Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #308: USA v Netherlands (U20 Women's World Cup)

Episode Date: August 15, 2022

Vince in Louisville and Tara in Philly join Belz to talk about the second group stage game of the World Cup for the U.S. women's under-20 team, a 3-0 loss to the Netherlands. Lots of rotation, some suboptimal individual performances, a lack of flowing attack, and we get beaten on a high header, a blast from 30 and a penalty. Next is Japan and we gotta win by 2 goals to advance.Please support Scuffed on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the scuff podcast where we talk about U.S. soccer. Hey, everybody, the U.S. U.S. U.20 women's team lost to the Netherlands 3-0 on Sunday night in Costa Rica in their second match of the group stage at the U-20 World Cup. Vincent Tara are here with me again, thank the Lord. Hey, guys, how you doing? Hi. Hi. Well, like many U.S. soccer fans, I am frustrated at our coach. It's a familiar feeling. But other than that, I'm pretty good.

Before we get into the details of this match, let's break down where the U.S. stands going into the final game of the group, which is against Japan on Wednesday. On points, we're even with the Netherlands at 3, while Japan is in the lead with 6, having beaten Ghana 2-0 earlier today. So the goal difference is very likely to play a role in who advances. The way it works right now is, well, let me just make it simple.

Like we, unless Ghana beats the Netherlands or draws them, which seems pretty unlikely to me, we need to beat Japan by two goals or more to advance from the group. So beat them by two goals and we pretty much guarantee that we advanced because we'll be better than them in goal difference. Seems doable, right? We can do that. Yeah. And I don't want to be too blindly optimistic here because I'm truly not. But something to look at is Netherlands lost a star defender tonight.

She won't be able to play. So that's going to play a factor, I would hope. She was really good player too, Van Dien. Really good. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, so, so Ghana, they had a decent showing against Japan. And so I don't, like a draw isn't totally out of the question.

Okay. Here, in my opinion. Both of the goals from Japan were penalty kicks, and both were late in the game. I think the first one came in, like, the 63rd minute or something, so it was tied up for a while. Okay. All right. Well, if Ghana draws the Netherlands, then we're even with the Netherlands on points, and we draw Japan. We're even with the Netherlands on points, but we would still not advance.

still have to be Japan. Well, we got a score, which means we got to start Michelle Cooper, folks. Okay. Yeah, let's get into why you're frustrated with Tracy Kevin's. What's the source of that frustration? Well, to be honest with you, I was kind of a fan of Tracy. I don't have a ton of reasons why, but I was hopeful. She had a good relationship with the youth.

She has loads and loads of experience. And I didn't quite understand why we made so many changes. Like, of course, some of them make sense. Rouse, who we're going to talk about later on, was deeply, deeply missed. But she was sitting on a yellow card. So you would think, hey, we should probably sit her for Japan. That makes sense to me. I don't know if it was the right to say later on, but at the time, it made sense.

It's at least defensible. It's at least a defensively. And I just, I really, really missed Emily Mason tonight. I mean, we got her in the second half. But Alyssa Thompson's speed was very, very, very missed. And Michelle Cooper, strike to me could have played a real difference in a few of those chances. So I'm just a little frustrated with old Tracy. I was helping for more.

And she hasn't lost me officially. But, you know, like I said, it's a familiar feeling to put all of this on the coach, and that's what I'm choosing to do. You can't put it on the players, really, at this age. The coach is the one who's going to get the short end of the stick. Are you frustrated at all, Vince? You haven't said much yet? Yeah, yeah.

I'm pretty frustrated, man. Just by, like, the strategy of it all, it's like, okay, if you look at our three group opponents, you know, there's clearly one that's not like the other. And that one would be Ghana. I mean, much respect to Ghana. But you know what I'm saying? They're not Japan and they're not the Netherlands. And so deciding to make six changes in this game, like initially when I saw the lineup, I was like, that's just, that's just way too much rotation.

and like and I kind of pulled back on it because I'm like look we do rely on a lot of college players and I don't know how many of them are like in the position to go 90 back to back and you notice that we started we did start our two pros in back to back games so I was I was thinking that maybe that's a reason so I was like you know what cool and I and I do believe in the in the talent of these players. So, you know, I wasn't tripping too bad, but then when you see how it plays out, it's like we're definitely,

we were definitely missing them. And number two, like we kind of glossed over it in the first episode, in the first recap of this tournament. But we haven't shown too many reliable patterns of play or really anything. Like really, a lot of our joy came from,

Emily Flynn Marauding with the ball and then you know Domino's falling and then that's going from there So like I felt I felt like that also

Reared its head today Yeah I thought I mean I'm not going to die on this hill But I thought we missed Corbin Albert a little bit In the middle too Like her

Um Just her ability To sort of bring harmony To a situation And find a pass to release somebody in the final third. Let's do the lineups. A lot of changes, as has been mentioned,

Nico Purcell, Niku Purcell in goal, replacing Mia Justice. That will come up later. I-O-K at right back replacing Lainey Rouse, as Tara mentioned. Lily Raoul replaced Emily Mason at centerback. Lauren Flynn started both games. Samar Guidry started both games She was the left back And I thought a pretty solid game

Talia della Peruta was the six again She also started against Ghana And Olivia Moultry and Jaden Shaw Were the 8th's Shaw Had started on the left wing against Ghana And then moved into the midfield As the game went on And this game she started in the midfield

It had a little trouble getting involved Especially early on Trinity Byers was on the right wing For Alyssa Thompson Like Tara said again And then Ali Sentner at the 9 for Cooper and Andrea Kedahada on the left wing instead of who was playing on the old.

Shaw was on the left wing against Ghana. Yo, can I just say something real quick? Yeah, please. That's just a really lightweight midfield for me. You know what I'm saying? You got a Delapuru to Moultrie and Shaw. It's just, and to your point, it was about us missing Corbyn and Albert.

Like, I just don't know if there's enough, if there was enough there in the midfield. as far as like, of course we got the quality, you know, Moultry and Jaden Shaw got it in spades. But, you know, ball winning, you know, a ball progression from deep a lot of the times was not necessarily there. So I don't know. Yeah. I feel outlandish even saying anything semi-critical about Jaden Shaw because she was strong out there when she got into the game of it. but I much prefer her in the top three. I hope that she can be more of an attacking role against Japan all that today.

Yeah, I'm down with that, especially if it gets Albert back on the field. I thought, I thought Moultrie, Moultrie you'd think would be, you know, one of the players most used to, like, a fast need for speed in the way you play, you know, speed of play. But, boy, she kept getting caught on the ball in this game. Like, did you guys think that? Or am I, am I just making that up? Yes.

It's like she was not, she just wasn't up to the speed of what she needed to be up to. She wasn't out and she wasn't winning any balls. Like, that's really, that's really what she does. She's not, she's not the best finisher, but she would win balls and push it up to the people who need to finish. Tonight, she really wasn't doing anything to that. We got the orange princess has got us in some cage matches tonight, I got to say. And the more I watch Maltrey, because I mean, I just saw her live like a month ago. The more I watch her is just like she seems, I don't know, I don't know if luxury player is too harsh.

Yeah, it's a bit too harsh. I don't think that's what she is, though. It doesn't seem to me that's what she is. She seems to be in that classic 10 role for me. I see that. And I mean, like, I absolutely am not trying to defend her. I don't think she had many pluses this game. But once you said classic tend roll, I'm a little bored.

She's really not been in the eight right now. All right. Let me give the Netherlands lineup and then we'll get into the timeline. And, you know, the truth is people don't like to listen to recaps of losses. So, you know, we can keep this one brief. Okay. Lisan Akamade and goal. Kim Everarts at right back

Marit Awe and Samantha Van Diemen at centerback, both pretty good players it seemed to me. Sena Coolman at left back. And then Dana Federer at the 6. Danique Nordman and Rosa Van Gogh at the 8th. And then Liz Reisbergin, Sane Kupman and Ziva Henry

across the front line. Kutman, the score of the first goal in the night. Reese Bergen, kind of a handful for Guidry for big stretches of the night. Anything else we should cover before we get into the timeline, guys? And in a much, much less important note, that Northern Ireland's team is tall. They were all very, very tall. Yes.

Yeah, I kept, whenever we had a set piece, I'm like, who's going to put this in the back of the net? and I just couldn't see. It just was hard to imagine. I mean, for us. Yeah, this is where we, it's where we miss Trinity, Robman. Yeah. Yeah.

All right in the second minute, Settner comes from an offside position and cuts one back and it's cut out, but it's a decent little bit of activity from her. I forget who played her in. It might have been Moultry, but she was probably offside anyway. Anyway, I thought we came

out looking reasonably bright at the beginning? Yeah, I mean, it seemed like we were hungry from the start. We were pressing right away, which was nice to see considering how we started that Ghana game, a bit defensively shaky for a while. So at this time, I'm feeling good and hopeful. Yeah, another good little cutback from Byers falls to Delapuruta, and she has a decent quick shot from a tough angle. It's right to keep her right at Alcamade, and she catches it.

Let's see. Four minute mark, Gidjory lumps one into zone 14, but the clearance falls to Delapuruta. And she plays, this is a nice moment from Delapurita to play a first time, sort of side volley out wide to Kitahata, who then, you know, she kind of beats her marker, but then dribbles out of bounds. Yeah, and that was, to be honest, this is probably one of our best buildups from the game.

Like, we ended up winning, it was a Netherlands throw in. And basically in the scramble to retain possession, we ended up getting it. And, you know, like a solid eight or nine pass sequence to get it to basically end the, for the ball to end up to get the cross end. Okay, yeah. That started this. But yeah, that was good stuff from us. and we and we of course we got a we got an emily flan maraud in there too

Lauren Lauren Lauren Jesus I think I called her Emily earlier too that's all right um get that out of their bills okay I'll do my best uh you want to just say that thing about Lauren yeah yeah yeah every bit uh can I just say the and we got a Lauren Fred and Marad in there too that'll work right that'll be perfect And we got a Lauren Flynn Maraud in there, too. Yep. She was marauding.

Sometimes with success, sometimes not. That would note. Yeah, I would say she's about 50-50. Maybe 46th. A little bit disconcerting from a centerback, but. It seems to be the plan. Yeah. Couldn't that be the plan?

Really? Look. Lauren, just go out there and dribble people. I've never seen centerbacks like five yards from both touchlines in buildup ever. So I don't know what the design is there, but they got to be something. Yeah. Maybe there's some design there. So right before the five minute mark, we get good work from Byers.

She cuts a defender on the right side and lays it inside for Moultrie who kind of bulldozes through a challenge. So she did win this little cage match. and then has a shot with her left foot from 18 that goes right at the keeper. Yeah, and just to note, that was, so on that chop there, Trinity Byers did collect a body there. So just point one on the body count, well, not point one, one. Yeah. One added body there.

Just wanted to let that be known. I guess I was getting a little disillusion with the body count talk from our last episode watching Kitahara just not get anybody's. Yeah, yeah. But right after that, moment around the fifth minute, our defense were under some pressure. And it's just something I quickly noticed.

Purcell was a bit off the line. It didn't lead anywhere, but I saw it as somewhere we could have been punished. And boy, does that come back around later on. Yeah. Ninth minute, a poor giveaway from Van Diem and she gives the ball to Kitahada in space driving at the goal. And she does try to play Sentner into the box.

It's in some ways reminiscent of the third goal we scored against Ghana where there's kind of a lot of space to work with and Moultrie plays a perfectly weighted ball for Sentner. But this ball was way too heavy and it goes out of bounds. Yeah. And, and, Bels, let me, well, once again, we don't want to come down too hard on the kids. Definitely not.

They're not, I mean, most of these women are not pros. And I just want to ask, like, how hard of a pass is that right there? It's very hard. It's not an easy pass, but I guess I'm not sure I agree with Tara that it's that hard of a pass. All due respect, Tara. All due respect. Oh, my gosh. Disagree all you want.

I am dying on this hell. It was a hard pass. Okay. All right. It just seemed like, you know, she had space on the ball, and there was a large gap in the defense. That's all I'm saying. The way Moultrie played it so that it was absolutely perfect is, in my opinion, quite difficult to do.

To give your attacker a chance to get to it before it goes out of bounds is not super difficult in my humble opinion. But anyway, we should probably move on. 10 minute mark Rees Bergen gets a little space against Gidri going down our left flank and does her pretty good cutting in and having a shot. Yeah, Lily Reel deflected that shot. And to me, she seemed pretty calm

while tracking the ball, which makes the sloppiness so far a bit easier to deal with for me. She just seemed like she knew what she was doing. She had her head down. But it does go out for another, one's quarter. Yeah.

And then next thing I really had was the 17th minute, around the 17th minute, Settner passed it up and it's intended, it's intended for Trinity buyers, but again, it was a bit strong. It feels like a wasted opportunity. And I'm noticing that those two really don't have the best chemistry thus far, although I am, you know, really enjoying Trinity buyers starting. Yes. And so something that the commentators mentioned was, yeah, this is really like, Ali Sintner's first action. Like I mentioned the ACL injury last episode. This is her second

game back. So yeah, I mean, it would make sense that no chemistry has been achieved. It's her second game back and I am ready for Michelle Cooper to start. That's how I'm feeling. Yeah, Cooper did some nice things when she came on in the second half. We just couldn't quite punch it in. I thought on this one moment in the 17th minute, it was a nice, a good little step up through the middle of the field from I-O-K to find Sentner in the pocket before she turned and tried to play that pass to buyers. Because I don't think, okay, you know, you guys wanted Rouse to be starting over her, and I don't know that O'K had the greatest game. I don't think she had that bad of a game. But that was a good moment from her, I thought.

I mean, Rouse is just like one of our top four most dynamic players on the team, I'd probably say. So that's just that's where I'm coming from. But I totally forgot about that yellow card that Tara brought up. So it makes perfect sense. Yeah, I mean, I'm a huge fan of Rouse as well. Okay, really wasn't doing it for me out here. but she's not on the same level of Rouse, so I needed to check myself a bit early on in the half.

Okay, what? Yeah, go ahead, Tara, sorry. And then into the 23rd minute, Kidahatta had a wild shot over the goal. And we've seen this in the first game against Ghana. She is playing with, like, a lot, a lot of confidence. And she's, it's entertaining, but the blind confidence is starting to get to me. That shot was way clear of the goal.

And I'm thinking Trinity is far and beyond a better winner for us in this new front line. Yeah. Yeah. And it's just, you know, like I told you all last episode, she spams stepovers. You know what I'm saying? This is how she plays. It's just, you know, drip or drown football. And, you know, I can respect it.

But, you know, sometimes it goes, you know, how it went today. Yeah, harder to respect it when we lose 3-0 a little bit. Yeah, it was really not working for me today. I'm still more frustrated at Tracy. But, yeah, it was also frustrating. Don't get it wrong. The Dutch did not dominate this game. It was, I think, pretty even.

the top line stats are pretty even possession and shots and stuff like that. But this was a portion of the game where they were putting a little more pressure on us. They're testing us with balls over the back, over the back line, which we're mostly dealing with. And things start coming down the wings, and Reese Bergen is getting some joy. She zips it across the 6th in the 27th minute after doing Lauren Flynn. And Guidry does well to intervene on the back post before Henry can sweep. it in and now we're getting close to the you know the first goal but what what else you had one other thing in here Tara yeah it was right at the beginning of the 30th minute talia didn't really

track their number 10 who was Nordman I believe she really didn't track Nordman close enough there was a really dangerous chance and Netherlands are not Netherlands have earned a corner but to me it was Talia. It was poor defense and that is supposed to be her strong suit. Yeah and she got

not only did she lose Norman as a runner she got beaten by Norman once Norman got to the ball so she kind of got beat twice in one play. Just a little grace for Talia just because you know she finds herself in the right back

in the right back spot here covering for a teammate. And, you know, she's just not used to defending 1 v1 in that situation. Fair enough. Fair enough. Yeah. Shouldn't R6 be used to that, though?

I mean, she should be better. Absolutely. I mean, I mean, she has to be better. You know what I'm saying? It's just one of those things. Whereas, like, if you're playing, if you're playing this position, then there are certain things you got to do. So right out, so on the ensuing corner there, the Netherlands get their goal.

It's a lofted corner from the left side, nodded back across by away, I think. I think it was, the tall centerback. And she nods it back across the face of the goal. And Coopman meets it and just sort of rainbows it over Purcell. And I think Purcell got a fingertip to it, but not nearly enough. 1-0. Do you all think, and I don't want to, you know, stay here.

too long, but do you all think Purcell was a little too far off her line there? To me she was, so I'm curious what you guys saw. Well, to me, she's like two steps off of it, but like I'm watching

this thing back, it's like basically if she was two steps back, that ball was coming down from the apex at that point. And I think she would be able to save it. But Instead, she's two steps forward and the ball is just now descending from the apex,

but it hasn't descended enough to where the jump and the outstretched arm doesn't really give Purcell a chance to tip it or anything. So, yes, it seems like if she was two steps back, maybe we get a save there. It would have been a pretty damn difficult save either way. but she was so close that's what that's what's having me I struggle with it a bit because where she was

she was so close to the wall I think she didn't get a finger to it where a step or two back she has it it's tough to see if she's standing on the line and that ball comes down she just she just jumps up and catches it easy

I think but yeah probably but do you want do we do we want our goalkeeper standing on the line in that situation? I don't know. I don't know. She wasn't, she starts on the line and really, I don't know. She's jumping around basically as the header goes from Awee to Coopman.

And in that process, she ends up, you know, coming like two steps forward. And, you know, that was it to make the difference. Yeah, I mean, The gist of it is. It's a great play. It's a great header. We got close. Didn't get, didn't get enough.

But the only reason I'm stuck on it is because we do see this as a pattern. Purcell's just a bit off the line. And she didn't learn from it this first time. Yeah. I'd like her to tip it over the bar. I like to get herself in a position to do that. I wish Greg Velasquez were here to sort of give us the gospel of Greg on it. but I don't know.

I mean, like he did talk about this in one of the Kock-FW Championship review episodes, how it's, you know, female goalkeepers are shorter than male goalkeepers. And that's just a tougher shot for in women's soccer to stop than it is in men's soccer, basically for that reason. I remember the episode. I remember him saying that. And it really made me think. And I don't want to be too goofy.

I don't want to be disrespectful. But me, justice is a bit taller than yourself. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, you know, like a few inches makes a difference right there. Yeah. It's truly that simple. And, well, yeah, that's it.

All right. Well, so it takes a lot of air out of our sales. but we get a good chance in the 40th minute, an excellent ball from Shaw in behind for Sintner. Settner slots it into the goal calmly, but she's a forearm offside. So it's called back. It was really, really close,

and I am appreciating Settner's persistence here. It's not that she's been particularly bad. It's not that she's, you know, made any true key mistakes yet. But at this point, I'm thinking to myself, I cannot wait for Cooper to come in. She's just stronger. Off the ball, on the ball. She's stronger. And I think that is what was needed against this Netherlands team, who were taller than us,

who were bodying us off the ball. I think Cooper could have made a real difference. So all my focus went there early on. Yeah. It did seem like Van Diemen in particular, but also away, the centerbacks for the Netherlands, were they were very calm and sort of in command a lot of the night on the ball, against the ball. Yeah. So notice that this is probably the first time we've mentioned Jaden Shaw in this timeline.

Yeah. Yeah. it's just what's going on there why wasn't she getting more involved i don't think she should be right okay yeah that that question was for me i'm sorry no the question was definitely for you yeah yeah yeah the eight thing and it's just we were just having trouble building out like i mean it did end up going back to the to the to the loren flint show once again i mean seriously like i'm i i mean this is something that's frustrated me for a long time as far as like seeing centerbacks with space in front of them and them not taking the space. But, uh, you know, I think, like, I, I think we're

overdoing it. Just a bit. Yeah. Just a bit. Yeah. All right. Uh, the half comes and Alyssa Thompson comes on for Trinity buyers. Michelle Cooper, uh, Tara. I'm sure you were thrilled at this. Kim came on for Ali Centner. And then, uh, Emily Mason came on for for I. Okay, which is a little odd because Mason's a centerback and okay's a right back. This goes back to the yellow card that Rouse is sitting on, I presume. Yeah. I mean, that's the only explanation.

It's so, is it good? But I did want to ask. And I don't mean to bring up like player facts or anything. but Vince, did you know that Emily Mason trained with Racing Louisville this summer? Yes, yes, I did. What's exciting. Was it? Oh, yeah, yeah.

I think I saw a tweet from, what's it, like Scout Ripley on Twitter. Yeah, no, I saw it and I was like, Vince must be thrilled. This is going to be fun. Yeah, yeah, I did see that. I did see that. And, you know, as an honorary racing Louisville member, you know, that's my, that's my baby girl. I don't make the rules. You know what I'm saying?

It just is what it is. And I had actually, in preparation for this, I was wondering if any of these women had played in, like, the USLW league this past in the summer just because, I mean, when I was looking at these WISCow clips, like I said last episode, they were. They're coming from, you know, November 2021. And I'm like, man, that is a long time without ball. And I know we got U-20 stuff, but the, like a lot of college players took advantage of the USLW League and got some run in. But it seems like none of the U-20s. U-20s did it.

I guess they were busy, you know, with Conca Calf, the Sude Cup and everything. Speaking of baby girls, though, Alyssa Thompson is mine, and she's in, finally. Yeah. She is awfully fun to watch. So effortlessly eliminates defenders. All right, 49th minute Gidri ramble into the area ends with the ball. So Gidre's just kind of dribbling into the box.

That ends with the ball squirting wide to Michelle Cooper, who picks out a lovely low pass. You know, basically it slides it on the ground to the top of the six. And Thompson is just a moment too late getting to it. And it's blocked off her foot. So it's kind of like the center back gets to it first. I think it was Van Diemen and hits it off of Thompson's foot out of bounds for a goal kick. But a very dangerous moment, a beautiful pass from Cooper.

So actually, it's not Van Deeman. It's the left back being alive at her backposts there. Okay. And at this point I thought like more Cooper you know Cooper's out there she's she's picking out passes She's getting involved we're we're gonna get the equalizer and It did seem like we were the stronger team to open the second half but in the 56 minute The Netherlands get their second goal and it's a man it's against the run of play It doesn't seem like a dangerous situation Federer the six receives the ball in the middle of the park from the right

touchline, about 30 yards from goal, and she just has one, and chips Purcell from there, lofts it far post, Purcell caught off her line, I guess, and it's two zero. Yeah, it was a really, really great bold shot. I mean, clearly it went, but once again, I'm missing me adjust this, and for more than one reason, then she's got to be number one keeper now, right? She's got to be who we see against Japan. Surely, hopefully. I mean, you know, no shade.

No shade, of course, to the kids. We love all the kids. I mean, they all seem to have very bright features. You know what I'm saying? But it just, it is what it is. We got to get out of the group. It's no shame to say that Mia Justice is going to be a stronger keeper. I don't think that a lady.

Okay. And on this shot, I don't know. Like, how saveable do y'all think that was? If she wasn't so far off her line, she could have got that. I don't, I don't know. It's so hard. This whole, the issue of goalkeeping is just, it's difficult for me. I don't want, I can't, I can't say.

I mean, it seems like maybe she didn't, it's like in, you know, it's like in baseball. some people can judge the when you're playing in the outfield you can judge the flight of the ball quickly and get to where you need to get to catch it. I mean like everybody in the major leagues can do that.

But like it's a lot about like how you judge the flight of the ball in the first, you know, the first 30 yards off the bat in baseball. And I don't know, I do wonder if she like was able to judge the flight of this ball very well

because it wasn't like laced into the top corner It wasn't laced to the top corner But it did hit like the you know The side netting when it went in the Yeah it was a really Yeah So it was like that far over there

That you know And I mean I'm looking at it right now If you want to talk about Her first step is like negative She's not getting over there You know she has a lot of ground of makeup And off the shot

It basically takes her while to react And maybe if she's reacts a little bit better. Like you're talking about bells with just judging the flight of it, she makes it over. But yeah, it's like in the air for maybe a solid half second before she starts to get over there. So maybe that makes a difference. I don't know.

I'm just throwing stuff out there. I'm not making any claims. No one knows. I'm making any claims. Tara, you got any other thoughts on it? No. Other than Start Mia Justice? I mean, I will captain.

to start me a justice team. But after the first goal, I would have loved to see herself understand where she's at a bit more. She was a little too far off. I think I'm ready to you know, make that claim,

so to speak. She looked pretty crestfallen after the second goal to me. She did. I was up to 10. 59 minute mark. Reale plays a good long ball over the top for Moultry. This is a really good chance for us to score and get our goal difference sort of back in line a little bit.

Moultry runs onto it and she just scuffed it. Didn't she kind of didn't get it. She got over it too much. She couldn't get it out from under her feet and hit it kind of right at the keeper. Yeah. So Bob Marocco made a point on this in the game thread. Just that basically how Moultrie takes it and that, you know, the ball. is in front of her, it's bouncing.

And basically what he was making the point that she didn't, like, adjust her technique to account for the fact that, you know, this is a bouncing ball that's, you're going to have to kind of, you know, take a, you know, you got to catch on the volley. Yeah. You got to slow down. I want to do a bit of a call to action here because Moultrie is just not doing it. tonight, but to you two and to anyone listening, please watch Portland Thorns because Moultrie is doing much better over there than she is at this tournament so far. I want you to, I want us to

all unite behind her and watch this growth. Okay. Yeah. Which makes me wonder if this isn't going to, you know, I don't want to jinx us here, but isn't going to be a little bit like the, you know, Gio Rana's performance at the U-17 World Cup. I know we're not supposed to bring up male soccer players on this episode, but you remember how he was like not very good and the team was not very good, but he was like he's still really good. And then he was, you know, he was still really good.

And like U.S. soccer, a scuffed podcast believes in equality now, so we can bring up boys. It's all okay. Okay. Yeah. And that's where most of my disappointment just comes. comes from. It's like, you know, like, like Olivia, whether it's fair or not, like, Olivia, you're supposed to be on another level right now. You know what I'm saying? Like, like, not,

not like overall, but just in comparison to these other U20 teams, like, I should be seeing, you know, a little bit more. I mean can be said for Shawl tonight for me. I want to see more. She's had a great game against Ghana. She had a great. opening match with San Diego Wave. And I wanted to mention, I too wanted to mention something Bob Maraca

said in the Discord today. So if you have been hesitating joining the Discord, this is all the reason you need. Bob Morocco quotes galore. He said, around the 38th minutes, so I'm backtracking a second, he said that

Jaden Shaw was saucin and crossing to no one in parentheses. And I just thought that was hilarious because that kind of summed up how Jaden was playing today. She was great. She was fun to watch. Everything was real pretty, but it went absolutely nowhere. Yeah. Yeah.

And I mean that in that particular play, like there was nobody in the box to receive a cross, to put a head on it to do anything. There was nothing but three Dutch defenders just staring at her pump the ball in. I was like, man. And, you know, it becomes a reflex sometimes for wingers or wingbacks or whatever to just, you know, get that ball in there in the mixa, as, you know, Greg likes to say. We did do a lot of, it seemed to me a lot of just lumping it in this game, too. It seemed like we did a lot of it against Ghana as well. Let's see. Penalty, the penalty call.

Around 60th minute, Delapuruda gets a penalty for kicking Nordman, the number 10 for the Dutch who croists her just inside the box. There's kind of a scramble it spills to Nordman. She croifs Delapurida, she leaves a leg in, and it seems like a very clear penalty to me. Awe, the centerback goes to the spot and thumps it home, 3-0 to the Netherlands.

Talia, girl, you gotta not push people over in the box. I feel like the most senior member of the team in Costa Rica, you know, I could not stop listing off unnecessary facts about her.

But they all stand. She has the most experience with this team. I would hope she knows not to push people over in the box. And yet she did. And we got punished again for it. Yeah. Yep.

And it's, you know, that's basically ballgame right there. It was pretty much a matter of could we get a goal or two back to make our job against Japan a little bit easier? I thought Thompson was electric. We've talked about that already, but she beats her defender shortly after the goal on the right wing but can't find the cutback. And that happened two or three times

in the last 20 or 30 minutes of the game. Yeah, and I know at this point I'm supposed to be upset and angry at the messiness of the game. But it really all went out the window when I see Alyssa Thompson beat defenders. I am having a blast

watching this girl play. She's so fast. She's so creative. There was not enough of that tonight. But there were a few minutes here in the second half where she did have me for getting this very sad scoreline. Yeah.

And we had a lot of cutback opportunities cut out. And, you know, And I just think it's easier basically to cut out a cut back opportunity. If your defense is loaded up, just watching somebody go 1V1 to get to the end line at that point. Like we had done, and this isn't like, I'm not coming for Elizabeth Thompson or anything. I'm just saying like we had done no disorganization of the opponent.

You know what I'm saying? And it just ends up finding somebody on the wing, and then we're going from there while, you know, Netherlands, the other three Netherlands defenders are just sitting there waiting. I think that's a really good point, actually, that if it's just sort of you're facing a set defense, you get it out to your winger, they go 1 v1, they beat somebody, they're not going to have that many options for the cutback,

as opposed to like if you're if you haven't have like a good quick four pass combination to release somebody into that man city zone where the defense can be scrambling a little bit more so yeah I'm just going to repeat what Vince says the rest of the episode I guess um 70th minute nice little combo from Thompson and della peruta and della peruta has a chance to shoot and hits it right at the keeper? I don't want to be too negative. I don't want to comfort a literal children. But why is our defensive milkfielder,

it seems like this is the second or third time she shoots it right at the keeper. Why isn't Talia passing the ball? I don't know. Can someone tell me? Well, the thing is, she's an attacker. at at at at at at at at at UNC like from all the wise saw clips I pulled up I mean she's playing wing attacking midfielder like there were no clips of her playing defensive midfielder at all so this is north carolina's fault it tracks seems like it okay thank you

the dutch get a couple big chances uh well one in particular in the 71st minute and then um There's a lovely chance for the U.S. that, well, first I should sit. We should talk about the red card on Von Diemen. It did seem like the right call to me. What did you guys think? Absolutely. It takes a lot to pull Cooper down.

And boy, did they pull Cooper down. Yeah. It was a denial of a goal scoring opportunity. It took a little while to sort it out. Lost us some precious time to score goals, I think. But they sorted it out. and Von Diemen is sent off. And then the last thing I have is a really lovely scoring opportunity for the U.S.

Gidre beats, beats her marker down the left wing and cuts it back for Cooper. And Cooper just, these are not always easy to steer on frame, but she hits a really good shot at the near post. It was going in and it gets pawed wide by Alcamade. a really, really nice save. A save of a different sort of category than the one we would have liked to, we would have liked our goalkeeper to make,

but still a nice save. I forgot to mention this. There was a big chance for the Netherlands on the break where Nordman gets played in the middle of the box and she, her shot is, and not right at personally, required a good save, right? Right, Tara?

That one required a good save. It did require a good save, and I was happy for. but that was pre-red card. So I don't know what I was thinking. Yeah. Okay. I'm good.

What about you guys? Yeah. I'm good. Nothing else really happens. At some point in the second half and what I determined to be kind of a throwing the flag and kind of move. We sub in Simone Jackson and Laguer onto the pitch. Yeah. Nothing too significant.

came but yeah just just wanted to mention that yeah it did feel like a little bit of a minutes management move more than anything at that point but um yeah because i think we took uh multery was off at that point and forgot who else but i mean you know you're taking taking livia montry off i guess you know we're thinking about now we're thinking about wednesday yeah yeah as are we all eyes on wednesday we got everything to play for we can we can advance with a two zero win There are other ways to advance too, but winning by two goals will take us to the next round. Let's do it. Thanks, guys.

Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.