Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #379: USWNT-Ireland recap — Swanson hurt, Ertz returns

Episode Date: April 10, 2023

Greg and Belz talk through the extreme lows but also the encouragement of the USWNT's 2-0 win over Ireland. The agony of Mallory Swanson's injury followed by a deeply reassuring Julie Ertz appearance headline the game. We mourn Swanson's likely loss, talk about how it affects the team, and celebrate Ertz's dominant cameo.----Scuffed is an ad-free podcast. Support that and get exclusive episodes once a week, plus access to the Discord and live call-in shows, by signing up for our 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. Okay, the U.S. women's national team beat Ireland 2 to 0 on Saturday. Sorry for the delay on the recap. I had a lot going on in my family over the weekend. It was a win, a 2-0 win, a nice goal from Emily Fox. But really, the biggest news is two things that have nothing to do with the result, right? Yeah, a bit of a roller coaster, and obviously the, uh, the, uh, the, big one that really hits hard now is

the Mal Swanson News. So by all appearances she will miss the World Cup which is devastating. I'm sure for her personally for the world to lose this player for this showcase just hurts.

And obviously, you know, from a competitive standpoint for the U.S., this is a big deal. She is an absolute weapon and we will miss her for sure. She tore her patellar tendon, which is the tendon that runs across the front of the kneecap, right? Yeah, and it's a brutal injury. So when that happens, the kneecap is free to just go any which way. You can see that in the replay. Yeah, and that's why you see the immediate, almost like physical,

visceral reaction from her teammates who crowd around her because it's so apparent, you know, how severe it is. So they all, you know, circle up around her and you don't get that for an ACL because you don't really see anything. even when an ACL pops, it's just like, okay, are you okay? Do you need trainer? But when this happens, it's like, oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear. So they haven't officially announced how long she's going to be out. I think the surgery for this kind of thing happens right away. So they may be waiting for like those sort of, that feedback from the doctor,

if she's already had the surgery. I'm not sure she has or not. But I'm anticipating that they'll announce that she's ruled out any day now. Yeah. And she, you know, worth remembering, she had already scored seven goals in 2023. She, you know, pretty much carried the team through that She Belief's Cup tournament. And, you know, kind of was in the form of her career.

Yeah, and I'll just kind of tie this to sort of the tactical analysis we do for this women's national team. And the reason I think this hurts us so much is because we aren't a super tidy team, like our system and our structure isn't so clean. that we can just plug in like a very good player like Trinity Rodman and get roughly the same thing because, you know, she fits, she'll just fill in where we, we're moving like clockwork. Like our attack does not move like clockwork. We very often end up leaning on these ridiculous individual talents to make something happen. And Mao was one of those players who at any point could make something happen. You'd think about that Japan friendly, where Japan had us buttoned up for like the entire game. But for a split second, they lose track of Mal Swanson and a ball gets flicked over the top. stop on a route one play and she's in and scores a goal and that can be the difference in a knockout world cup game so to lose that and to uh you know have to get through a whole tournament now without her it's it is a big deal like i think that is a real odds mover for the us even though we can bring in a talent like trinity rodman even then we have the op the the the the domino effect of

okay well we get a little bit uh less from trinity than i think we do from now and then when trinity has to come out of the game for whatever reason at 70 minutes uh her then we end up playing her back up for 20 instead of going from mal to trend it's going from trend to you know somebody else yeah i mean it is winger is probably our strongest position on the field so that is one way to look at it but yeah i do i agree uh rodman doesn't bring the firepower that swanson does and as you go down the the line the fire power fire power decreases before we get into it the other big news of course was julie urts's return which was this was kind of a paradox here I thought really promising.

I thought Ertz's return was really promising. We went from, of course, Ireland is not like a top, top, top team. But, you know, it was a pretty even game until Ertz came in, by my estimation. And when Ertz came in, we just totally dominated from thenceforth. Yes, and she may have had some rust, but the way she came in, like you could just tell, that Julie Ertz is a different player than everyone who has tried to fill the Julie Erd's role. to date. So she hasn't played competitive soccer in two years now. And if that's what she looks like after not playing for two years, she's in business for the World Cup. Absolutely.

It sure sounds like she's going to be announced to join an OESL team probably shortly after this window. She'll get to kick a ball for steadily in competitive situations for the next month and a half, two months. And she will be our starting defensive midfielder for the World Cup. Yeah, that's the takeaway. I mean, talk about pitch control. They should put a picture of her in the dictionary next to those words. She just completely controlled that game. I mean, or, you know, contributed to an incredible level of control for us. All right, let's do the lineup.

So Alyssa Neier and goal, Emily Fox at right back, Becky Sauerbrun, and Naomi Germott, centerback, and Crystal Dunn at left back. Andy Sullivan got the start, and Rose Lavelle and Lindsay Horan were the other two midfielder's. and then Sophia Smith Alex Morgan and Mallory Swanson across the front line So this is basically just been Vlatko's lineup for the past

For basically the last six months It's looking very familiar now There is still some question about whether It's whether Sauerbrun, Cook and Germa are on like a planned rotation for all competitions Or whether he is still sort of establishing Who his first two are

Or if he knows and it's just a matter of playing all of them In minutes but once we get to the World Cup he might have his pair. Again, we'll have some flexibility, I'm assuming, in the group stage, because I think we will be able to coast through the group stage. But come knockouts, we'll have to see if he already knows who is, who is duo are for that centerback pairing. Yeah, I think, yeah, that's the, that's the one big question now that Ertz is

definitely going to start at the 6th, right? Because Fox and Dunn look very solid and seem like. they have his full confidence. Ireland had, let's see, Courtney Brosnan and goal, and then across the back line of five, it was Payne, and then IFA Mannion, remember that name, and then Lucy Quinn, Diane Caldwell, and Katie McCabe, we went from right to left there.

And then Sheneid Farrelly, O'Sullivan, Megan Connolly, and Shiva across the band of four in the midfield, and then Kira Carusa as the striker to the timeline. Pretty nondescript opening five minutes. I thought right at the 430 mark, Horan received one neatly on the half turn from Dunn on the left side and then hit a hero ball at Morgan. Just not enough space for that lofted ball over the top,

which was claimed by Brosnan. I mentioned it because there wasn't a ton of this, basically from this point until Ertz came on. the field. Yeah, and we'll get to that. But I think this is a good point for the first entry on the timeline because the first four minutes was very drab. And this team has a history of, you know, having that drabness carry out for an entire half. You know, think of that game one against New Zealand back in January. And so I was worried about that. We were building out of like a two-four with Sullivan and Horan as like a real double pivot and then done and Fox kind of just getting up onto

their line, but no real, no real ideas for penetration or even movement within that two four build out shape. And it really thought, I really thought we might get like a bad, bad horseshoe situation where we just passed around the back with no aim to get forward. But right at that 415 mark before this ball, Horan peeled out of there, like for the first time all game, peeled all the way to the sideline ahead of Dunn. And then eventually they rotated where, so Dunn pinched in at that point. And then eventually they rotated back. But in the, that rotation, Iran did get free to have the time and space to pick her head up and try that hero ball. But this sort of heralded constant rotations for Huran and Dunn all game. And

Haran was way more effective peeling out wide than she was sitting in the middle with Sullivan paired up. And Dunn was very effective. And Dunn kind of could vary what she was doing. Sometimes she would come into the central midfield where I think that switch of skill sets actually benefits both players. I think Dunn was better in those tighter spaces. And I think Hurran likes to be able to just collect it outside the amoeba and pick her head up and pick out whichever hero ball or line splitting pass she wants to make and she made a lot of them in this games yeah so many and and then the other variation on this was sometimes done would just stay up stay wide and just get much higher and put some pressure on the width of the field in the attacking side and that would

allow mal swanson or whoever was out there to be more free to then work into the half space so right at that four minute mark was sort of the shift where we went from extremely drab, aimless, to having a lot more ideas, at least in that first phase of buildup, which I think was a good sign. Yeah, I noticed a lot of Horan finding the feet of Lavelle or Smith or even Swanson in the first half. what happened after she found that person's feet was often not much, you know? Yeah, go ahead. That was for sure the trend, and that's what I was going to get into when you have like six entries on the timeline. We were constantly hitting that pass, and this goes back again to that Japan contrast,

where I talk about the U.S. being like a zero passes ahead team. Like, we just kind of shift around, but there is no real cue or offensive. trigger that like sets in motion like a pattern. Like we just kind of work it around. We get it to her hand to quarterback in this left pocket of space that she was getting it on. And she would pick out that pass. But once she hit it into that half space into that player seat, which is a very good pass, there was never anyone around to lay it off to. So it was almost always like if they didn't have time to turn, then what they would almost always try to do is like that little one touch forward flick on, which is super difficult, super low percentage. It's almost blind, right? You're

Half the time we weren't even playing it to a runner. We were just playing it because we didn't have anything else to play. That's the pass that should be like used. If you're doing it right, you'll end up using it very sparingly as like a surprise piece after you've already laid it off three or four times to set the defense up. And we just aren't doing that. We just don't have the, we're not structured correctly to play once we hit that Horan pass into an attacker's feet.

That was the big trend of the game for me is we just, we're just not there. And I don't know if we'll be able to get there for the World Cup or if it'll just be, you know, hitting that blind flick on and then hoping to out muscle, out hustle, out scrap in the ensuing chaos. Which goes back to your point at the beginning of the episode, which is that is one of the reasons why Swanson is such a massive loss,

because if we're not going to be able to work off of cues and coordinate as that ball comes in to the feet of the person in the pocket of space, we're going to need that individual brilliance. And at this point, I write at this moment, nobody has the individual brilliance of Mallory Swanson on our team, not even Sophia Smith. I'll quibble. But yes, having Smith and Mao to be able to do that is huge.

Going just to one of them hurts. And again, we might be underselling Trinity Rodman. Like Trinity did create some things in those scrap moments that were very promising. She had some great chances to score. Yeah, absolutely. Good XG, I would say. For 60 minutes of work, for sure. But to the point about nothing really happening when the ball goes into the person's feet in the middle, we have an example of this at the 740 mark.

It's a nice passage of play. Haram plays it into Smith, who's coming back to the ball in the half space. And Smith turns quickly and passes it to Swanson, who's kind of darting in from the left. And Swanson, one touches it to Rose Lavelle. and Lavelle settles it and looks for that quick run in from behind, in behind from the left from Alex Morgan. And it just looks like Alex Morgan is not keyed in at that moment. She's just a beat late and a pass isn't on. And that's the whole thing.

We just, there's no coordination. There's no choreography. It's all just everyone kind of winging it in the player, which is, it's so difficult for the player on the ball because they have to process all this as new information in the moment. And so without the patterns where you can recognize, okay, this is the pattern that we've done dozens of times. It's always going to look a little bit off. And I've thought that, you know, for several windows now, like, if we can start it today, if we can start at this window, there will be gains by the World Cup.

And now I'm like, I'm ready to shift. I'm ready to be like, we should almost like abandon these ideas now. and we should just move to full-on like cocaine murder ball and and just like again like the Red Bull style just hit a vertical pass if you lose it whatever clean up clean it up in the scrap and and counterpress like crazy because we've got the hosses for that so uh i'm now of two minds i got the only thing keeping me from going full on that on that uh tangent is in the second half we did have one or two spells just to get my hopes back up that we could play some Some patterns. Right before the 70 minute mark, there were a couple of them. Yeah, yeah. But mostly, I think we should get Jesse Marsh in for the World Cup to coach our team. It's an assistant at the very least, which wouldn't be like unprecedented.

Vlottka went and was our assistant for the Men's World Cup at the 11th hour. So Jesse's turning down job offers. Get him into New Zealand for a month and a half. Why not? It would be a good experience for him. So in the 11th minute, we get a set piece from the right side, Lavelle plays a nice one, and Haran just, I think Horan gets a shot off, but it's blocked basically off her foot by the defender.

He's going stride for stride with her. Some shouts for a foul, but I don't know. 12th minute, a good pass from Smith to Swanson in the Amoeba. Poor touch from Swanson. I actually thought Swanson had a little bit of a rough outing before she got injured. That's the last I'll say about it because it seems almost tasteless to bring that up. Well, I'll just say, in all. almost like in her defense.

And the same for Smith, because I thought Smith was really sloppy too. I think that's part and parcel of not having a trigger. Like if you don't, if you play that ball into somebody in the half space and they don't have the immediate like layoff built in, like it's always going to look rough. You can be very good technically,

but if you don't have anywhere to go with the ball, it sort of doesn't matter. Your first touch is going to be into a defender. I mean, like a defender is going to get to make a play on it. So you're asking a ton for a player to be able to have that technique under pressure with no, immediate solution.

So they have to control it while identifying and executing on the solution. Like that's going to make everyone look a little bit bad. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. The next thing I have on the timeline is in the 15th minute, Germa gets isolated 1v1 on a ball over the top and does, you know, as we have come to expect from her, it does pretty well to sort of dampen the danger. And then the ball's played back across the top of the box. and Haran just gets like done immediately.

And I don't know, I grimace when I see that a little bit. And you saw it a few times. She got done, I think, three times in the first half. So we're going to talk about right now. This is a segue into Haran's mobility issues because they pop up on both sides of the ball, right? So here they pop up on defense and she gets rinsed really easily. And again, Ireland didn't have a ton of chances to rinse her. So the fact that they rinsed her three times with like 20% possession in this game is worrying.

And so that's definitely something we have to take into account, you know, that mobility on defense. But also it pops up on offense. And I think it became less of an issue as her and Dunn started swapping more. But like if she's going to sit back in sort of that double pivot situation and Sullivan's going to sit beside her, this might all be obsolete and moot if Julie Ertz is the player that's coming in. but it really hurts us in attack because even when she hits that line-breaking pass, part of the reason there's no one to lay it off to is because Horan cannot join that quickly. Like even as she plays that pass, she can't get up and join even for like the next pass after, you know, Lavelle does something with it.

Yeah. Horan just does not join the attack quickly enough. So she's sitting back, she's not going to arrive. And it's not Sullivan's nature to arrive. So you end up just sort of playing these people in the half space who end up isolated with no central midfielder to come in and help. So I thought her mobility was really sort of on display, the negative side of it in this opening half. Because then what do you do if she can't join the attack are like Dunn and Fox supposed to be the ones arriving for a layoff in the middle of the field? Then we got a situation where Horan is the last defender on one side.

I don't think we want that. Yeah, it's just going to be something to keep track of to see how we try to solve that. And Ertz might be the immediate solution. She was getting forward more than you might think in her minutes. And then the other one, I think the Don and Fox ones are legitimate solutions, even though you do worry about Iran and space in a transition moment. Dunn and Fox are very capable of joining the attack and being good attacking players, done in particular.

Well, so 19th minute, there's a, I'm noting this because it was the second time it happened. There's a set piece from Ireland. They find somebody on the back post. And it gets nodded firmly across the face of goal by Lucy Quinn, one of those big centerbacks. It's fended off at the goal line by Alex Morgan. But, and I think there was like another shot on goal or something. It was a little bit of a scramble.

But the point I guess I'm trying to make is our marking on set pieces was bad on two straight corners. And this one, Quinn was one of two players. who was kind of free to attack that ball. So, I don't know, it seems like we kind of need to sort some things out on set pieces. Yeah, we had no one to mark because we had four people standing on the goal line. Luckily, they were there to clear it off. But the other thing to note here was Neier getting, like, maybe interfered with a little, but more just the fact that she rushed over to the near post on the cross

and was kind of stranded there, so it was very much relying on those three other players on the goal line to clear the ball out for because she had no play. to make on it. She was barely in the frame of the goal when the first header was connected on. I don't know. Did it look to you like that header was on frame or not? I guess I don't know. Oh, I think it was. I think it's a goal line clearance for Alex Morgan. Okay, okay. Yeah, I just saying Sam Smith's playing well on the half turn here. Swanson's dynamic, but neither able to sort of put it together into the final third. But it does feel like we're probing with those, a lot of those line-breaking passes from Haran and we're not settling for just lumping it

into the box, which I think is an improvement over, you know, six months ago or something. Oh, totally agree with that. And even in that cocaine style that I wonder if we should adapt, it would still be these same passes. These would be the passes to start things with. Is that Haran split in defeat? And then it's just going to be about being aggressive with it from there like we are and if the ball gets taken off of our shins, get more shins right on top of it. Ugly, ugly, scrappy soccer. Yeah. Well, so there's a terrifying sequence I thought in the 23rd minute where is it, was it pain or fairly,

who skips past done on the right side, on our left side and then is able to fizz a ball across. an Irish attacker, I don't know if it was Carusa or somebody else, gets a foot on it just enough to change course, make it change course. And then it skips off of Neier and up over her head into the mouth of the goal. And Neier has to just sort of dive to paw it away. Volleyball spikes it. Yeah, yeah. And then Lavelle can't quite help it along.

She doesn't quite make contact. So then it's a couple of, I think, three shots in a row blocked by defenders from and three Irish shots in a row blocked by defenders in the box. So a scramble that I don't think we want happening in our penalty area. Yes, I think that's fair. So like this starts out with an Ireland free kick from like just inside their half their goalkeeper takes. So they put everyone in like our attacking box.

And it's another one of those where like Sullivan and Horan aren't quite up to it. as central midfielers to be the defenders in the situation. Sullivan wins the first ball, fine, like heads it up, a looping header, not tons of purchase on it, but whatever, like, she cleared the initial ball, fine. And then it's where Haran's lack of, like, real defensive commitment shows kind of, and this might be friendly mode, but she, like, just kind of runs up towards it as Mal Swanson is coming back for it. And Horan just kind of deferred to Swanson to try to, like, hold the attacking player off.

And Horan just kind of, like, jogs past her. So she just takes herself out of the play and banks on Swanson being able to solve this awkward situation. And Swanson does not at all solve it. So that's how I end up with the ball in our box faced up against Crystal Dunn. And they don't get all the way past done, but they do create just enough of a window to fire that ball in at the near post. Yeah, like got under her leg, basically. Yeah. Yeah.

So, I mean, you can't always take that away. And so a little bit of a deflection right in front of Neyer, which is why she doesn't collect it cleanly on the first ball. in, nothing to blame there. The volleyball spike is an interesting choice, but it's one of those where, like, she might not realize how close she is to the goal line, so it doesn't know if she can really punch it or parry it, up high,

which would be better than spiking it directly into the ground where someone can immediately put it on frame. Good job of blocking by our centerbacks. I don't know. It's one of those where, like, you can see it. If we're going to give up a goal in the World Cup, it could be on something really scrappy like this. Yeah, totally.

Should we take a two-minute break for the vacuumers, or should we just let it go? I think they might be done. There's not too much that they're going to be working on up on the main level. Do you need to go talk to somebody? I will when they're going to come down to the basement here in a couple of minutes. Okay. Well, we can keep power and Drew if that's all right.

Yeah, that's great. So then it's the 24th minute when Swanson clatters into the goalkeeper, kind of shoulder to chest. contact, I think it was more or less on the ground. And she lays there like she's really hurt for a while. It's a little bit unsettling. But she turns out she was fine. At least that was the decision from the trainers and from Blockco.

And so she comes back on, which I don't have a problem with. I know there was like in the Discord there was a lot of talk about this. But yeah, it seems fine to me. I don't know. I mean, again, I don't have, yeah, without any of the medical information. And I know there is like, there are some issues with high level sports where is, is every decision being made in the best interest of the player or is it always made an decision of like, we want to push it if we can. And so we'd have to get, we'd have to get into the concussion literature to figure out if it's possible to diagnose concussion correctly within the amount of time we usually take to assess before we put a player back in. but that'd be that'd be outside of my expertise certainly in this situation yeah and i mean and i mean

and i think this is a game that uh where if if she's clear to play you know if she's medically clear to play she should she should play it's we need it we need the we needed these reps yeah absolutely if if the priority was to prevent injury then we would not play any of our starters in this game if this was this was this was week 18 in the nfl then none of these players would have been there to begin with the fact that we're playing any of them is because we need the prep. We need the reps. Let's see.

Right around the 30 minute mark, right after the 30 minute mark, we get back-to-back lofted balls, one from Germa to Morgan, Morgan's chest, which Morgan kind of tries to chest it down for somebody arriving in the box, but nobody is. And then Dunn plays one to Smith, and Smith brings it down and kind of dribbles to her left and takes a tough shot from a tight angle. It's blocked out of bounds. But I think both, you know, as balls over the top go, if, you connect with your teammate and put it on their,

put it on their chest, it's not a bad idea. It worked out pretty well. Yeah, I mean, I just made an NFL reference. I also have no idea how many weeks are in an NFL season. So if I got that wrong,

whatever. I think 18 is one more than there is. Last I checked. So, so this, these two balls and then one that comes up later in the, instrumental in the second half, are the kinds of balls that are perfect for the cocaine style,

which is to under hit it slightly. We have way too many that are overhit that are just passes directly to the goalkeeper, which we cannot do any scrappy, you know, rebound stuff with. These are the right kinds because it's like if it's under hit, if you throw it to the back shoulder, then we get to use our physical presence. We have some great bulldozers with Morgan Smith in Trinity Rodman, too. Lynn Williams will be in the same mode where they can, where they can, you know, hold somebody off. And if they don't hold them off well enough and it gets deflected, it's not going to be like a thumping clearance.

Like it'll be a weak clearance away and we'll get to scrap around and try to connect on the second one and then make something happen in that in that chaos moment. We get in the 30, okay, in the 36 minute we get some decent buildup up up the left. Rose finds Rose well Rose kind of tracks down a loose ball on the end line and then does somebody and cuts it back for Smith in a not in the not in the kill. zone but like off to the left a little bit. Smith turns and has a shot. It's just a clean shot, but it goes right at the keeper. But this, this is exactly the sequence that I have in mind now. So this is a perfect segue to move to from what we just talked about. This is like, it's decent buildup in the sense that like the final moments are good, but the everything ahead of that was just really sloppy or at least it's intermixed with sloppy and then it's like chaos, then order,

then chaos and order. So it's like it's an Ireland throw that, you know, has some standard head head tennis or just, you know, that kind of volume back and forth, um, Mal like tries to chest it down and it ends up with Sophia. And Sophia is like a huge primary culprit in this sloppy parts of the game, which are fine because she's very good at playing in a sloppy moment. So she has like taken off of her foot to Lavelle. She doesn't pass to Lavelle.

It gets like kicked off of her foot. Lavelle ends up with it. Lavelle and Huran have some nice order moments. Like Lavelle, you know, with a nice outside of the foot, six yard pass to Huran, who has a little like Croix pass back to Lavelle who keeps her movement going, and then Lavelle finds Sophia again. And then Sophia does her bulldozer thing, runs directly at the defender,

which she's very effective at doing, even though the defender in this case takes it off of her foot again and like clears it back towards the out of bounds line, where Lavell chases it down in the Man City Kill Zone. So it's this very like not intentional necessarily moments from our team where we end up with a very good player in Rose Lavell beating an Ireland defender to the ball and then just doing her badly with

a little stepover, sends her flying, picks out a great pass to Sophia Smith at the top of the box for Sophia to create her own shot, which she is outstanding at, like one of the best players in the world at creating her shot in this moment. And she gets off a decent shot and we have

two players crashing for rebounds. I think Trinity and Morgan were both within a yard of Ireland's goalkeeper she collects the ball. Well, Trinity wasn't on the field yet. Oh, I'm sorry. So it might have been Malin. Yeah, maybe, probably. Probably not Trinity, though.

You can probably say that for sure. But yeah, so that's like exactly the kind of moment where we can use the chaos of a situation. We have the players who can create a little bit of order in a moment and then thrive in that sort of condition. We're always going to have that revenue stream to some extent. So the goal comes in the 37th minute, I believe. Emily Fox just picks the ball up 35 yards from goal, dribbles to the defender's left to her, to Fox's right, and just has a go from 20 yards.

She doesn't often do this. It's a little bit of a strange strike the way she shapes her body when she does it. She kind of squares up her hips and gets low to hit it. But man, she places it perfectly. I think she megs the defender on the way through, so the goalie had some problems seeing the ball and then it's just perfectly placed low

into the side netting and 1-0 USA Yeah and so this sequence starts like immediately following that last Sophia Smith's shot so it's just a long ball from their keeper that we deal with and Sauerbrun deals with it in a way that doesn't let Ireland quite set up there

It's Sauerberin Sullivan and Horan I kind of solved this in a way that doesn't quite let Ireland set up their block and Sauerbrun finds Sophia Smith sort of not even isolated just with enough time to collect the ball and just dust an outside back. And this is this is another key revenue stream where if they haven't set up their shape yet and you've got Sophia running at one player, like her Sophia on the dribble is ridiculous. So she gets around the corner so easily here and plays that ball into the into the corner of the six yard box and that's where we get this big scramble and we create a little bit of order out of that enough to find Emily Fox.

And again, Ireland's scrambling to get their shape right. Don't quite have it. Bodies in the keeper's in the keeper's way. The keeper overcommits to the near post again, cheating too far, which she had a habit of doing in this match. And then it's a, it's a clean enough strike from Fox. It's not a banger. She didn't smash it. She just sort of, you know, guides it into that far post.

Yeah. Yeah, it wasn't like, you know, sometimes when you're going to your right and you, you know, you just full stretch, just flow into the strike. And she didn't really do that. I'm not sure what she was doing there. I've never, have you ever seen that before? That kind of, it's kind of like. It's just kind of punches it. It's intentional.

She's got, she's got an idea where she's trying to put it in. It helps that it's, you know, through the outstretched leg of that nearest defender. you know, Ireland's keeper may have been backing that player to take away that portion of the goal, which is why she, but even then she's just cheated way too far. She's so close to the near post that had any shot gone to the near post, she could have covered that shot and then some, right? Like she could have like collected a lot of shots that were going way wide of the near post because she's so close to that side, which is not good if you then concede the one going the other way.

Right. But whatever, it's Emily Fox's first goal for the U.S. Women's National team. very happy for her and Mallory Swanson was very happy for her too I mean it's kind of sad to go back and watch the replay but Mal was was a big celebrator of this goal so the next thing that happens in the game and you know probably the biggest news from the game

was this was this injury I initially thought it was a you know it was from well yeah it was from Ifa Manian hitting her in the back of the let kicking her in the back of the leg that had some effect on it. But it really wasn't that. It was her left plant leg just on the replay.

It just buckles. And it's kind of hard to watch. So as we said, she's likely to miss the World Cup. And, you know, if she if she manages to make it back in time, that'll be wonderful. But it doesn't look like it. Yeah. I mean, there's not much else to say we're all going to be polling for her to recover in whatever time she needs to be able to keep playing soccer, the level.

that she's attained. In stoppage time, Ireland whips a ball into the far netting, past Nahar. But we get bailed out because Carusa was a half step off side. Just one of those balls where the keeper, it's difficult for the keeper to know

what to do, wait for the attacker to head it in or go for where the ball is headed. She waited for the attacker to head it in and then Carusa just sort of dummied it and it went into the side netting. had she been a, you know, half step later to arrive, it would have been a goal, would have been 1-1. Yeah, and definitely nothing on Neyer here.

So, Neier, I think mostly escapes with the clean bell from the first half. I think it seems like she's probably Vlato's number one at the moment. The other bit on that off-side chance or the off-side disallowed goal was how it started. And again, it's a Juliaert's moment where it's just a simple Ireland throw-in from their defensive third. and they throw it in over Sullivan and Horan. So they end up with a striker receiving the ball where Germa then has to step all the way up. And there's just no reason that you should allow a team

to throw in from the defensive third over your central midfielder. Somebody should be there center fielding to protect the back line. And there's no way you should be able to receive the ball right in front of German Sauerbrun. So that's going to be, I think that's a Julie Eart solution. And I'm really excited to see what role she plays isn't this next friendly.

Yeah, which is tomorrow night as it happens. I guess my thought on the first half is that it was not great. Ireland could have scored. Game was pretty even. And then it was, you know, everything kind of ruined by Malice Swanson's injury. Yeah, soccer-wise, I'd call it even in the sense that, again, I think Ireland would have been happy with where they kept us with our possession. you know, it wasn't us bombarding their frame with shots after slick moves through the box.

I think they would be very happy with what their shape accomplished. Nice combo at the 48 minute mark. Smith plays it to Rodman. It's out wide. It's a little heavy with the pass. So Rodman has to track it down to the end line. And then tries to cut it back to Smith for a one-touch shot. and Smith's shot is kind of blocked off her foot by Mannion.

Ifa, Mannion. But this is more like it, right? So right away, we talk about we weren't bombarding their box. And within three minutes, we get Trinity on the end line, cutting it back for that point blank shot, which is exactly what you want to be creating. And it did take that moment of desperation. Whereas in the first half,

we didn't put Ireland in those desperate moments nearly as often. Yeah. It is interesting how you trade, you definitely give up some dynamism when you go from Swanson to Rodman, but you get something from Rodman that you don't get from Swanson, too, don't you think? That just sort of like patience and sort of soccering your way through it to use a Velazquezism. A little, like at all three of them, Trinity, Sophia, and Mal, like I don't think any of them are extremely sophisticated passers. Like, I don't think that they're good at it. Don't get me wrong.

But between the passing and their other strengths, I don't think passing is super high for any of the three of them, which is why even when we do get in the Man City zones, we're still not super efficient. But this was absolutely the right play from Trinity. And I do think you're right that she has more of like a, almost like a wait. She gets the ball, she'll wait, wait, wait, and then she'll do somebody.

So she very much is, we talk about how she is very much in control of the entire situation when that ball goes out wide to her. And I think she, of the three that you mentioned there, she's the one for whom passing, I think, sticks out as a skill probably the most. I mean, she played that ball for Ashley Hatch's goal. Anyway, it was a beautiful pass, like a curling. I think I'm probably underselling Mal Pugh a little bit. But yes, Trinity, I think, is our best passer. Trinity and Mal definitely better than Sophia at this.

I think American soccer analysis was run the numbers. and last year in the NWSL, Trinity, now were dominant as far as setting up chances. I think the league leaders and expected assists. Mal, I don't think even really, or I'm sorry, Sophia, I don't think shows up in that. Sophia just dominates and actually, you know, taking shots and scoring goals.

Sophia don't pass the ball. She will sometimes. I mean, we'll get to where she missed Ashley Hatchett. Coming up in the second half. But no, Sophia creates shots for herself and gets on the end of shots. Whereas Trinity Mal, definitely the two passers, and now we won't have Mal, so it's going to be allowed on Trinity. Yeah.

Okay. 52nd minute, Trinity gets a chance with her head. It's actually a little bit of a difficult one, but it's Dunn does her guy over on the left side and whips a left-footed ball onto Robin's head. It's nice to see that Dunn can do this. She's so versatile. But, yeah, she's able to get enough separation to set up a good cross,

right on Rodman's head, just outside of the six. Rodman just can't steer it on frame. And I think it was a pretty difficult attempt. The trajectory of the ball, the speed of the ball, her distance from goal, it would have been a remarkable header to get it into the net. But anyway, a decent chance for us. Decent chance. And again, I think the big sign here is how much Crystal Dunn is really feeling it now,

getting into the attack in so many different ways. because in this half, it was a lot more getting up and down the sideline into good spots to deliver this kind of a ball. I mean, it's Sowerburn feeding Dunn in, which is crazy. Sauerbruns like up in the attacking third. Positionally, we were dominant from the off in the second half. So, so we get the ball to Dunn who still is looking at two Irish players joining her out there in that space. No help from other attackers to come triangle with her, but she can still create room to deliver a ball in. So Crystal Dunn is doing some things at this point, which is fantastic to see. She does put another one on Rodman's head a few minutes later, and Rodman gets this one on frame, but just kind of a tame header.

But the big chance in this passage of the game comes in the 56th minute. It's a nice pass, one of those line breakers from Horan to Lavelle in a pocket of space. Lavelle drives and passes it to Rodman. So she drives towards the middle of the field, right in. to zone 14. Somebody asked for me to explain this. I say zone 14 because it's a simple way to say the area in the center of the field on top of the box. Right?

That's what it is. Zone 14? Yep, that's what we're talking about. Okay, so Lavelle's driving into that part of the field. And then she plays it to Rodman, who's kind of coming down in the half space, cutting towards the center of the field as she enters the box. I feel like the pass from Lavelle is a tad late. but Robman does well to kind of touch it through the defender as the defender slides past her

sets up sets herself up with the whole goal to shoot out. I mean, this is a great chance and just hits it over. So there you go. Yeah, past a tad late almost like hand, and it's slightly behind her, almost like handcuffs her. But she uses that to her advantage to like a jiu-jitsu, her defender past her. So she actually sort of slows down just enough to like leverage that defender to go fly. flying past and then has, yeah, the whole goal to shoot at and rush a blood, I believe they call it, because she just smashes it directly at the keeper if it had been on frame.

Right. And over. So that's where, you know, finishing not a skill and all that, but there is definitely like an element of like, what's the decision to finish? How, what's the technique you're using? Because from this range in this moment, probably a nice firm pass either way, either side of the goalie does the job. Yeah, that, that, that, that, that, if,

If you're Rodman looking at the goal of the post to your right, it's just, there's just an inviting green space to the left of it. A firm pass to that spot would have done it. Anyway, yeah, Dunn put another one on Robin's head that this one, like I mentioned, and then there's, you know, a giveaway from Germa,

I note in here, so she didn't have a perfect game. Lavelle had had kind of a weird giveaway earlier in the half. Just want to make note of those, not dwell on them. I noticed Sauerbron, so I'm sympathetic to Vlako when it comes to the centerback situation because I think Sauerbron's been good.

She's been fine. And I know you kind of disagree with me on that maybe, but... No, I think Sauerbrun, I mean, again, like if Sauerbruns, you're starting your back, or your second centerback after Germa, you're in a good spot.

If she's your third centerback after Cook, you're in an excellent spot to have these three centerback to choose from. I mean, as long as Germa is on the field, I'm not going to be too, too upset with whoever her partner is. Okay. Yeah, I think.

I'm not anti-Sahbro, don't pay me with that brush. No, I wasn't trying to this represent you. Just that, you know, sourbrun speed can be a little bit of an issue sometimes. Cook's oopsies can be a bit of an issue. Cooks probably has more range as a passer, probably a little better in the air than sourbrun. But anyway, all that to say, Sauerbram makes a really nice play here in the 62nd minute. Germa gets caught a little bit upfield and there's a ball in behind her.

And Sauerbrun just races over and cool as you like, you know, outside of the boot passes it back to Nair. This is at like the 61.30 mark. She then receives the return pass from Nair and then just floats a ball up to Robbins' feet on the sideline. So, I mean, just the casualness with which she dealt with the whole thing. Very impressive to me. Okay, and then the big moment of the game, it would have been the only big moment of the game, really, had it not been for Mal Swanson's injury, which soured the mood. But we get the return of Juilliurts in the 67th minute.

Let me play the... You can hear the crowd noise on Universal. under the under his under his under his the other the band

of the captain and this salute for the regress of that I didn't vestia this camis of the

medal of bronze of Tokyo under his contour on the call and she I thought well the other

subs were Hatch comes on for Morgan Emily Sonic comes on for done and I thought we were

we looked really good when after Earths came on. Yeah, I think immediately, like within seconds, she like sort of just bodies a player off the ball in a way that's so subtle. She's got her like trademark. It's so it's, it just feels like home watching her little shuffle around the field. It really does, man. It doesn't feel like, it doesn't feel like she's been gone at all. So yeah,

huge moment and very reassuring for what this could mean for us in the World Cup. Yeah. Yeah, we're a different team immediately. And, you know, I'm a pretty new entrant to, like, really following the women's national team. So I don't remember the Earth's years where she was so dominant. I mean, I watched them a little bit, but, so this is really striking to me. I'm like, this is different.

She's built different. She totally is. And not just built different. Like, her athleticism's crazy. But I think it's for me it's down to her and Crystal Dunn as two players who can basically play any position on the field She played centerback in the 2015 World Cup and she was ridiculous But you'd see her even in those moments like on set pieces where she'd get upfield and we'll see it in our timeline coming up Like her sense of the game no matter where she is is just like perfect her and Dunn both have like perfect

Situational awareness where they can be anywhere and they know exactly what is happening around them and what the next thing needs to be to happen. And I don't think I'm overselling it or like exaggerating. Having her on the field is just huge for our ability to manage a game. And to have her and done on the field together, not that they were in this case because Sonnet came on at the same time. But like those two players in particular, I think are like the two smartest soccer players in our program.

And you know, Sonnet, Sonnet actually looked good when she came on. And I guess I probably credit a little bit of that to Ertz. but she was, she looked, she looked free and happy and effective, you know. That was a very good cameo for, for Sonnet, who, uh, I think probably, probably still has, like, a battle for World Cup standing. I mean, I assume she's on the roster, I think now, certainly after that last showing. Um, but, you know, in a fight for minutes, too, to get on the field, she made a solid case, uh, Friday.

Yeah. Saturday. 69th minute We get a nice pass snuck Through the lines from Haran to Hatch Who lays it off at the top of the box for Lavelle This is a pretty good chance Lavelle dances around a defender to her right

And takes a pretty weak right-footed shot That ricochets off a defender's foot And wrong foot's the keeper And uh, Brazen is just sort of clawing our way over there To get a hand on it and maybe does And it tings off the post Out of bounds This shot ends up being a little bit of a week

strike from Lavelle's can't quite get her foot behind it, but the buildup here is still so promising, right? You know, we've talked about how we don't have options in the first half as we're connecting into the attacking third. And there's like, we connect like six passes right around the edge of the box. And this is, this is what has brought me back from the brink of cocaine football. Like, it probably starts right here. With the ball into Sophia, Sophia, you know,

Sophia gets at the top of the box, helps it all along to Lavelle centrally at the top of the box. We get a nice four-yard pass back to Horan to quarterback from 30 yards out, which is a great spot for Horan to be able to pick her head up. She gets a nice entry pass to hatch inside the box. So all of these little eight to nine-yard passes right at the top of the box put so much stress on Ireland's defense. And you end up with Lavelle-free for that hatch layoff. And we don't quite get our feet right. But the intricacy of it is fantastic for me. Yeah, and I thought actually Hatch, who I've been, have not been high on lately,

actually had a decent little cameo. And this was maybe the biggest moment where, you know, she just makes this little layoff, which isn't rocket science, but we don't see it very often. Well, it's subtle. And the other thing that we should talk about here with Hatch having a decent game is we have barely mentioned that Alex Morgan's name through this entire thing because she was non-existent in her...

She did not have a good game. In her 70 minutes. 60 minutes. I failed to mention it, but there was like one where the ball was played into her in the pocket of space and she just like, she had a concrete foot touch off to the, like up into the air to the nearest defender. And I was like, oh boy. Oh yeah. And Alex Morgan comp, all touches comp from this game would not be, would not be flattering.

No. So here's the really exciting moment of the second half, which is this big chance for another big chance for Rose LaVelle. but it's a, I think, a 14-pass sequence. It moves from left to right. Well, first, Germa, Sanae and Ertz just kind of expertly settle an aerial ball over to Lavelle. We work it across the field from left to right. Fox hits Heron between the lines. You know, Fox has the ability to kind of disguise her intentions and pass it in between the lines.

That is kind of fun to watch. So she hits her in between the lines and it's just ping, ping, ping. with Lavelle and then it's to Ertz, who is for some reason just inside the box, and she kind of stands her defender up and slips Emily Sonnet in, who is making an underlapping run into, like, at the near post.

Sonnet tries a shot, kind of gets blocked off her foot, but it falls to Hatch. Hatch tries to kind of like overhead, kick it over her head. That's how that works. And it gets headed away by the defender but falls directly to Rose Lavelle for a full windup with her left foot on the half folly. And, you know, finishing is not a skill, but she just doesn't do well enough here.

There's a lot of goal to shoot at, and she shoots it right down the middle at a green shirt. But a great, a great chance. And I'll let you, you know, eulogize it, eulogize the moment. Well, if that last sequence, like, pulled me off the brink of going full cocaine football, this sequence basically flung me totally to the other side of being like, no, no, no, we need to go back to total football fluid, like sexy buildup. Vlago can do it. Vlogo can do it. I mean, this was incredible, right? The passing, the slashing, the layoffs, the crispness of the pass, which is so important for that entry pass to go in crisply so that the amoeba can't like swallow it up in time.

You know, by the time they're reacting, the ball's already moved on to the next player. everything just free flowing and beautiful. Like this 22 second sequence has me fully back on board of like, no, we got to play soccer. We can play soccer. We're soccer players. It was fun to watch.

And it's hard not to notice Ertz's presence in it. I mean, yeah, we just look like a much better team with her on the field. I mean, that ball, like that subtle ball from her to, to Sonnet slashing through is just, it's just fantastic. Like that's,

that's, that's a number 10 pass, right? Like that's not your defensive midfield destroyer. Like that is a nuanced attacking player. Yeah,

one who shuffles around and puts her shoulder into people. So much shuffling. Feet never actually leaves the grass. Both feet always touching the grass. With her, she was sporting some black boots in this one too. Hey,

maybe they're coming back. Yeah, we get a header from Germa on her own goal That was It turned out to be a pretty comfortable save for Nair But a little bit troubling And then I noticed Ertz You know, we've been singing her praises a lot She does like to lump the ball into the mixer

She did it, I think, four times in a half an hour Yeah, I mean all within, I think did it four times in their first ten minutes And that might just be like hey Julie here's like she might in her head you don't know that she's got to get in here and make something happen to to earn her spot she's been incognito for two years like I've got to do something maybe overdoing it a little bit in that sense yeah I mean even if she does go in and hit four of those a game it's worth it for all the other stuff she brings well I mean one of them is that back shoulder one that we that we turn into a into a goal oh yeah yeah

exactly which is the next moment 78 79th minute Ertz plays the ball to Haran's chest just beyond the... Just inside the box between the edge of the box and the penalty marker. And Haran brings it down with her chest. And Diane Caldwell, the Irish centerback, pulls her down as she is trying to take it down. Penalty seemed pretty clear to me on the replay that that's what it was. And Haran hits it to the keeper's right, not a perfect strike, but hits it hard enough that it ricochets off.

hand right into the roof of the net to zero. Yeah, and we've talked about Horan missed a penalty in the shootout for the Champions League knockout. So, you know, on the back of her mind, she's just gotten her team eliminated from the Champions League on a penalty. So whether she was a designated takeer or not, I think it was a great use of a penalty and her friendly to sort of get that monkey off her back. Yeah, perfect.

Smith, on the half turn after a tidy one touch pass from her. Iran drives at the goal and rips one in the 84th minute. Draws a good save from Brosnan. I forgot to mention Ashley Sanchez came on for Lavelle in the 80th minute. Hatch got somebody with one of her wings in the face. Pretty good. And we started piling up chances in the latter stages of the game. Fox had another one from the edge of the box.

Smith was on a breakaway and left foots it right at the keeper. I think you probably want to talk about this one. Well, I mean, we put Smith in all alone. And again, we've worn Ireland down at this point. And this is going to be a normal thing that happens in these friendlies that they can't keep up, right? We've brought on ridiculous talent off the bench, fresh legs, and our talent was already ridiculous for the first 70 minutes. So we get these chances. This is a little bit messy from Sophia Smith because she is in all by herself and like takes two kind of loose touches.

her first one doesn't set up her next one. So her, her, you know, penultimate touch with her left, takes her way out wide, way wider than she'd like to. Also eliminates any chance of squaring it across for a wide open hatch to tap in. And so we end up with kind of a narrow angle shot directly at the keeper. I thought the window to pass it to hatch was pretty thin, like a pretty narrow window because there was a defender tracking her.

But we don't have to argue about that, Greg. I'll say the other one, the other chance she had, too, in a couple of minutes before, she actually missed Hatch on this one as well. And you get a great angle of it from behind the goal where, you know, again, tremendous work from her to create the situation, receiving that pass, you know, in the half space and then turning and just racing right past two defenders. But Ashley Hatch makes a great clearing run to get out of Smith's way. and drag the defender out wide.

And then there's a moment where that defender who's tracking Hatch shifts her hips and flips them back over to pick up Sophia Smith who's cutting in. And right at that moment, you know, if you pause it, you see like the chess board and you're like, oh, we are two passes away from a tap-in because as soon as that defender flips or hips, it's the slip pass to Hatch is on, at which point Hatch would square it to a wide-open Trinity Rodman and we tap it in. And we still are so, I don't know, we're so inefficient in those moments where we don't create nearly enough of these tap-ins given the outrageous attacking talent at our disposal. That's going to sort of be one of the things I'm, I feel like I'm going to stick to throughout this World Cup is we've got to create.

We have to have the mentality to create that tap-in rather than the 20, it's a shot from 25 yards, right? So that's, it's not a terrible look. Sophia doesn't pass the ball. I mean, that's just how it is. And why should she? You know, she was NWSL MVP. Like, it's only going to hurt us when we play against really good teams. If she passes that shot up?

Well, her decision not to pass the ball and to take the 25-yard shot, you know, I think that probably makes sense 95% of the time in Portland. I mean, no, it doesn't. She just scored against French on that same shot in, in NWSEL. So I get it. And it's one of those where it's like the good comes with the bad, right? Sophia Smith is wrecking the NWSL as a striker because of the volume and quality of shots that she can create.

So she's doing this and it's it is just nitpicking to be like, what if we could have her wreck the, wreck the world with her shot creating ability and also use her shot creating ability to become the best creator in the world. And I get that that's, you know, you're asking for the moon. It probably isn't going to happen. Yeah. Well, maybe. Island gets a chance on a corner kick where Lucy Quinn nods it just wide of the post. And that's it.

That's it for me. I think the only other thing I want to say about Swanson's injury is, you know, in addition to how much firepower she brings to the team, she's also, according to Andanovsky, quote, a very lovable person, end quote. So this is tough. I think for the team on all fronts. You know, you could see, you could see Iran wiping away some tears,

and Lavelle said after the game is pretty emotional. It's going to be rough for Swanson, of course, but it's kind of going to be rough for the whole team to have seen this happen and, you know, some sort of mourn with her if she does, in fact, have to lose a chance to play in the World Cup. Swanson will be, has been replaced by Alyssa Thompson on the, roster and so maybe we'll get to see a little bit of Alyssa Thompson tomorrow.

Thank you, Greg. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.