Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #436: USWNT v South Africa recap 2.0

Episode Date: September 26, 2023

A very quick recap of some of the action from Sunday from Greg and Belz as Rapinoe rode off into the sunset, Rodman kept staking her claim as the team's best healthy attacker, and Jaedyn Shaw kept sitting on the bench.Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon! Patrons get a private feed for the Monday Review, which is, among other things, a run-down of club action for national team players every week with Watke and Vince. We have recently added patron-only content that’s available every Friday. Patrons also 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/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. Part two of the farewell tour versus South Africa is in the books, a two zero win for the USA. We're going to recap it pretty briefly, I think. Greg, how are you? Good, Bell. So we're saying part two of two, right? I know that our next opponents won't be South Africa, but is the farewell tour going to continue into October since we're still going to have the interim coach? Yeah, it seems that way, I guess.

And I guess that's part of the reason It's just not that exciting to recap because What do we learn in here? Trinity Rodman's playing really well. She's good. I'll jump in on that. I'll jump in on the Trinity stuff. I feel like what we learn is that the floor of this team

will remain at least where the floor currently is. Like I, you know, we're going to transition some players out. But we are not short on super exciting individual talents. And we in Trinity was like the, you know, the epitome of it. in this match where she can just do things. You're like, okay, well, even if as a team we struggle to look coherent, this player can do something.

And we know we've got Sophia Smith and Mount Swanson, Kat Makario coming back. Like, we have the absolute individual canons to make a run at something whenever the big competitions come around. Right. Yeah, no doubt about it. This was a window for Trinity Rodman, really, even though it was there was. there was, you know, the sendoffs. Let's do the lineups.

Casey Murphy and goal. Casey Kruger gets to start at right back. Naomi Gurma at right center back. Tierna Davidson left center back. So nice to see her back. Crystal Dunn at left back. And then a midfield of Emily Sonnet, Andy Sullivan and Lindsay Horan.

Clearly the incumbents there in that part of the field. And then a front line of Trinity Robman at right wing, Alex Morgan, and Megan Rapina. playing in her final game as a U.S. women's national team player. I think she might have a couple more NWSL games to go. But so that was the big news of the night, Rapino's last time on the field for the U.S. Yeah, that's the spotlight player.

And, you know, that spotlight is warranted. I'm torn on the send-off tours. Like, I can kind of appreciate it. I actually feel like there's other issues with the, with like these farewell. well friendlies that aren't necessarily Rapino or Ertz or eventually sour brun based. Like what? What are the other issues?

I mean, it's like the midfield. And it's a, it's a, the midfield is fine, but it's, you know, well, I'm sure we'll get to Twyla's comments about, you know, uh, Jaden Shaw being like the best player in camp in the small sided stuff. In the, you know, the, the stuff that we want to see the US incorporate more of, those small group attacking patterns or just play anywhere on the field. And so it's,

I feel like it's frustrating for, for us in particular, um, who have been sort of clamoring for more of that kind of style and that kind of play, uh, for, you know, two years now.

He'd be like, oh, no, we have it. We have that player. She's right there. Will she play in the game? Oh, of course not. Absolutely not.

Absolutely not. No, that's not going to happen. But she, we have those players. Is it just because, is it just because Sonnet, is like Rapino's friend or, I mean, what's, what are we doing?

I don't know. And again, like, these are totally passable national team players, right? These are obviously good players and they get out. So they score to goal. Yeah. They handle their business in this kind of a game. But, you know, again, like you guys talking about handling business, like we have to decide when we're going to get serious.

And maybe that'll be once we install the new coach. But I guess that's kind of what, feels like because we're just kind of on hold. We're celebrating those stars, the legends get their moment, an extended moment. But there is just that sort of nagging impatience of like, okay, but we got to get on with this. There's other teams that are moving fast that are now ahead of us. And now we're suddenly like, we have to catch up. Yeah, backward looking is how you put it in the last recap.

And it still feels backward looking the entire program. honestly. So South Africa in their lineup was Andile Lamini and goal replacing your buddy, Swart. I know. I know. The scuffed curse. And then the backline

was pretty similar. Lebohang Ramalepe at right back. Tisetso Makubela and Bongheika Gamere at centerback and then Karabodlamini at left back. The band of four in midfield changed a little bit. It was Niccolo Kessane. Linda

with Lalo Robin Moodalee, I'm sure I'm not pronouncing that correctly, and Wendy Shungwe from right to left, and then the two strikers were Tembikatlana, the racing Louisville attacker, and number 13, Sinokolo Kessane, number 13. So an abbreviated timeline here.

Let's see. Right away, after the game, starts, you know, we're active, we're attacking, we're getting after it. Robin stands a decent ball up for Sonnet at the back post and she's not able to direct it on frame. And then Lindsay has a volley from 25 yards in the ensuing scramble that goes over. So, you know, I'm like in the, I'm like in the verve from the team. I think, I feel like it's a good tone setting moment where we say if a volley presents itself, you absolutely take that volley. So good on Lindsay. She tries a couple of things.

I mean, she recognizes that in this scenario, and hopefully in any scenario, whether it's a World Cup semifinal or a friendly on a farewell tour, like the ball sits up for you like that. You owe it to everybody in the stadium and watching to have the go. Yeah, don't take it down and square it for Andy Sullivan, please. Morgan gets played in behind, tries to keep her from a tough angle in the fourth minute. Rapino starts off a little bit behind the pace, which is not a huge. huge surprise. She gives it away a couple times right away. Then she finds Rodman streaming forward in the channel in the sixth

minute. Robyn tries to one touch it to Morgan in behind, but the pass is too heavy. Ninth minute. Morgan digs out a good look on a throw-in into the box holding off a defender, which is a bit of a foreshadowing, and has one from 10 yards on the bounce,

rips it over. This is a pretty good look, actually. Yeah, and this is a nice moment for Alex Morgan because we got to see her be able to do things like this, especially against opponents who are outmatched. In South Africa's back line, we're outmatched. Like, the theme has been, like, they haven't been super clean with their actual line discipline, or they're, you know, one-on-one defending. So we are getting the better of them here, of course.

Yeah. Yeah, they, I should say, we had 19 shots, five on goal. They had zero shots. There you go. Period. Morgan in the 13th minute tries to turn back the clock and play Rapino down the line behind the defender. Nope. That's not happening.

Clock's holding in one direction, you guys. I mean, the ball was, the ball stayed in bounds, but Rapino's not running after that. 15th minute Kruger swings a ball in from deep with that left foot of hers. It's not bad. It's just a little over Rapino's head. It's around the 1440 mark. And then we come to the goal. It's Kruger throw-in to Haran.

Iran lays it back for Kruger. And Kruger just kind of lifts a ball into the right side of the box. Not a super, not a precise pass or anything, but just puts it into that space. And then Morgan just bullies the defender, knocks her off the ball, gets between her and the ball, carries it to the end line kind of on the, on, on, on, the juggle and then, you know, side foots it from the air across the six in the air for Rodman, who meets it sweetly with a right-footed volley, smashes it in, lovely goal, 1-0. Defender marking Rodman maybe could have gotten ahead to it if she, her timing was a little better, but let's not dwell on that.

No, we fully celebrate the volley, right? This is, volley's count double, as far as I'm concerned. So, two-zero. Yeah, two-zero here. And again, just lovely aesthetics. South Africa have been kind of inviting us in behind them already for the first 15 or 20 minutes. They were kind of double-edged sorting it where when we have the ball, they're playing this high, not particularly tight line.

And then, you know, when South Africa has the ball in the back, they were very adamant about playing out. Like you can tell this was a training exercise for them where they were going to test themselves and their ability to play through us and they could not. very well. So we were just enjoying a lot of time in the attacking third, and this is a great payoff for it. Such a satisfying sight. That is a strike.

Isn't it? Yeah. Love a good thump. So Haran in the 30, around the 32 minute mark, Haram pokes it off a midfielder after a sloppy bit of that play out of the back that you were discussing from South Africa. She just pokes it over to Rodman. Rahman takes a couple touches and tries. and tries a left-footed shot from distance. Misses wide left, but just wide.

It's curling ever closer to the post as it crosses the end line. Real close. Maybe could have played a pass to Morgan or something. You know, Morgan thought she should have passed to her, but I love it. Yeah, I'm good with Rodman taking all these chances. If it were Sophia in there, then I'll want to pass,

but Morgan's got enough stats. Morgan can wait until her send-off game for Robin to pass it. It's not your send-off game, Alex. Let's see, 38th minute Rodman again runs onto a ball in the box, rounds the keeper, and then tries to cut it back for Rapino from the N-line. It's cut out by the defenders who were wise to the occasion. And, I mean, that was the right soccer choice to cut it back for Rapino. Well, plus it's propinos sendoff game, so no two ways about it, you feed her.

Yep. No doubt. But yes, this is, again, the first half was Trinity Rodman's show. And in part, again, that's because we weren't particularly great at doing a bunch of, you know, really coherent team soccer stuff. Yeah, I was wondering if you saw anything encouraging it on that front. I mean, there were some good moments of like playing, attacking players in little pockets and they would try to like get somebody in behind on what looked like, you know, choreographed movement off the ball.

But it's just, it's not very frequent. And when we do try it, we just look like it's not our style yet. So a ways to go, I think. And really is just like watching for 90 minutes with fingers crossed that, the next coach who comes in will put some real emphasis on this and be better at I guess drawing it out of the players.

Yeah. Well, to the second half, 49th minute, we get our goal. Our second goal, it's a Rapino corner that's just palmed away by the keeper. Lamini. Sonet, it goes right to Sonnet and she rises above the player marking her.

and heads it right back into the goal. Kind of a looping header. Good Johnny on the spotism, good opportunism from Sonnet. So it's 2.0. 2.0. And so at this point, three, I think, out of our five goals in the window have come off corner kicks. Is that right? I'm just noting it.

It's not, it really isn't meant to be like a swipe at our team. But it's just very much like sometimes you get your goals on your corner kicks and most times you don't. We don't live off our corner kick goals. But yeah, it's good to score goals on corner kicks if you're not. If you're scoring a lot of your goals on corner kicks, then it's maybe that not so good. I don't know. Rapino has a free kick in the 52nd minute from 25 yards that she hits well, goes just over the bar.

And then, you know, maybe the best moment of the second half was Rodman sithing in from the right, the left side in the 59th minute and just have. having a huge hit with her right foot, slams the crossbar just inside the post. Could have had two Galazos in that thumper in this game, but for a matter of inches. Haran, on the ensuing scramble,

it falls to Kruger and she, she floats a ball into the box, and guess what happens? Yeah. You brought it out. You brought it out. We get the bicycle attempt. She committed to her.

I don't think she pulled out of this. I mean, her foot narrowly missed the defender's head. But I don't think she was, you know, I don't think she was holding off because of that proximity to danger. I think she went for it and just sort of whiffed, which is not what we want, but we allow those kinds of mistakes. Better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.

Yeah. So, you know what I'm saying? Yes. So again, full marks to Lindsay Horan. And this has never been an area where we doubt her. she will she is going to try something uh spectacular when the chance presents itself and she did hear um we didn't get a good replay of it so so part of this it's hard to dissect because you know obviously a lot of the production attention was on rodman's screamer off the post yeah rightly so

yeah so uh you know of course we're going to dissect the bicycle and and leave that screamer to the to the to the tn t crew was this on tn t who even knows uh peacock for me. Let's see. Letting Rodman take those big strides into the middle of the field like that's a really bad idea. You know, she's just, she's eating up space.

Rapino, subbed off in the 56th minute. What a career. 203 caps, 63 goals for the national team. Two World Cup trophies, one Olympic gold medal, and then the one Olympic bronze medal. She was known, I have to say,

she was known as much for her off the field contributions as for her quality as a player, which was obviously considerable. She made a big statement, as you may remember in 2016, by kneeling for the National Anthem in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick. And she was a key figure in the equal pay battle. Always had a lot of swagger and charm. All the best to her. Yeah, I think it's obviously telling that in all of the write-ups of Rapino, like, this transition

of her ending her soccer career is almost. covered more as like a eulogy because she's done so many important things rather than just like you know what a list of her were trophies right in big moments so like yeah what what an important human being uh and and also competitive sports person she didn't even seem that sad when she came off you know she's just like she just got moving on with life which is which is pretty cool it's it's the same vibe I mean she had the same vibe after the actual world cup loss like after the penalty like I think that's just the perspective she has on things like, all right, well, that's the end. I did my thing again

in this game. I've done my thing for a long time and now I'm going to do the next thing. Mitch Purse made an appearance. Who else? Big fish. We got the big fish. That was, that was good. Oh, me official. That's right. Yeah. And DeMello came on. What did you think of fishal? What what did you think of de mello? I really like Big Fish because she was hungry for the soccer ball. Like she wanted the ball to come to her. Morgan plays in a completely different way, even just in the short amount of time that we got to see official play,

like you see that she wants to get in and start making some things happen. And that doesn't mean just like post up in the box and make something happen. The ball comes to her. She's seeking the ball out and wanting to play a little bit. And so that for me is promising. it tells me that we will have some options to play that way for whoever the new coach is, if that's what the coach wants to do.

And based on some of Crocker's comments about what he sees for the women's national team and their, you know, his desire to see them have a little bit more of possession of the ball and more of a possession plan. I feel like that is a good early return for me official. Yeah. I don't want to get carried away.

Again, it's a cameo against South Africa in a, you know, vibes match where South Africa are treating as a training exercise. They've got some competitive games coming up in October against teams that won't be as good as the U.S. So this was their chance to sort of run it against an opponent that is mostly better than them in most positions. What did you think of Davidson? I mean, she played in the last friendly before the World Cup, but didn't make the roster.

I thought she looked pretty good. It's kind of hard to say too much, right? Yeah, really hard to say when South Africa weren't really putting as much pressure on us as they could have. We know South Africa's general pressure recipe from the World Cup and even in the first friendly is Catalana. And they weren't really hitting her as often or as, you know, they weren't targeting her as much. So that meant that our centerbacks were under way less stress than they even could have been. So yeah, so it's really hard to be to take too much away from this game for anyone in a defense. of spot.

And that probably includes Kruger as well. What did you think of Davidson and Kruger? I thought Davidson looked pretty good, pretty sharp and tidy with all the caveats you just mentioned. And Kruger, I like her in possession, you know, a little better than maybe some of our other bench options at fullback. But, you know, she's going to be 36, 37 at the next World Cup. It's, I don't know.

it's not like it's not a game changer or anything right that's kind of how I see it and it's uh this is where we have that Olympic uncertainty because it's like yeah the World Cup of course that's that's that's probably beyond beyond where she's gonna fit in but could she do a job in the in the Olympic picture and that's it's tough man I don't I don't like to just be like nope can't can't be done because of the age shut it down like it has to be performance when you're only 10 months away so uh it's it's gonna be a tight one and it's what I'm going to be curious about is again when a new coach comes in there are a lot of marginal positions that could flip on day one and so a new coach could

come in and be like oh yeah Casey for sure she's in I have no idea how she wasn't in though in New Zealand like she needs to be there to do X Y and Z and she's capable of it and sets a floor or it could be like she net her phone never rings again right and I guess it wouldn't me too much if she were I think I would slightly prefer her over Huerta right now but I don't but I don't know gonna have to see some get some more data uh I think that's it man we're in a holding pattern it's not it's it's uh it's not there's no big movements going on here it's uh we'll just have to wait for a new coach yeah and again despite that sort of feeling of impatience of a clock ticking.

I try to just enjoy, again, it is a huge moment. Megan Rapino is an icon. So to sort of savor that and, you know, linger in that moment because it is powerful. And then just to enjoy whatever nice aesthetic moments you can get, the Trinity smash is great.

Both of them, the goal and the screamer off the post. And then Fishel getting in is a big deal. We got to wait for Jaden Shaw, but getting Fishel in and seeing her out there, I enjoyed that. Like there's just no two ways about it.

Like that's fun. In what context did Kilgore say that Shaw was the best player on the training pitch and small-sided stuff? It was, I don't, I'll have to find where it was actually said. But I, and so I saw that comment, you know, repeated by like real reporters. And then I feel like I heard from other people talking about comments as far as staying in the holding pattern. That Twyla doesn't feel like she should be the one to make a call on when the legends are, like done. So as far as like Sauerbrun getting another runout, I feel like we're going to be seen Sauerbrun in October. She's you know,

match fit. But yeah, we're going to have to dig through that. We'll get our sleuths on on the postgame comments to see where Twyla's coming with all this stuff. Would be pretty easy to sleuth that out, I think. Vlato and Twyla both in a position where it's not their call on when to phase out the legends. Hopefully the next coach gets to make the calls. All right. Thanks, Greg. Thanks, everybody for listening. We'll see you.