Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #298: USWNT v Mexico recap

Episode Date: July 13, 2022

Not our finest hour, not Mexico's either and the federation is now undergoing a massive shakeup. But the US wins the group and does it with dominance, not conceding once. Greg gives most of the performance a pass because it was a dead rubber, but it was awfully disjointed.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. Well, we got it done. It was a grind, but we got the one zero win in front of an announced crowd of 20,000 or so in Monterey over Mexico. Greg, how you doing? I'm okay, Bells. I'm eager to put this game behind us and be able to focus on what are now actual meaningful contests. Can we put it behind us? Don't you think it kind of revealed some problems?

Maybe it will in hindsight, but like I'm actually pretty comfortable throwing out what was a largely, you know, mediocre outing as just the context of the competition, which is third group stage game. We are already through. It would have taken a miracle for either Haiti or Jamaica to have caught us to win the group even on goal difference. And it's 97 degrees. We're playing games on fairly short turnaround. So while this wasn't going to be anything where we, uh, or at least we didn't use this game to advance any of our playing style goals,

I would, I would say no matter what they may have been. Yeah. Uh, it was, I mean, it was, it was an exercise running out the clock and, you know,

I could quibble even with how we went about it. But, uh, it's, I don't think there are going to be anything about this game that will, uh, that will mean anything, even over the course of this tournament.

This was very much just a get through to the other side and focus on the actual competitive semi-final. For Mexico. For Mexico, it wasn't that at all. And they still were not, were not much of anything to look at. They were, they did, uh, they did put up a fight for sure and made things a little bit difficult for the U.S. and the final third. And I know that the Paramount Plus broadcast team, you know, tried to put a, uh, I don't

know, try to put a good face on it that way. but that was that was not enough to save the jobs of the entire sporting department of L3 according to according to Marca just yesterday they're they're basically firing everyone after the U20 Olympic and World Cup qualifying failures and now this the women the Mexican women did not score a goal or win a game in this concaf tournament they're not going to go to the Olympics or the women's World Cup pretty bad, pretty bad and everybody's going to lose their job. Yeah, Tata's last man standing, right?

Yeah. And not a very popular last man standing. It's just would be crazy to fire him right before the World Cup, I guess. They've done it before. I guess so, yeah. I should also mention the U.S. did out, according to Y Scout, Scout did out XG, Mexico, 2.4 to 2.41 to 0.26. So by the numbers, a pretty dominant performance, even though we didn't look that great. Should I just jump right into the lineups?

Yeah, let's do it. All right. The U.S. started Casey Murphy and goal, Emily Sonet, Naomi Germa, Becky Sauerh, and Kelly O'Hara across the backline. And interestingly enough, Sonnet and O'Hara switched sides a few times in this game. Emily Fox, I think, was under COVID protocols. Yeah, and I haven't heard an update yet. I haven't heard an update yet on when she would be able to return

or if she would be able to return their next matches tomorrow is Thursday. So we'll be waiting to hear on that. Against Costa Rica, we have to win the next two games to qualify for the Olympics automatically, as we've sort of said on every podcast episode over the last few weeks. We missed Fox, though, don't you think? Like, she's a player. I think we do miss her when she's not there at the moment. And I'd say, you know, that she wasn't necessarily Emily Fox being out.

That was what was sort of limiting us. It was, I think, honestly, just sort of our own mentality. Again, dead rubber for us. We'll get into it through the timeline. But just it looked like a team playing a dead rubber on our end. And again, it's a bit of a credit to us. to our program at this point, that we can just sleepwalk through a match

against a team that is supposed to be okay in their home stadium with 20,000 fans in a game that they must win to even have a chance to do anything. They need a little help in the other game. And we still just completely dominated. I don't know how accurate why Scouts' numbers are, but you don't need precise numbers

to know that it truly reflects the domination in the attacking third, the territorial, domination the U.S. enjoyed. So, yeah, so I mean, I hope Emily Fox gets back for the must-win games, but it wasn't, I don't think the reason that this game was so laxadaisical was because it was O'Hara and Sonnet instead of Fox or Quirta. The rest of the lineup was Lindsay Horan at the six, or no, I'm sorry, Andy Sullivan

at the six, and then Lindsay Horan and Ashley Sanchez is the other two midfielders. Midge Purse started on at right wing Alex Morgan at Stryker and Sophia Smith at left wing Purst had a pretty good game I think At least caused some serious problems for Mexico To your point about our dominance yeah I don't know exactly how how accurate those numbers are either

But when you go back and look at Mexico's shots I think they registered five shots in the game I would categorize one of them as sort of dangerous And it was the one in it was one in like the 85th minute or something like that from Lopez. The rest of them were highly speculative efforts. So it, and, you know, we had, we had like two or three guilt edge chances that we didn't. Yeah, absolutely.

Well, 100% the case. And it wasn't even just like the shots. It was all, again, just the territory. Mexico just never, almost never just even got into our half, much less the final third with the soccer ball. It was, I mean, they were, they looked, they looked like. surprisingly uninterested in making their way up the field as a unit. So, yeah, they look like a broken side, to put it bluntly. You know, you've talked on occasion about taking a shot almost as a perfunctory measure, you know,

like I can put, I can direct a shot on goal here, so I'm going to do it, and then my job is done. And I sometimes felt like Mexico was doing that with passes in our house. half, you know. I'm just going to, I'm just going to, you know, pass it in that general direction because it's sort of generally on and then it's not a good enough pass and it gets cut out. Right. And no one really, either player passing or player receiving or players around them seemed to show any expectation that it was going to come off, like through their body language or next movements. Yeah, exactly. So the Mexico lineup was, I should say, Hatch returned to the Washington spirit with a muscle strain.

US soccer said, I believe the day of the game and was replaced by Sam Coffey on the roster. Sam Coffey, the number six for the Portland Thorns, she did not play in this game. And I don't think she would have even been allowed to. I think the roster switch is like the old Gold Cup rule where you can change people after the group stage. So we announced the roster change. I'm sure Sam was with the group. But she wouldn't have been eligible to even play until the knockouts.

And of course, like, and I think Votko in a conference today has said that. has made it explicit that she's in there to essentially rebalance the roster, which had come in a little bit attack heavy and without any fully healthy sixes. So coffee comes into backup to be like a nominal backup for Sullivan. Coffee, we can talk more about her later. I'd like to, but I think she's started nine professional games in her career so far, pretty young, or played nine professional games. She came from Penn State

was drafted this last draft. But I think she's pretty good. I think she's pretty good soccer, and I'd like to see her. Anyway, Itzel Gonzalez. Itzel Gonzalez was the goalkeeper for Mexico. Kenti Robles, Christina Ferral,

Cassandra Montero, and Jimena Lopez were the backline from right to left. Alexia Delgado is a six, and then Deanna Garcia and Carter Elina Haramillo are the other midfielers, and then Stephanie Maure, Alicia Cervantes, and Maria Sanchez across the front line. Sanchez is the one with the cultured left foot who did look pretty dangerous when she got on the ball. So that's Mexico's lineup. Timeline.

Yeah, we'll get into the timeline. Just going back to our lineup, once again, because this game is meaningless from the U.S. standpoint competitively, we still don't know if this means that we're seeing. I mean, I think we can safely say this doesn't tell us anything about what Vladko's full strength best 11 is for this tournament. But we should see tomorrow what that is because I assume he will, yeah, he'll put the team out to win this game. And then probably unless there are some really specific personnel issues that, you know, between Costa Rica and Canada that he'd want to match up for if we beat Costa Rica, he'll put out the what he feels is the best group to meet Canada. I don't think we're too, he'll be too worried about like rotating for minutes based on his 11s. So you're saying we're not going to see Sam coffee in these two games.

It does seem unlikely. Look, if we're up 3-0 against Costa Rica or down 3-0 against Costa Rica in the last 10 minutes, she could be someone to come in. We've been loading up minutes on some of our central midfielders. So, I mean, at that point, you're just looking for anybody. to spell that in like miles in that heat right all right in to the chronology in the third minute uh mexican centerback christina ferral passes it right to midge purse in mexico's half a very poor giveaway and purse drives into the final third she has some options here but she plays it wide

to sophia smith who uh cuts in basically past alex morgan and shoots it and her shot is blocked but it looked like she made good contact and might have been on frame. I don't know. Yeah. I mean, it was a well enough executed transition moment, I think, by our front three. Fifth minute, Mexico gets a shot. I noticed that Horan was eliminated pretty easily by Deanna Garcia at midfield, and Garcia gets around her and plays it to Stephanie Mayor,

who megs Andy Sullivan, and then has one of those aforementioned speculative shots from distance, it's well wide. It didn't look like it was going to score. So here's where, here's where like an uninterested performance can look a lot worse for defensive players than attacking players. Attacking players are uninterested. It's like,

there are tons of turnovers in a game anyway. So it's just like, all right, that was another turnover. And you kind of lose the aggregate effect of them doing it over and over and over for an entire game. But when, when like a six is not playing inspired soccer,

if that's what was the case here, Solvin looked rough in this game. in my opinion. Yeah, I didn't think she was that good. I didn't think Horan was that great either. But, you know, I guess you're being really generous toward them with the whole, like, this game doesn't matter. Yeah.

So I guess we got to keep that in mind. My next item is in the 15th minute, Horan plays a diagonal to Sanchez out wide, and she kind of dribbles at her at the right back a little bit and then tries to whip it across. So Sanchez, as much as I like her, she's not immune to this. this whole whipping it in syndrome. And the ball is, the cross is blocked. O'Hara picks it up coming in from the left.

And it plays a lovely ball at the back post for Purs. Who takes it down neatly and slots it off the far post. It was a very, very nearly one zero, but not. Yeah. And probably honestly our best or second best attacking moment of the game. And even this, like I feel like it shows just how difficult these things are. because it's like, I mean, Sanchez, you can tell she picked her head up before she whipped it in on this one, I think. And it's like, you can tell she sees something.

Like she sees one player over there. And she's like, there is one trajectory where I can get this ball to that player. And I'm going to do it. And it's very tempting. And it's like, yeah, it's almost like we're overconfident. And it's like this phenomenon where players do think that they're better at crossing than basically any player can be. But then the ironic part is here. When it falls to O'Hara, she basically does the same thing, right?

She picks her head up and it's like, oh, there's. there's one trajectory that I can hit Midge purse here. And she hits it. Like she happens to hit that one spot just over the defender's shoulder because the defender's pretty tight on Midge. No. And then Midge still has, even though she does manage to get that perfect ball into Midge, midd still has to take like the perfect touch to get any kind of a chance out of it,

which she promptly does take a perfect touch and then just miss it. So it's like you still see what has to go exactly, exactly right here with these whipped in balls to even give yourself a chance. And so if you, if you're banking on that, if that's like what your offense is built around, it's going to be a frustrating 90 minutes. Again, I'm not putting too much into this particular game as far as taking lessons about what our emphasis is. But I thought this was just a nice highlight of what it takes to be able to connect on a sort of hopeful ball on the box, even one where you have a real purpose of what you're trying to accomplish.

Yeah, there was a little bit of misdirection created by the deflections. back to O'Hara, which kind of, you know, with, I think helped the, and the quickness with which she played the ball probably helped too. So it was, you know, some accidental disorganization of the opponent there. Um, yeah, so I should say her, Horan was, again, according to Y Scout, four of seven with her long balls. I would say this one that she played out to Sanchez was easily her best of the night. Um, and I, the other six didn't result in anything, really. But she kept hitting them.

And is that because we didn't care about the game that much? So Lindsay's just going to drop in, pick up the ball and whack it at some distant target repeatedly? Like, I honestly think yes. Like I noticed this too. And it's just like we had just sort of a lazy 11 going about their business. You know, like, so she's, there isn't a ton of. movement to off the ball to interchange and create these like the fluidity that would be required to really like play that that other style of soccer where you penetrate up the middle like

it's very much just kind of people standing hanging out uh and watching as teammates do things and I actually think that also contributed to some of Sullivan's mistakes not that I'm giving her free pass on it but no one's like no one is super active about trying to come back and get the ball because we we just don't need to uh so so yeah that's That's kind of where I was at. I mean, Horan was pretty intent on coming back to get the ball, but she would get it, and then it would just be, you know, she'd just have like 30 yards of space in front of her. And then she would play one of these long balls.

That's what I mean. It's kind of that, that's like the lazy approach to just be like, I will just drop completely out of the Mexico defensive shape to collect it easily and then pick my head up and choose the Hollywood ball. Lots of Hollywood balls. There was another one in the 27th minute over the top to Morgan. who does run onto it, chess it down,

plays it back to Perce. I think Perce is trying to cross it, but she just, she mishits it and puts it out of bounds. 30th minute. You guys, you want to say something about that? No,

that was just one that isn't going to show up on any versus Highland. No. You're right, though. Midge first probably was certainly relatively, our best attacking player on the night.

Yeah. We'll get into some of her. Despite this one. Her good stuff. Sullivan hits a set. piece in the 30th minute that finds Haran's head and she nods it harmlessly on goal. 40th minute, we get a fairly straightforward buildup from O'Hara, who is now playing on the right. She started at left back. She's now playing on the right. She plays it up the line to

Perce and then Perce just goes at the goal, gets the end line, dances back and forth and gets a pretty decent cross-off past Jimena Lopez. The ball gets tipped by the goalkeeper and then headed by another defender and falls to Sophia Smith at the back post. She settles it and then blasts it over the crossbar from a tight angle, but it did look, again, like she was not that far off from scoring in this case. Yeah, this one I think, again, was kind of the right play. If you remember this, Haran was, you know, a little bit farther backfield from her wanting a little setup pass or a little layoff so that she could have a shot from a better

angle. But I don't think there was anything really to it. there was a defender closing Haran down off the ball. So at best, you're just going to make an extra pass to create the same situation you already have. So I was totally fine with Smith's shot. I think he chose the right way to try to score in this scenario. And, you know, just missed. Horan got her chance shortly thereafter.

It did seem pretty disjointed at this point. And I noticed Flacco was standing up in this game a lot more than he was in the other two games. So the disjointedness is the, is the. the key here, the key takeaway for me for this whole game in the way the U.S. is playing. And it was, I feel like the reason we were so disjointed is because, again, we didn't ever have 11 players or even like six, the six players around the ball and the attack, really ever that up for it at the same time. So it'd be like maybe the two players on the, like closest to the ball, one on the ball, maybe one or two close to them, would really like try to make something happen

in the moment, but you wouldn't have the, the choreography around them necessary to then build on that to create anything. And that's why, you know, for close listeners of our podcast, to be able to go 10 minutes between events on the timeline is like unthinkable for us. So that's what this was. It was a lot of like you get the ball into Alex Morgan. One player would be trying to do something, but that's not going to be enough to disrupt a decent defense to have just two players playing.

You have to have dominoes. And we just never were intent on having that third or fourth domino get involved in the play. And I feel like, again, in the context of this competition, that. That's okay, but I would actually prefer if you're really going to go for energy conservation to, to like, truly commit to it and not have even those two players try to make something happen because it's, it's worse to attack with two as though everyone else is going to go to. Yeah. And it would be to just be like, oh, we're not going here. No one's really making the movement. Let's just reset it to all the way back to Germa and just, again, really knocked the ball around for 90 minutes aimlessly and pick up the ticket to the.

the semi-final. It's almost like a less severe case of what Mexico had where like when they tried to attack it'd be it'd be sort of a half-hearted two in the attack and nobody else joining them. We'd get

at least our two would be you know, full-hearted. R2 were up for it and then no one else around a move and even like our possession shape. Most of these other games we've ended up with like that sort of standard now five in the attack. five in the front line.

And here we weren't even getting to that. It would be like sometimes three and a half, sometimes four. Every once in a while, one of the fullbacks would actually get up in time to be a part of things. But we just weren't even, we weren't even trying to like get that extra player up there. Who even once they did get up there weren't really committed to any decisive, actionable movement. So we were like building up in a four two with with just a three and a half or four players high. So, again, just a really forgettable performance that we're still going to talk about for 40 minutes. Yeah, 40 minutes is about what we got in us here.

Maybe slightly less, maybe slightly more. Mexico gets a shot in the 43rd minute. It comes from a throw-in down the line, and Cervantes does well to take it down on the sideline and flick it over Sullivan to spring Major again. This time, Major finds Sanchez, I mean Sanchez, and she kind of goes at O'Hara and has a, tries to shoot it through her legs or just past her legs and O'Hara does well to block it. But I guess that felt a little bit dangerous too when Sanchez has the ball on her feet. Yeah, it felt dangerous right when Cervantes did Sullivan. Again, and this is where it was noticeable that Sullivan was kind of getting done a little bit.

And if she's supposed to be the defensive specialist six, this really can't happen. So for her sake, we have to hope that this is just a case of the dead rubbers and not a case of like, oh, no, like she can, she's a liability. Because of Sullivan's liability, surely she loses her spot to like Iran or Mewis, who adds a little bit or a lot more forward thrust, even though they would also be, you know, defensively suspect. Yeah. I mean, it wasn't fatigue for Sullivan.

She didn't even play against Jamaica, right? I mean, she got that night off. All right, a good chance comes, probably the best chance of the first half comes for the U.S. in the 43rd minute. it's right off of the block shot, though they've shot that O'Hara blocks. Purse picks it up down by our box on the right side and just dribbles 80 yards on her own, leaving behind Deanna Garcia, who did not cover herself in glory on this sequence. But anyway, purse gets to the end line, puts it across, skitters through, and lands on a platter for Lindsay Horan on the backpost, a little better angle than,

and Sophia Smith had with the shot that she missed earlier, and her hand just hits it right at the goalkeeper. She was frustrated with herself after that. Yeah, and so this was the best attacking moment of the game, I think, for the U.S., and probably not one that's super repeatable. I don't think we're going to build our offense around Midge Perce going 80 yards. But the last 15 yards of it is probably repeatable. Like we've seen Midge do this fairly often throughout this tournament,

and, you know, in the time that she's spent been playing with the U.S., But it was exciting. Like she had Deanna Garcia chasing her and like beat her once. And then Deanna Garcia has so much time that she gets to catch her again, probably 25 yards out and like tries to slam her body into Midge. Yeah. At this point, that's all she's got left. And she just bounces off and Midge is now on. And at that point, Dianna's done.

And so the next defender in the Kung Fu movie comes out and like tries to defend her. And Midge still just gets around her. So she manages to like gain the edge on two separate players. and then for Horan's shot it was you could tell right that heran was choosing the safe technique here like trying to be very safe to keep it on frame instead which probably does improve her chances of keeping it on frame and not skying it over but also makes it less likely that it's going to be you know the unsavable smash and and that's kind of what we saw she's kind of weakly put it right at the goalkeeper yeah my only other know we did get it we did get a comment note there where it was nine times out of 10 when Zirand scores that and I'm not sure that that number is not an accurate

number I can even agree with that anti-science bells over here can even agree with that I thought our Sanchez Ashley Sanchez was a little sloppy in this game she didn't even look that great but I do still think like she her interest in combining and moving

off the ball still kind of sticks out in a positive way even a game like this second half I was, I'm not going to read you all my notes, but they're, I'm getting kind of frustrated. Connect three passes in a row challenge in the 50th, fourth minute. That totally goes back to like not everyone being connected all at the same time. Because to get that stuff to work, to come off, like everyone needs to be ready. Unless, again, unless you wanted to go back to it like, well, let's just connect three passes

in a row to waste time and just if we're going to run the clock out, let's really do that then. And then I'd agree with you. Yeah, I mean, I don't know that we need to go through all this, but 55th minute, I did notice that Germa made her first very obvious mistake of the tournament where she kind of misjudges a ball or mishandles it and it bounces over her. But then she rectifies it almost immediately with the help of O'Hara. Yeah, it slipped under her foot, right? It was a ball that just kind of got loosely cleared out by Mexico.

Germa's going to it all by herself with the Mexican forward just sort of trailing her slightly. And as she just goes to take it off the short hop, it just goes directly under her foot. And so now she's got to catch up from midfield. And she does pretty comfortably. Yeah, she does. It was a little scary, though. And she did need O'Hara's help to sort of shepherd the, I think it was Cervantes back towards her. It would for sure be scarier if this is like the World Cup.

and it's, you know, it's France, and they're actually, like, committed to pouncing on mistakes rather than just totally broken Mexico side. Yeah, like if that was Cascarino instead of Servantes, that would be trouble. Or even Dumorne from Haiti, that would be trouble as well. 58th minute Horan gets to the end line and whips it across. It's deflected out for a corner.

Wagoner, Ali Wagner said on the broadcast that she likes Sophia Smith, Sophia Smith, whose name we haven't called that much in the timeline, said she likes her better on the right side than she does on the left side. And I hadn't really thought about that, but I, you know, I was inclined to agree after hearing her say it. What do you think? I'd probably lean that way a little bit. It's mostly because I think that Pew should be starting and Pew should be on the left. But if Midge person is in the game, then I think Midge has to be on the right. Yeah.

I think you get so much from her on that side that I'm happy to move Sophia Smith over. to the left. Okay. Yeah, it makes sense. Fifty-ninth minute, we get a little trio of U.S. shots, starts with a ball lumped by O'Hara into the box. Sonnet flicks it for Morgan, and she dances and gets a shot off that's blocked, and then Sonnet pounces, and her shot is blocked, and then it falls to Andy Sullivan outside the box, and she hits a good rip with her left foot. It's just right at Gonzales.

But I was a little, I was kind of like, oh, Andy, you know, that was a good hit. And here, if, you know, if we don't have the energy levels, or again, the desire to really play that good connecting, lots of players involved simultaneously soccer, then I was just like, sure, lump it in, have that whoever it's lumped towards win an individual battle or, or at least, you know, win it enough that they can't get a good clearance, and then see what happens. So at that point, it actually felt like a kind of the right way to attack. 60th minute we get more sort of bumbling buildup from the U.S.

Sonic can't quite handle a crossfield switch from O'Hara and it squirts over to Sauerbrun who so we convert sort of a mistake in the back into some attacking energy. Sauerbrun knocks it wide to Smith and Smith dribbles at a defender and takes a left-footed shot that goes right at the keeper. It seemed like she could have found Mitch Purs at the back post

if she really wanted to. Yeah, so that's another one where she has that sort of narrow angle. She's pretty far out. She's like right at the edge of the box, sort of far out, well outside the frame. And this is where she sort of takes what I'd consider like a boring shot,

an unimaginative shot, just kind of slams it with her left foot. That's going to always sort of just be an easy collection for the goalkeeper. And that's where whether she could find purse or not, it's like, just keep extending the play. Like if you had room to shoot it, you could have actually just taken more touches to the end line

and see if you can get the me. go to fence to make more of a mistake rather than settling for, you know, a shot that's never really going to come off. Right. Yep. Rapino comes on for Smith and I think right at the hour mark, Querta for O'Hara and Mewis for Sullivan. Did Lavelle come on for Horan, too?

Oh, yeah. This was five subs. Again, that tells you sort of how seriously the U.S. is taking this game. Yeah. at zero zero it's not like oh well like it was this was a this was an exhibition for the US yeah I was a little frustrated to see Rapino instead of Pew but it was pointed out to me on the discord that Pew had gone 90

against Jamaica and for rotation purposes this made sense I was hoping to see when I knew Hatch wasn't there I was actually hoping to see Rodman for Morgan because I wondered if that's going to be the sort of backup plan. Oh, so was Corniac, did Corneac come on with everybody else? It really was five subs? Yeah, it was five subs there, and then Cornyak came on late and played Stryker. So between Rodman and Cornec, are those going to be the Morgan backups now for the next two games,

or is Morgan just going to go 90 twice? Yeah, I don't, boy, I don't know. I thought Cornec was, well, I mean, nothing was really working that well in this game at all, but it didn't it wasn't like something cornyak would put on her resume if she were applying for a job as a striker some nice press breaking from rapino in the 65th minute when she comes on so you get to see some of that quality but then when she starts dribbling into the attacking third she does look i mean i say this with all respect kind of old yeah somebody uh somebody like there was a little chance for i think a third third player running where she was getting around a checking back player maybe Morgan and

Morgan like kind of clips it around a defender into it you know like to lead uh Rapino and all I could think of was like the over 30 leagues or over 40 leagues even where it's like hey man you don't need to leave me here I'm not I'm not racing that ball down to feet please um long ball from Germa nicely chested down by Morgan in the 69th minute uh she leaves it from US So, you know, if you're going to play lump ball, this is actually a nice little sequence. Yep, totally agree. It leaves it from you. As Mewis has a crack from 18 that flashes well wide, but I would back her to hit that better most of the time.

Nine times out of ten, she scores there. It's a good setup for Morgan. Again, I think Morgan sees the game well. Like, that's an intelligent little play. And you can tell, like, she's chesting it and then already gesturing with her arms to, like, Mewis to be like, here you go. It's right there for you to avoid any. confusion about who's going for it.

So again, I just kind of appreciate that that turn Morgan has made, I don't know, probably going back to like 2016, 2017. Interesting. She's a good soccer player, it turns out. I didn't realize that she made like a big jump in the middle of the tens, you know. I don't know. I felt like I saw it. I honestly felt it was when she came back from Euro.

And I'm not trying to say I'm a big Euro snob. But sometimes it could have just been any, any coach might have been able to help her flip that switch. But it seems, that seems to have been when it happened. All right. 70th minute, we get Rapino doing another sort of over 30 league thing where she tries to catch the, she tries to catch the keeper out from 45 yards on the, on the end line, I mean on the sideline. I'm pretty sure she's shooting here, isn't she? She's going to that top corner.

And this is where I'm like, again, go for it. Like hitting that corner from there is going to be the same percentages, putting it directly on your teammates' head. And at least then your job's done. You don't have to also get the header, correct? Yeah, I guess I can see that, but it also felt a little wasteful and desperate to me. Well, after the 70 minutes that it had happened before it,

I feel like that's where we were as a team in this game. It was in keeping with the tone of the game. You got a couple of timeline items here. Yeah, I just wanted to note that because the last, the two group stage games were running simultaneously, this would have been about the time that Jamaica took a 3-0 lead over Haiti, which if you're Mexico means that you're now only two goals away,

a two-goal swing away from sneaking into third place in the World Cup intercontinental playoff. So, like, you have to be thinking, we've got a real chance at this. If we can steal a goal, like, then we either, if we can steal one, then we either just need to steal a second one or hope that Jamaica put up a fourth, but it's possible now.

We went into the night thinking maybe it was done, but we have a real shot at it. And I don't know if this is being communicated, but there is never any change in urgency to Mexico's team, I don't think. I thought there was a little bit of extra urgency in the 80s. I'd agree with that.

And maybe we'll get into that too when we get to that point. But at this point, this is where I was perking up, like, oh, this could be a thing that happens. reminiscent of the 2009 confederations cup where the U.S. beat Egypt 30 while Brazil was beating Italy 30 and it was like when you get to two goals away

you just start to like tense up because you could get simultaneous goals in the two games to do it. So you have this scenario brewing. Well, Mexico had a big problem in the 73rd minute when... Right. their immediate response to the situation brewing was to go studs up through

Rose Lavelle's ankle and get a player sent off. Yeah. And, you know, there's some talk on the broadcast that there was no intent to it. I mean, I don't know how you could know that, but even if there was,

I mean, if there was no intent to it, then it's almost more reason to send her off. She doesn't realize that she's doing that, you know, like if she did that on accident and, like, didn't understand what she did wrong,

then she should not, be out there. It was a really, dangerous, a really, really dangerous challenge. Yeah, she didn't,

she didn't even go over the ball, like the ball was gone. Yeah. So it wasn't even just misjudging the, the, how quick, it was,

yeah, it was a, bad one. And thank goodness, Roosevelt was still playing soccer afterwards. Yeah. Yeah,

I'm just thinking, like, if you don't, if that's a total accident and you did no control over it, you should be red carded from the game of soccer. Ovali. Belles is out here hoping that it was malicious.

No, I hope she was trying to injure our player. Well. Yeah. Seventy-ninth minute, nice corner from Rapino to Alex Morgan running at the near post, and Morgan does really well to flick it at the back post, and it clonks off the bottom of the post and rolls out for a throw at the far side, but nearly a goal there. Yeah, that was a sneaky one.

Morgan, like Morgan has had a couple of these headers. through this window where, like, it reminds me of, like, Chicharito was scoring goals with the back of his head, right? Yeah. Like, she just has this uncanny ability to, you know, sort of pull, do a little bit of sorcery with that skull of hers. Oh, yeah. It's like, doing that kind of stuff is rocket science. I don't know how people do it. So, what, 79-ish minute?

What's going on in the Jamaica game? Yeah, so what's going on here is Jamaica gets that fourth goal. So Jamaica are now up four zero. and by goal difference, Haiti and Mexico are level on goal difference, but obviously Haiti have a points advantage. So a Mexico goal here puts them into the playoff. If they just score a goal and hold on and Jamaica don't concede to Haiti, Mexico, like, despite this horrendous showing,

have 10 minutes to play themselves to stay alive for the World Cup. And if Mexico, like, really does think that this is a, that they're as good as they want to be and that this is super disappointing, so if they're not good, this isn't that disappointing, right? you just weren't that good. But if you really are good, then you'd really like your chances at the, at the playoff to get into the World Cup.

So this is where, again, I was like, the broadcast team didn't seem to put much into it. They kept talking about Mexico, still trying to play for pride. And it was like, no, no, no, they can get into the playoff here with one goal. Get one, one sneaky little goal against the U.S. team that barely cares.

And you're into the playoff. Yeah. And they got one pretty good moment where it could have happened. Yeah. right around the 87 minute mark. It was Josalim Montoya, one of the subs who'd come on for Mexico,

does well on the sideline to combine. I think she's working against Sophia Huerta. It wasn't like Querta did anything totally wrong. Just Montoya was able to work the sideline and then combine spring Jimena Lopez in. Lopez drives into the box, cuts onto her right foot, and has a pretty respectable shot.

But it goes right at Murphy, as several shots had done on this night. Yeah, Lopez did Lavelle, I think, and kind of just sent her running. Like, again, our players don't care. You should, this is your opportunity to capitalize. And it's a good look, and she just needed to hit, like, the shot of the tournament for her. And she didn't hit the shot of the tournament for her. Right. They did make another little push at the end, but it was Montoya taking a shot from distance

that didn't trouble Murphy at all. So not nearly as good of a chance. And then in the 90th minute, the USA scores a goal. It's Sanchez settling a ball at the back post. So Sanchez stayed on. She went to full 90. And she kind of endeavors to soccer a little bit there. And dances back and forth and drops it for, who does she drop it for?

For Cornyak, I think. Do I have that right? Yeah, I think that's right. Yeah, Sanchez has happy feet, doesn't she? Yeah, she does. And, you know, she could have just blasted it off somebody out for a corner or, you know, tried to sneak it in there across the face of goal. But she does, she's patient and she gets a little room and she drops it for Cornec.

And Cornyac has a lot of time to knock a good ball into the box from not too far away. Sonnet puts a good header on frame and, you know, kind of off the ground right in front of the goal. line and Gonzalez saves it up off the crossbar. And then Christy Mewis charges in and bundles it in. Never has the word bundle it in been more appropriate. She bundles it in

off her midsection, kind of presses her body through Gonzalez's hands for the goal. VAR looked at it. Looked at whether Sonnet was off before, like at the time that Corniac struck the cross. Wasn't conclusive, I guess, and the goal wasn't

overturned it. She did look a little off maybe, but hard to say. Hard to say. And in any event, it's exactly the goal that this game deserved. I mean, right? Like, there couldn't have been a more perfect match of a goal in the preceding 90 minutes. Yeah. It was a, it was art. Yeah. And honestly, it was like sort of, a sort of disappointing and almost kind of like sad as you might be for the Mexico players. Like, that is exactly the goal that Mexico sort of. of deserved in this tournament to be the last action of their of their tournament yeah hopefully they come back uh strong for the next cycle because we it would be it would be nice to to have them be a real contender in the region um i think it'd be good for everybody but it's gonna have to wait

well i mean i'm just happy because it's not like it's not like mexico went up against the giants and just couldn't quite do it like i'm happy for jamaica and haiti that they uh jamaica into the World Cup and now Haiti with Dumorne I'm really hoping that they can get there because I really want to see DeMorne play in Australia and New Zealand.

They have, so Haiti's in the intercontinental playoff now. Yep, yes. And I don't know how that, I don't know how that's formatted. Like I don't know if they'll just have to win against one opponent or if it's going to be like an actual playoff. I think it's in February of 2023, probably in

Austria, I don't know where it is. I'm not going to go any farther than February of 2020. Okay. I said I wanted to bring up the same coffee. I did, you know, there's, there's some Jalen Howell fans in the Discord, including Vince, one of our, one of our co-hosts. And, you know, she plays for Louisville City, or I'm sorry, racing Louisville. And, but I watch some coffee and some Howl on Wisecout.

And I think I prefer coffee just because she's a little more, she's a little more sophisticated on the ball, has a little bit better ideas when she's on the ball and maybe not quite as dynamic as Howell is but I think more of a regista and I'd like to see her get a chance because I don't think you know I don't I don't think Sullivan's been all that convincing

Horan Iran I know Horan is a great player but I don't know that she's been all that convincing in this tournament either so yeah there's there's questions I think to be asked and hopefully we get some answers tomorrow, some more answers hopefully in a final. And then we've got just announced a few hours ago was a pair of friendlies in September against Nigeria,

I think in Kansas City and Washington, D.C., respectively. Not Cincinnati, not Cincinnati or Columbus. No, they stayed out of Ohio. So, yeah, so, I mean, I think you're right that coffee and Howell are the interesting names here for like the medium term to see if we have some answers at that holding mid position. And all we can really do is just sort of watch and hope. Yeah. And still know that like, okay, well, worst case, we have what we have.

And that's, it's not terrible. It just is something where you're like, it's not locked down. Yeah, I just, you know, as anybody who listens to podcast knows, I get excited about young players who are not on the, not yet on the roster. You know, or, I mean, coffee is on the roster now, but probably in a sort of placeholder role. So, watching her play, I get excited because she's slick, you know, she's slick on the half turn. She's got a lot of energy to combine. And she's like not as, like I said, not as dynamic as howl, but still pretty dynamic and good at snuffing things out in NWSL.

You know, the other player, I feel like we haven't talked about at all through all of our central Midfield discussions is still Sam Mewis who's going to come back. You know, she's always two weeks away, but I feel like she's going to come back and really maybe throw a wrench into the discussions in a good, in a positive way. It's always nice to have really high quality well-made wrenches. Yep. Yeah, easy to lose a good high-quality wrench, though. Boy, I've lost a lot of those.

All right. Well, we'll recap the Costa Rica game. Hopefully on Friday, you know, during the day on Friday. That game is tomorrow night. Thursday night. If you are able, please consider supporting us on Patreon. The link is in the show notes. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.