Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #454: USWNT v China recap (Fort Lauderdale)

Episode Date: December 4, 2023

Smith at striker, Shaw and Fishel get another good runout, Purce excellent at right back, Nighswonger and Moultrie debut. Lots to consider as the Kilgore Interregnum continues.Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon! Patrons get a private feed with one or two episodes a week, including the Monday Review with Watke and Vince, and a Friday show usually with Greg and Watke. Patrons also get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, the full catalog of historic game 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. All right, three zip over the People's Republic of China in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday afternoon. Another leg of the friendly tie coming up on Tuesday. Greg, how you doing? I feel like I'm doing good. I want to say I'm doing good. I'm ready to love again. And I also worry that that's clouding my judgment of this soccer game.

I didn't like it very much at first. at least. I mean, it was great to see Sophia Smith at Stryker, right? I mean, we've been, we'd been asking for that. We got it. I mean, that's there to complain about. Yeah, that's number one with the bullet was like, you saw the lineup. Well, first off, you saw the lineup, and you were like, I don't know what this will be.

So you, you didn't know for sure. There was no recognized striker for the Velocco era on the 11. So you had some, like, hopes. You let your hopes like kind of get you. You're like, are we going to run? Are we running a 352? What's going on? Which you could.

Like again, because with Emma, maybe calling the shots, we don't even know if she's calling the shot. But if she is. Twyla insists that she is not calling the shots. Twyla insists that Twyla is calling the shot. Emma is contractually not allowed to be calling the shots. So Twyla is definitely still calling the shots.

Yep. But even if Twyla is calling the shots, Twyla knows who Emma is. And Twyla knows that 352s have got to be on the table, you know, for Emma. So it was possible we were going to see like some form of 352. And even then it was like, okay, who would the 2 be? It could be Sophia and Horan. It could be Sophia and Trinity.

It could be Lavelle up there as like a shadow striker. So even seeing the lineup didn't tell us anything. And then we actually get into the game. And it was like, oh, man, that's Sophia as a striker. We're there. I know I'm curious what you would call the formation I would call it I think a 4 2 3 1 with so here's the line up murphyry and gaw casey crueger at right back abby doll kemper and naomi germa as the centerbacks and then emily fox at left back and then i would say it was a double pivot of lindsay heran and

emily sonnet and then the three would be lavelle wide right de mellow in the middle rodman wide left but then Lavelle and Domello were kind of all over the moving all over the place Robin Lesser by the way loved what's a yeah yeah great that they're moving all over the place yeah and then Smith up top so then so that's that'd be a four two three one although Lavell and Domello again quite free in their movement yeah no I'm sorry Bells I'm binning the 4231 I feel like we are you're back in the uh this is again tons of uh tons of parallels to the men's side in the Greg Burrhalter evolution in that even trying to like describe these formations in a really simple way is pointless and you have to you have to describe the phases so you have to

describe the shape in each phase so for me it was we were defending in a 4-4-2 an aggressive one that sometimes looked like a 424 and we were possessing in a very very identifiable 325 where Kruger and Fox had completely different roles, right? Like, as soon as we got the ball, you saw three players in the back, and it was Fox, Germa, and Dahl Kemper, and Kruger wouldn't even be in the frame, because she'd be way up in the line of five. Horan and Sonnet, like you said, in a double pivot.

And then the five were doing a bunch of good, in my opinion, accordioning. I feel like maybe we've used that. I don't know if we have or not. Yeah, I love that as a bird. But it was good. It was like you'd see players drop back. Like you'd see it breathe with those front five moving up and back. And so, I mean, we got our first goal off some of that simple basic accordioning.

But I think it was, I think it was a very clear three to five where Fox definitely sat back on the back three. Horan and Sonnet were definitely a two. And Kruger was absolutely like not playing anything close to the role that Fox was doing. So then it'd be like Kruger, Lavelle, Smith, Smith, DeMello, and Rodman across that five. But with good, like willing, uh, fluidity. You know, like the players were kind of playing. And they were free to, they're so free to be fluid because, um, their opponents, like many of our opponents against women's team will offer so little danger going the other way. So the front, the front five can just go wherever they want and just not really care that much right now about like whether that movement leaves us potentially exposed because it won't.

Like, whatever exposure is. We have a GERMA back there and we don't actually have any exposure. Yeah. Germa's so good, man. Well, let's just to get that out of the way. She seems like just a generational talent at centerback. I've almost never does she do anything wrong.

It's amazing. It was fantastic. It was on display. Again, it's hard to know whether we just aren't challenged or whether it's just impossible to challenge Naomi Germa. But again, the overall point here is that,

trying to describe it as one shape of a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-33 Fowdy was doing this too like well it's a 343 like it's just kind of silly to even do it like no when we have the ball it's a 325 and you can see that shape pretty clearly we don't have the ball de mello kind of stepped up with sophia and it was like a 4-2 or a 4-4-2 yeah that's how i'm going to say it okay all right and then china's lineup was goalkeeper i'm just going to do last names here goalkeeper ju 4-2, I think is what they were in with Li, Du, Wang, and Liu across the back line and then Yan, Yao, Shen, and Zhang

across the band of four in the midfield, and then Tong, and Urigo Mula. That striker. And, Bell, did you think China was doing anything particularly well? No, they're resolute in their defending and didn't, they weren't like terrible or anything, but I don't think they were doing anything particularly well to draw blood from us, you know? Yeah, no, and that's what I'd say.

There was nothing where I was like, oh, that was nice from China. Like, there were so few times where it was like, well, that was very nice from China. Even in the first half when we were, I guess, being slowed a little bit, like, we weren't even being slowed that much. It was like, oh, we absolutely squandered a ridiculously good chance right there. So this continued the trend. And this has been, this was something Fowdy hit on that even kind of blew my mind that I hadn't even thought about. In 2023, I think they said we have conceded two goals.

That's crazy. I haven't actually even checked that. I just heard Fowdy saying it. And I was like, that probably is correct. We just, no one threatens us whatsoever. Right. It was almost a miracle when the Netherlands scored against us that one time. It felt like it. Just because I'm obligated to do it, the team that threatened us the most, I bet, if you've checked numbers, would have been Japan and She Belief's Cup.

I bet Japan was the team that threatened us the most. Yeah. We won that game one zero. Yeah, I remember Mal Swanson scored that really nice goal and then she got injured in the next friendly or in the next game. Or no, it wasn't the next game, was it? It was later in April. But the point remains, like, we just do not let teams get any joy against us whatsoever. We are, and again, that could be a GERMA thing.

It could just be GERMA plus competence at every single position, combined with the mentality that we heard about in your interview. Like, we just do not let teams get at us. Yeah, which means I feel like we should be. working even harder on the attacking stuff. Well, I think we were. I think we might be. Okay.

Might be. Might be. All right. Well, to the timeline. Let's get into it. So an aggressive opening from us, we're pressing, we're counter pressing. We look up for it. You know, de Mello is looking good enough to get fouled on the ball in the final third,

which is something. and getting some free kicks. She should have got a yellow for simulation on that one in the box. We'll get to that incident, I'm sure. But let's go right to the goal. In the 8th minute, it's a great ball down the channel from Germa to Rodman. As Rodman runs onto it and plays a firm ball across the face of goal for Sophia Smith, and she bravely stabs it home as the keeper comes out to try to get it.

They kind of gently collide with each other. It's worth pointing out that on the replay, Germa totally plays Rodman into the run. It's not, Robin isn't even thinking about doing this. Like for like a few beats, you know. Germa's like kind of moving to her left. Robin's like looking at her,

kind of like pointing at somebody else that she needs to pass to in the channel. And then all of a sudden Germa's like, nope, you're going, you're going for a run. Sends it down the channel. And Robin's like, oh, okay. And then she goes in the rest of the playoffs. So Germa just totally creates the whole thing with her mind. Yeah, and that's absolutely the key action here.

And it was set up even like one little half sequence earlier. Like we're still in that possession. But like Trinity actually come back to the sideline and receive the ball. Like coming back to get it, we play it to her feet. Again, I'm going to call it accordioning because it's hard for me to say right now. This is a really easy word. It's a really easy word to say it rolls off the tongue. But she had just done that.

She had just come back and like receive the ball down the sideline and like brought that defender up and then she just dropped it off really easily. You know, and we just kept possession and worked it around the back, three. And we get it back to Germa. And it looked like we were going to do that same thing again. And I feel like that's how we got China to bite is. I mean, Rodman was so convinced that that's what we were going to do that she wasn't even thinking about that run.

She thought it we were going to play it, just possess it like behind China's amoeba. And instead, German was like, no, no, no, there's a, there's, I've got an angle here and your Trinity Rodman. And we can just do this. And that's what, that's what we did. It's a lovely goal. Oh, it's fantastic. And I admire your restraint not to totally harp on the fact that Sophia Smith scores a goal as a striker eight minutes into Sophia Smith's playing as a striker. Well, no, I mean, I was, I was going to be really.

ready to harp on it. But she did miss a few chances, you know. I know, I know, I'm not trying to be gauche here. But, um, just trying to, you know, I don't know what I'm trying to do.

Do you want to, do you want to harp on it a little bit? No, I don't. I don't. Because, uh, I still think it's the right move for us to, to, to have this be the default decision as Sophia Smith striker for the U.S. national team. I hope that's not purely a Twyla thing. I hope that is Emma Hay is saying you have Sophia

Smith. What are you doing not playing her a striker? Players are a striker and only if it doesn't work do you try something else? And it worked. It worked beautifully eight minutes into the game. You're not always going to finish that chance. You're not always going to like get your goal on the first moment. But I don't care because that clearly wasn't as you just said. That clearly wasn't the only Sophia Smith striker chance that we got in the first half. In fact, we got an embarrassment of Sophia Smith chances in the first half. Yeah.

And I say embarrassment specifically because Sophia Smith was actually embarrassed about not scoring more goals in the first half. She was. And I wonder if she lost a little bit of her verve as she kept missing the chances, you know? Like she was so dynamic, especially in that first. So she scores the goal and then right around the 10 minute mark, well, this doesn't have to do with Smith so much, but we have a good attacking sequence

where we're just kind of patiently probing the top of the box and it results in Lavelle getting a firm pass from Fox, I think it was, and then taking it on the half-folly from the 18th and skying it. But then right after that, minute, Smith receives it in a pocket, and, like, she's so dynamic in that, like, in that kind of moment and just drives past a defender into zone 14, rips one with her left foot from 20 yards, draws, I think, a really good save from the goalkeeper, you can correct me if I'm wrong, who palms it off the post for a corner. So, I mean, it very nearly scored there.

And then, do you want to say anything about that? I'll even stop there, yeah. No, it's a next. excellent save. It's not a shot you're going to like bank on any player, whether it's Sophia Smith or anyone else, even for the U.S. national team, like turning into that good of a chance, but it definitely feels like a good chance in the moment. And even the fact that she created that chance, you know, prior to the World Cup, or actually during the World Cup, we were saying playing her on the wing, she gets the ball, she's going to beat one person. She's probably going to beat one and a half people. But if you're playing her farther away from the center of the field,

she's not going to turn that into a shot every time. Like she's got to beat one and a half people and then we still have more to do because she's set up farther away from dangerous positions. Whereas here you kind of see a little bit, okay, if you put her in the middle of the field as a striker, she's still going to beat one and a half people. But now when she does that, it's time to shoot.

And that's what we kind of gain. I think that's definitely going to be something we gain from playing her as a striker. It's too early to say just even based off her 45, minute tier and her ridiculous number of chances that yes this is definitely the case but i still i still just sort of stand by it's it's going to be on the burden of proof of the opposite to to remove her from the striker okay well um i don't i can't disagree with that i think i would i'd love to see her keep playing at striker and um well good because like a minute later we're going to get her ridiculous chance

Yeah, 13th minute She nearly scores again It's a corner kick that spills You know deep to Germa And Germa just kind of wax it into the box It gets headed right back to Smith on the edge of the Like just inside the box

And then she kind of takes a loose touch But she wins two cage matches Thorough in a row To go 1V1 with the keeper And then hits it Right at her It was a that that's maybe the one that she's the most embarrassed about.

It's a good thing when you don't know which one she's going to be most embarrassed about. It's the third or the fourth one for sure. Like that's a sitter. There's no way around it. And I don't, I'm someone who doesn't care that people miss sitters. Like I'm okay saying yes, that was a sitter.

And I'm also saying sometimes they're going to miss. So this is the same thing. I might have been able to finish that one. That's how much the sitter was. She did all the hard work. She beat one and a half. players and she ends up looking at no one but the goalie seven seven yards away. And she just kind of smashed it into the goalie.

So, um, but, but the point is like she can just sort of do this. It's not even, she's not even beating them cleanly, but she also doesn't always beat people cleanly. Like she has that, uh, bulldozer like head down battering ram style to her where. And the ricochet goes her away. Yeah. Even if the ball hits their shins. There are some players who are actually just magic at this. I will do my.

move even if you step into the ball with you like it's going to go off your shins off my shins and then I will still have the ball and that's what we saw here and she does she does this routinely that's not a one it's not even like a fluke thing uh she will just beat people more often uh than any other player and she's and she is really good at generally at like taking a shot from 20 yards i mean she scores a lot of goals for portland that way you know just beating the keeper from 18, 20 yards. Anyway, Rodman works somebody down the left wing,

cuts in, has a kind of a tame right-footed shot right at the keeper in the 14th minute. I liked Kruger. I liked Casey Kruger in this game. What did you think? I like Casey Kruger too, and I like that she's playing on the right side

because, you know, going into New Zealand, we, some of us really wanted to see Kruger on the lineup up because we felt that she would be our best backup left back. Like, well, okay, well, you can still put Kruger left back if you decide to move Crystal Dunn out of fullback. Right. But this shows she can also do things on the right side. And the next competition coming up is the Olympic Games, and that's a small roster.

And so it's like, if you can get a Kruger who can play left and right and a Fox who can play left and right and a Crystal Dunn, potentially coming back, or, you know, whether it's Mitch first got some great run out here. Kruger has value for sure. For the Olympic Games, it's bad to say at her age, but she's clearly not necessarily somebody who you're building the future around,

but you don't have to worry about the future right now. You have a competition seven months away. It's also kind of fun to have inverted right back, you know, and not in the Nick Lima way. In the fact that she's, you know, up there as part of that band of five in the attack

and she very much wants to cut in on her left foot and do something that way. All right. 18th minute Smith can't control a ball into her chest in the box, just noting it amid all this Smith praise, but

Sonnet wins it back in the counterpress and we get a little chance from it. DeMello dodges that simulation conviction there in the 21st minute. I thought I didn't look like she got touched at all. Did she?

Defender like had her jersey. But it wasn't even like a full call. Come on, just play the game, Sav. Let's try to score a goal. She was inside the pads for sure when she had the jersey and Saf's got to know that that's not happened. What did you think of DeMello overall? I have some thoughts

Give me your thoughts first Full of industry I appreciate that about her She had some nice She had some interesting ideas Like that time when she tries to Outside of the boot She gets her entry pass from

I think Fox And tries to outside the boot Feed somebody I like the ideas I like the industry But she just doesn't I don't know She doesn't give us enough

Cut and thrust To use a Velas Hasquezism. Have I used cut and trust? I feel like I'm more of blood and thunder man. I like de Mello's type. I like DeMello's ideas. And so for me, it will be like, okay, well,

de Mello absolutely can set this floor of the kind of player we want, the ideas we want, not to say she was perfect. Like we still, the whole team had still had some crossitis where it was like, I can just chuff, like, chunk a ball into the box and see what happens. but generally de mellow's mind like mindset her uh her mentality to try to like solve it with a pass and solve it with you know where would my teammate be at this moment where should she be i will assume she's there and try to make that happen um i appreciate so if we're talking about is she the best one who does that i don't know yeah i appreciate that about her too uh i just wish

I just wish she was a little... She doesn't look totally comfortable operating in 360 degrees to me. Even though she does have the impulse to pass, she has the impulse to kind of try to soccer through it. But her soccering through it is generally like 180 degrees. I don't know. Well, I'll say this too.

As a midfielder, if she were like our second or third most combination minded midfielder, I'd have more time for that. When you start trying to squeeze her in as one of our attacking trio, then I'm going to have way less time for that. Okay. Well, I was itching for her to get replaced by Jaden Shaw as the half went by, and sure enough, she was.

And we got some nice moments from Young Shaw. 25th minute, Sonnet wins it in the press again. I mean, for all her chaotic energy, Sonnet is pretty good in the press. and she whips it across, ball skips through DeMello, who is arriving at the near post. Maybe DeMello even kind of flicks it on in this one, about 2440 mark. And it falls for Smith on the back post. She tries on the volley with her left foot and sticks it over the bar. Nobody near her, and the goal is open.

I forgot about this one when we were talking about which one to be embarrassed about her. It's a difficult height. It's a difficult height to volley in. No, it totally is. It comes in fast. You don't get to set your feet. But this is, I mean, this has to be considered a sitter. Like, anytime there's literally nobody between you and the goal,

and you are able to strike the ball with your foot, like, this is a sitter. She could have brought it down and done a couple of keepy-upies and then, like, volleyed it in before anybody got to her. I don't know. That's an exaggeration. Right. So I don't want to dwell on the missing. sitter because again as far as I'm concerned this is a positive moment for the US and it's it's a it's like

this is our press right this is the kind of revenue stream we didn't get too much of in the world cup that I think our personnel can bring and it's not just sonnet it's everyone it's the whole team right we're we're pressing their goalkeeper when they have the ball at her feet so everyone is up and sonnet is good at reading the next play that's what you know that's what you're doing as a press it's not like Oh, well, Sonnet just pick something out. It's Lavel, it's Trinity, it's Sophia, everyone arriving forward at the same time. And Sonnet makes the next pressuring read and intercepts a pass really well. So this for me is the positive, right?

Like, I think this is what we're going to see. That we're pressing. For the whole cycle is that, yeah, we are going to be like relentless to play against. And again, the irony of this is we were that even for most of Lockers. Vlocco's tenure, we just stopped being that literally at the World Cup where we was like, no, we can't do that. We don't, like we got to take it a little,

we got to be a little careful, and we didn't do it. And so as long as we keep doing this, the goals are going to come. And then it's just going to be about where else are the goals going to come from. And we are, again, based on what we saw in this game against China, we have other ways of getting goals too.

I just noticed a lot of, aggressive attacking in this period of the game. This is where the nice idea from DeMello to play that outside of the boot flick into the area that happens in the 29th minute. Smith gets another chance in the 32nd minute. This is off of some U.S. pressure. Kruger makes an interception on the right sideline

and then plays Smith in behind who's just managing to stay on side. She goes 1 v.1 with the Q. I think, did she stay on side? I thought she did. I had her on side for sure. I don't think this would have gotten overturned. Yeah.

And then so she's 1V1 with the keeper and then drags it wide left and smiles. I mean, 1v1, kind of. She's got a defender closing in on her left shoulder. No, but that's totally fair. And it's especially fair for Sophia Smith because, you know, for a worse player, you'd be like, oh, well, that player's going to feel like she's going to get caught. But Sophia's not. Like, Sophia is going to, like, leverage her way to make sure she maintains inside position

to get her shot off, and she gets her shot off, and she just scuffs it. So again, it's like, oh, no, Sophia Smith, like the person you wanted to see its strikers missed three great chances in a half, and it's like, yeah, Sophia Smith got a goal and three great chances in a half in 45 minutes from open play,

plus she hit the crossbar or the post on a save that wasn't even that great of a chance. It's like, if that's your, if that's a bad 45 minutes from your striker, you're going to score so many goals. Right, right. It is kind of interesting that there was, of those, so I guess four really good chances for her, one that she scored. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. And then the, and then the shot from distance.

Yep. But the shot from distance. Five chances. Yeah. So of those five, two come from intense. intentional soccer, like intentional possession soccer, I should say, because pressing is also intentional soccer. But intentional possession soccer.

And one is that ball from Germa. The other one is just a fairly straightforward entry pass. And then Sophia doing some individual brilliances. And then two from the press and one from a whacked ball into the, like into the mixa. So I'm not quite ready to call it a new era. That's exactly right, right? So when we say we're ready to love again, the Emma, like, shaded glasses are saying,

this is like what Emma's wants us to do. We're seeing Emma's influence already. And it might just be, one, Sophia forward gives you a lot of things. And two, it could just be like random stuff that happens in a soccer game in 45 minutes. Right. But I'm willing to say,

say it's Emma. Okay. Well, it was a kind of energy drops off in the last 15 minutes of the first half, quite a bit. And then we get the half and then we get some interesting substitutions. Jaden Shaw comes on for Demello, which is great. And then Mia Fischel comes on for Sophia Smith. I guess with Smith on some kind of minutes restriction or? So I didn't

Is that what it was? No, I didn't hear that either. I just, I'm just saying stuff. So, okay. Probably what we wanted was to get everybody some minutes. Sure. Except Ashley Hatch, who wasn't in the 18th.

The other thing that was happening in that last 15 minutes of the half when we kind of dropped off was that Sophia Smith was getting wrecked constantly. Not necessarily like maliciously. and not in any way that was like going to totally break ankles or anything, but she was just taking a bunch of abuse. And that's not something that is new for the U.S. striker. Like Alex Morgan took a ton of abuse too. So that's the other thing that's going to come with that position is you are going to get beat up.

And Sophia was getting beat up quite a bit. So I didn't know if that was played into why she got subbed at half. Might have been. 47th minute. So now we've got Shaw in that band of five and Fishel in that band of five. And this is a little bit different game. 47th minute, we get a nice pass from Haran to Shaw. Shah tries, I mean, Shaw tries to shoot from the 18.

Doesn't hit it quite well enough. 52nd minute we get Haran's goal, which is kind of a laffer. It's a, you know, she's maybe 40 yards from goal, tries to play a ball at the back post for Jaden Shaw. Shaw has a chance to get a little bit of a head on it and just whiffs and it goes, she whiffs as she's like sort of rising above the defender who's marking her. The goalkeeper is just ready for Shaw to get some purchase on that ball

and doesn't even consider the possibility that she's going to miss and it goes right past her into the side netting. Lindsay Horan's goal. Yeah. Lindsay Haran's goal, and I believe, more importantly, Trinity Rodman's assist, which I think so if Haran's goal is the lapper, Trinidad's Rodman getting the insist, even more of a laffer. But I think after the game when they were posting the player of the match,

she's listed with both assists, which I really appreciate. Yeah. Yeah, I saw Tara put that in the Discord, and I was like, well, yeah, I guess. too she's a two assists and one goal for trin goalkeeper union here i'm totally going to stand up for china's goalkeeper um when you have jaden shaw or you know the attacker uh rising up to meet that ball in a way where she absolutely should have made contact on it um you have to assume that some contact will be made so she's setting up to defend against a shot from exactly where jaden shaw is going to head it. And even though

Jade Shaw doesn't touch it, the fact that it goes in and sneaks in just inside the post, that's the equivalent of Jaden Shaw getting an excellent header just inside the post. So for me, I feel like Fowdy was a little harsh on the keeper because it's not like you can just run over

to that near, like far post where the ball's headed to collect it. Like you have to position yourself as though it's going to be shot from where Jaden Shaw is. And then that shot ends up being by a lack of a touch. just off the post. Oh, I think there's no doubt some men and some women would have claimed that goal if they were in Shaw's exact position. But she didn't.

I thought she brought a nice bit of composure and strength on the ball to proceedings, just generally speak. She wasn't perfect or anything. 56 minute, what a ball from her whipping it across after a nice one, two with a It seems like Heran likes to play with her too, which is a thing that's going to matter, I think. It matters a lot. And this for me is my takeaway. When I say I'm ready to love again, like there were players who want to combine. There are like chances to drive a ball into the Mixa and instead we hit a nice disguise,

slip pass into a player running into the box. There is a ton of moments of me official like coming back to a ball, played into her feet with just a nice cushioned set where she just sets it for a player four yards away from her who is now looking up field to play soccer. And so there were enough of those in the second half where we probably didn't actually get as many great scoring chances as Sophia Smith alone had in the first half.

There's enough of that kind of soccer aspiration in the second half that I'm like, oh man, worst case, we put Sophia up top and we just get chances galore. Second worst case, we have a bunch of players trying to play soccer and we just get to fine tune it and improve it over the next seven months. Right. It does seem like a lot of it is happening around Jaden, Shaw,

but maybe that's just... Don't sell official short. Don't sell official short. She was involved in some really good sequences. Okay. Yeah, we'll have to get into... Yeah, okay. A nice free kick from Shaw and Fishel nods it wide in the 61st minute.

So just showing her set piece, the set piece danger that she provides, which is also not a small thing. Go ahead. So it was absolutely a dangerous set piece. It came on the heels of a pretty rough Shaw corner kick, which I'm not trying to make a big deal about that, because some corner kicks are rough, but she took one. Did she just kick it over everybody or?

No, it was the opposite. Like it didn't even get close to a near post runner. It wasn't like, oh, well, this is, we're just trying to hit it to a near post, uh, Julie Eart style run. Like, it was just a really poor knee height corner kick into the near post. Okay. I'm glad you mentioned that for the sake of, uh, fairness and accuracy. You just got to keep it one honest.

Yeah. Yep. A 60-second minute. We get Sam Coffee comes on for Emily Sonnet, and Jenna Nysewanger comes on for Emily Fox at Left Back. So that's a debut for Nyswanger, and, you know, coffee, not a debut for coffee, but, you know, a rare opportunity for her to get some minutes.

It's good to keep a player on there with tucked-in shirt. I feel like it's a good... Like that's just good for the overall vibe. You can imagine her just like leafing through the rulebook, you know, and finding that rule somewhere and then following it. 65th minute lovely sequence from Shaw and Fissel. Shaw takes one of those cushioned layoffs that you were talking about from Fisciel and then flicks it through two defenders to Fisciel in space. This is a very, very attractive. pass of the soccer ball.

And Fishel's in some, has some room coming into the box from a little bit to the goalkeeper's left. She just drags her shot wide, but that's a good, that's a good shooting chance. It's an excellent chance. And everything about this sequence is good. So where you started it is a lot of key excellent actions. But even like seven passes earlier, like things were good. And it was Fishel seven passes earlier like getting a,

decent light clearance from a player to her feet that she controls and now we have it and then we had like Lindsay Horan doing some real good Lindsay Horan stuff where under a little bit of pressure that she doesn't feel at all because she's just incapable of feeling pressure.

She hits a very simple but very effective like disguised vertical pass eight yards to Rose Lavelle in a ton of space and suddenly you've got Rose Lavelle now just driving at midfield with a ton of room and she's the one who hits the entry past official.

So that kind of thing is exactly the kind of full team sequence that is going to make us believe that anyone can come in and do this. The players that you weren't happy with in the last era can still come in and do things. The players that you are excited about are going to be able to do their thing too. And so I really do think that we've got a lot of ways to make U.S. fans happy that won't just come from banishing the old guard and bringing in the new guard. I do wonder, you know, this goes back to the Natalia Strine conversation that I had the interview from last week, where I asked her, you know, is the reason we're not playing sort of intentional

possession soccer for the national team or the reason we didn't? Is it because of the players or is it because of the coach? And I think most people on the scuff discord would say it's because of the coach, right? And I think a strine was a little more, like, well, that's the question, you know, that is the question that needs to be answered. And I wonder about it, you know, I wonder about that a lot. It's not something we can settle right now, probably. I mean, maybe you can settle it right now, but I can't.

But it is, I think it is, it is something to watch. Something to watch. I'm totally leaning towards it being the coach and it's again if it were just like oh well Jaden Shaw's come in and done this and that would almost give Vlato some plausible deniability because it's like okay well you can

justify not putting all your hopes on Jaden Shaw for the 2023 World Cup right but it's not just Jaden Shaw doing it like Fissel's in there looking good and Fissel was looking good for the last two years and she didn't get a single look you know under Vladko Lindsay, like all these players can play combination soccer.

And the fact that they didn't for so long for two and a half years when it was clear that we were, you know, lacking any kind of willingness. Not just like, it wasn't like we were lacking the idea. We lacked willingness to even try to play this. I don't see how you don't end up putting that on the coach. And I'm not saying that Astra Ann is wrong. I just, it might be just a reluctance to,

beat up on a coach. Yeah, I mean, and she's right. None of us are in there. None of us are hearing what he's saying, but after that amount of time of us not doing it, like it doesn't matter anymore whether he's telling them or not. He's incapable of convincing them. He's incapable of persuading them to do it if that's what he's actually asking.

And I think the much more likely case is that's not what he's actually asking, or he's not asking in the right way or hard enough. Okay. We'll return to this subject at a future date. Yeah, and we'll have to, because again, 90 minutes against China can't possibly be definitive. It can't be definitive that, oh, we could have been doing this the whole time. Like, this could have just been an opponent that's mediocre on an off day. That could be all it is.

Well, Shah brought plenty of swagger. So did official. I thought Nicewanger was a nice, had a really nice debut. Kind of reminds you of, reminds me of Emily Fox a little bit, the way she plays. There's sort of a bionic quality

and a reliability there. 60, okay, 70th minute, a nice ball down the channel from Haran for Kruger. Kruger's in a nice AVP and gets dispossessed. Just noting it. 71st minute Olivia Moultrie comes on for her debut for Lavelle, which is exciting to see. And then 75th minute we get Midge Purse on for Kruger at right back.

And I think the Midge Purse at Right Back experience for the next 15, 20 minutes was quite promising. A goal comes almost immediately. It starts, I mean, basically, Perce is just playing games out there on the right wing. dribbling over here, driveling back over there, over here, over there. And then she kind of cuts in on the defender and slips a really nice ball with her left foot into Shaw in the Man City Zone. So at the end line, but closer to the gold than the edge of the box. And Shaw flashes it across the gold mouth. It takes a deflection off her foot, but it still goes kind of where she intends it to.

Rodman arrives, goes in behind the backposts defender. buries it from point blank. Just a lovely team goal. Yeah. A lovely midge. A lovely midge purse, Jaden Shaw, Trinity Rodman goal. Yeah.

And so I feel like this is going to be traumatic for people because, you know, we just went through this for a lot of people as Crystal Dunn at left back. And it's like you're playing her out of, you're forcing her out of her best position. And I don't know if they're necessarily analogous, right? Because Crystal Dunn is an attacking midfielder. So you are totally taking her.

from that sort of role in saying you're going to be the left back. Very little like overlap between those positions. Midge Purse is a wide attacker. I think that is where she excels. And she excels it like gaining the corner on anyone. It doesn't matter who you put in front of her. We saw our dice people up in the NWSA playoffs. And so I think based on how strong we are at the wide attacking position,

I just don't have any, I don't have a hard time coming with any problem, trying to shift any of those players into that fullback spot because we spend so much time in possession, so much time attacking that whether it's Midge Purse, whether it's Trinidad any of our wide attackers, if we can get them to also be capable fullbacks and Midge purse has a ton of reps at fullback for club now and country. I just think of it as a way of definitely getting like the most attacking talent you can on the field. I mean, that's exactly what it is. That's exactly, I mean, that's exactly what it is in Pers's case. Because now you have a right back over there who is just ready to, she's ready to cook. And joining that, like, as you

have just said, joining that band of five in the attack. It's, uh, it's really nice. And she, she has played a lot of right back in her career, right? This is, this is, it's not just that she's a white attacker, but she's played a lot of right back for, even, even for club. Yeah. And, and so you, you add that. And so the irony here is that, like, the, player that she's now forcing out from the World Cup is Sophia Huerta, it just sort of ends up transitioning into the Mijpurs era. And not irony there, Sophia Huerta was a striker, right? Like, she was a very much attacking player, and she essentially transitioned to fullback to appease Jill Ellis, who was trying to find somebody, an attacker, to convert to a fullback, along with Crystal Dunn, who she was converting to a fullback on the left side. and Huerta did that.

But Huerta is nowhere near like the edge gaining corner-turning attacker that Mitch Purse is. Right. Yeah. Pursk keeps doing damage in this game. Roasts the left back and then cuts it back to Moultry

who kind of stabs it along the goal mouth but it's cut out in front of goal. So another nice sequence from Purs. We have that shot from, shot from distance around the 83rd minute where she just absolutely smashes it and draws a good save from the keeper get a little taste of what we're going to some of the bangers we're going to get from Jaden Shaw over the next few years and I like actually uh I encourage shots from distance in women's soccer a lot more than on the men's side so I know the math on the men's side says like you should

avoid those uh on the women's side I'm all for it like just just a little bit less goalkeeper coverage, whether it's to the crossbar or to the posts. So if you get a look like have at it. You know, as I, as I'm looking at it here, the one that, the one that was really good from Shaw was in the 92nd minute. That's the one that was like the vicious knuckling hit. And the goal just happened to be in the way. Like, there was almost no intentionality to the save.

Yeah. So the other one you're talking about then is the, is the, is, a quick set shot that she takes where she's able to take a touch and then get a shot off really quick at the top of the box. Yeah. Which is also, in my mind, a good technical showcase for Jaden Shaw. That's all I've got

for the timeline. Do you have anything you want to go back to or add in? Because I got a few quick thoughts before we get out of here. I will deliver for the Discord a Miaficial comp because Mee official was playing

my game. Like, what she was delivering there in my mind, I'm like, this is the stuff that can take your entire team to the next level, because when you can hit it to an outlet there, I mean, you got to have the players to set it to, but when you're hitting it to your striker, who then can just

set it to your dynamic attacking dribblers and passers, whether that's Shaw, Lavelle, Moultry, I mean, Moultrie's a passer. You could see she's got that passing mentality of like, what's the most dangerous pass I can hit right now.

and you have a striker who can set that ball for them for a team as good as the women's national team who will be playing a lot on the front foot that that's that's like that's where you start to ask can you play her and Sophia Smith together right so for me that's like the high that's that's very high praise Moultrie uh I thought Moultrie

had an encouraging debut not very difficult to knock off the ball Like she has that ball security Cage match ability that you want You want somebody to have to go along with that Leverage merchant, right? She's a leverage merchant. I was encouraged by Nye Swanger

and Purse off the bench at fullback I'd be happy to see plenty more of either of them, both of them Um Purse. It's purse season. It is purse season in my mind. Like I'm ready to go.

So then it's going to, So it's going to be purse it right back, Fox at left back. You can be Fox. Crystal Dunn can still play some soccer. It can be Fox. It can be done at left back. It can be done is now free to be used as a,

because again, done is still excellent. Dunn is not going to be young at these competitions anymore. So if, but if you have a Crystal Dunn that you can bring into a game, come on. Yeah. I thought, so on the negative side,

we already talked plenty about Sophia Smith. It was great to see her at Stryker. But on the negative side, I thought Lavelle was a little bit, I don't know. I didn't see that much from her. And I know that that's borderline heresy because she is so good.

But I don't know. It's not really, it's, there was one moment in the first half, right towards the end of the first half where Smith received it on the corner of the box took a touch in like kind of a really aggressive first touch across her across to her right

and then she tried to like play a pass into Lavelle in the box but Lavelle's never making that run like the like the the little diagonal run in behind the center back and she's not making it, I haven't seen her make it for a while so I'm like well what's what's Rose doing for us Is she creating chances?

Is she winning a lot of challenges in the middle? Nah, she didn't really do any of that. All right, so now you're on the hook for Lavelle comp. I feel like you got to, I'll do the official comp. You got to do the Lavelle comp, and you got to be like, see, she just wasn't, she wasn't giving us what she's capable of. And then you say, this is the case for Lavelle should be the eight in Huran's role. And Shaw should be the 10 in Lavelle's role.

Yeah, or maybe Horan should be the eight and Shaw. Oh, well, we'll see. We'll see what happens. Shaw has a lot of orientations she still needs to do before she can start a game over Rose Lovell. I think that's fair to say. She has some webinars. She needs to complete. Anything else?

Just again, the overall mentality of like, wait, like, find the pass. Find the pass. Don't just hammered in. We still hammered it in plenty of times. Don't get me wrong. More than is my liking. But so many more times than in the past, we were like eyes towards the middle of the box,

but decision was slip somebody into the edge of the 18. And like that felt a lot different. And so again, I don't even think that's necessarily like all Emma. That's just like not Vlotko. right so I'm totally fine giving Twyla some love there or just the players I don't know but just escaping it's all Twyla man Twyla's the captain of the ship by her own by her own insistence well let her let her let her run it then I mean for we got eight months of her so six months over six more months yeah six and a half doesn't have to be hostile for Twyla

I'm not trying to create like a hostile environment for her. If this is what we're going to deliver, this was definitely an improvement decision-making-wise over what we had last cycle. All right, we'll take that. I'm ready to enjoy it. I'm ready to enjoy it again on Tuesday. Okay.

Yep, games on Tuesday in Friscoe, Texas. You'll... You have to throw an 11 out. Bell, throw an 11 out. You have to. You're obligated. Oh, let's see. We're a soccer podcast.

you must do this. Murphy can stay in goal. Let's do purse at right back. Nice, Wonger at left back. Give Fox a break. Haran, coffee, and Shaw,

Thompson, Sophia Smith, and Trinity Rodman. That's my 11. Okay. I don't even want to disagree because who wouldn't love that? 11. It's crazy they're benching Rose Lavelle, but fine.

Fine. Just for this game, you know? All right. Greg's not giving an 11. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.