she offers a few more facets, kind of like what you're saying, as we start to get into hopefully a little bit more. sophisticated buildup.

I think Quirta is just going to be a little bit better. And we're just spoiled for choice where it's like, okay, then I guess we'll use Galli-O-Hara as our backup right back. Right. I'll buy it. I'll buy it. I just didn't want to be the first one to say it. So 27th minute, good entry pass from Germa to Lavelle in the midfield between the lines.

Lavelle plays it wide to Huerta and Huerta whips it across. and this is a beautiful cross from wide, which Huerta is definitely capable of. And Pew arrives to thump it in. It looked like she was offside, and then Var decided that she was. A lovely cross, a very nice finish on the volley. I do wish Pew would be a little smarter there.

It's like she saw the whole back, she had the whole backline in front of her to look at. She can stay onside there. Yeah, and she had the room to, too, didn't she? She had like three yards to clearance that she could have held a little bit. or fish hooked where you, you know, take a half a step back towards your midfield line to keep yourself on a little bit. But I love this ball from Huerta.

I actually love the choice. I know I rail against crosses all of the time on here. But they're not all created equal, right? This one is not into a set defense, again, in part because the buildup was initiated with an interior pocket pass to Lavel before it went out to Huerta. So it kind of froze the back line a little bit more than just going straight out wide. But once it goes to Huerta, who's, you know, Lavelle puts it ahead of her, she's running forward.

She gets to run onto it and then cross it behind Jamaica's like foosball back line, where now they're all defending it racing back toward their own goal, totally different scenario than hitting it in where they can attack the ball coming forward. So this is a great opportunity to hit a cross in, and she delivered a perfect ball, and Pugh actually had the perfect finish. Yeah, unstoppable. Throughout the 30s and 40s, there's a few moments. moments here. There's a, you know, a chance for hatch at the near post where that gets saved

off her foot by Spencer. In the 40th minute, Fox sneaks a ball on the ground into Smith in the box and she takes a couple touches and hits it just wide of the near post with her left foot. I still love this one though. I love that 40th minute one just because, again, it's a more intentional play, right? It's not being like, oh, I'll cross it. Somebody will get their head on it and we'll just, you know, go from there. It was like, I can play a really good soccer player of the ball to her feet in the box. And that's what we did. And the more we're doing this, the better we're going to get in the high,

the closer we're going to get to really hitting our actual ceiling. Because you can see what Sophia Smith does there, right? Like once the ball gets to her feet, she's going to create a shot. And if she doesn't, then she'll keep soccering a little bit to the next player who will be able to create something. And so the decision from Fox play into feet rather than just whipping it in at head height. I'm really excited about. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

The decisions. I was all about the decisions tonight. We also, a few minutes later in the 44th minute, Pew wins a foul on the right wing and hits a set piece that sprays to Fox out left. And she takes a shot that curls at the goal and skims the crossbar. So a very dangerous moment. And then we get a great attack through Smith up the right wing in the 45th minute after Lavelle mugs somebody. Levelle was really good in the counterpress. I mean, our whole T.

Our counterpress was suffocating. Like Jamaica could not keep the ball for more than a matter of moments. Once it was in play, as you mentioned, they kept it out of play for a lot of time. But Pugh quickly plays it out wide to Smith. Smith drives forward and squares it cleverly for Pugh as Hatches run. So credit to Ashley Hatch, she makes a run that clears out the penalty spot. And Pugh is almost in too much space. didn't know what to do with it.

She takes it with her left foot and hits it right at the keeper. But a really, really, really good chance right there. Yeah, totally, like nothing but a positive moment for me here. For all involved, love the decision from Smith because we have seen our players in these scenarios, just decide again to smash it at the keeper sometimes. So the decision to square it again, I'm all for the decisions. That's what I'm rating. I'm rating decisions.

Okay. Yeah. No, I mean, totally agree. So then in the aftermath to this to this Pew shot that was saved, like Jamaica can barely get it, you know, 30 yards off the field where we have it again. And now Huerta's got it. And she just floats another great ball in to Pew at the far post. And Pew, like, I think it's sneaky how good of a chance this was.

I think she probably puts it on target or at least gets a shot off. It doesn't even get a shot off. It kind of just skims off her shins and goes out of bounds. But I think it's because actually Sanchez may have gotten a little bit of a touch with her head right before. got to Pew to put her off, but we were in again. And so I don't know, man, like if I'm Jamaica, it's just like, how do you stop them? They have so many different ways that they can score, whether it's their left back cutting in and hitting the crossbar or, you know, these delivery falls in or we have to be totally on our game to deny the seams. Just the multifaceted attack tonight was, it's encouraging.

It is, yeah. Yeah, and it feels like we're not scratching the surface, you know, of what, definitely not clicking on all cylinders, but there's so many cylinders. So many cylinders. All right. Got to mention that Bunny Shaw tried one from distance in the 47th minute. It did not look like, you know, 4620 mark in the first half before the break. It did not look like Jamaica was going to score in this game at all to me. But she did try one from distance as she's harried by Naomi Germa.

And I mentioned it because, I mean, the shot was nor a close, but the herrying from Germa was good. It looked like she was, even though she was allowing Shaw to, to shoot. She looked very in control of the situation. Yeah, I think, I think Shaw's only real joy came when she rounded Emily Fox once down towards the end line at the edge of the 18. So she did get around her, but then her cut back was. was, I think, just too close to Neyre. But we really did keep Jamaica totally quiet,

and Shaw wasn't able to do that much. Sanchez got a yellow for, I don't know, cold cocking is a little strong, but she hit Shaw pretty good as she was trying to dribble out of a double team on our left sideline. And I just appreciated Sanchez's coldness about it. She didn't try to help Shaw up

or anything like that. Just fouled her, got a yellow card, and trotted back to her spot in a set defense. And then the half showed, showed up. So halftime, we're up to zero. It felt like more than that, but it felt more dominant even than that. But at the half, Emily Sonic comes on for Emily Fox

and Midge Purse comes on for Sophia Smith. Both, I presumably, to give those players rest, Fox and Smith, clearly the first choice left back and one of the wingers, and we're up to zero. Why not give them some rest? Vion Sampson comes on for Havana Salon, and Paige Bailey Gale comes on for Jody Brown for Jamaica. And so I'm sure Jamaica at this point have half an eye on that last game against Haiti, too.

Now, Jamaica don't know that Haiti are going to beat Mexico later in the night, so they might have just thought that this game for the U.S. was immaterial and that all they needed to do is make sure they take care of business against Haiti. but now, I mean, they still need to, but now they have to win the game against Haiti to get the auto World Cup spot. They stay alive, do it. They have to more than take care of business.

Got to win. So 48 minute mark, purse plays a hopeful ball into the area that's not dealt with well by Jamaica and falls to hatch. She takes it on her chest and then has a looping volley that glances off the far post

on the bounce and probably had Spencer beat. It's a good hit from Hatch. I do think she could have just, you know, just headed it to Sanchez when the ball was coming to her initially. But she doesn't seem like she sees those kinds of things super well. She doesn't see the things to the side of her very well. I'd buy that. I'd buy that. I think we saw that in the Columbia friendly as well where some of her decisions were a little bit, I don't know if naive is the right word. But I'll defend this one here because there's something about the aesthetic of the of the chest directly into a. volley that is just like I have to encourage it to happen even if it's lower percentage. Like I'm I'm not a pure dogmatist. Like that's why I say, you know, I always want people to square it unless they do something really imaginative because if you're just going to hit it at the goal, that's not imagining enough to cost you the percentage points.

But if you're doing something really cool, no, I got time for that. So it was pretty cool. Go for this. I'll agree with that. It was a good looking, it was a good looking hit for sure. Okay, it's fine. She says, it's fine with me. 50 minute mark, we get a free kick from Pew that's nearly put away by Haran, but why to the post?

You know, I guess that's why she's here. But this still just goes back to all the different ways we have to score. And so when we're tapping into all of them, it's just, it's a barrage. And this was a barrage. I was happy about this game, if you can't tell. I just want to note that Blackman was also having a hard time with Midge Purse. Purse was getting by her pretty easily. I just noticed in the 56th minute, around the 55-minute mark,

there's a good one-time ball from Sanchez in behind for Pew, but it hits Pew in the back as she's running into that channel. But it's such a clever pass from Sanchez. She just receives it and plays it in behind in one motion. hits Pugh in the back and she loses it. But I think more often than not, that's going to result in a high-quality, advanced platform for Mallory Pugh.

Pew was a little bit inconsistent for me. And I'm not talking about her missed chances because, as you all know, like the chance is the important thing there. But just in those, like, key moments once we got into those spaces, I really thought she wasn't quite sharp enough a lot of the time.

Yeah. I would say, I think she will be. Yeah, well, I would say that a little bit the same thing about Smith. You know, I mean, she, she had that, like, very, very, very good goal, the first one. And then she had sort of a bit of a slop goal on the second one. But other than that, you know, I wouldn't say she was always making the right decision. I mean, she did make the really good decision to square, pew.

That's square. Yeah. So, I don't know. But if you just look at, like, how much dynamism they both bring to the table, like, there's more to be squeezed from that orange. Boy, the metaphors. What's going on? But no, again, that's the exciting.

The exciting part is that I do think there's a lot we can clean up even in this game that we totally dominated in 1-50. I mean, I was disappointed in the Haiti performance, even though we won comfortably, ish, you know, 3-0 with a few chances for Haiti. But this game, I'm like, this was great and we can still get better. So, yeah. let's go to another positive moment on the timeline where I can repeat how excited I was about this performance. All right.

Pugh plays a good ball in for Sanchez and she whips it across the six. Hatch dummies it convincingly at the near post. I mean, I don't think she was intentionally dumbing it. I think she was trying to get to it and she didn't quite get to it. And then she got bodied a little bit, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it trickles through to Rose Lavelle without being touched. And Lavelle picks out her.

spot on the far post and puts it away. I think Spencer gets a little hand to it, but not enough. 30 USA. Assist for Sanchez. We're cruising and I think Jamaica are starting to start to wane even more in both concentration and just ability to cover ground. So in a 30, it's the same. Flotko actually said this after the 80 win as well.

He said we were doing a lot of running that wasn't necessary. I always wonder about this like, you know, group stage management, tournament management, where we clearly have the points in hand. And so it really seems like Vlato goes like, we need to stop playing soccer at that point. And we should, our priority now is to exert as little energy as possible to see this game out. So at 3-0 in this Jamaica game is kind of like the same thing. We've got the points. Do not waste any energy that we can use to accomplish the next goal,

which is getting a result against Mexico, to make sure we win the group. and get the most favorable semifinal matchup. Yeah. Although does it really matter what the semifinal matchup is at this point? Because to get to auto-qualify for the Olympics, we still got to beat Canada, probably going to have to beat Canada, whether that's in the semifinals or the final.

Yeah, probably still does. I mean, I don't know. I'd still rather, one, give Canada a chance to lose. And two, if we don't win in the final, as far as I know still, the Olympic playoff is that we play if like let's say we get to the final and lose to Canada we play the third place team.

So if we beat Canada and then lose the final somehow, we would probably have to play Canada again in a one-off to get to the Olympics. Okay. So I would rather play Canada in the final and then if we don't win that, then not play Canada in the playoff. Yeah, makes sense.

I can't believe you're trying to say we should come in second in the group. I'm just trying to figure out why it matters. All right. 60th minute, Mewis comes on for Haran, Robin on for Hatch, which is a little bit of a surprise, Trinity as the number nine,

but good to see. And at this point in the game, my notes indicate to me that our press and counter press were just way more than Jamaica could handle. That probably had to do with what you just mentioned, them being fatigued and losing some interest in the game. but they couldn't they couldn't keep the ball at all. They're about to take Bunny Shaw off again.

I think they probably have an eye towards that last game against Haiti knowing that they have to get a result one way or another and now, and again, now they have to win. Also, should note, we don't have Megan Rapino on the bench here because she's in Washington, D.C. receiving a pretty prestigious medal. A presidential medal of freedom, right? Isn't that what it is? Yeah, there we go. So I don't know how that affected the substitution plans, but it is, I mean, obviously Rodman coming on for Hatch doesn't necessarily, doesn't mean that she just did that because, you know, it seems like a chance to let Morgan have the night off.

I noticed Allie Wagner was kind of disappointed that Morgan didn't get to keep going with her, her, you know, keep up the hot hand sort of argument was what it was. But I don't know that I really care about that too much. Sanchez cuts in and tries from 20 yards with her right foot, flashes it wide of the near post. I don't know that Sanchez, that's really Sanchez's strong suit is the strike from distance, but maybe she'll shut me up against Mexico in a couple days. Still just another way of keeping them honest. Like, oh, man, we got to worry about this. We got to worry about her getting behind the end line.

Like, we are dangerous. on all front. Right. I just know that when Sophia Smith cuts in from that and shoots from that distance, it feels like it's going to go in. And it doesn't feel that way so much with Sanchez at the moment. Nice ball in behind from Huerta in the 64th minute. I think this was that feathered ball I alluded to earlier.

Taylor Corneack comes on for Lavelle in the 65th minute. I'm trying to move fast through this. Yeah, I think that's fair. Again, everyone was doing a professional job in the game. We can move through it quick. Yeah, we do not look fun to play against. Okay, 69th minute purse drives and, oh yeah, this one was really nice, passes it to Corniac in the penalty area. So Cornyak's kind of showing with a defender on her back, and she touches it Croix-style to Pew, who is off to her right.

So Corniac's got her back to the goal. Croix's it with her left boot and step over her left foot to Pew off to her right. Pugh takes a couple touches and gets to open up a left-footed shot, which were some nice touches, but then she kind of scuffs the shot right at the goal. Yeah, and again, you know this is just my music again because it's that pass into Kourniak's feet, rather than like either just taking the shot right away from purse from distance.

It's just trusting that the player you're hitting it to in the box is good and has the defense on their heels and will make another good choice. So you're just sort of setting those dominoes in motion. And just for Corniac to make, to pull that touch off is fantastic. Pew reads it right and has a defense scrambling and takes advantage of their scrambling to cut the player and create a much more high percentage shot, which she doesn't finish. But everything was there. Everything was there for that sequence. And just keep doing this, please.

Yeah, it's cool to have somebody, I mean, Corniak's, this is like her third cap or something as a national team player, have her come in and just be able to play like that right off the best. hat off the bench. Nice. All right. So 72nd minute I just jotted this down. Purse doing two defenders in the box. Again, a bit of a weak left-footed shot right at Spencer. But it just,

purse has so much intention when she comes in off the bench of just dribbling people. And she's doing it successfully at a really high clip. Yeah. 75th minute, we get another cook long ball centrally to the top of the box. Jamaica defender under a little pressure from Sanchez Sanchez kind of lifts her foot up awkwardly but effectively and the defender sort of thighs it down right to Corniac who smashes it over but it's a really good look so so again just all these different modes of attack

for the US on display and then 80th 80th minute we get back to earth dribbling people so she's running downhill kind of takes a long touch through three defenders is racing past them and one of them kind of awkwardly steps in front of her path a little bit just a little enough. Perth is very clever, I think, to go down here. Gets the whistle and that's a penalty. Christy Mewis steps to the spot and buries it to the right, sending the keeper to the left. It's a good clean strike on the ball.

We did miss two penalties in the, was it in the same game against Columbia? I think at least two penalties against Columbia. Yeah, Haran and I don't even remember who missed it, but we might need some penalties in the knockouts. You never know. So Mewis raising her hand saying she can do it and she did it well. And then finally the fifth goal of the game comes in the 85th minute. It's an excellent ball in behind into the channel from Huerta to Pew and then Pew flashes it across the 6th and Trinity Rodman meets it and tucks it home,

5-0 USA. Shows a little bit of Huerta's subtlety and Pew's quality and a good, run from Rodman, a good strikers run from Rodman. Yep. Awesome attacking third stuff from all parties there. Loved the scene that we attacked again. This was just a perfect game to show what we should be trying to do as much of as possible. And we really just got, we basically got 90 minutes of it.

So what do we learn about the team? I guess Haran is still, there's still our questions to be asked about Horan at the 6th. I'm gathering is one thing we should talk about. Germa. So what I kind of want to say is even sticking on Huran is like the question will become Horan, Horan is the as the eight and whether or not that is enough. If that is the, if switching her to Sanchez is the reason that we were able to attack that we did or if it's mainly because of the way Jamaica defended, like what's the balance there?

because attacking this way for me is such an improvement for the U.S. that if it's mainly Sanchez related, then like, I don't know, then it's got, for me, Sanchez has to start over Iran in that space. And then the next question becomes, is Haran the six worth having Horan on the field in that space? I mean, my gut says no. Yes, the answer is yes and no. So probably Haran is going to have to sit.

but, you know, I'm not going to die for that. It's tough. It's tough. Her end's a very good player, but she ran into a similar situation in the World Cup where she's coming off the bench in 2019 because of the quality we have at Center Midfield with Mewis and Lavelle in that tournament. And now it could be Lavelle and Sanchez. Yeah.

I mean, I know what I know what my heart wants. I want Lavelle and Sanchez at the 8th. Now, Germa, is Germa threatening Sauerbrun's spot in the starting 11? I would have Germa starting. And it's, again, Sauerbrun is a legend, right? She is a absolute living legend for the U.S. and always will be. But in that Haiti game, like, you see sort of what her limitations are. And I know.

She did have to face Duma, who Germannes did not. But even some of the other, like the buildup thing. where I thought we were making sort of mistakes. It's like that's where I want my veteran leader to eliminate those kinds of things from happening, even if it's not her making the mistake. So if she's, if she's sort of not bringing that to the table, and I'm not saying she's not a good leader,

she very obviously is. You know, she's been a huge part of leading this program for like 10 years now. But we still need, we still like need the high level of play. And if she can't combine those two things, to outpace what a new player can give us, then I think you just have to make the hard call

and run with a new player. Well, then I think the rest of the lineup, if Huerta is on her way to surpassing O'Hara, then it's like the rest of the lineup just kind of speaks for itself. I think it's probably, you know, you're probably looking at Germa and Cook, Huerta and Fox, and then you've got to play Sullivan as the six,

and then Sanchez and LaValle is the 8th and then Smith and Pugh on the wings and Alex Morgan is the striker for the rest of the tournament. I mean, that's an outrageous team and then even your first three players off the bench bench will continue to be outrageous and you have good injury cover.

Now, things could change, right? Like, Germa has this one start in this competitive scenario. If she plays against Mexico and doesn't look very good, then that changes the calculus. But it's nice that we have this game against Mexico that is almost a dead rubber. Now, Mexico still could stay alive for World Cup by beating us and getting a favorable result in Jamaica, Haiti.

A winner there where the goal difference tips the tie for third and fourth in Mexico's favor. But for us, the Mexico game is, you know, barely matters. So, like, it's a zero-risk situation to start Germa again and see how she holds. up against Mexico. And if she continues to hold up, I think you keep running with her. Yeah. How's Mexico going to be a bigger test than Jamaica or Haiti was if they've been outplayed by both of those teams. But yeah, okay. All right, well, we'll be back with a recap of the game against Mexico. U.S. versus Mexico is Monday night, late, nine, central, 10, Eastern time. So we'll see, we'll see you all after that. The Monday review is coming up.

By the way, let me give a few program notes. I haven't done this for a while. It's been a whirlwind of programs. There's been so many programs. The Monday Review is returning on Monday for patrons. And if you would like to listen to that, and that'll be mostly men's national team focus, if you want to listen to that and get in on the Discord and get the odd video that we occasionally pump out, you know, join our Patreon. Patreon.com backslash scuffed.

The link is in the show notes. We are an ad-free podcast, and that is how we make money. other thing is well I'm just going to say you're going to want to do that if you're listening because there's a lot to talk about with Luca Dela Torei and Tyler Adams and Matt Turner's first start which by all accounts is going catastrophically. I don't know. I saw the two goals that didn't look that bad, but no, they're not howlers.

It's like the reverse Hesus-Ferreter thing. We're now like every shot Hesus-Ferr takes that he doesn't score. It's like, oh, my God, he can't finish. Like those are those are shots that goalkeepers allow for goals sometimes. But because there's so much talk of Turner's shot stopping, it's like now he's a calamitous. Yeah. Group chats all over the nation are lighting up with five syllable adjectives. All right.

The other thing we're, you know, we just finished all these U20 episodes. If you haven't listened to those, check out those. It's fun to relive those games. And then we've got for paid, those are for everybody. another thing for patrons is the classic recaps, the way back machine recaps. And I'm still working on editing

that Columbia one. It was a pretty lengthy recording session. So I got to, I still have a little work to do on that. But join the Patreon. That's my main, that's my main program note. All right.

Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.