Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #411: USWNT v Wales recap

Episode Date: July 11, 2023

Greg and Belz talk through the front line controversy, Thompson's combining instincts, Rodman's very good goals, Williams' crucial and elegant contribution on the first, and the possibility of a Lavelle-less midfield, among other things.----Please consider subscribing on Patreon. You get an exclusive episode once a week, plus access to the Discord and live call-in shows, by signing up here for as little as $2 a month: 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. The U.S. women beat Wales 2 to 0 on Sunday on two Trinity Rodman goals. Very nice ones, by the way. We've got Wosso Wednesday coming tomorrow to continue to ramp up to the women's World Cup. But today, let's figure out what happened in this game. Greg, how you doing? I'm great, Bells. I'm really looking forward to Woso Wednesday tomorrow to hear the Vince versus Tara discussions on Crystal Dunn and her role in this game.

that I am assuming is going to be some fantastic conversation. Ashley Sanchez, I'm sure, will come up. The front line agenda is going to be strong after this game, and people are going to call it an overreaction, and it will be. But also, for a lot of people, it was pre-action because a lot of us have been wondering what maybe a front three would look like, similar to the one that we ended the match with. Well, let's just be explicit. about it here. It was the front line that people were curious to see was Thompson, Smith,

and Rodman. Rodman, presumably at the nine, but I guess it doesn't really matter. It can be fluid. Have Smith at the nine, Rodman on the wing. However, you want to put it together, right? And it did look pretty good. Well, and I'll cop to not actually even being that flexible. Like, I'm like, no, Smith should be the nine. So I get that this, my agenda is going to have to soften. My agendizing is going to have to be a little bit softer because, you know, obviously when Rodman came in, she played the nine, which, you know, was strange, but also I'm like, well, she's also very good. Did a pretty good job at it, I'd say. But yeah, and the other bit being Thompson versus Williams is a coin toss for me.

So, but yes, just, just some very, for me, the agenda is Smith at the nine. And I'm going to keep hammering on that. But we, the worry that we brought up last, last episode was that whether or not Morgan might be a little bit past it. to be the starting striker for all of the World Cup. And so, you know, I don't know. I don't know where the agenda will land for most people after game again. It's a send-off match. It's not always the most intense.

But based on, you know, a lot of other games, even in the league, and in the past few women's national team games, there's some concern that that could be our limiting factors if Lottco runs full-speed Alex Morgan's starting striker. Yeah, and there are some people who I'm not sure will even listen to our podcast who are going to be very upset by that idea that maybe Morgan has passed it. But I don't know, I didn't think Morgan was, was Morgan the problem in this game? Was there even a problem?

I thought Wales was pretty well organized. They got numbers behind the ball. Well, they're not a bad team. I mean, just for context, they're roughly on the same, they were roughly in qualifying on the same level as Portugal, a team will face in the group stage. They just missed qualifying through the playoff. Portugal just did qualify through the playoff.

Yeah, no, whales were very organized. A lot of my notes here are like, wow, whales were recovered with some intensity there to pack the box and make things difficult, even as it looked like we might have an opening. And I'll already soften my agendizing here on Morgan, saying she's past it. She's just passed maybe what she used to be. and combine that with Sophia Smith absolutely dominating women's soccer, like statistically untouchable. So it goes back to, for me, like, you should have,

you should require a mountain of evidence to compel you to move Sophia Smith out of that striker role. And that would include Sophia Smith doing really well as a winger, which I don't think we've really seen for the national team. So if you're like, well, there's a huge dip in what Sophia Smith is giving us from what she's sort of capable of, maybe we shouldn't play her out of position combined with whoever the striker is that you are using needs to be like providing that another mountain of evidence that they're the right player to be the striker. And again, I just don't know that

we're getting that from Morgan. So that's all to say like, no, I don't know that Morgan's necessarily the problem. I just think you got to, you got to like be like really reluctant to move Sophia Smith out of striker. Like what Rodman did, what Trinidad Rodman did, that might be like, okay, well, maybe we can talk now. Right. Yeah. It's hard to ignore how good Smith is at Stryker in NWSL. But, you know, it's also, I think it takes a lot of balls for Volaco to sit Alex Morgan, the most, what, she's the most famous women's soccer player in the world, probably?

I think, I think Rapino. I think Rapino's impending retirement was making waves on news articles that my totally non-socer following friends were reading and not even like American news news articles. He's seeing Rufino's name and like. It's close. You'll grant me that it's close between the two of them. Yes. Morgan.

It would take some courage to do it, but also like he's sort of, Vlato has sort of created the situation where it takes even more courage because he's done so little of non-alx Morgan's starting striker experiments. Right? He only, you know, Sophia Smith got a game like,

one game a few months ago when Alex Morgan was not available. But otherwise, she's just eating up all the starting striker minutes. And when she wasn't in, it was Ashley Hatch eating minutes up. And Ashley Hatch, not even on the roster. So now it would take a lot of courage because we're at the 11th hour. And he would be, you know, saying, oh, maybe I was wrong about this. And so that, again, kind of adds to the courage total required. Yep.

Okay. Let's do the lineup because there's some other things to talk about with that. But it was Neyer and goal, Lisa Neyre and Goal. Emily Fox, Alana Cook, Naomi Germa, and Crystal Dunn across the backline. Andy Sullivan at the 6, Ashley Sanchez and Lindsay Horan at the 8. And then Smith, Sophia Smith, Alex Morgan, and Alyssa Thompson across the front line. Good to see Thompson out there. I don't know. I thought she was okay.

Definitely not bad. Yeah, we'll talk about her, I think, as we, her name's going to pop up a lot. She was active. She was involved. So I think we'll kind of give the overview over as we go. From this 11, I feel like we can feel pretty solid that back five is our back five for the opening or for the competitive minutes of the World Cup. Do you feel like that's the tip off that nears the keeper? Yeah, it feels that way.

And I mean, Fox and Dunn would be my full backs for sure. and Germa was again, I thought outstanding in this game. Cook not bad, had an oopsie in the first half. Other than that, I didn't see anything that was really that bad. But yeah, and that back four feels locked in stone for Vlako, and I don't think there's going to be any changes. So the first kind of question mark would be Sullivan because of Julie Ertz's resurrection

to know what to figure out whether Sullivan still has it and Ertz is the emergency break and break glass player or if if Ertz will actually start once the games count. And the question here was going to be her fitness. She's been playing for Angel City. She's been putting in 90s through the end of June. I think the word we got here was that it was like a precautionary holdout for this match that she would have played if it was an important game.

If it's a World Cup, she'd play. So that just becomes like, all right, so where is she in the package? order we don't know now. I'm very hopeful that she is at the top of the pecking order, but I've never been a huge fan of Sullivan's game. And there just remains something for me totally comforting about seeing Julie Earts patrolling the middle of the field, even as like I realize it's not 2019 anymore. And she did take a year and a half off of playing soccer.

But I'm with you. I would still feel just so much safer with Juliaerts. the 11. Just a little bit better passer than Sullivan too. And then the other, you know, besides Ertz, the other notable omission is Rose Lavel. Erds last played June 25th. I believe Levelle last played April 8th. Yeah, her last game was the first friend, or the first friendly of the window where we played Ireland twice. So she played in that first game, didn't play in the second game, and then has not played soccer since. So Levelle not playing in this game is super worrying. With Urds, it's like, okay, she's been playing.

She took this game off for precautionary reasons. That's fine. She can jump right back into playing. Lavelle hasn't played in three months. That's huge. If she's still not ready to ramp up into games going into the World Cup, because that's what she needs to do. We need to see her, or we need to hope that she's able to just now jump in cold after a three-month injury layoff.

And man, I don't feel great about that. No. And you take that with also the fact. that um i mean you people could argue over whether it's a fact i'm sure tera and i will argue about it tomorrow but um it's sanchise to me just doesn't seem like she's she's still not able to get into a good rhythm on this team um i thought lynn williams so lynn williams came on for her in the second half as an eight and played really well i thought uh but but so maybe that's a solution maybe that's the answer if Lavel can't play.

So it's sort of Sanchez and Williams platooning at the job. But yeah, Sanchez hasn't been that great. I didn't think was that great in this game either. It's going to be, Levelle's going to be missed, obviously. Yeah, Levelle will be a huge miss. And if Sanchez, who right now seems like her backup, it becomes our starter, I do think that's a weak point.

Sanchez is capable of pulling off some good plays. Of course, it's her consistency that has always been an issue with the women's national team. She's a very bouncy player, and I feel like some of that bounciness carries into. What do you mean bouncy? She just has so much pep.

She's such a, I mean, she's such a little midfield puppy dog, and she's got a ton of energy, and she's all over the place, which is great. But sometimes on the ball, that pep translates to, like,

just all these over-hit through balls. Like, she gets so, like, she sees it. You know, we'll talk about the goal, and the ball that Lynn Williams hits. Ashley Sanchez sees that. pass too. It's just I would not bank on her to get the weight right. I think she'd hit it and it would carry into the 18 and the goalkeeper comes and collects it comfortably. So it's just like she's capable of it. She can pull it off and if she's starting for us in the World Cup, we'll hope

she does. But it's like, you just won't be surprised when a lot of those chances are wasted. Yeah, that's exactly. That's exactly how I feel about it. I actually wouldn't have banked on Williams hitting that pass perfectly. But I guess I got to give her the Shaq meme. You know, I apologize. I apologize, Lynn. Because that was, that was gorgeous. Yeah, gorgeous.

And again, that's a moment that Lynn Williams thrives in, that sort of, I mean, the transition moments. Lynn Williams is such an absolute transition monster. So, yeah, we're, where I'm already kind of stepping on the timeline for 20 minutes from now. All right. So Wales's lineup was Olivia Clark, goal, Riannon Roberts, Haley Ladd, Gemma Evans, and Susan Lilly Woodham across the back. Angarad, James, I'm not sure I'm pronouncing that correctly, but Josie Green in the midfield,

and then Hannah Kane, Carrie Holland, and Kaylee Green across the band of three and a four, two, three one, and then Carrie Jones, young Manchester United Striker up top. And again, just want to reiterate, this game was total dominance by the U.S. So even as we talk about, you know, what a slog it might have been, I think the shots finished 22 to 2. You know, we were never threatened in this game. We completely controlled it. And so it's just a matter of like how clean can we look. And this, it's always important to remember that as we're going to be like very critical at times to still just be like, man, our team is pretty solid.

Yes. By far the better team. I did think whales was, you know, they were up for it. They got stuck in. and they did get numbers behind the ball. So there were no easy sequences for us in the first half, I didn't think. At least easy sequences to score. We had some set pieces here and there that we threatened on.

But should we get to the timeline? Let's timeline it. First thing I have clocked is at the one minute Mark Thompson, who's lined up out left, takes on the whales right back, kind of unsettles her, but dribbles out of bounds. Three minute mark, a good layoff from Thompson to Haran. Horan dribbles backward and gets a little wasteful, loses it, and then Dun recovers it immediately.

So, I mean, we were dominant in the sense that we could, we kept the ball in Wales's half most of the time, but a lot of us losing it and winning it back and losing it and winning it back. Good to see our intensity high like that, but maybe not as crisp as we could, would like. Yeah, the full team coordination is still not there. in the attacking third. And again, I've sort of abandoned any idea that it will be in,

in like possession against a set block. But the next item on the timeline, eight minutes in, we do have a nice little sequence where we at least attempt to build in that top of the box area. It starts with Germa stepping with the ball, so from left center back. And whenever she stepped forward with the ball when she was given space, it seemed like good things happened. But she finds done up, on the sideline, then Thompson and Dunn do a good job combining into zone 14. And then what happens, Greg? So Thompson and Dunn get us into zone 14, and then we stay in zone 14 and connect like four more passes. So I'm loving this, right?

This is, I'm like, yes, here we go. So it's little triangles at the top of the box. Heran gets it with her back to goal in the arc. She lays it off to Emily Fox. I'm like, here we go. Emily Fox doesn't just sort of do an aimless thing. She hits a really nice disguise pass into Sophia Smith, standing to the box. with the pressure, not like super tight on her.

So this is just outstanding. This is an outstanding initiated sequence. We've continued. We've committed to passing. And we found the ball with the most dangerous player, possibly on the planet, balder feet in the box with one defender on her. And Smith isn't going to get a great shot every time here, but she sort of lets that pass from Fox run past her deceptively,

tries to gain the edge on the Wales defender. Defender makes a really nice play. But this is what you want. You want to just build these moments over and over again to end up setting up your goal scoring chances. So really positive moment in the eighth minute. Wish we had more of them. You know, my broken record crossing police character is going to take over here and say,

it was way too many crosses. There were way too few of these attempts from the team to sort of connect into the box and way too many settling for crosses when we shouldn't have. I've got a nice gallery that I'm building of like the moment of the cross is the theme of this gallery. And it's like, oh, man, we had no reason that we had to cross it here. And we chose to. And we could have done a lot more soccer thing. Is this a gallery you're building onto your house like a like an addition?

I mean, I have one room in the house dedicated to stills, still frames of the moment of the cross. And whether it was the right decision or not. Good, I can't wait to see that. The 10.30 mark, a bit of a broken play down the right side, falls to Smith, and she drops it for Sullivan to hit a deflected cross. So I don't know if the moment of the cross room includes this sequence, but Sullivan hits, it does. Okay, Sullivan hits a cross, and it's deflected right off the first defender, and ricochets

nicely for Horan, and she elects for a diving header. actually makes pretty good contact with it from just beyond the penalty marker. It's just a bit too close to the Welsh keeper and it's saved comfortably. So moment of the cross. Oh, go ahead. Just a little bit. Just pointing out that it's a, it turned out to be a nice cross, but it was kind of lucky that it was. Yeah.

And moment of the cross note here was that this is like the bare minimum of acceptable situations to hit the cross in. As that ball comes out to Sullivan after like a transition chaos moment, it drops back to Sullivan. Wales have a few players committed to the sideline, and what Sullivan is looking at as she hits this ball is three on two in the box, where Horan is the extra player. There's no one accounting for, and so it's nice that the deflection takes it to where Horan can get it. And even then, it's still not like in any way an easy chance to convert. No, she'd have to, the header would have to be perfect. And the way the ball was flying, it wasn't, she had to generate a lot of power herself on the header. So the 12th minute misconnection between Smith and Sanchez. I'm not sure whose fault that is, but the pass is heavy from Smith after she eliminates somebody on the dribble in the right channel and it just gets beyond Sanchez. Just another little data point on Sanchez is just not quite getting comfortable here. I mean, you could blame Smith for this, but it's a chemistry thing, I think.

chemistry thing and also I think the field was running fast so this is my quick defense of the players because you know that one Thompson sort of dribbled out of bounds on the first minute Sophia Smith had a similar thing where she dribbled out of bounds a few minutes later just went over the end line I think the field was running a little bit faster than they than they thought at the beginning yeah fast it looked like a great playing surface if a bit fast fast is good right that's what you want yeah you want that and then and if it's too fast because is this a little bit of turf or is this no turf

Now, I don't know. No, this is grass. This is where the earthquakes play, right? Okay. Okay. But yeah, it was, things were overcooked a little bit early on, and then everyone settled down until Lynn Williams hit the perfect through ball. Right.

13 minute mark, we get a nice touch from Thompson to play a done pass in behind for Haran, who's sort of running into the corner. I was a little confused by this one, because as Heron's going into the corner, she really has nobody to combine with except Thompson. And I was wondering if, so at that point, we have Morgan, Smith, and,

who else, Sanchez, I think, coming into the box, all heading for the Gold Mouth. Should Morgan veer over to combine with Heran here, since she's the closest to her? Or should they all just head for the gold mouth and wait for Lindsay to whip it in, you know? It's one that developed really quickly,

because of how clever Thompson's touch was. So Thompson's touch is putting Horan sort of in, but in where Horan is running to the sideline. It has to like slower run to get to the ball from Thompson, which is just what the player required. So Horan isn't getting there where she can whip it in first time to the runners we have. Because when Horan first gets there, we do have good runners in the box where if she had been able to just send it in, we've been like, okay, we got the numbers, get it in early before

everyone's set, fine. But she can't do that. So she has to get it and hold up. And then Thompson's dashing in and Thompson's pace is just, has been on display all game and will be for the rest of the game too. And she's almost so fast that she gets through the window before Herand can get there and play a game too. And so then by the time all this happens, again, Wales commitment has been, is just really solid. So Wales, by the time Haran gets it and can look up and actually do something, whales have, what, seven players in the box? Yeah, basically. So they're in and that's it.

The chance is gone. That happens sometimes. It's a good, again, the movement is initiated well. It's clever from Thompson. It's good from Horan. So what ends up happening is Haran and Thompson try to combine again in the box, which I will never be mad at. It doesn't come off, but it's great to try it. And if they're not going to try that, then the other option Horan had would have been Emily Fox arriving late, sort of behind the whole Whales amoeba that got back into the box.

We could have recirculated to her at the top of the arc. which would have also been a perfectly good way to attack. But no, I don't think there was, I don't think the front line movement was off on this play at all. I thought it was good movement, good defense from Wales, and just something that kind of fizzles out. Okay. 16th minute got a clock the Alana Cook.

Oopsie. She's in the box. We're trying to play out. She tries to step on it and drag it back and then has it, gets mugged. And then she goes back and wins it back. So she solves her own problem, but I imagine we'll see, you know, a couple at least cook mistakes at the World Cup like this. Yeah, we're getting to where like the Atlanta Cook-whoopsie gallery is going to need its own room too. And just fingers crossed those.

You know, she's a very good defender. We don't end up having to defend that much in most of our games. So let's just hope we get through the knockout rounds unscathed. Yeah. We get 21st minutes some decent work from Germa, Thompson, and Morgan to work it into the corner and win a corner kick. This is, we have a little bit of a revenue stream from just somebody coming to combine with Thompson and spring her down the corner, down the line. And that's what happened here. We win a corner kick.

I was a little worried that Thompson hurt her ankle in here somewhere in the 20s, but she seems like she's okay. she was okay. And this is going to be an important theme too, I think, for Thompson and what she gives us, and we'll get into it more as we go. But we've done a lot of threatening as the U.S. women's national team with pure like individual movement, you know, Mal and Sophia on the wings, Thompson has been combining really well. And she's such a threat to just combine where you only need two players.

A lot of times, like, you have to have that third runner involved. but Thompson's burst means you can kind of achieve it with just two. Like a simple one two will work with Thompson that doesn't usually work with other players because of that burst, I think. So you saw it here with just a simple one two with Alex Morgan and we can get in behind. Like Thompson just roasts that first offender. So we'll see that crop up again. And that's going to be an interesting thing to watch as I'm sure we will start using her in the World Cup. I don't know if she's going to be the starter.

I don't think that her starting this game is a 10. tip off that she's our starter for the World Cup on the wing. But you see what she's going to be able to bring for us. Well, she can backboard. She does that backboarding with Horan later in the game and we'll talk about it. But that seems like exactly the kind of thing Haran likes to do, you know, sort of show for Thompson and then clip it over the defender into the corner for Thompson to run onto. And the thing is, it makes a very difficult choice for the defender because what are you going

do. Are you going to give Thompson five yards and then let her run at you? Or are you going to come up, come up and press her and risk getting backboard like that? Yeah. Yep. Yeah. It's kind of, it's an impossible choice. So I like it. Let's see, 32nd minute, a decent chance for Smith on a corner kick that skips through to her after Sullivan attacks it with her head, but sort of misses it. Smith has it with her left foot and the shot is blocked. We did get a few chance. chances like this off of set pieces, probably our best chances of the first half came from set pieces. 34 minute Mark Thompson does a couple dudes up into the box from the right side.

Can't find anybody with the cutback, but you get to see her dynamism on display. Yeah, and this was another great sequence where we get that coordination, where it's just a two-player coordination. We just, I don't remember who, Horan feeds it out to Thompson sort of out wide. And this is where with Mal or Sophia, they might just try to do it. all the, you know, you just isolate them out there, run a little ISO and let them take the player on. Here what we have is the defenders coming out to meet Thompson and there's a cover defender behind her. And Emily Fox, who's in the interior, just starts to make a dragging run in front of Thompson's face.

And that brings the cover defender over to the sideline with her. Again, really basic. But once Thompson is just faced up with one defender with no help to the inside, she absolutely skins her. I mean, she's passed her instantly. and she's into the box. And this is, again, this is a super dangerous moment. And her cutback is smart. It's the right 45 degree cutback.

And it just gets cut out in sort of desperation mode from Wales. But that's exactly the kind of thing that is repeatable and just very dangerous. Yeah. So again, well, well, maybe there were a little bit of nerves for Alyssa playing in this game ahead of the World Cup. You see what she's got. You see what she's going to be offering. Oh, yeah. 39 minute mark,

a nice combination from Dunn, Thompson, Horan and Thompson to spring Alyssa in space. This is the one I was just referring to. Where Thompson's on the sideline, Haran shows to her. They got four defenders around her, and then Haran just clips it over the defender

and Thompson runs onto it. She kind of wastes the opportunity, hits a shoss over the goal. Not sure if it was a shot or across, but it went out of bounds. Yeah, another one where it's a little. little bit wasted in the end, but also another example of how quickly Alyssa Thompson can wreck a team's defensive block. Because when this ball, like a very simple, you know, vertical pass from

done up the sideline to, you know, Thompson, wails in their shape and their four four two, nothing threatening really about this, but Thompson collects that pass, lures that defender up to her and just a quick little outside of the boot touch to Heran, and Herand is a very intelligent player reads as well, Thompson just bursts past that defender who she lured upfield. And that's it. Like when she gets onto that ball from her hand and starts dribbling, she actually still increases the gap between her and the pursuing defenders, which is just stupid, right? The speed that this kid has is nuts. You know, maybe, maybe could get her angle a little bit better as she approaches the goal with her touch, but that's sort of nitpicking. The idea is create as many of

these as you can. So even though, again, the payoff wasn't there in this game. The the value is obvious. Yeah. Yeah, she takes that really big touch off the pass from Heron, which is perfect. I thought it was a perfect touch. And there's a moment as she finally catches up to that big touch where she maybe could square it to Sanchez. It's just, it's tough.

When everyone's moving that fast, straight up field, it's tough to get all those pieces right to be able to lead the player to the right spot so they can shoot. And in the end, once she finally gets to the second touch, she doesn't have a great angle. There are no more windows for cutbacks. And I think she is just trying to roof it. Yeah. It doesn't. Misses by a fair, fair distance. One last, I mean, I did not mean for this timeline to be all about Alyssa Thompson. But here we are. The next thing I have clocked is in the 41st minute. She's just bouncing off of people. I mean, she was very physical in this game. And I just noticed that she was able to keep the ball under a lot of physical pressure. She's

excellent in the cage. Not that dissimilar to Sophia Smith, not quite as strong and sturdy, but still very good at keeping the ball when she wants to. Yeah. Go ahead. Well, I'm just going to say, I don't think, I think the reason that it's all about Thompson is because she's the one who is doing the most sort of what I would say obviously valuable things.

Morgan was basically invisible for this game. So she's not coming back and getting involved very much. She's not backboarding. She's sort of occupying the centerbacks. but there's not a lot to she's not offering a lot else and Sophia. How dare you? How dare you? Sophia wasn't getting a lot of a lot of play either.

There were those couple moments where we brought her in into the buildup and then there were a couple of moments where, and we'll see this in the second half too, which I really liked, we'd get it out wide to her. And again, instead of her just whipping a cross in as she, her first opportunity, even though no one comes out to play with her. I don't know if it was a directive, but she just. tries to take the player on. She's like, well, I'm not just going to cross it. I'm just going to dribble at this player and see if I can beat her, which I like a lot better than a cross

when we're talking about the personnel we're talking about. Right. I will say that I thought the whales 1v1 defending was by and large pretty solid, even against Smith. Yep, they stood up pretty well. Smith gets fouled in the middle of the Welsh half in the 43rd minute, some good dribbling and whales running into the talent, despite what I just said. Ed running into the talent gap a little bit, just fouling a lot. And then Sullivan takes a free kick, puts a good one on the back post for Ashley Sanchez. Sanchez meets it. She's in the right spot.

Just can't quite get over it and heads it well over the goal. Two more chances on set pieces after that before the half. Smith had a low shot through Germa on a corner kick, I think. And then Sullivan had a header on a Sanchez corner. So we're generating a little bit of scraps of air. XG here and there on these set pieces. And then the half comes. And kind of the pivotal decision of the game from Blocko,

he brings, you know, if you take this game in a vacuum, obviously you can't, but Rodman comes on for Morgan at halftime, Trinity Rodman, that is. Again, the first half was a slog. So as excited as I've been talking about like these Alyssa Thompson moments, they were, those are key initiator moments. there wasn't a lot else that looked good even after we got her sprung. So that sequence in the eighth minute, which I loved, did not repeat itself over and over and over again.

It was a lot of crosses, man. It was the galleries filling up. And I don't know that it's even fair to say that that much changed in the second half. Like, did it? Did we do, did we play differently in the second half? Or did we just manage to score a couple goals? probably the second thing and again

we're a team of ridiculous individual talent and we don't coordinate that talent very well to multiply it so we are definitely leaning on the individual talent we aren't repeatedly

trying to put our players in the positions where they can increase their teammates overall strengths okay 61st the individual talent is there and it's worth like

The individual talent alone is worth the price of admission. Yeah, no doubt. 61st minute Fox goes at what the Welsh left back and beats her and fizzes it across for Thompson, who's making a good run in the box, meets it just above the goal mouth but can't steer it on frame. I think she had a, I mean, she skies the shot to be precise, but I think she had a, she was under some pressure from a sliding defender. And don't think she could just, don't think she could just punch it in. knee height with that defender sliding in front of her.

No, no, no, it's a tough one. And again, you just love the chance that we created. And again, this was one of those ISOs where it didn't just go to Fox and then Fox loops it in. 1v1, we clear out, which, you know, I always sort of prefer when people try to go and play a little soccer with Fox. But if we're not going to do that, it's still better just be like, okay, well, then let's see if Fox can do this defender 1B1, since there's no help out there for the defense. And that's what we did. And so out of the two choices, cross or take the player on, I'm almost always going to be like, let's just take her on then.

Fox quietly competent in this game. It didn't do that much, but she's a good player. Take it for me. Whale is mostly doing a good job of getting numbers behind the ball, even at this point in the game. And then Fox comes off for Huerta, Sanchez comes off for Lynn Williams, and Thompson comes off for Savannah Demello

and a triple substitution. in the 64th minute. This is the first senior cap for Savannah de Mello. That's pretty cool. We could kvetch about the fact that she hasn't had a cap up to this point. But only if you want to do that. I'll save the kvetching for tomorrow. Okay.

68th minute, a good de Mello set piece is headed on frame by Cook, cleared off the line by whales. So a little bit of something to exploit there. And then, you know, I just get a few more timeline items besides the goals. But so jump in here if you need to. But 72 minute mark, a good left to right move. Horan plays it to Demello. Demello leads Huerta into a good area to play a ball across, I think.

And she just kind of hits it gently right at the keeper. Yeah, no issues with Huerta's decision here. More happy with just the buildup, which was good triangles out on that left side with Horan and done. and Lynn Williams and a nice smooth switch over to the right. So again, you bring the defense over, end up on the right. You get Huerta in behind everyone. And she's able to now cross it, everyone running back towards the goal. Just execution really not there.

She might have been shooting. Huert might have decided to shoot there. Yeah, it's possible. Rodman right at the 70, end of the 74th minute or 75th minute, chases down a clearance into Wales's box. I think it was hit by Germa, but I'm not. not sure and gets nudged over asking for a penalty. Not really a penalty for me, but she is causing some difficulty for the Welsh back line there.

Yeah, it's nice to see this. Again, I don't know if it's just Morgan didn't have any opportunities to, but you talk about like the first half, we get those set piece scraps where we will always be dangerous. It's just nice where we have the players, Trinity Rodman or whether that's Sophia Smith, where even if it's not perfect and German's just lumping a ball long, and there's no coordination or timing that's right. It's just like Rodman can still be dangerous, just racing onto this ball.

So we have a lot of ways we can threaten, and it doesn't always have to be pretty. Right. And Rodman pops up the eye of the tiger ready to go. So almost, you know, like 30 seconds later, the goal comes. And it's a bit of a, I mean, it's a bit of a transition moment, like you said earlier. It was a ball hit at our back line from Wales. And then I think Dunn heads it down for Sullivan. Was it done or was it Germa who headed it down for Sullivan?

It doesn't really matter that much. I just want to be accurate. Anyway, Sullivan reaches out and stabs at it, sends it into the center circle. I'm not even sure she meant to pass it to Williams, but it goes straight to Williams. Williams takes it down on her chest and then takes a couple deft little touches with defenders on either side of her. She's got one in her back and one coming.

and from her left side. And then she turns and just plays a perfectly weighted left-footed ball in behind for Smith, splitting a couple of defenders on the back line for Wales. Smith runs onto it and then unselfishly and correctly squares it for Rodman arriving on the other side of the box. It's perfect execution and decision-making, and it's a tap-in for Trinity, 1-0 USA. And especially excellent from Williams. I mean, of the three players involved in that goal, she did the most difficult part. Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, I've been talking about the touch of the past, but this isn't just like collecting it in space. There's a, there's been a player on her hip the whole time. So she's holding a player off as she can do this. So it's really the kind of holdup

target play that we aren't getting a lot of joy from Alex Morgan. So not to, not to hit the agenda too hard, but the Williams, Trinity, so front three for me is our best front three to run. And if it's, if you're going to change anyone out, for me, it would be Alyssa Thompson in there somewhere. So, yeah, I mean, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, but, but Williams was playing as an eight at this point in the game, right? So I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I think, I think it was pretty, pretty straight,

straight up like she went in for Thompson and was playing, uh, wide right, and then de malleho, it came on at the same time for Sanchez and de malleho's sitting in the the midfield. Uh, okay. All right. Yeah, you're right about that, I guess. Dang it. I mean, I'm not saying Lynn Williams can't play the eight. I just,

I think it was, it was like a pretty solid front three. Okay. So that, you know, a lot of, a lot of relief in the stadium and in the fan base to see us start to come away with the victory. And then Mewis comes on for Sullivan. Sonic comes on for Cook.

Does this indicate the, whole Ertz at centerback thing is, is, is, uh, was a ruse or a smokescreen? No, I mean, I still don't think so. I think my, my guess would be. It's, it's, erts being held out as a precaution. Yeah, just Ertz being held out. Like, uh, it, I mean, very obviously Sonnet is considered a centerback for this roster since we only brought two named centerbacks. Uh, so Sonnet's definitely in play for centerback. I don't know what would happen if, um, you know, you're going to get situational here, especially if Ertz is our starting center mid. If she's our starting center mid,

mid and something happens to cook in 10th minute of a game. I have no idea whether it would be Ertz drops and Sullivan steps in at the 6th or if Ert stays and Sonic goes in at centerback. Don't know if I love either of those. So I'm just going to choose to ignore the possibility. We have an extended spell of pressure for the last 10, you know, 10 minutes or so. Williams and Rodman really making an impact. not just, you know, I'm not just saying that because you're, because that's your agenda,

but they did, they were, they were good. Well, and that's the other thing too is, uh, defensive monsters, right? Again, I love Alex Morgan. She is a legend, but she is not going to defend the way that our front three won't defend the same way with her out there as it will with Williams and Rodman. So, uh, it changes so much. And it might just be that, you know, it's also been a long day for Wales and it's the 80th minute and they don't have the depth that we do obviously so we can bring these players off

the bench they're going to look even better because wales will either be playing tired players or weaker players off their bench so there's definitely a comparison benefit for the players at the end of the game versus the beginning of it yeah well rodman gets a header on a dun cross in the 84th minute and it's not far off and then she has a left-footed shot so she kind of cuts it does the whole left side of wales's defense dribbling in from the right side and then does a little one, two, maybe with her hand,

and she takes a left-footed shot and sends it over, but it's a good idea and a lovely little sequence. And then, well, go ahead. So yeah, so this is one where Rodman just, yeah, knifes through four defenders, but stays under total control. So as she's knifing through, and this is a little different than what you get from Thompson,

who is definitely not as under control at the key moment of a sequence. but after Rodman nice through there, she's able to actually slow herself up, change direction a little bit, and then play a little backboard pass off of Horan. So you have Sophia Smith makes a good run through in front of Rodman that freezes a defender and that opens the door

for the ball into Haran's feet, Iran with a nice little layoff, and this is what we want. Again, this is sort of reminiscent of the eighth-minute triangles at the top of the box that Horan was playing. Rand lives for this. So if you have Rodman and Sophia and, and Lynn Williams or Alyssa Thompson knifing around,

they're going to look for these little triangles and combinations. Yeah, if there's anything, you know, kind of really encouraging for me to see from this game, it's these patterns between Iran and Thompson and Rodman. Like if they start to really get comfortable doing this stuff together and look to repeat it over and over, that's going to be, we're going to score some goals that way. We will and it's going to be

And it's not even going to be like We're still two passes away right So even this ball that Heron lays off to Rodman From the top of the box Rodman probably shouldn't shoot this I'm not gonna I don't gonna ding her too hard But she's she's 28 yards out And we're because of all the triangles

And all of the culture man She did it for the culture man There's there's eight There's eight Wales players Like within the frame of the posts So they're you know Within eight yards of each other Like that's how tight they are

And once you brought them all out there, that's when you slipped the ball out wide to Lynn Williams, who's standing all by herself at the wide edge of the 18. And then she drives at the near post and then she squares it to Sophia Smith for the tap-in. You know what I mean? So that's where that's the evolution. And we're so close to it if we can commit to sort of this level of coordination and passing in the final third. And so it's just you can at least see the possibility when you get this personnel group out there. I just can't help but think about what it would have been like if she had hit that first time shot, curled it in the top,

top ends. I mean, we're basically get a taste of it in a minute. It's not exactly a volley, but it's like kind of, it's in the same genus or something. All right. Then the goal comes in the 80,

right around the 87 minute mark. Muis, I mean, we're just kind of pounding at the goal, pounding at the box. Mewis gets a chance. That shot is blocked. Falls to Smith, she lays it back first. Williams. Williams takes a shot. And that ball is,

that shot is blocked out to the outside of the box to a Welsh defender who receives it with her, you know, facing her own goal. And Robin just kind of sticks her shoulder through him, through her and gathers the ball and then takes a touch and bends, bends it in at the near post from the edge of the box around a couple onrushing defenders. It's just a lovely finish. 2.0 USA. Two zero and again what I love most about this is like the patience that we that we demonstrated at first so it comes in a transition moment we'd like patiently built a ball all the way up the field from I think Germo had a nice ball out to Sophia Huerta that got us moving up field and then we build up the right side line and we're like prodding and poking and slashing and whales again very committed doesn't come off it gets a little bit messy but because of the recovery abilities of the counter pressing ball recovery abilities, I mean, of this group, like whales make a little bit of a mistake with tired legs, and we are right on top of them. And, and again, this group of players will capitalize more often on these sloppy moments,

I think. So, I don't know. I mean, I know it's slop, so I'm kind of, I don't know if I'm, like, hedging or whatever here, but, like, this is the group that's going to, like, punish sloppy moments from the opponent. Yeah. and just put so much pressure on them and make it so difficult. Yeah, Trinity said ruthless, right?

She likes to be ruthless. That's not how I would characterize her play for the national team up until now, but would you? I just think of it as like ruthless as far as you see the opponent making a mistake and you are on them. Not necessarily like you get one chance you finish it. I just think of it as like you don't let them play. You don't just sort of like give them any credit. for being able to play. Right.

I guess I, this isn't a direct answer to your question, but I guess I do think a ref would call a foul on that play, you know, at least 30% of the time when she puts her shoulder through that defender. And, you know, I wouldn't have any complaints if the whistle had gone there. I still just am like living on the minute of play leading up to the goal. I'm like, here we go. Like, this is just, this is a combination of like, uh, patience, power, like good ideas. Uh, it, even when it gets sloppy, like the, the willingness to just be all over whales,

uh, as the, as that ball sort of in between bodies. Uh, so this is, this is what I'm hoping to see us, uh, executing come New Zealand. Yep. Um, so that was it. I mean, we basically saw the game out from. there and I guess we'll see whether Vlako, you know, how Vlako lines up that front line in that first game. I guess the first game's not going to tell us as much because that's against Vietnam

on July 21st, if I'm not mistaken, right? Yeah, it's coming up fast. So a week from Friday. I believe it's July 22nd in New Zealand. So I'm just saying that out loud to confuse everyone. Yeah. It's at a reasonable time for us here in the States. on Friday night.

So, you know, go pick up some beers and, uh, or don't, you know, go to a bar and watch it or something. I find a way to celebrate it because I think it's going to be fun. Again, for all, for all like, uh, the criticism that we, we've been leveling for the last two years now about, uh, some of the tactics. Like, the players are an absolute blast. Yeah. I mean, it's kind of our thing.

We never stop quenching. And I mean, sure you're going to hear a whole different. type of kovetching tomorrow on Woso Wednesday. But, you know, that is, that's, we kvetched because we love. Let me just do a couple programming notes. We're going to recap the, the Gold Cup semifinal, which is tomorrow night. We're going to recap that on Friday. And so just bear with us there.

And then, you know, if you want to, if you want to support this ad-free podcast and get the Monday reviews and, you know, all the other stuff to Discord. and full extended versions of the interviews, including with Dave Saracan and Paul Kennedy most recently. Join the Patreon. The link is in the show notes. Anything else from you, Greg? Now, the Discord's going to get the gallery.

They're going to get the moment of the cross gallery. So it's not a sun porch. Okay. All right. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.