Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #317: A USWNT check-up after Nigeria, before England

Episode Date: September 22, 2022

Greg on the high floor and the "stupidly high ceiling" of this group, the lack of rhythm and patience in the final third, and how Vlatko needs to "manage the ambition" of his players to hit the hopeful home run ball. Belz does what he can to help.Join Scuffed on Patreon for as little as $2 a month: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedPatrons get a private feed for the Monday Review, which is, among other things, a run-down of club action for national team players every week with Watke and Vince. Patrons also get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalogue of historic recaps we're working on. Here's what we have so far.#1 Czechoslovakia v USA, 1990, https://www.patreon.com/posts/historic-recap-v-67067301#2 USA v Colombia, 1994, https://www.patreon.com/posts/historic-recap-2-69083229#3 USA v Iran, 1998, https://www.patreon.com/posts/historic-recap-3-70575704#4: Mexico v USA, 2002, https://www.patreon.com/posts/historic-recap-4-72235898 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, the U.S. women beat Nigeria twice a couple of weeks ago, and now they will face England and Spain and a pair of marquee friendlies next month. I've got Greg here with me to look back, mostly look back, but also look ahead a little bit. Greg, how you doing? Doing all right, bells. The looking ahead is the fun part because these are some big-time matchups coming up in October. And then again, you know, they just announced the Germany-friendly.

in November, right ahead of the Men's World Cup. So we've got a pretty appealing two months of soccer ahead of us. Yeah, there have been some complaints that the U.S. hasn't been able to schedule enough challenging games for the women, you know, over the last year. So, well, that's not going to be a valid complaint after this year is over because Germany, Spain, and England, pretty clearly the three best teams in Europe, right? Or at least arguably the three best teams in Europe. Yeah, they're up there. And it's going to be, so this is going to be awesome because it's like perfect timing because we're going to get these games after we've had, you know, this last calendar year,

including the Concaf, double women's championships to sort of like, you know, see what this new generation will do after the turnover after the Olympics. And so that we've allowed them to like kind of settle in a little bit. Now we're going to get this real test at the end of this year. And then we'll still have, you know, the next six months after that to then take what we learn in these tests in the winter and fall and really try to like then recalibrate ahead of Australia, New Zealand, 2023. And they dropped a behind the crest video this morning.

The U.S. soccer did about the Nigeria window. So we're only slightly behind the Federation and talking about these games. And the details, the details on these friendlies that are coming up, U.S. versus England at Wembley on October 7th, which is coming right up. And then Spain in Pomplona on October 11th. And then a two-legged set of friendlies against Germany, like Greg said, in November, in the U.S., actually Miami and New York. Those games are about a week before the men's World Cup starts. So you're the brains here. How do you want to approach this talking about these two games?

Should we just go through the timeline on the two games and then kind of wrap it up at the end or what? I think we go through the timeline because I think the trend. will make themselves clear as we're talking about these sort of events. And I think there are some trends. And I think the trends are what I'm calling like positive negatives. You know, the things that are a little bit troubling are like well within our grasp,

well within our control to improve. And, you know, we can, I think, very comfortably say, the floor for this team is already outrageously high. Like this team is so talented. That like the floor is World Cup contender at media. I don't think there's too much controversy to say that the U.S. will be one of the favorites to win the World Cup in in 2023. I don't know that you'd say go out right now and say that they're prohibitive favorites the way I felt like we could say in 2019. But right now, if they don't get any better, this team can still win a World Cup tomorrow.

Yeah, and that's why it'll be so fun to see us play against England and Germany and Spain because we, you know, those teams are also in the conversation. All right, so lineups against a pretty good Nigeria team were Alyssa Neyer and goal. So we'll talk about the first game, first and then the second game, sort of chronological order. Alyssa Neier and goal, Sophia Huerta, Alana Cook, Becky Sauerbrun, and Emily Fox across the back line. And I think, you know, it's going to be similar. The only difference in the second game is Germa comes in for Sauerbrun at left centerback. But it seems like Huerta and Fox have sort of nailed down. the full back positions.

And that seems good to me. I don't know. What are your thoughts on that? I think we still have to wait a little bit, Kelly O'Hara out with injury for this camp. So we still have to wait maybe until O'Hara is back available. And we see for sure whether or not Huerta's usurped her as the starting right back. Yeah. I guess my view on these things is colored a little bit by the Discord, which is full of Sophia Huerta fans.

then Andy Sullivan played at 6 Rose Lavelle and Lindsay Horan A familiar pairing at the 8 And then pretty much locked in front three For now, at least until Kat Makario comes back Is Sophia Smith on the right wing Alex Morgan at Stryker And Mallory Pugh at left wing

Nigeria was So they had I'm sorry about these pronunciations But Chayamaka Nadozi in goal Michelle Alozi, Osanachi, O'Hale, Gloria Agbana, and Tony Payne across the back line. Tony Payne, born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, about two hours from where I sit right now. Deborah Abayadon and Christi Uchebe in a double pivot, and then Uchenakhanu, Rashida, Ajibade, and Gift Monday in a band of three,

and then Ifeioma Onumonu at Stryker. To the timeline, to the timeline. People always make fun of me after I had to go through a lineup like that, and I deserve it. I deserve it. Third minute, we get a nice combination from Roosevelt to Alex Morgan and layoff to Smith, Smith back to Pew, and loses it into the goalkeeper. But good to see us, you know, right off the bat in this window playing to Morgan's feet and trying to get something cooking that way. This sequence got my hopes up a little bit, Bells. I got to be honest because it's exactly the kind of play that I want the U.S. to employ more often.

You know, that the ball into a player's feet, like to clearly maintain possession, not to just hit a hopeful ball in front of us and then outwork everyone to get to it. But like everything here, very purposeful, the run inside from Sophia Smith to underlap, like everything just looks like this drilled pattern. Unfortunately, we didn't get a lot of these types. of sequences in my mind, nearly enough of them for how much we controlled the ball overall in the game. So this was a little bit of fool's gold to happen two minutes in where I was like, oh, here

we go, we're doing this. Because then it seemed like we got away from it a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't want, I mean, like you said, the floor on this team is extremely high. The floor on the team is World Cup contender. So we don't want to be too negative, but there was a lot of kind of crap soccer played in these two games.

So my first excuse I'll throw out at least for the Kansas City game I'll have to double check the temperature for game too But this Kansas City game It was hot right I mean this is a friendly it's hot We've seen this team kind of coast at times Even in the women's championships in that third group stage game Like they were they were being very professional

About their energy exertion And there were moments here We'll get into some in the timeline Where you could tell I think that, you know, people were willing to just kind of go through the motions a little bit and at times save the motions for later. Yeah. Which results in some kind of static soccer.

Fifth minute or six minute, we get a good ball across from Pew after Fox plays or her down the wing. Just doesn't find a runner in the box, but it's cleared, but it felt dangerous. And then I'm going to pass the timeline on to you for the next one because you got some, I think you have some thoughts here. Well, this was another one that kind of gave me some, uh, some, hope that we were going to be, you know, playing a little bit more deliberately with our decisions.

And it was, it was a just building through the back three, we're just kind of passing around. We create this back three where Fox gets up high. So she, she abandons the back line. And then we've got Sauerbrun kind of as the left player in the three. We've got Cook in the middle. And then Huerta sitting back on that line of three. So it's lopsided, right? It's asymmetrical.

And so they're just kind of knock it around. Solvin is kind of just the lone center mid ahead of them that's available for like a one passaway player up the line and she kind of as we're moving it from left to right she kind of just holds on that weak side on the left uh we get it over to where to where to uh find sophia smith who kind of checks into that central midfield space i love all this right i love this kind of movement where uh smith is kind of moving into the half space checks back into a pocket as the ball's going into her nigeria a little bit late to uh meet her there so as the defender's coming up on a Sophia Smith's back. She turns just with this gorgeous spin as she's receiving it, totally eliminates the trailing defender who's coming in to try to disrupt her. And now the other centermate has to come

help. And right here, so Smith is cutting sort of in field. We have like a complete overload. Like we we have total numerical superiority. She's got her choice of passes. She could just hit a short pass almost square to Horan and cut out all of Nigeria's midfield to let Iran then initiate the attack. She's got Emily Fox in the width to the left running into totally wide open space so she could play her in there to get into the sort of the manned city zone if we want. Or she actually already has Mal Pugh up the seam with just a vertical run where it'd just be a foot race with one Nigeria centerback. And there's a window to put the pass. Smith chooses the Pew option, which I think is the correct one because it's the highest reward and it is on. She overhits a little bit so the goalkeeper collects it for free.

But again, this was the kind of attack I like to see us initiate a little bit more purposeful, a little bit more deliberate. And it ends with some very, very good attacking options. The execution is a little bit off. But again, this one was promising. So as much as I'm saying, like, we didn't hit enough of these kinds of attacks, two in the first six minutes, not bad. I wonder what happens when we sort of abandon that kind of thing. I mean, abandon's a strong word, but when we continually settle for, you know, a hope, pass or I think we're going to talk about home run, home run balls.

And it seems a lot like it's Horan and Lavelle doing that. I don't know. Do they just like stop listening to Vlato as the game goes on? Or is he not telling them what to do? I don't know. I'm asking those questions kind of rhetorically. No, it doesn't have to be. I put it on Vlatko.

I honestly put it on the manager to curb it, right? Like players want to hit that home run. Like they're going to feel like they can. So I do think it's the manager's job to sort of manage that ambition and get them playing a little more efficiently. But I think it's there. Yeah, the comp, if anyone's going to make a comp of this game, I feel like the most telling comp would just be one of Nigeria's goalkeeper

collecting the ball from us under no pressure, right? Because we continuously try to hit that home run ball that just overruns everybody and she just gets to come out and pick it up with her hands, ending any kind of, you know, chance, not even a chance to create turnovers or other mistakes. So that was the theme for me in this game for sure. Well, let's go to the 10th minute. There's a pretty good chance.

Pugh or at least a good opportunity. Pew works back hard on defense. She and Smith often do. I mean, they're not only extremely dynamic in the attack, but they work their butts off coming back to help defend and win the ball and in the press. She springs Fox on a counterattack. Fox tries a pass that isn't on to Morgan and

and we turn it back over in the attack. Yeah, exact same thing, right? Just an overcooked pass that isn't really on and their goalkeeper collects it for free. We're underselling Fox's contribution a bit, though, in this case, because after she gets that ball from Pew, she absolutely dices up the Nigerian pressure that's racing in to try to tackle her.

So really good job from Fox to create this full field runway for us. but yeah the last pass is poor and again it's not like their goalkeepers just taking it off of Morgan's feet these are the kinds of like overhit passes throughout the game where as soon as we hit them you know we have this player running upfield and as soon as that ball leaves

the passer's feet that you know we instantly recognize like it's overhit we just stop a run completely because we know we're not getting there goalkeeper's getting it anyone who's played like over 30 soccer knows the situation and you know at that point you know we're saying like

either hit my feet or like, or we do the like appreciative clap where it's like, okay, good idea. Yeah. But we're never getting to it. And these players can get to it because they're really fast. So it's like if we're overhitting them constantly, for me, most of the time, this is just the wrong decision. Well, we scored. We scored in the 14th minute and kind of started to start to roll back Nigeria completely. But it starts with a Nigeria goal kick.

Sullivan heads it forward. And Yichebi for Nigeria tries to. scorpion kick it sort of to clear it and just flicks it in behind for Smith, who's making a good run in behind as if she expects this. And she gathers it, holds off a defender, and then slots it left-footed to the goalkeeper's left as she goes to ground. She actually, to my eye, scuffed the shot a little bit, but it's extremely well-placed, 1-0 USA.

So, you know, really well executed by Smith to run onto it, but definitely not like a goal of our own making. I'm not trying to like bag on it. This is this is good opportunistic soccer to punish a team for a mistake. Nigeria will feel like they gave us one here. Yeah, totally unnecessary to try that scorpion kick in your own, you know, right on top of your box. Uchibby had like three teammates around her who could have also collected that ball.

Not a repeatable goal scoring pattern. What's next on the timeline? So 15th minute, we've got another long ball from Nigeria that goes into Neyre. She has to come out of the box to collect it so she can't pick it up. And under a little bit of duress, she fires a ball upfield and it finds Mal Pew like at the midfield strike in a huge pocket of space. So Neier gives us this full on 3V3 advanced platform where it's our front three running against Nigeria's front three. And we actually have Lavelle right next to Pew as she receives it. And this is, again, more evidence of us kind of cruising a little bit because Lavelle almost gives up on this play immediately for some reason.

Like she does not stay with the team. I don't know if something happened where she took a little bit of a soccer knock and was like, okay, you guys got this. I can't, I can't join you. But she doesn't really go with the play. It's still 3B3, so it's still a really good attacking situation. Smith, or I'm sorry, Pew has it sort of centrally. She's got Morgan attacking up the left side of her and Sophia Smith up the right side of her. Pew has like an angle early to slip Morgan in behind her marker,

but she passes that up and just keeps carrying the ball. And Morgan kind of gives up on the play at that point and checks her run and just kind of watches then as Pew kind of tries to dribble the retreating centerback, gets it taken by the trailing defender. The chance is gone. But again, just another, what looked to me like, not everyone fully committed in the moment.

You know, like this didn't look like the end having it. This sequence didn't look like it. had the intensity of, say, World Cup 4V3. Yeah, that's frustrating. I'm looking at the screenshot right now. Lavelle is 15 yards behind the play, and she did start out right next to Pugh.

What's, yeah, I don't know. I don't know what's going on there. I have in my notes that Sophia Smith is our most effective player by a fair distance in this game. She takes a good touch down the line and then whips a ball into the box just a couple yards out of Morgan's reach shortly. after the moment that you just described. Nigeria not really threatening,

though they do have some of the ball. And then the next U.S. goal comes in the 26th minute. It's Lavelle, well, let's see. A corner kick spills to the penalty marker. Nigeria starts going the other way, but Huerta makes a lovely sliding tackle to put a stop to that. That's quite a play.

And then plays it into Zone 14, There's a scramble. Smith gets it in a scramble and pokes it wide to Haran. And Haran shows some class here. She stands up her defender, cuts onto her left foot, and then strikes it side netting far corner with her left foot. Lovely work from her. But both goals kind of off a broken plays.

I mean, two good finishes, two broken plays, I guess. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I feel like the goal here is to not have the word scramble appear in as many, of the goal breakdowns as it appears in, right? You know, we are good in Scramble. We have players who will have an edge over their opponents, but it's not like we've committed to playing Red Bull ball, right? Like, we're not, that's not our style, or it's not recognizable as our style.

So even though we can excel in those moments, again, it just would be nice if we could, you know, do the thing that we were actually trying to do rather than being like, oh, I was trying to pass it here, but it deflected off three shins. and then we finally ended up poking it to a teammate. Like we want to be a little bit neater, right? We want to be a little bit tidier with what we're actually trying to accomplish. Yeah. I mean, I love that.

I love that Sophia Smith is fantastic in a cage match. I mean, she wins almost every duel she's in. But yeah, I'd rather the, I'd rather a sequence of lovely passing results in a goal. Fantastic from Horan, though. Great composure. to get the defender to bite and open up that shooting lane into the far post. Yeah. She loves to step on the ball and tick-tock it from one foot to the other.

33rd minute, a little bit of danger from Nigeria after a lovely Lavelle turn and then give away. Nigeria goes at the goal and Fox gets beat and there's a strike from 20 yards, but it goes wide and high. So I'm, I was clocking the heat again in this sequence just for our overall shape and willingness to get expansive. You know, you mentioned the Lavelle turn. So it kind of came as Nigeria. We're already keeping a little bit of possession, but they lose it. And as it comes out to Lavelle from like our back line, she has this fantastic pirouette. So technical.

But as she does this, right, there's the movement around her is just non-existent from the U.S. players. So it's not non-existent. Pugh is making a good move from the left side of the field. she drags across and she's even like pointing behind her she's doing it like hey this player's coming the defender's coming with me huge space behind me now but no one goes and fills that space right because it'd be a big run for somebody to attack into it it should probably probably be Emily Fox but it's hot nobody wants to do that in a friendly like just don't want to make that run 45 yards even though you know by the book that's probably what we needed there and then Lavelle just holds on to it

keeps looking downfield for that home run ball even though it's not on no one makes movement into it and instead of like just abandoning it and just maintaining possession she holds onto it so long that she just gets dispossessed in midfield for for really no reason at all so again just the quality of the game like it kind of stood out how how much of a friendly this was yeah and I think even the next chance we're going to talk about is kind of includes a lot of the elements we've been talking about. It's Lavelle just sort of lifting a hopeful ball at the top of the box. And it gets headed twice by two different Nigeria defenders. But right, the second header falls right into Sophia Smith's path and she's in on goal.

And she tries to roof it from close range and hits it, you know, hammers it off the outside of the near post. very nearly could have made it 3-0. And I should say it was Kanu. It was Kanu who had that shot earlier after the Lavelle, after the Lavelle linger and give away. She comes up in the second game, a very dangerous player. Yeah, she was bright. But yeah, so you watch these attacking sequences play out,

and there are some, there are a few of them where you're like, that's going to translate, right? We're going to play these teams in Europe in November. And that's going to translate. And then you see other games where it's like, or other attacking sequences. And it's like, that's just not going to happen. Like that's just not going to be on. We aren't going to be able to count on, you know, England's centerbacks just heading the ball into Sophia Smith's path as we just lob the ball up towards the top of the box.

Like we got it. We're going to have to be more efficient because we're also going to have fewer chances to run at England. They're going to have more of the ball. So when we do get our chances to even, you know, begin attacks, we're going to. we got to just be a little bit more discriminating with how we decide to go about it. Come on, Blanco. Okay, so let's talk about the third goal, 46 minute of the first half. So stoppage time.

It's a lovely goal. So despite everything we've said, this one is Lavelle, Lavelle plays it to Morgan in the middle. Morgan turns, so she's dropping a little bit deep. She turns and plays Emily Fox out wide. Fox races down the wing. and then whips isn't the right word, but she hits a brisk ball across, knee high or a little bit lower

for Sophia Smith to meet at the penalty marker and guide into the goal. The keeper has almost no chance on something like that, the bang, bang nature of it, but she does get a little touch to it. A lovely goal. And probably the most repeatable goal of all the goals scored in this two match,

two-legged friendly. We're calling them a series. this was perfect, right? This is nearly perfect. We're always going to find something to be like, hold on, we could have, we could have clean this up. But everything here was like so well intended and executed and crisp, right? So, you know, the ball from, is it Sullivan who plays it into Morgan? I think it's Lavelle.

Okay. But like that's just exactly what we're trying to do. It's a good spot for Morgan to pick out to get into. it's good recognition from Fox you see her early calling for it you see Morgan recognize it the one nitpick here if you're if you're if your textbook in it

for your players is Morgan probably doesn't need to play this across the defender's face as the defenders, it's like the backdoor run from Fox right and we play it across the defender's face which kind of makes it a more difficult touch for Fox than if Morgan played it behind the defender's back

right back in the center right but whatever Like there is a big enough window that she can hit it because she hit it. So she hits it and Fox takes a great first touch. And then Fox hits a really nice ball behind the back line with purpose to Sophia Smith who's sealed off the weak side defender. Great finish from Smith. VAR might have something to say about Smith being like half a body offside when the ball comes in from Fox. But I'm not worried about that. No, VAR on these friendlies, is there?

No, no, no, yeah. No, we're just looking at it. going to head to Australia. Yeah. So the half comes and goes, and there's not that much, I think, to say about the second half, but Pew won a penalty, taking her opponent to the end line. I think it was pain. Seemed a tad soft, but, you know, whatever.

It's a penalty. Morgan. And so here, like, this is, again, this is another benefit of not just hitting the ball in, hopefully, right? You have these players, whether it's Pew, whether it's Sophia Smith, Ashley Sanchez, Midge Purse. These are really good

1B1 attackers. And if you can get running a little bit downhill, we did well to build up here, to free Malpue, to get a running start at a defender at the corner of the box. Like, don't just hit the ball across because you have the space to do it. Take this player on,

see what you can do. If you beat her, then you're in a much better position to create a goal. If you get dragged down, you've got your penalty. and that's what happens here. But that's, this is, I love this decision from Pew to take her on one to be one. I also thought she sold it well, even if it is a bit soft.

I don't think the AR would overturn it. No, no, no, no, no. It was a penalty. Morgan put it away. I kind of wish Pew had gotten to take it. But, because she's so, she's so dynamic. She's creating so much out there. She's not, I don't know, do you, she's not scored a lot of goals.

in the past few months. Do you put that, you just kind of put that in the whole same discussion as like XG, the conversion, the conversion discussion that you love to have on Twitter. Like the goals are going to come for Mallory Pugh because she keeps getting in good spots. The goals will come for her, yes.

I think all of our attackers are going to be putting up goals. It's really just going to come down to, I think, the efficiency of creating them. So it still just comes down to those second and third to last decisions. And whether we really choose to do the slightly more difficult thing early to create an easier goal or if we try to do the easy thing early. And by that, I just mean it's easy to just hit a ball into the box, right? That's an easy thing to do.

You don't even have to be that good at soccer to just curl a ball into the box when you can pick your head up. it's just a lot harder to score from that situation than if someone chooses to do the harder thing first which is to hit a ball into a player's feet through bodies right that's tougher and then that player has to execute a more difficult action from there but the chance we're going to end up with if we can execute those is a much easier chance and I think we just are still missing those missing those sort of earlier difficult actions

to lead to the easiest possible chances It's scary. It's scary to play the ball through bodies to somebody's feet, and it's scary to receive a ball in that situation. That's why players who can play on the half turn are worth so much in soccer. There's actually several more chances, but nothing really that interesting, I didn't think. Sanchez came on for Horan, Purs came on for Smith, Rapino came on for Pew. Later on, Hatch came for Morgan, Mewis for Lavelle, and Haley Mace for Farrant. Fox, but the game really lost its verve, I would say, in the last half hour. And especially two weeks later, I don't think it's worth going in detail on any of it.

The one thing I do want to point out is some of the interplay between Rapino and Sanchez, because I thought that looked good. Rapino was actually, you know, kind of working against her reputation. I thought she was like the weakest in this particular game with like her longer deliveries. I thought a lot of her attempts at the home run ball were as in a, as everyone else's. But when she was just kind of acting as this possession hub out wide and letting Ashley Sanchez have her busy feet around her, whether it was overlapping, slashing, slashing ahead

of her, there were some neat little combinations there. And Rapino's the perfect player for it because she's, you know, she's so wily. And so she's really good at, you know, setting up defenders with her hips, with her eyes. And as Sanchez is running, you know, beyond her, Rupino recognizes the run and recognizes how to, you know, get the defense wrong footed ahead of time so that as Sanchez's hits that right hits the seam at speed, Rapino hits the disguise pass, and then you get these little give and goes between the two of them, which I think has some promise for late game situations,

you know, when you're bringing those two on because they're clearly not starters currently in the hierarchy. So to bring that pair on late in the game, I think there's a lot there. And then Midge Purse had less effect on the attacking side, but she's, I think, of the same mold as our other wingers, which is, I mean, she's just relentless, and she's always going to be dangerous, and she's not going to quit going defensively or offensively. So we just, again, have depth to spare. Okay, let's go to the second game.

It was a much tougher game. So we beat Nigeria 4-0 in Kansas City, and then played him a few days later in Washington, D.C., ended up beating them 2-1 on a late winner from Rose Lavelle. But Nigeria didn't give us nearly as many gifts as they did in the first friendly. And I don't think we were any better at breaking down a defense in sort of a systematic way. So Casey Murphy came in and played as goalkeeper instead of a listener. The backline was the same except Germa replaced Sarban, at left centerback, like I said before. Sam Coffey got her international debut at the 6 for Sullivan.

and then Lavelle and Horan, Smith, Morgan, and Pew were the front five. Were you just glued to coffee like the entire time, just watching our positioning, watching our decisions? That second game, I couldn't watch it live for various boring reasons, but yes, I was glued to coffee.

I was watching that. I mean, you got to, you know, as a podcaster who talks about this stuff, you kind of have to have some kind of foothold in the discourse, and I feel like Sam Coffee is mine. It's my foot. It's my foothold.

I'm like, not everybody appreciates Sam coffee enough. And yeah, I thought she was, I thought she was quite good in this game. Let me give the Nigeria lineup. Well, before you do, because I think this is important too, because I didn't notice it in the first game, but with coffee out there, then it hit me. Coffee tucks her shirt in. And then so does Sophia Huerta.

Huerta had hers tucked in the first game, but I didn't even notice. And then with coffee having hers tucked in game too, I was like, oh, what's going on here? And then I was like, oh, Huerta does too. They both run with shirts tucked in. Yeah, I wonder, yeah, I did notice that about coffee. It makes her look extra reliable, I guess. It makes them look like a video game soccer players from like 1996.

Yep. I forgot that Huerta tucks her shirt in. Definitely coffee does. So it was Nidozian goal, Agbana, O'Hale. Oluwatozen blessing Demaheen and Rofiat Imuron across the backline Tony Payne and Christi Uchebe in a double pivot Alosi Jennifer Echagini

and Ajibade in a band of three and then Onomonu at Stryker again so a few changes to the timeline so we're pressing up the right side and I'm talking about the second minute Sam Coffee enters the screen left to intercept a pass out of the left corner.

And then, I mean, sort of volleys it in the direction of Morgan. It's like her interception is one touch. And it's the same touch that is the ball to Morgan. And the ball kind of curve curls around Demaheen. And Morgan is in on goal in this moment. And she rifles it at Nadozi, who tips it over the bar. So we're immediately threatening in this game as well. Yeah, and not like that, but we've entered the coffee era.

No, there's any question. What's her XA there per 90? Yeah, I mean, two minutes in, we're talking like seven or eight XA per 90, something like that. Yeah, so I mean, why don't we talk about it? What did you think of coffee? And what do you think the tradeoffs are between her and Sullivan at the 6th? So I'm going to be boring here and say it's still just going to be too early to tell. I thought her passing was really nice throughout the game.

Like she hit some good, unexpected passes, you know, progressive passes. And, you know, I didn't think Nigeria really created a lot on us. So it's not like you could really say that she was a liability or that she was given up a ton of space. I think it's the question is going to be whether she has sort of in Vladko's eyes earned from this game or just in general from her play for club a look in the more difficult tests. because I feel like that's the only way we're really going to find out if she's good enough to play at the at sort of the World Cup knockout level. Yeah.

She's smaller and not as fast, I don't think, as Sullivan. So, I mean, I haven't clocked them in the 100 meter dash or anything, but it just, Sullivan seems like she can close space a little bit, a little better than coffee can. Longer strides for Sullivan. Yeah. But I do think coffee is a much more elegant and clever player in possession. And it's sort of quietly elegant.

She doesn't do anything like eye-popping necessarily. She just kind of keeps things moving in a nice way. And I do think, like you said, some of her passing is unexpected through the lines, sort of progressive stuff. Third minute, Lindsay Haram plays a good ball over the top for Smith. And her touches off, even though her run is perfect. and she squirts it to the keeper. Let's see.

We're pressing, we're getting into Nigeria's box, but nothing, you know, extremely threatening, I'd say. Just keeping tabs on Naomi Germa in the eighth minute, she got beaten by Onu Monu, who runs onto a ball down the channel and gets a cross-off, flashes it across the box,

but there's nobody there. It's a pretty, if there had been, and people arriving in the box, it would have been pretty dangerous. Yeah, it'll go down as a, out of the two-game series, one of Nigeria's more dangerous moments. And if there is a worry here, it's that kind of, Germa kind of gets beat a couple of different ways on display. Like, she gets beat initially. She kind of gets out-foxed a little bit. Onomono kind of sets her up with some movement and then sort of leverages her to get behind.

Germann catches up to keep her, you know, from really going in on goal. but then Germer kind of gets out muscle here as they get closer to the end line. So it's just something to watch. None of our centerbacks have been like flawless over the past, you know, four matches. But I mean, Germa having the smallest sample size out of any of them is going to be the one that we're all sort of anxiously watching to see if she can really be a locked down national team defender. Yeah, it's really, it does seem like, at least based on these two friendlies and sort of what we saw this summer, that Alana Cook is going to be pretty close to being a lock starter. Maybe not a lock starter, but she's...

No, she's a lock starter. Okay. I'll put Alana Cook in the lineup for all three group stage games in the World Cup. Okay. Go ahead and do it. So, okay, good. So the question, it simplifies things. So the question is, you know, who's going to be her partner?

And it's, I mean, Sauerbrun, Germa, who else is in that conversation? I guess. I think right now, those are the two. I don't think, I don't think Dahl Kemper is there yet. I don't think doll Kemper is back in to that spot. So I think it's cook with sour brunt at the moment. And vodka seems comfortable with Germa, and the question is going to be whether or not Germa forces sourbrun off of the field.

Yeah. And it's not like sour brown's been bad or anything. She's also a legend. Let's see. I'm just noticing, as usual, a lot of dynamism from Pugh and Smith. Pugh not terribly precise in the final third though. I already asked you about that and we talked about it. 15th minute, 16th minute we get a chance, big chance.

Coffee receives it from Germa and then finds Hiran. Horan tries to dribble into zone 14 and it's taken from her, but it falls to Morgan and Morgan plays a nice ball in behind for Pugh. Pugh shoots it, sends it well over. Yeah, I mean, same thing we kind of talked about, right? love for this kind of thing to happen without the, without the deflection, right? Without the past getting to Morgan by way of Nigeria,

actually knocking it off Rand's foot. Right. Like you want it to just be our players executing what they're trying to do rather than, you know, capitalizing on the chaos around disrupted ball. Again, we're going to sound like we're being hypercritical here, but the ceiling for our team is also incredibly high because the talents there, the skills there,

just need those the timing like we never really seem to be in rhythm is that kind of how I'd frame us Yeah I think that's that's it So I want to see what this talent can do When we get to start playing a little bit closer Even just closer to in rhythm I don't think we'll ever

National teams are always going to have a hard time Hitting sort of the high rhythm level Of a club team that can train and play every day If we can just get a little bit better at it That's it right I mean that's it we're bringing home another trophy And it feels like, you know, Lavelle and Huran are so good at soccer, but it does feel like the rhythm of our team goes as they go.

If they're down to pass and move and keep things moving at a nice clip, then we will. And if they're not, then we won't because they play such, you know, crucial central midfield positions. I've got a few things on the timeline about this coming right up. Here we go. Timely. Nice combination from Huerta to Lavell to Huerta to Smith.

who then plays, so coming up the right side, and then Smith plays Lavelle into space down the right wing. Lavelle has the entire right side of the attacking third to dribble into, and I feel like she should probably just drive forward and ask some hard questions of the defense, but she just lumps the ball into the box, like, pretty early on.

Sort of doing the opposite of what you were talking about with Mallory Pugh winning that penalty the other game. 20 do anything anything any thoughts on that no this is so where I just go back to like I honestly think it's it's on a manager at that point to to again just to curb it to just essentially like uh challenge the challenge the players uh to to do the more difficult thing in the moment uh to create the higher percentage chance at the end yeah well level that communication did not happen in the four minutes between the previous timeline item and this one. But in the 22nd minute,

Lavelle gives it away, dribbling into the box. She just gets crunched. And then, you know, I mean, I think she had just beaten somebody and she's trying to beat another person. And then coffee does well to stand up the counterattack that ensues, kicks it out for a throw. After the Nigeria throw, she wins it off a player to Lavelle, who's now back in the midfield.

Lavelle plays it back to coffee, and then coffee springs pew down the right wing. and then she plays it to Smith. Smith beats her guy and then fizzes it across. It spills to a defender who Pew closes on, you know, that just relentless pressing of hers, closes on, and she blocks the clearance off her foot right at the keeper. So it's basically a shot, a decent shot on goal off the press.

23rd minute Lavelle and Fox work at wide to Pew, who plays a lovely cutback to Haran, who takes the first time from about the penalty marker with her left foot. but goes right at the keeper. This is actually a pretty nice chance. The rebound spills and is clear just before Horan pounces on it. So still zero, zero. All right.

If this is the World Cup, Horan scores that rebound. She doesn't get beat to that rebound. You think so? Yeah. Well, the goal comes in sort of somewhat similar fashion, 24th minute. Again, it's worked wide left to Pew. And she's sort of races past her defender and plays a good ball. it rather than cutting it back, she sort of rifles it across the corridor of uncertainty.

And Demaheen is the one who pokes it in. So it's an own goal, but Horan and Smith were both crashing hard at the, you know, around the penalty marker. I think one of them would have gotten on to it if it hadn't been poked into the goal by the, by Demaheen. So I'm quoting Julie Fowdy, who said it wasn't earned on goal. 1-0 USA. This started with our throw-in on the left sideline. and it's Fox taking the throw-in upfield. And again, this is the fun wrinkle of how we play here,

where Huerta stays in the back line as our right back, but Fox is way upfield as the left back. And, you know, we throw it in and then actually work it all the way to the right side of the field. Fox stays high and actually starts to occupy like an inside position in that front five, which is not uncommon at all, where Pew is the wide player and Fox is in the half space. So as we work it back to Germa,

Fox is the one who's in a great pocket. We hit it into her feet. The defender, who's wide of Fox, does a normal defender thing, which just turns her head towards the ball where the pass is made. Again, just like Princeton basketball, Pew recognizes that body language from the defender and cuts back door. And at that point, you're never going to catch Mallory Pew. So Fox holds onto it for a touch, plays Pew in behind, and we are cooking there.

So where do you stand? Do you think this is the right pass from Pew right away to force the own goal? Well, yeah, I think so. Because maybe it's not ultimately the most optimal thing. But like I said, I think Smith and Horan are both in position to guide it into the goal. So yeah, I think it's good. All right. For me, it's still a little bit tough.

Like when you sort of pause it at the moment that Pew is making her decision, like none of our players are in the position to get to this ball. So only Nigeria is going to get to it. So the only way that we're getting the goal here is the own goal. But we get the own goal in this case. It's bang, bang. I'm not, I shouldn't, I shouldn't do this much. I don't think so.

I think if she doesn't get to it, if Demaheen doesn't poke into the goal, I think it's, I think Haran and one of Horan or Smith, probably Smith, gets to it and puts it, puts it away. Yeah, for sure. Now, if Demaheen just leaves it, then Smith probably gets to it. The thing here is just Demaheen just makes a cleaner play. She's going to get to it first. I guess what I'm saying is Nigeria is going to get to this ball first. Yeah, yeah.

And so then the question just becomes, do they clear it capably or do they play it into their own net? And in this case, she plays it to her own net. It's tough. We put them in a tough spot. I'm not saying we didn't. And this is the rub for the U.S., right? We are constantly putting defenses in situations where they have to make a play. It's not always like the most efficient way.

of doing it, but we put Nigeria in a tough spot here. Yeah. I just thought Emily Fox was so solid. I mean, not only did she play a big part in the buildup to this goal, but she just, she wins duels, she gets forward. Like you're talking about with that wrinkle where she's like way up on the front line, really like the way she plays soccer. It remains seen what's going to happen when Crystal Dunn is back to full health,

whether she's going to reintegrate with the team into the. attacking line or if she's going to take her left back spot because, you know, when we're talking about the way that Fox stays in the front five and even stays sort of in the interior, that is very much Crystal Dunn territory to be up in the interior of a front five. Yeah. I guess I just assume Dunn's going to be challenging Lindsay Horan for that number eight spot, but has Flacco said anything about that? I don't think so.

But to date, Dunn just kept her left back role under Vladko until she's, until the maternity leave. Yeah, okay. Well, Dunn was in this camp, too. It should be mentioned. She just didn't suit up, didn't play. But she was in training, I think, and definitely around at the games. And she's back.

She's making club appearances. Yep. Cat Macario still weighs off from being back, I think. All right, you know, there's some chances. I think they're all kind of of a piece with what we've been talking about. At the half, anything you want to mention from those, the timeline items that I'm skipping right now? No, I don't think so. I think the themes have been the themes, even going back to the Concaf women's championship.

And I don't think we're out of that territory yet. Uchena Kanu comes on for Jennifer Echigini for Nigeria at the half and immediately beats Huerta up the line, cuts it back for Ajibati, and Ajibati's shot is blocked by a responsible Lindsay Horan. In the 47th minute, Emily Fox is, so it's the ensuing corner, Emily Fox is a little bit slow to close down the ball on the far side. We'll blame the heat. Let's blame the heat.

No, this was just miscommunication between Fox and Querta, because either one of them could have gone out there. They were both fine to do it, but they both thought the other person was going to. So that was the issue there. Okay. Well, she plays a, Onumonu plays a teasing ball at the back post.

I thought Germa did well to seal off Ajibade and prevent a shot. She also, Germa's a good, she's good at passing the ball to feet from the back. want to just be criticizing her for that one time she got beat and, you know, in the other game, I think it was. 49th minute Nigeria scores. And it's an interesting sequence. It's a goal kick from them.

And Onumonu flicks it on, but Cook intervenes, tries to side foot volley it to Haran. And the pass is not directly to Haran, but Haran isn't, it's not an impossible pass. It doesn't look like an impossible pass to get to. Heran just isn't mobile enough to get to it. and it slips past her to right back Ogbana, who quickly steps past her, Anne, whose languidness in this moment is a bit frustrating to me. And then Obana plays a clipped ball in the direction of Kanu out wide left.

Huerta has a beat on it, but she misjudges the flight of the ball, tries to head it and misses. So she sort of eliminates herself from the play, and Kanu is in on goal. She dribbles at Murphy and then open. opens up and curls a shot, top in's far corner. It's a gorgeous finish, especially when you see the, you see the angle from behind the post 1-1.

And it has to be said, Nigeria will look the more dangerous team, at least for the first seven minutes of the second half. Yeah, this one will be on Huerta, I think, for the most part. I know, I know Horan's going to take her, her abuse from the, you know, the center mid-tape review because she didn't really, this wasn't a great cage match moment for her, either on the mist touch or again once she sort of overcommits as the mistouch gets past her and let's right back cut in but this is going to be Huerta right we're still fine numbers wise we've got both

center mids back behind her ran our back fours got perfect shape and as this ball's going in the back four is dropping in unison where does dropping with her hips open to the field and the ball is just again one of those sort of perfect flukes of being behind her enough but she thinks she can a play on it so she swings her hips around and just misses you know just just wish completely so she's done it's the worst of everything going for it and not getting it rather than just dropping and just keeping the the player outside which she would have been in perfect position to do if she doesn't go for the ball and then there's no way cook can get over there in time and it's just a perfect smash unstoppable shot so not going to not going to be any any ding on murphy here either for allowing this one

No, it's really, it's a class finish. So are you saying Kelly O'Hara would never? No, we saw O'Hara get done a couple of times in the women's championship. So it's one of those where I don't think either player has totally taken that spot over. But they're both perfectly acceptable right backs for this team. Yeah. Okay, 52nd minute. I have to note a little moment of nervousness when,

Sam coffee tries to go up for a throw-in into the box and can't get high enough and kind of flicks it perfectly into the mixer to create a dangerous situation for us. A bit of a scramble and then another ball into the box and more of a scramble. So we look like, you know, maybe we'll give up a second goal and lose to Nigeria on home, like our first loss in 150 years. All because Sam Coffee's not as tall as Andy's home. Right? But then the U.S. starts generating chances.

It would take too long to talk about all of them, but we're getting in good spots, just either not doing enough on the shot or not doing enough on that, like you said, second or third to the last ball. I thought Pew was especially wasteful, even though I'm not criticizing it too much, just saying what I thought I saw.

And then I thought Morgan was pretty clunky in this game. Smith dynamic, but not quite cutting enough. Rapino comes on for Smith in the 65th minute to a standing ovation as always. Right away, she hits a wild cross at the goalkeeper. I don't know if she was trying to score from the left touchline or what, but soon she would be redeemed. So we get our goal like not, you know, a couple minutes after that, 60 seconds, 90 seconds after that. A very good bit of transition. Rapino settles a scramble after a Nigeria goal kick and plays it back to Iran.

I think in the center circle. Her aunt takes a couple touches and plays a long ball to Pew. So I'm not sure I loved that decision there to sort of try to play it over everybody. But Pew, Pew does well to come back to the ball, steps in front of the CB, the centerback, brings it down and plays Pino in down the channel. And I just want to stop and talk about her touch to receive the ball. Did you notice this? Yes. Yes.

Stunning. She's running away from Pew. sort of like right down the channel at the end line. And the ball is a little behind her. She receives it sort of, I don't know exactly how to describe it. It's not, it doesn't go through her legs. She hops over it. She essentially has to hop over it while she's running.

Yeah, without breaking stride. And then just the slightest of touches with the bottom of her left foot to settle the ball perfectly. Because if she doesn't touch it, it's going out of bounce to her left. So she touches it just enough to settle it in front of her. I don't know I've ever seen a touch like that before. It was really something. And then she clips the ball. It was so much of something I wasn't sure she did it on purpose, honestly.

Oh, she did this on purpose. Yeah. Yeah. As I watched the replay, which there's not a really good replay of it, but I did acknowledge that she did it on purpose. I'm just saying initially I was like, nah, she didn't do that on purpose. And then she clips the ball across for Lavelle.

It's a nice cross. Lavelle has to sort of jump away from the goal. to get contact on it, and she gets glancing contact, puts it off the far post, bounces it off the far post, and in a really nice goal, 2-1 USA. Again, this is our embarrassment of riches, right? This is bringing on Megan Rapino as your change-ups of 60 minutes into a game after they've been having a deal with Pew and Sophia Smith. I mean, it's a tough spot to be in for her defense.

But yeah, the recognition from Horan to play forward is of a kind with some of that hopeful stuff that we do. We were probably a little fortunate that she under hit the ball to Pew, so it turned into that back shoulder pass that Randy Moss made famous. So Pew comes back to it and then makes really good decisions not to force things forward because Alex Morgan was going first, right? And so if we were going to force it, we would have tried to force it into Alex Morgan running vertically ahead of everyone. we let her go sort of through and hit Ripino as a second runner instead which I think was the wiser choice and then again

Rapino just can can still do some things which was great to see and that's really all it was like it was just great to see her come in and do this in a game that we didn't run away with right we left Nigeria in this game and I think like had to score here to to sort of re-exert our dominance yeah and I think

the thing about that, you know, the cross is nice. We know she can clip a nice ball across. But the thing about that touch she made is I think most players would, I mean, certainly if I received a ball like that, I would turn, if I saw that it was coming in behind me, I would turn and face the ball and then just like sort of be, oh, this is a little behind me. I'm going to stop and collect it. And then the defender's going to have time to set up. And it's just, I'm probably going to end up, like, losing it in a 1v1 there.

but she she makes basically the only touch that you can make to continue her motion forward and without that the play doesn't happen you know like it doesn't she has to do this no look bottom of the boot glancing touch on a pass behind her to to even for the chance to even happen so it's pretty cool and then she still has to clip a ball over two centerbacks and not too far to get to the third defender trailing in so it's still like has to have that level of precision, which she's capable of. So this was a nice example of what Rapino can still give you

as that 39-year-old veteran presence. A much-needed second-half winner, too. So I don't think, I mean, I noticed Germa got kind of ragdolled once in the air late in this game, but I don't even have a timestamp for it. And then I think we should just move into like, sort of closing thoughts. What do you got?

Well, I thought it was a little bit kind of interesting that Flatco only used three subs in this friendly. I don't know. Maybe that wasn't too interesting, but like,

and I don't know if there were injury reports later because again, like you, I had to kind of watch after the fact. But we didn't see Sanchez. We didn't see Midge Purse come in in this game. So, yeah, so it's, I think we, like we've talked about,

I think we have the hierarchy of this of this roster, right? Of the who's in the 11, pretty well set. And if you're, and if not, in a couple places where it's not, it's very clear what the battle is, you know, whether it's Neer or Murphy or whether it's Querta, O'Hara.

And then I think we pretty well know who the, who the backups are for most of these spots. So going into, so going into the November windows, it really is just going to be like, we're not experimenting with anything else other than how well can this group play together, which I'm really excited to see. Yeah.

Well, I think, yeah, the number six battle is interesting. The left-centerback battle is interesting. Where done is going to fit in is maybe the most interesting thing of all. Is there any indication that Neier or Murphy is ahead of the other? I think you'd have to say Neer's ad just because she got the, the Canada start and I think that's still the definitive choice at the moment and I don't I doubt Flodco's really changed his mind since then again it seems like he's probably comfortable with either of them and if it comes to it but I think he's probably leaning there at this point okay

I have noticed Ashley Sanchez and trinity robin have been playing pretty well for the spirit lately I think Sanchez has had her hand in you know five goals I think since the since the over the last three matches. But, you know, they're not, like you said, she's pretty clearly not a starter right now for Vlako. And Rodman wasn't even in this camp, so. Which, again, just goes to show what our depth is, because I have a feeling Rodman's going to make,

I'm hoping she makes the European camp. Because she has, I mean, she's been outstanding. And then Sophia Smith is, like, breaking analytics for, for, for, for, with her club play. Oh, yeah, we didn't mention that. She literally is off the charts of Elliot McKinley's, you know, what does he call those, B-swarm? Yeah, the B-swarms. So, yeah, so she, I mean, again, the production level of these kids is fantastic.

We're doing this without Macario. But I still think, you know, the takeaway from these remains that as high as our floor is, I don't think we're anywhere close to our ceiling yet. And I think that ceiling is stupidly high. Yeah. And it's all going to come down to our choices in the final third and sort of whether or not we can get into being able to make sort of rhythm choices in the final third. Let's do it. October 7th against England.

Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.