Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #474: USWNT v Canada recap

Episode Date: March 7, 2024

Tara and Belz quickly recap the key incidents from the absurd water-logged contest in San Diego late last night. Shaw and Smith score nice goals. Mostly no soccer was played. Survive and advance!—��—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 OTHER LINKSScuffed on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAoundrEkZUgZ13IE5XIqrg We’ve streamlined and revamped the merch we’re selling. Check it out: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Scuffed on Discord: https://discord.gg/X6tfzkM8XU 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. Hey, everybody. We're here to recap U.S. women's national team versus Canada. I've got Tara with me. Greg, I don't know, he's protesting the rain or something. He can't be here. Tara, how are you? It was a dumb game.

I'm tired. But also, I enjoyed it. I don't know. I'm filled with contradictions. How are you? What a spectacle. Especially, I would say, in that first half, both teams sort of had to pioneer a new sport that's related to soccer,

but not exactly soccer. Because, of course, the field was so waterlogged. It was magnificently waterlogged. In the driving rain in San Diego, you couldn't do any passes on the ground, especially in the first half, no passes on the ground. Really no dribbling. The job was not to find an exploit just space,

but space with dry ground. So find somebody on the flank was kind of started to become something that you needed to do. And then definitely, definitely, definitely, no back passes to the goalkeeper. That first half, it was so, so bad. It was ridiculous. I really feel like we got to appreciate. a new version of Naomi Germa we haven't seen yet. She can also do it in a typhoon.

Who would have known? She wasn't taking a single chance. She was clear in that ball any chance she got. She could do it. She took control of the night. Listen, I think she's the only one who understood the assignment. point of the first half. Yeah.

Yeah. She quickly grasped what needed to be done. She quickly did the calculations. And, you know, Gilles, Vanessa, did not. And that was the difference in the first half, at least. Let's do the lineup. Alyssa Nearing goal. Emily Fox, Naomi Gurma, Tiana Davidson, and Jenna Nysewanger across the backline.

Sam Coffey and Corvin Albert in the midfield. Lindsay Horan also in the midfield. And then Trinity Robben. Alex Morgan and Jaden Shaw across the front line. Exact same lineup we saw two nights ago, two nights prior. So no rotation. No rotation. I mean, you and Greg have talked about this as if this is the A team, which, who are we to push back against?

They probably, you know, they won. They get to keep going. I wasn't a fan of it, though. considering they just played. I didn't think that that was the best for their body, but I also didn't go into the game, understanding that it was going to be so little soccer being played. So it didn't really matter in the end afterwards.

Did you care? I guess I didn't have a strong opinion about it. Yeah. Well, let's do the Canada lineup, and then we'll get into the timeline. but Caitlin Sheridan and goal Harvard zone Jade Rose

we heard several times in the broadcast that she went to Harvard goes to Harvard um uh jeal the aforementioned culprit on that first goal for the U.S. Kadisha Buchanan across the back line

and then Ashley a band of four Ashley Lawrence has the right wing back Simi Owojo Jesse Fleming and Gabrielle Carl in that band of four and then Deanne Rose who was pretty

dangerous in this game Adriana Leone and Chloe Lacos across the front line. None of it matters. It was, you know, the lineups don't matter. The formations don't matter. It was not really a game of soccer. But what did you think about the Canada lineup?

I think that it's important to know that this isn't the Canada that crashed out in the World Cup group stage. It's different. It's younger. They are also transitioning into this younger version of a team. I thought their centerbacks were a disaster, especially near the end of the game.

And, you know, this is a Leon centerback and a Chelsea centerback. These aren't bad players by any means. But yeah, like you said, it doesn't matter. It wasn't a game of soccer. I just thought it was important to note that Canada has been going through a rough patch similar to us, but they are on an upward trajectory or they were. Well, we'll get into it, but they were, I mean, again, hard to say anything about this game. They were, it was an even contest, you know.

Yeah. So the game starts and you think, I'm thinking, are we going to press off? the bat, will we play direct? How will Canada approach the game? It all goes out the window once the action starts because of how wet the field is. It's not draining. It's raining hard, I think most of the first half. We start, we go direct immediately and win a corner off of, you know, by playing the ball to Rodman. But, you know, we can't. You can't even connect a pass in the middle of the field. It's, it's kind of hard to watch. And, you know, several people have made this point.

Not particularly safe either. No. I think I tore my ACL just watching the game. So this happened later on in the first half, but San Diego Waves head coach Casey Stoney was tweeting about how unsafe conditions were. And she's looking at this field and she's seeing more than just unsafe conditions. She is seeing her starting striker, Alex Morgan. she's seeing her starting 10, Naomi, not Naomi German, Jaden Shaw, she's seeing her starting centerback, Naomi Germa. She's seeing her starting goalie, Kaelin Sheridan. Like, she, she had a lot to

lose out on the field last night. She did, yeah. But she, she was, she was tweeting about how unsafe it was and, you know, a lot of other people were as well, but, you know, I thought it was interesting. Yeah. I don't know how you, what the move is to Do they delay the game by a day? I don't know what you do exactly. Third minute Canada Backpass gets caught in a puddle,

a theme of the night, and Shaw tries from distance to catch the keeper out. I like the idea. Misses wide by quite a distance, but it's a foreshadowing of something that happens later. You would think that Canada would start to learn that these passes aren't really working. like you said,

foreshadowing for what's to come though. Well, I think that's what's so impressive about Germa is, I assume you go out there and you're just, you're riding on instinct. So your instinct is to pass it back.

You're not thinking about it that much. And somehow Germa is able to, like, you know, reorganize her priorities in her mind in an efficient way where she doesn't make that mistake. The ref picks up the ball, runs over to midfield,

rolls it on the field a couple times in front of the fourth official to what? I don't know, demonstrate how the field is playing. It feels sort of theatrical. But who is the audience? Who is the audience? What is the plot? Is this around the time where Conca Calf is starting to say,

no, the ref is deciding what's going to happen. And the ref is saying, no, Conca Caff is going to decide what's going to happen. And we're both just like, you know, playing tug of war. Right. It's the buck stops nowhere. Horan was distraught. I noticed. She is not built for a game on the Everglades.

I'm going to defend her. I'm going to defend her, but this was not her night. Doing like clever little touches with the ball is going to be an exercise and frustration. And she was frustrated. Did she want the game to be called? I don't know. Yes, she did. She had an incredible post-match interview.

I do not know, I did not know that a person could say football that many times in one interview. You just, it was not a game for football. You couldn't play football. She was not happy. So I can say with utmost confidence that she wanted the game to be called. But I'm not mad at Lindsay for being frustrated. I would have been frustrated as well. Yeah.

Some players, I think, like Germa handle this, this sort of change in assignment well, and I think Haran less so. But I hope, you know, we don't have to see any other games like this ever again, so it shouldn't matter too much. Yeah. The ConcaGav Match Commissioner, who we never got a shot of on the broadcast, apparently said the game must go on. So it went on.

A few chances here and there. I noticed Davidson, you know, Davidson get beat a couple times. by Rose. I notice her being a little bit slow there. Nice Wonger as well. We don't need to go blow by blow on that. 10th minute roughly, Trinity gets on a disastrous backpass from Owojo, all alone running at the goalkeeper. This one illustrates just how crazy this match was. Takes one touch that mostly behaves like normal, and then her second touch dies on impact in a puddle and she just zooms over it. It can do nothing. but smile. It occurred to me that one of the jobs out there was to memorize which parts of the field

were particularly treacherous and try to, you know, lift the ball over those parts of the field. Pretty much an impossible task. Yeah. And I was keeping an eye on Trinity's temper, for lack of a better term, something we've become quite familiar with in this tournament. And I was pleasantly surprised. She was enjoying herself out there. even when it came to one-on-ones with Canada, I think she was making the most of her time in the rain. The broadcast would not let us forget that her middle name was Rain or is Rain. So who knows?

Maybe that had something to do with it, but I was relieved that Trinity wasn't throwing elbows on top of all the other mess that we had to OF. Yeah. Yeah, she held it together. The goal. Let's talk about the goal. 20th minute. Horan does what we, I think, figured out we needed to do and just sort of lumps it behind

the back line. Shaw's running onto it. Gilles gets to it first. Normally a routine pass back to the goalkeeper, but Gilles tries this and it just dies. Right inside the box. Shaw races onto it and clips it with it. that left foot through the gap between Sheridan's on-rushing left leg and arm, then leaps to avoid getting cleaned out.

It's all very aesthetically pleasing. Nothing about the game was aesthetically pleasing except for maybe this goal. And the Canada goal, it was really nice, too, the first one. I'm not taking anything away from the Sophia Smith goal. That was nice, too, Tara. You've made your points. You've made your points. So, yeah, 1-0.

A total gift, a totally absurd situation. But you got to give Shaw a lot of credit for the finish. It's a lovely finish. Yeah, I love a pouncy goal. And boy, does she pounce on this horrible mistake from G-all. I mean, we've touched on it already, but what a... I just thought that that was a really, really bad mistake. and one that our centerbacks already caught on to not make.

The field was not trustworthy, and you just couldn't do that. It opened up a spot for Jaden to pounce, and she got to it first. Jaden Shaw is the first player in United States women's national team history to score in each of her first four starts. First player in history. Wow. What a fact. She's a star.

No one will ever be able to take that away from her. I mean, she's already submitted her place in history at such a young age at so few caps. This game was a mess. The backpass was a mess. but we got on the scoreboard burst and we're winning. You could see Shaw has kind of gotten over those early cap, that early cap nervousness too. She seems very comfortable out there.

Definitely. Smiling. I think we're going to, I think we're going to see continued success from her. This is her home field, too. Oh, that too. I think that goes. a long way. She's playing with her teammates. We talked about that a lot in the World Cup. I mean, we talked about it in a negative way about how we don't have the ability to take a team and bring

them to the World Cup like Spain does. But we're playing somewhat San Diego Wave ball and we've got more San Diego Wave players. And it's working. It's working. It's working. Yeah, I was going to joke that, you know, this is, this kick it long and chase after it was kind of how we played against Columbia. So, you know, this is exactly the kind of game Twyla Kilgore wanted, you know. I noticed at this point in the game, the boxes are both reasonably dry. Yeah. And Rodman, so like, say you play a through ball, it's going to die in zone 14, but if it gets through zone 14 into the box, it'll roll a little bit. Rodman finds a dry patch

Around the 30th minute on the left flank Starts going at people Wins us a corner kick Corner kicks Just dramatically increased in value in this game Because it's so hard to work the ball Into the attacking third 41st minute

A bit of danger from Canada After Lawrence outdules coffee And Albert in midfield And then gets on her swamp buggy And strides unopposed Into our defensive third Coffee a bit Lackadaisical tracking back here

which is the one thing she cannot be. Yeah, Ashley Lawrence is a world-class player. Sam Coffey was up against one of the best out there. I think she did a decent job most of the time. This was not one of them. She did, yeah, she did. I'm just clocking those moments of transition kind of. Definitely.

Coffee was okay, I thought. Any other insights from the first half before we get to the squeegee rollers? and all that? Not really. I enjoyed, I enjoyed coffee in Albert getting another run at it. I have a hard time believing that they are our A team. The same thing with Jenna Nyswonger. I have a hard time believing it, but I'm enjoying it being ran out.

I am going to not complain for any sort of experimenting from Twyla. I just have questions about if that's the truth or not. Yeah, time will tell, I guess. So at the half, they send five people out with squeegee rollers. Now, the drainage, I guess I don't know how much rain fell. Should I talk bad about the drainage on the field? I don't know. Is squeegee rollers a way to get rid of rain?

I think it's a way to try to spread it out so there aren't just puddles, you know? Okay. So they try to do that with five people. And it did actually help. I think the second half was better. The second half was at least playable. Five people did not seem like enough. No, they needed more than five.

Maybe they just don't have enough squeegee rollers in the stadium or something. Sure. Anyway, second half, Kruger comes in for Nicewanger and Lynn Williams in for Jaden Shaw. Any opinion on that, Tara? Yeah, there was some expected outrage over taking off Jaden, but all in all, I thought it was fine. San Diego Wave coach Casey Stoney was tweeting during the game about how unsafe it was, like I mentioned earlier. I definitely think we all will be appreciating Jaden being a little bit more rested come Sunday. And Casey, I am extremely interested in Casey getting more minutes running up until the Olympics.

I think she is going to be somebody on the bubble to make that roster. The same goes for Lynn Williams. I'm less interested in Lynn, but both players surely are on the bubble for the roster. And, you know, I love a competitive trial. Yeah. Let's kind of boil this down here. There's a few incidents we need to talk about.

First of all, in the 48th minute, the penalty shot against Tierna, Davidson. She does poorly here. Lacos skids a ball into the box right to Davidson's feet. She takes a touch that sort of leaves it out there for Jesse Fleming to step in and poke it away. Davidson stabs, misses the ball, catches a lot of Fleming's ankle. This is a penalty in most universes, I think, and we were lucky that it wasn't called. It was a penalty for me.

I do not remember, though. Did they check this? I think they did I mean I will I will take the luck any day I just it gives me

it gives me a little a little slightly more better feelings that they looked at it at least yeah we'll take it for sure there's a coffee plays a good ball for Williams in behind and Williams goes wide to collect it

after gets broken up and floats a ball into her and heads it wide over two markers Haran got maybe three headed chances. Just couldn't put them on frame, but decent here. Yeah. All this is telling me is watch out Brazil. Haran doesn't miss these headers that often.

Especially three. Watch out. Sunday's coming. And an angry Haran is a Haran that scores goals. Yeah. Give her a dry field and she'll play lots of football out there. Yeah. Sof comes in for Rodman.

the 60th minute Rose comes in for Alex Morgan Rose Lavel that is comes in for Alex Morgan in the 71st Sof moves to the 9 Um Neh

you know I guess the next thing is the goal From Canada It's just a It's a long diagonal pass Across our back line From Jade Rose That right center back

And after she skips past Smith falls to Leon just beyond Fox. Fox, it's because it's a really nice pass. Turns out to be a really nice path. I don't know if she meant it to be that way, but it was. Fox recovers to get in front of Leon, and then Leon takes a couple touches inside

and plays it wide to Ashley Lawrence, who just fires a beautiful head-high ball across, and Jordan Heitima, who had come on a little bit earlier, just dunks on Emily Fox, unstoppable head her, back across the keeper. Gorgeous ball. towering header. People are going to try to blame so-and-so

for this or that and this goal, but I just, you know, it's just a nice goal. No, I saw people try to blame Sophia. I saw people try to blame Emily Fox. Her name is Jordan Heidema. She is

seven foot tall. I mean, she is a very, very tall woman. She's going to head the ball into the goal. That's what she does. It was gorgeous. It was. I was tired, but I wasn't mad at it. Coffee comes out. Sonnet comes in.

It's 1-1. And it sure looks like we're going to extra time. I want to mention that in the 80, right around the 89-minute mark, Fox plays it down the line for Sonnet. Excellent ball across. And it gets cleared out to Corbin Albert, who I was thinking, maybe we'll get a Corbin banger to, you know, for the winner here. She takes a couple settling touches and tries from 20 yards, but it kind of gets deflected off foot. But that Corbin Banger is coming. It is.

Someday. It is. A little disturbing that Canada was the one pressing for a goal at the end of the, of regulation. I'd say the last 10 minutes they were the, the protagonists, which I hate to see. Yeah, I was angry with Twyla at this moment, maybe unjustly, but I kind of remain angry at Twyla. Go with it. Go with it. Go with it.

And I just think this is why if you played two days ago, you rotate. We're exhausted. Everybody is exhausted. And yeah, I don't love seeing that Canada is looking and pushing to win much harder than we are at this moment. It seemed like it. An extra time, Olivia Smith becomes a little bit of a problem for us, the 19-year-old who plays for sporting in the... Portugal. Just thought I mentioned that. And then we score. We score. What everybody thinks is probably

the game winner in the 100th minute. Just a lot of soccer tennis in the wet part of the middle of the field. But Sonnet hits a sky ball, just kind of shanks it up into the night sky. Falls to Lavelle, who has two centerbacks behind her. LaVelle plays a very clever, backward flicked header, down into the path of Smith behind the centerbacks, a moment of disarray from them as they both kind of rushed toward Lavelle. And Smith steps onto it, opens up, slots it to Sheridan's left, another cool finish. Real moments of quality amid the mess from Lavelle and Smith both to one, USA. Sophia Smith fell to her knees.

She was so relieved. She broke the curse. I'm relieved for myself. I'm going to have 30% less anxiety showing up here every other week talking to you and Vince. I'm excited. Sophia's back. I'm thrilled. I feel like sleep is soon.

We're going to be okay. Yeah. Is the anxiety, you're tired of having to defend Sophia? Is that what it is? I don't understand I don't understand why you and Vince wouldn't want to see

Sophia have a little bit longer of a runway than four games as striker before saying times the ticking she's she's one of the most talented players in a league that still means something yeah well let's let's save that

for another day, that discussion. It goes to penalties because Alyssa Neer makes a big mistake. She then redeems herself, of course, but she comes out to claim a ball that's floated in. This is pretty much the last play of extra time, 120th minute plus,

so 121st minute. And she just comes out and uppercuts with two fists, Kjil in the face misses the ball completely just comes out late she's a little late for it

and those are hard to judge but you don't need to give a penalty there I don't think and the refs take a while to look at it but they do give the penalty and Leon slots at home you know not without much fuss really she looked really nervous

she did a lot of breathing exercises but she did She got the job done. 2-2. And we're going to penalties. This is why you can't punch people in the face with both hands as a goalie. You know, sends you to penalties in extra, extra time. Horrible decision, but I'm riding with Alyssa. No choice but to at this point.

Yeah. Well, she does, as I mentioned, she really does redeem herself. because in penalties, so Sof's up first. Sophia Smith, the girl who missed, walks up first. And she scores. She scores her penalty. Again, the weight of the world is off her shoulders. I'm thrilled.

I don't know how anybody couldn't be thrilled. We're up. First goal in. Yep. And then Neyer saves the first one. they send Leon up there again, which I think is just, you know, boring. Listen, I'm thrilled we won, but Canada's decision-making in these penalties was outrageous. Yeah, they all, so Leon, the three saves that Neer makes are on Leon, Haidema, and who's the third one?

I believe Fleming. Yeah, and they all were to the exact same spot. Just to Neier's right. about waist high, and she just, she just hoovered him up. No problem. Corbin, oopsie, like, hit it over pretty badly. That was, that's one of the worst penalties I've seen in the national team ecosystem for some time. But who cares?

Who cares? It's not her job. No, I was, I was amused, I guess, is the word I would go with, that she would be. in the first five to take a penalty because consider who is up at this point you have rose lavel up there you have lynn williams up there this this entire tournament i don't think corbin has been great but but she's taking a penalty and she's going to paris i mean uh i think i think That that is great confidence in Corbyn. I don't care if she missed her penalty.

Like you said, it's not her job. But I was fascinated by the choice. Yeah. Yeah, it is interesting. Assuming she's demonstrated something in training. But in any case, the next one for us is Neyer. So we're up to 1 at this point. Neyer steps to the spot just coldly pounds it with her right-in step just inside the post to Sheridan's left.

Probably the best penalty of all the penalties taken. But think about where we're at as a program right now. Alyssa Neier is our third best penalty taker. I mean, that's what it says. On this night, she was our best. I mean, that was an outstanding penalty. It's crazy Yeah

Haran gets the fourth one for us And she does the stutter step And dispatches it down to the left Not her knight Not a waterlogged field kind of player But she did the penalty when she needed to I was proud of her in though I am pretty sure

That she didn't She didn't go To the spot she went when she missed in the Champions League final, she talked about how, you know, that penalty kick miss was heartbreaking. Like, of course it would be. And how at the time she was up at the World Cup

for her to take her penalty, she just kept telling herself, don't go to that spot again. And she did. It ended up going in and she was thrilled, but she just went right back to that spot, which could easily be, studied as a goalie, you know?

Lindsay likes to go there. So I was proud of her. I believe she tried something a little different at least, but we'll see. And then the final action of the game is Neyer saving Fleming's penalty, which goes, like I said, went to the same spot as Leons and Heitima's. Neer very locked into that part of the goal. and she ends up being, you know, the hero of the night, even though she created the circumstances that required a hero.

Yeah. Nothing can take the night away from a listener, but boy, oh boy, Canada, ridiculous choices tonight with penalty kicks. I thought that that was just outrageous. I'm thrilled for us, but they did really bad. They did really bad. Yeah, we're pretty bad penalties. I mean, give Alyssa credit, you know, that she guessed right.

I did. She got some strong palms up there. We're in the final on Sunday against Brazil. We go again. I hope we're learning some lessons. One step closer to Twyla being gone and Emma coming in. I'm looking forward to the final, and I hope we pull off a win. Yeah, me too.

I hope the field is dry. Yeah, I hope the field is dry. I hope we get rest. And I hope Alyssa Neier does not punch anybody in the face. Decent forecast. Decent forecast in San Diego. No rain in the forecast tomorrow, Saturday or Sunday. All right.

Thanks, everybody for listening. Thanks, Tara, for helping me out. We'll see you.