Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #482 — USWNT v Japan recap

Episode Date: April 8, 2024

Hey! A giant leap forward from the soccer we watched at the W Gold Cup last month. Combinations, lots of chances, Mal Swanson back from with the NT and as dynamic as ever, very little created by Japan (a good team) outside the first 30 seconds. Full recap/celebration of a very good performance as the Olympics draw near.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. 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 with the recap of USA2-Japan 1 in Atlanta, huge crowd at the Benz. Greg, how you doing? Yeah, I'm doing great. Apparently, I'm not the only one who also loves to watch Japan. I feel like there's 50,000 people who also have Japan as their second favorite team. Yeah. Yeah, it was great.

I mean, what a fun game to watch, too. But first, I want to get to the bottom of something with you. So obviously, everyone listening to this will know that earlier today, South Carolina beat Iowa. In basketball, yeah. In the basketball game, the women's NCAA tournament final. And, you know, congratulations to South Carolina. What a feat to go undefeated and win the national title. They almost did it last year, too.

The only loss they had was to Iowa. But I don't think it's just I'm a native of Eastern Iowa. You're a native of Eastern Iowa. I know you went to Iowa State. Yeah. But you're a Caitlin Clark fan, I gather. Oh, for sure. Yeah.

Yeah, we have a little background. Clarkie played youth soccer at the club that I was, you know, one of the full-time coached at. So if you're a full-time coach at a club in Central Iowa, you're going to float to essentially know all of the players on every age of your team. So especially the ones who, are very good. And this will come as no surprise to anyone,

but Clarkie was like the best player in her age group in Iowa at soccer as well. So, so of course we, you know, like you're involved in, in like her games. I was doing like social media stuff for, for the club and,

you know, you lean on the players who are doing amazing things and she was doing a lot of amazing things. So I was doing a lot of stuff for her team. And it's just like, you just love to see a player who's that good. And then just suddenly switches to, to a different sport and is also ridiculous at it.

And you're just like, well, there you go. Well, the thing is so that, yeah, that's what I wanted to get to the bottom of with you. It's like exactly what you remember about her as a soccer player. Because she has, you know, she has credited soccer, I think on the record for why she, like for her passing vision, which for me is the thing, is the thing that is like, you know, I love a long three as much as the next guy.

It's awesome to see that. But the way she passes the ball. It's just like it's otherworldly. Yeah, when you're watching it happen and you know of her soccer background, you're like, oh, yeah, that's just a, I mean, she's just hitting through balls out there. She literally is like hitting, putting a ball, dropping a ball behind a defensive line, knowing that this is where the space will open up and this player should know that and be moving into that space.

And that's where it's going to put them into the rim. Credit to all the future occupational therapists that she plays with for this. their incredible offball movement, you know? I mean, I love the way they move up. So she was a striker, right? Yeah, she was a striker. But again, she's just super savvy. So it's one of those chicken egg things.

I don't know that soccer, like, developed her vision. I mean, he gave her plenty of reps for that kind of vision, but it could also just be that she's just one of those players who has that computational mind. And so, of course, she excels at both of the sports that, you know, put an emphasis on that kind of understanding of, you know, four-dimensional pieces. Right. And it was a blast. It was a blast coacher, like, again, I was never her age group coach, but I would coach in games because, you know, when there's big events, like, okay, we're going to put two staff on this game.

So I'd coach some of the times with her team. And if there was ever anything that you see that a team's doing, you could just be like, hey, they're doing this, this. If you can look for this. And she would just, like, kind of like stare at you, kind of like, nod. and then she would just go do it. And you coach quite a few players who are like that, but she was definitely one of them. Where it's just like, you just tell them something.

And they could process. Yeah, they just have it. And they're just like, oh, okay, yep, I will do that. That makes sense. And now we will do that. And she was what, like 12, 13 when you were helping to coach her? Like 13 through 16, probably. And then I think at that point, she stopped playing soccer

and started playing Olympic youth basketball for the United States. America. And so she was doing both when she was playing soccer, right? I mean, she didn't like it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, well, yeah, it's what a fun player to watch play a sport. Pretty cool.

And I knew you had mentioned that, but I just had never really explored it with you. So there it is. Greg is responsible for all of Caleb Clark's success. I mean, just her vision, just her on-court vision, I'd say, is what I'm really. responsible for. All right, to the game, to the game. Anything else on that? I mean, I'd love to hear anything.

I need any good stories. Any good goals she scored? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, nonstop. It was just like Clarkie hat trick. You know, like every time she could play, there weren't a lot of Iowa teams that were holding up against her. I see.

Yeah. The other, the other, like, outstanding player in her age year, hilariously, you know, going back to the best athletes playing soccer, went to Northern Iowa and it's their starting point guard, playing basketball there. Really? Yeah, the two best players who just, two of the best players who just dominated the age group in the state,

both playing Division I basketball for Iowa universities. Hmm. We got to get a soccer pathway for these ladies. No, there's no, there's no, there's no sadness about. about it. All right. So, yeah, 2-1 win. I thought this was, I thought this was a good, a good performance from the U.S. What did you think? It was a fantastic performance. You know, we, we kind of came on and absolutely, I especially, no question about it, wet blanketed the bejesis out of the Brazil Gold Cup final, the first half especially. I think I believe I called it the worst half of soccer

that we had played. But I was never doom and gloom about it. And I think, I think in the Discord I said that any coach who is good at implementing a system, like a structure, will be baffled by this, but they will probably not be worried at all. Like there is so much that you can just do very quickly to improve it. And I think I even said, Twyla could probably do that too. She just, for whatever reason, chose not to do it in the time frame of the knockout portion of a tournament. And here we have it. Like this is, there was a clear structure here. We'll get into the lineup.

but there was a clear structure. It opened up a lot of different avenues and solutions for our players who seemed to have no problem taking advantage of those openings and windows technically or tactically. So, you know, we are good. We are a good soccer team with an incredible floor. And when you start to add some of these pieces and calibrate them and fine-tune them, I think, again, I think we're in for a very fun decade. with this group.

Is it, well, the cynic in me is like, well, this is, that's just adding Mallory Swanson to the field. Like that, that is the, like, she was really good in this game in a lot of different ways. And, yeah, I don't know. Is that not? It was more, it was more structural than that. There's more credit to give Twyla than just that she started Mallory Swanson, which, you know, anybody would have done, I suppose. I mean, sure. I don't really care who the credit goes to.

I just feel like it's obvious that when you have the profiles that we had out on the field and you arrange them in a way that makes sense, they're going to play decent soccer. And they play decent soccer here throughout the game. This was really good soccer. And if everyone again knows probably who listens knows that I'm in love with watching Japan play soccer because of the aesthetic they bring. But if you came in without knowing any of the backgrounds of these teams,

You wouldn't know that one of them is historically or has been for the last cycle, a much, much better possession team. Japan were also fine and they were still doing some Japan things. But not that much. Yeah, we were able to rattle them at times. And we again, on the flip side, when we had the ball, we looked totally competent in possession. At no point where we were like, this team just doesn't know what they're doing. They can't see one pass ahead.

Like there was none of that. Everyone looked totally composed, calm for the duration of the match. Yeah, and we created a ton of chances. Japan got that early goal, of course, but after that, I mean, some scraps here and there, but nothing really that dangerous, unless I'm forgetting something. No, you are not. I mean, you're not. Yeah, thank you.

Let's do the lineups. So, Neyering goal, Emily Fox, Naomi Germa, Tierna Davidson, and Jenna and Iiss-Wonger across the back line. The midfield was Sam Coffey, Lindsay Horan, and Jaden Shaw, which I was excited to see. And then front line of Trinity Rodman, from right to left, Trinity Rodman, Alex Morgan, and Mallory Swanson. Swanson back after that, you know, terrible Achilles injury before the World Cup. This was her first time back with the national team. And boy, did she look just as good as she looked right before she got hurt. Like, didn't skip up.

She looked better. She looked better. Yeah. I mean, part of that was the whole team looking better. But, like, the story of Swanson's ridiculous run before her injury was, like, the U.S. not creating very much. And then Swanson scoring a goal out of nowhere on, like, one opportunity. And this was very much the opposite. This was Swanson everywhere getting tons of chances and not actually scoring any goals. But, again, if you know how I think of the game, like, this was better for how we, for, you know, thinking about how we will look in our next game,

you'd much rather have a ton of chances than just hope that you just keep scoring on the one chance you create. So yeah, this was an incredible, incredible game, and we put Swanson in a bunch of great, but Swanson, I shouldn't say, we put Swanson, Swanson and the team combined to create a bunch of really good moments for her.

Yeah, I don't know if her XG is anywhere, but it had to be bordering on one for this game. I know a single game XG and all, but she got a lot of chances. Yeah. I mean, you don't need the number. You can literally just eye test when we build the comps out. Talking about our lineup, I do just want to kind of,

this was another game where trying to lay it out in like a single graphic or single description has become sort of nonsense. Because you could call it a 433 and say that Shaw was a center mid. But it was just like she played the same role in attack that she usually does, which is an interior, like, half space. player. But in defense, we defended in like a 4-4-2. It was kind of our line of confrontation, how we'd set up with Morgan and Shaw up high and then like a band of four behind them, where Heron and coffee had to cover a ton of ground as basically a two in the midfield press.

So kind of defended in that 4-4-2 in the high block, I guess I'd call it. And then in possession, we were like an asymmetrical 325 where nice wanger filled because when I saw those personnel I basically how did you expect it to look what did you think we were going to see in our possession shape if we were able to possess it all which is not a given I always I guess I always assume that the fullbacks are going to get up high and that the and that the midfielders are going to sort of drop into the space behind them but I guess you're saying it was nice wanger as sort of like a back in a back three in possession?

So nice one, no, nice one for me looked like she was getting high. Like that was her instruction. So she got up high to create like the left-sided five. That's not what I expect. I thought when I saw this personnel, because we've seen so much of Horan sort of half-freestiling, but you can say she's freestyling, but when you put her in the half space,

like you're allowed to freestyle. Go wherever you want. You're the 10. You know what I mean? Like you don't have a lot of set spots. to be in. And she's played a ton of that. So I expected it to be Haran and Shaw as like the dual tens with Mal and Trinity as the width. And then Morgan is the center piece of that five. And then some form of Ny Swanger and Fox jumping into the midfield to create like a pivot with

coffee. Because again, we've seen that. We saw that throughout the gold cup. We didn't get that at all. Like this was Horan sitting deep, and it was Shaw and Mal Swanson. Swanson was pinching in a lot more to create that five with Nye Swanger getting up on the left and Trinity being the width on the right. So that was a twist. So where does Fox fit into that? She's one of the three in the back on the right? Yeah, her base position would be like in the buildup would be as the back three. And then she would drift as the ball progressed forward.

she would drift forward and usually to the interior. But there were times where like the play called for it and she she would overlap her on the right side. But for the most part, in the early buildup phase, it was a back three with Fox staying home. So it was asymmetrical. And that's, we'll get into it. That's kind of the tip was straight away and part of how Japan scored on us. Yeah. It was a cool, it's a cool development because I think a lot of us really have a lot of room for a lot of time for Lindsay Horan.

being our controlling possession player, but not necessarily for Lindsay Horan being like the upfield player who were hitting through balls too. Right, making the run to the end line. Yeah. And this totally eliminates that, right? Like she gets to be the grown-up

and boss the tempo as part of the pivot with coffee. But having Swanson and Shaw in those half-space spots seems pretty exciting to me. Yeah. I'm just one man, but I am very excited about that. Yeah, I mean, I guess I saw a Nice Wenger tucking in a couple of times, which is, but I'm not, I'm not disagreeing with you. Just saying, I mean, I guess the game asks for different things at different times.

You know, it's not like a, you don't have to stay in a strict formation. Morgan getting the start over Smith and I guess Macario is still coming back from injury Any any Do you have any beef with that? I mean I do but I also kind of get it In just a sense that there was some inertia from the Gold Cup For Morgan

And I feel like we'll talk about it more But I feel like that inertia has got to have evaporated by now I think Morgan really benefited from having a very strong 30 minutes immediately following like a total low point for the program, us losing to Mexico, a low point outcome wise, certainly. Losing to Mexico and the Gold Cup.

So Sophia started that game. And again, remember, they switched from at halftime. So it's not like whatever performance you didn't like from Sophia losing to Mexico. She was half of it. And then Morgan played the other half of that game too and didn't exactly like turn the attack around. But then Morgan starts the game against Columbia and the knockouts.

And again, has a strong 30, contributes to two goals, and that's going to drive a huge swing in the narrative because we were so low. And so to have the bounce back be, you know, in large part because of actions that Morgan had on the field, the goals going in, that's a big deal. She drew the penalty. She had to flick on header that Nysewanger smashed in. Yeah. And so it's like Morgan's back, you know, she's, she's it.

She hasn't lost it. She was largely ineffective for the remainder of that game. And then through most of the rest of the Gold Cup. And not very good yesterday either. Yeah, yesterday, or it was rough. It was, I think it was pretty rough. Yeah, it was a mess. And so I just think the, again, I think she's fine to keep bringing into rosters for now.

And I'm not saying that she's totally lost any job, but it would not. surprise me at all if we switch for the final. I hope we do. I mean, but I think Vince made the point in the discord, and he's going to, he has to wait another week and a half before he can talk about this, so I'm just going to paraphrase what he said, but essentially, you know, I'm paraphrasing, but she's a legend. She's a U.S. women's national team legend. If you're going to, if you're going to knock her off the perch, you got to do it.

You got to, like, seize the chance, make it obvious. and nobody's made it obvious yet. I mean, now, like, people haven't gotten that much of a chance, and maybe that'd be the argument in Sof's defense here, but I think Sophia Smith has just not quite done enough, consistently enough, to be like, yeah, she's obviously going to be better than Morgan, so I understand Morgan getting the start,

even if I don't completely like it. I think that's fair. I think that's fair. I think Sophia's had a little bit of bad luck with, again, ball going in or ball going, not going in. And some of that isn't even heard. Be like teammates, like, again, Morgan flicks it on, flicks on a header on a set piece. And because Nye Swanger smashes it in, it's an assist. And we love assists.

In that same game, like two minutes after coming on in the 70th minute, Sophia Smith actually has like a nice, repeatable cutback to Olivia Moultrie with a wide open net. and Moultrie misses it wide. And so Sophia Smith doesn't get an assist. And you just sort of forget that that happened. Right. And Sof is still struggling. For instance, I forgot that that happened.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's true. Yeah, I have concerns about Smith as like an actual number nine. But I'd still like to see it. I'd like to see it. I'd like to see Cat Macario start if she's healthy. And who knows if she is healthy enough.

for that. I'm fine with Cat Macario continuing to get 12 minutes at a time. Okay. Well, you know, it is tantalizing to imagine a Swanson Macario Smith front line. At least for me it is tantalizing to me. I'll imagine it like crazy. I just want to make sure that in practice, we go as slow as we possibly can with Cat Macario. Fair enough. Fair enough. Okay, Japan, a really good women's team. I mean, they beat Spain, lest you forget, 4-0 at the World Cup before Spain went on to win the whole thing. They had Ayaka Yamashita and goal, Risa Shimizu, Saki, Kumagai, Moeka, Minami, and Mabi Moria across the back line. Mamoko Tanikawa, Fuka, Nagano as the sort of the double pivot. And then Kiko Seke, Yui Hasegawa, Aoba, Fujino,

as the band of three and then Rico Ueki as a striker. This is a solid Japan lineup. Eight of these 11 started at least one match in the World Cup, so it's not like they're transitioning out of their team that, again, had a very good showing. We're definitely World Cup darlings there for a minute.

Definitely your World Cup darling. I mean, they still are. Again, they're still Japan, even in this game. but you know we were better like we were better quite a bit better not just better than I mean we were better than we have been so that's the nice thing it's like yes we are hard to play against Japan you're you're very good

but we are hard to do these things against and we're going to like prove it the other the other notable bit for Japan June Endo out with an ACL that she did a couple months ago so a little bit less I mean they lose a little bit of attacking attacking verve there but they've got good players still, of course. Yeah, uh,

Segita came on in the second half and she was a, she was a bit of a handful. The other bit here that was a little different is they were defending in like a block with a four, four, uh, a back four, which is a little different from them. They kind of switched mid cycle last,

last way to a back three. And that's where they really had a ton of progress made. They were still early, they were still sort of early in that transition, when we played them in February 23. And they were already kind of clicking. So this is just kind of a new twist for them, too, to see the back four.

They were playing with the back three back then. Is that right? Yeah, in February of 23. So last year, she believes, before the World Cup, they sort of just started their back three implementation. And it was already looking pretty solid. And then the results started to follow. Yeah, we were in that game,

We were pretty, it was pretty rough for us. We did not create much. We just got that one, like you sort of alluded to, that one Mallory Swanson goal on a really nice pass from Alex Morgan, it should be said. But that was like our only legit chance in the whole game. And, you know, despite what I would say was our dominance on Saturday, Japan got a really good chance early on.

So the timeline, got a really good chance and scored. it was you know they kind of went at that space behind Naiswanger I would say three times that I noticed in the game and they did it right 25 seconds in

it starts with Swanson getting tackled around the Japan you know 30 yard line if you will and then it's laid off for Tanikawa and she just hits a lovely first time ball 50 yards downfield into the path of Sakeh

and Nice Warner sucked too far forward to catch up. Tina Davidson is hustling back, but doesn't quite get there. I think maybe because she thought the angle was so difficult, she didn't need to commit to a full sliding challenge. But anyway, she doesn't. And Seki hits it, just gets it past Davidson, and skims it across the face of goal,

kisses it off the far post, one zero. And it's a real nice finish. So what do you think, Greg? I mean, before we get to Neier, what do you think of Davidson and Nicewanger? So this was where knowing what the structure became later in the game, like then watching this, Nicewanger is like bitten by her instructions here

because there's a little bit of head tennis after the kickoff. And we get the ball to Swanson, you know, and she has full control of it. But we're still all in like our kickoff shape, right? We're still all like, we're not, we're certainly not in like a possession shape. And so Nyswanger, like, it's like, oh, we have the ball. I need to get up into the front line. Like I'm now an attacking left side of the, I have the width to get up there. And so she like starts to burst forward, but in sort of the confusion of the, you know,

just seconds after kickoff, Swanson just sort of drives the ball forward, like doesn't wait for anybody. It doesn't wait for us to get our shape. So she just drives the ball forward. And Nicewanger doesn't catch up to anything. like certainly can't catch up to the play. And so they turn us over. And before Nice Wonger can drop back the 30 yards she needs to to get our shape set, Japan hits it over her head.

So it's not like, it wasn't like they, you know, she got caught up on some pistony action from Japan or anything, some nice patterns. She was literally running up to try to catch up with Swanson to create that, to create like our possession shape. And we lost it very quickly.

So how do we prevent that sort of thing happening in the future? I feel like that's literally just like kickoff chaos. Like I don't think that that's a real thing that I'm worried about, to be honest. You're not worried about Davidson at all, like her catch-up speed or... I mean, it was such a tight angle. It's like... Exactly. She's there.

She's caught up. Like, at this point, centerbacks aren't even... When you're chasing that player down at that angle, you're usually not even, like, taught to block the shot anymore, I don't think. Like, it's very much, like, don't. let them square it for a tap in. Not that Japan had any players to even square it to at that point, but, like, you're very

much like, from this angle, it's the goalie's job to stop the shot. It wasn't that hard of it. Like, she didn't rifle it. It was, it was not, like, it was not smashed. This wasn't a wall-uped shot. So you can kind of see where I'm going here. It's on Alyssa. Yeah, some of the actual

shot going in, a bit of this is on Alyssa. And we did the, we did this a pruder and, like, we got the frame by frame, and it's just like, we talk so much about her near post security blanket. And she is, like, her left foot is dangerously close to being outside the near post frame and, like, being out of bounds, like taking away the out of bounds shot. I mean, she has got that near post covered.

And, yeah, it's just. A little bit of the outside of the side netting as well. Yeah. So it's, it's well placed. Again, it's in off of the post, but it's not super hit hard. and the angle's tight, and it's just like, you wonder if she's, if that cheating cost her here. Okay. The cheating saved her in making a save against Columbia.

So, you know, generally just prefer to be in the trip. You win some, you lose some with cheating. Well, one zero. But, you know, a lot of game, a lot of game to go. 89 minutes and 30 seconds, to be precise. So to the rest of the timeline. So minute 35 in, nice little shimmy from Trinity, and she plays a good ball into the Man City Zone for Morgan,

who does get to it and then tries to beat a defender and gives it away on the end line. And that was kind of her night in a nutshell. She'd get on the ball, she'd lose it. Not every single time. She didn't do nothing well, but a lot of the time she was dispossessed. Yes.

I think ineffective would definitely be the watchword. word. We'll talk, I'm sure we'll talk more about that. Fourth minute, good corner kick from Swanson. Love Swanson's set pieces. You know, I'm, I've, you know, I'm on here yammering about bad set pieces on the men's side, pissing people off with all that. Great set pieces from Swanson. And Shaw, it actually hits Shaw's head. She's leaning back a little bit. It's a really difficult, it's a really difficult header and she can't steer it on frame. But, you know, we got a curling ball with pace that hits a teammate's head between the

penalty marker and the six-yard box. Dead center of the field, yeah. I like it. I mean, that's one where you don't even have to know that much about it and you can score a goal. Right. Just kind of just kind of just jump up without even looking at the ball. It could hit your head and bounce in.

Five-minute mark. Good stuff from coffee and Shaw through the. middle, I think. I mean, mostly from Shaw here. She plays on the half turn and then kind of hits a ball at Morgan's chest at the edge of the box. Morgan does well to bring it down, but then can't quite connect with Mal Swanson, who's darting through a little crease right next to her. But I thought coffee was really good in this game, and I loved to see it. Yeah, and this one, even this sequence like that that was only the second half of the sequence we had a you know the buildup was great like this was building up from all the way from the back and even before it gets over to to coffee

and and shaw like it was it was uh haran hitting one of her little disguised vertical passes up to mal who got into that half space it was like we hit the left side vertical pivot to uh half space pocket and then a quick switch mal like got it and immediately switched over to trinity like it looked choreographed you're watching you're like oh that is a nice pattern that we just played just to get it over to Trinity. And maybe if that happens a little later in the game, Trinity's going to be more aggressive because she's got like some room to go one-v-one here. And instead she just, you know, hits it back to coffee nice and simple.

And then we get another little vertical from that pivot to our to our half space pocket to Shaw. So it's just like, yes, this is, again, this is, for me, that is, that's music. It's what we've been asking for. Yeah. So really solid, promising moments here straight away. More of that in the seventh minute. Some patient buildup with a little bit of a press from Japan. And we play it to coffee who receives it nicely on the half turn

and then just switches it all the way over to Nicewanger. So, I mean, it's passed back and forth on the back line. We're just looking for a little moment. And coffee finds the moment, switches it to Nicewanger, plays it to Mowler, plays it to Mal who looks dynamic on that left side. Nothing comes off, but she's just looking, she's looking real good.

A lovely move from us up the left in the 10th minute. It's Tierna Davidson to Nyswanger, and then Nicewanger plays it to Swants and coming back to the ball or about the half line. She kind of skips past a defender, and then plays a nice pass to Niswanger down the line, Swanger making a determined run. And she hits a, I think, very good first-time ball with that left foot of hers,

curling into the box all the way to the backpost where Trinity is arriving. And Trinity has a shot. It's put off by the sliding challenge from the defender and goes over. But that's some real nice soccer from us right there. Yeah, really clean. Again, really perfectly weighted ball from Swanson to hit it through a narrow. window for for nice winger and then i love the early ball here from nice one i'm not a i'm not cross fc whatsoever but when you can put it behind the back line to curl it around them where if they are

going to make a play they're facing their own goal i think from the replay it looked like their defender is the one who slid into that ball and put it over her own goal uh so it was it i okay and that's certainly what trinity definitely thought so so uh it's i mean super dangerous ball and it's like they either make a great clearance uh and maybe put it in their own goal or it's Trinity sliding at home. So yeah, again, perfectly executed on all parts and just really more promising type of soccer that we're excited to see. Yeah, I guess it would get tedious if we just kept talking about these, but there was more of this immediately. I was going to say that. Like, there are so many of these that any one of these that we've already talked about would

have been by far the best sequence in the Brazil game. Like it was to the point where, like, we made four neutral passes in a Brazil game. And it's it. We put four passes together. This was the moment of the – but the other – the thing we have to talk about, though, is Japan were not pressing us the way Brazil were. Japan were not getting up in our faces. They had a little bit lower line of confrontation. So the question does remain.

Like, is this going to be something where teams will – Like as we add this structure, I think it's going to be very fascinating to see us improve and then to see the response from opponents to say, all right, well, we can't let them play like this. If they get a little bit of like sophistication here, we're cooked, we have to do something different. Or if they say, no, they're not that good at it. We can sit back and let Lindsay Horan pick out passes. I'm very curious to see how teams will react to a coherent U.S. women's national team. Yeah. And I feel like, you know, we, with coffee sort of, it seems to me settling into the role and Huran playing a little deeper, it does give us, it does give us some elegance in the buildup from deep, you know.

And so I'm bullish, I'm bullish, not bearish, bullish, bullish on our prospects. If we were to, if we play like this, we were to face a Brazil team that presses us like this, we could really make them pay. I feel like we could. I'm hopeful we could. Yeah, I definitely think we could. Okay. 15th minute, the press wins it for us. Morgan collects it and this is one of her nice moments of the game. It plays just a soft ball across Zone 14.

So the area on top of the Japan box for Lindsay Horan, who's arriving there. And she plays a nice first time left-footed pass right to Mal's feet near the penalty marker and Swanson just dances past two defenders and has a shot from the left side that I think goes through the closest defender's legs and totally beats the keeper. I mean, it's going in. But for a goal line clearance by Miyabi Maria, the left back, who was, I got to tip my cap to her just extremely responsible and getting back to cover that back post. Like she's a well-coached soccer player and intelligent.

and if she doesn't make a determined effort to get back there, it's 1-1 at this point. So many things to love about this play. One, I'll continue to praise for the defender because like we talked about in the men's recap against Mexico, as a keeper, it's all about like you deny every possible inch just in case the ball goes into that inch of the goal. So for the defender to come back and be like,

I can cover a two-foot square of the goal just in case the ball goes to that spot. Everyone has to have that mindset in those moments. So credit to her. Now on the U.S. side, the press, like this is, by my count, the fourth short goal kick Japan had taken in this game where we made their lives hell. And this was where we got the best look after it. But this certainly wasn't even the first time that we took Japan, like possession

international side FC, other than Spain, and like made them look like a mess. Just an absolute, like, disaster. And so if you can do that against Japan, you're going to do that against anybody. So, again, tons of revenue coming from this aggressive posture. We were clever about how we set up our press on our goal kicks because it would be like, Morgan wouldn't be the one chasing right away. Not that maybe she couldn't, but I'm just going to say it was better to have Trinity and Mao chasing the initial short pass and Morgan sitting deep to deny like a ball, a vertical ball at the middle.

and then and then sort of trying to chase down the ensuing dominoes. And it was everybody. It was the center mids. It was the fullbacks. Like Germa got called up into press like three-fourths away off the field after Japan kind of half almost got through that initial line of pressure. But we are dogged in our defense against short goal kicks. And that might seem silly, but like we saw it in the Gold Cup. Other teams taking short goal kicks against us is really risky at the time.

this point. Well, I mean, I can't remember if it was a short goal kick that Shaw scored on. Was it? In fact, it was. Okay. So when we do that, you know, everybody's pressing, does the 4-4-2 defensive shape kind of become like a 24-4? I think you could call it that.

Yeah. So Shaw was doing more of the chasing as like in that Morgan line. Like it was Shaw and Morgan kind of paired up centrally. and Shaw would do more of the chasing. I mean, she can cover ground so fast. I mean, she, again, from the Gold Cup, she was taking the ball off of the goalkeeper's feet at times. She was the wide player as one of those chasers.

So we've got good chasers. And again, we're doing this with Morgan and with Heran, two players who you wouldn't necessarily think of as full chasers. So this is the other area I do want to make sure I give Morgan credit because you can't do what we're doing if Morgan's a passenger. So she wasn't a total passenger. I think we were clever with how we set it up. But she's contributing here with her pursuits and her angles and all that.

Everyone has to be because you wouldn't be able to do this against Japan with one person just like spectating. Yeah. Good point. And everybody talks about how Trinity Rodman is one of the best defensive forwards in the world. And whenever I hear that I'm like, yeah, great, can she be a good offensive forward? But I recognize it. And then, man, Swanson, when she chases, the space between her and the person she's pursuing, it just evaporates. It's just gone.

Yeah. And so we were way more aggressive in this matchup against Japan than we were against Japan a year ago. February, yeah, about a year ago. At that point, we essentially gave up. We said, no, Japan is passing through us. Like, we dropped off, you know, almost to midfield and just sort of let them have their tidy passes. and it was not the case in this game. And I believe Vince, Vince noted it that their manager said something about

we just had the worst time getting through their, like just getting through their high pressure. Yeah. Okay. Boy, a lot to be happy about. 16th minute, okay, as soon as I say that, 16th minute, Germa pulls up running back toward her goal, toward our goal.

Looks like she strained a muscle. they said after the game it was her thigh kind of looked like the way somebody pulls up when their hamstring is strained a little bit but I guess that's part of the thigh but probably not what they mean when they say thigh hopefully she's okay

because she's a really good player she is if you want to try to look for any kind of a silver lining here we talk about so much about how our defense has been outstanding for the last three years. And we've given Germa a lot of credit for that. Germann has not played like every minute of those games.

We had last cycle, we had a rotation of her cook and Dahl Kemper. Ertz played the World Cup. We just lost Germa against Japan 15 minutes in. Japan are very good. We gave Japan nothing with Dahl Kemper and Tiena playing centerback. That's true. Yeah. Dahl Kemper was kept a quiet shop back there, which is kind of what you want.

We get a chance. Nice, Wanger draws in the right back, you know, sort of striding forward with the ball. Very patient, waits for that right back to step to her and then slips Swanson in behind. Swanson plays a beautiful left-footed cross on a platter for Rodman. And she heads it, you know, basically, this happens, but basically the only spot where Yamashita can get to it. She's got a lot of the goal to head it into, and, you know, it happens. Yeah, it's still good to say from Yamashita. she's working her way across. Again, I'm going to give my goalkeepers to credit.

Like, she's over on the near post when Swanson hits the cross, has to get across quickly to get to Trinity's header. But then also isn't up off the ground for that rebound of her shot that Morgan puts well wide of the frame. Right. I'm actually, you know me. I'm not actually like even criticizing Morgan for missing there. I'm saying we had a double chance and that's a good thing. Yeah, we were racking up XG in this moment. 20th minute coffee well 20th minute is when we score our goal coffee wins in the press this was on a goal kick is that right correct yeah it's the goal kick directly after morgan's mess okay yeah makes sense

coffee wins it uh i mean heran's kind of in the area she does she's kind of part of it too but uh coffee's the one who takes it uh off kind of off of somebody's foot with their back to goal and then strides past that player, dribbles forward, draws the attention of three defenders, and then releases it to Shaw in Zone 14. Shaw opens up with her right foot, hits it across her body, just a clean, beautiful, professional strike-on goal

into the far post. Zero chance for Yamashita, a thing of beauty. Check out the aerial view on Instagram if you, if you have that app on your phone. And I guess at Mercedes Ben Stadium, they have a ball tracker camera and you can see like the whole how it all develops and it's really cool to watch.

It kind of looks like a video game. Anyway, she makes it look easy, a strike like that, which is not true. It's not easy. And it's one one. So this is one where, again, this is the press and this is a, you know, coffee is the one who gets the ball.

And I'm not trying to take anything away from her. But, you know, again, when you're watching in your mind, you're just like, oh, coffee. You know, it seems like coffee's the hero at the moment. But this is, in my mind, this is like a team turnover. You know, this is turnover is created by the team, just like the other four goal kicks that we had Japan scrambling on. And because of the way the team is functioning, somebody is going to pick up Japan's scramble ball. And in this case, it's coffee who picks it up. Great presence of mind to do what she did with it.

She attacked full speed straight away and hits that nice ball over to Shaw. And then again, just like we talked about in the Mexico game about the blocking defender, Shaw's getting closed down by a defender who's closing down from the goalkeeper's right side, Shaw's left side. And the blocking defender just over pursues. Shaw is going to get her shot off. You're not going to stop that. So your job is to make sure that you are taking away a portion of the goal that doesn't overlap

with what the goalkeeper can take away. And at the last second, that blocking defender takes like a hard horizontal step towards the goal towards the center of the goal and leaves that far post wide open. And the keepers probably already accounted for the defender taking away is probably cheating to the other side slightly. And so that's why you don't, that's why you see her not move at all. Like she's just like, oh, that's, yep, that's not the part of the goal I was going to defend. Yeah, that was my defender's job. And she hung me out to dry there. Was she a little unsighted by the, by the defender as well?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah. It was close to the cardinal sin of a blocking defender, which is to literally go from covering the far post to at the last second, you know, that two steps can make a huge difference in the angle you're blocking to taking away the near post. So it was bad blocking play. She didn't have the same responsibility as some of the other defenders

who made better plays earlier. Well, it's so hard to keep in mind where you are. in relation to the far post of the goal you're defending in a moment like that. I mean, did you... If you're coaching, if you coached players and you're coaching, and this is, I feel like this is a technique that should be coached.

Teach your defenders to actually say out loud, like, while they're playing, like communicate to your goalkeeper and just say, I'm your far post, because that'll put it in their head to be like, I am telling them that I am blocking the far post and that will force them to, again, take that responsibility on

and block the far post or near post if they're the near post. Like I'm the near post as you're closing the shot down. I don't know if they can even hear that kind of thing from that distance, but it just helps keep it in your head that you have, that's your job. Like that's the job you have to do. It's not your job to block every single shot they take. You block a certain portion of the goal.

And any shot that goes to that portion is yours. And if it's not, it's somebody else. You can't do it all. I have played a little soccer with you and some other sports that involve goalkeeping and balls. And you are a vigorous communicator out there. I will say that. Every single inch of the goal that can be covered by the amount of players you have available is you have to do it. You have to do the often as often as you can.

Okay. What did you think of, I mean, just take this moment. You know, we're not even, we're about halfway through the first half, and we've already gone 40, over 45 minutes. But I've covered most of the points that I wanted to get across about what I thought about this game. Good. What did you think of Nice Wanger on the night? I'm kind of of two minds about her, but what did you think?

I thought, I thought she was pretty solid, to be honest. And there was, I didn't see, I mean, again, you might focus on her for the goal. but she held up the rest of the way. It's not like Japan were just exploiting her over and over and getting her confused with her positioning, which is sort of what Japan are trying to do, right? They're trying to just move enough around that you get caught focusing on one player

while it's basically like slide-of-hand stuff. Like that's the whole idea of the passing triangles is you accidentally stay with this runner for too long and that's left the other space open. And they didn't have any of us really getting fooled that badly. No one was like chasing shadows out there. We were holding our block in Nice-Wonger.

I guess I'm just saying that to say. Nice-onger was just fine. Yeah, I was, I was dinging her a little bit for the goal, but I guess I've been disabused of that. Yeah, she's really good in possession and in the attack, makes nice decisions, shapes a lovely ball into the box. I guess I'm a little worried about her. speed.

And that's not from this game so much as like the Gold Cup, you know? Yep. It could still be, it could be an issue. But in this game, at least, like, she held up really well. She was involved in a lot of good possessions. I still also think that she has a couple of surrender crosses in her. From her side, where it's just like, well, the ball is set up nicely for me to drive it into the box. So that's what I'll do, whether the numbers call for it or not.

Okay. 29th minute Morgan shrugs off Kumagai and touches it past Moeka Minami after a big Haran header at midfield She gets fouled by Minami Was it a dog so?

No, the ref says it was a yellow And that's fine with me I don't want anybody getting a red card in this game No, this one was notable because Japan had abandoned the short goal kicks And so actually this was a long goal kick, and it's like, no, even on a long goal kick. Like, you're not out of the, not out of the fire yet here. Like, yeah.

We're coming back at you. And yeah, we are coming at you again. If you can't hit your long kick. And Columbia ran into this too. If you can't hit your goal kicks 65 yards, we're going to dominate you in the air. So you got to pick your poison, whether it's the short and playing through the pressure or trying to beat our, like, height in midfield. And some teams will have no problem doing this.

that but Japan has some trouble with that. Right. 36 minute, a nice moment from Lindsay, Horan, does a neat little croif away from pressure and then sithes through Japan's right side on the dribble. I think she beats two people and then slips Mal in for a shot from a tight angle, which Mal nearly gets it through. I mean, she kind of pokes it with her right toe or the outside of her right boot.

gets to it and boy am I loving life at this point in the game. Even though it's only his 1-1, you know. That's just, that's just ball going though. This was an outstanding half. Again, coming on the heels of what was a super sloppy game in the Gold Cup final.

This is great. I got no complaints watching this team play like this. I'll even say that, so this is what I would say. Literally, if this is like the peak that we had reached by the time we, like, got to the Olympics and we're playing in the group stages, if we were playing like this, I would have taken it. If you said, hey, this is how we're going to play by the metal round of the Olympics. I'd be like, okay, yes, I'll take this.

Yeah, I mean, there's been some dreary evenings at the ballpark over the last couple months. So if we can take this and improve over the next, you know, Emma's coming. Like, we got Canada coming up. Like, if we can improve here from this, man, I'm feeling pretty good. Yeah. I have a little ding on Emily Fox. She got it right in the top of the box after like a bit of a mess in the buildup. It's it gets played to Shaw's feet. She does just manage to hold off the defender and sliding and knock it over to Fox.

But Shaw springs right to her feet and is rushing into a bit of open space in the box. Fox receives the pass from Shaw, looks at Shaw. It seems like she looks at Shaw. She's facing in her direction. Does not play her the ball, which I think she's got to do in that situation, and then turns and tries to play Rodman out wide, and the past is blocked,

and Japan's coming the other way. I didn't think Emily Fox had a great game, but mostly just didn't like this one moment. I agree with you that she didn't have a great game. In the first half, I had already made a note, and I was like, comp Morgan, comp Fox, because they both just seemed like,

off, really off. I'll defend her a little bit here because when she takes that peak up after Shaw wins the ball, Shaw won the ball going to ground. So Shaw is actually still on the ground. For at least part of the time, Fox scans it. And

she just didn't account for how quickly and ridiculously Shaw did like a slide one way and then just pushed off from the ground and then beat the Japan player back going the other way. It would have been tough to anticipate that. I feel like Shaw's instincts for that kind of thing are really, really sharp.

It was great movement from her. Yeah. She also was not, you know, she scored the lovely goal. She did not have a flawless performance. She did not have a flawless performance. She was a little untidy too. Yeah, I know. I'm also just kind of like thinking maybe optimistically, she'll clean that up.

and I just can't stop imagining Huran and the pivot, doing her ridiculous superpower of holding onto the ball for as long as she wants, and then until she can just slip that vertical pass, four and a half inches away from that pressuring defender's foot, who's draped all over up to Jaden Shaw. I just feel like we can just have that anytime we want, unless teams say, no, we can't do this. We have to hit Huran with more.

We got to double her. We got to flash a second defender to Huran anytime the ball gets to her, or in the double pivot, which I don't know. I don't know if your teams are going to be able to use those numbers. That far off their own goal. Then coffee hits Mal Swanson out wide or in the left half space. And another pick your poison situation.

All right, the half comes and goes. What did you see early in the second half, Greg? We're already running long, but I got a four-minute bit on the kickoff. Let's go. We do the same thing on every kickoff, right? We drop it deep. We launch it long up to Lindsay Horan at the top of the box is what we're going for for her to like flick on to any of the attackers to run onto.

And it's pretty effective. We create real like danger moments. And I just noticed a fun twist because when we were about to take this kickoff, Nyswonger standing at the half line at the edge of the circle. And it's just like what is what is happening here? Is nice long? Do they flip rolls? Is Nice Wong are playing like attacking mid?

But no, her only job is to try like when we hit this ball back to. his centerback. Nice Longer's just supposed to like screen the Japanese forward so they can't get a running start to like pressure or launch. That's the whole thing and I just noticed it. I think it's a genius little move again. There's no reason not to do those

little things. So you can set a little pick and give your launcher an extra second and a half like any punting coach would know like that gets your coverage further downfield. Like that's what you want. So Nice Warner missed. She missed on the screen. She doesn't. I don't know if she

knows that she can actually set up inside the circle. She doesn't have to be outside the circle, but she actually gave the Japanese runner like a little bit of an angle because she set up too far wide. But we can fix that. I hope to see it again because I think that's a little clever stuff. Butterfly those elbows out a little bit too.

But you can't step into it as anyone from Connecticut would know because you're going to be called for that. Oh, poor Connecticut. You got a few timeline items here. Let's do them. I don't have that many from the second half, Yeah, we'll blitz through this. We just had another nice moment from Horan.

I thought Horan was excellent, but it's just like, again, the way she can ping that ball around, and she gets a nice switch out to Nice Wonger, who has a good cross. And I just noted it because the cross, the cross is kind of weakly cleared, but it falls to Mal. And Mal still has, like, enough burst to create a shooting opportunity. She creates room to get a shot off just from a standstill. It gets blocked by a second defender sliding. and late. But she's got that,

she's got that, like, quickness. And, you know, you wonder after the long layoff if that's going to come back. And I think it's back. Yeah.

And then a couple of minutes later, we get like a genuine Rondo looking moment that catches my eye because I love a Rondo. But it was just, it stood out because it was like three players. It was Nais Hwangar, uh, Mao and Huran,

like all facing each other in a tight triangle and just like little, little pings around the triangle. And it was effective. Like we, we got the, little pings and then heranne has it with enough room that she can hit another like sweeping switch out to trinity by herself and trinity gets fox overlapping her and and feeds that we get a decent cross and a little chaos ball moment and i don't know it's just there were so there was a lot

of positive stuff that there was for the way i watch for the way i watched like jumped off the screen well it just it felt like we were going to score it felt like we were going to score a lot of times too i mean we didn't but we didn't score a lot of times but it felt like we were gonna um um, clocked a untidiness from Shaw in the 51st minute trying to play Rodman in on the half turn. Um, it's just a, the pass is just, the pass wasn't really there, basically is the truth of it. And she just tries to force it in. It's not even close. Uh, then she, a couple minutes later, she takes a mistouch, uh, trying to receive the ball in the half turn and gives it away. Then she wins it and has, like you were talking about Swanson having a quick shot, very quick shot after winning it, that looked like,

The trajectory was low. It looked like it wasn't going over the goal. She smacked it. And it was blocked about five yards from her. And 57th minute, real nice attempted combo up the middle from coffee and Iran. The last touch from coffee to, I think she was trying to hit Morgan. It doesn't quite come off. But it's a really nice combination right up the middle of the field.

It's recognizable soccer. isn't it? Yes, it is. Great chance for Rodman on a lovely ball from Horan in the 58th minute, kind of between the left back and the centerback. Rodman runs onto it, settles it, and hits it well,

just saved, as sometimes shots are. A nice combo from Horan and Shaw in the 60th minute, just a little 1-2. Heran has a shot from 20, and it's saved comfortably. But, you know, you give her, you give Horan that shot 10 times. how many times it's going to go in?

Four? Probably one and a half. Okay. I mean, she gets a better version of that shot later. And I believe I heard Fowdy say that has to go in the back of the neck. Oh, yeah. But the other thing that I was clocking was again, like, we aren't just hitting home run balls. Like, that's, her hand gets that shot because of like, she and Shaw combined twice.

It wasn't even just a standard one to her. If it was on this one, there was another one where they did like a double one too, where Shaw's backboarding and you're just like, oh, man, this is just so nice to see real ideas and real choices being made in attack. Rather than just being like, it's possible to get the ball in the box, I'm going to launch it into the box. Yeah. Yeah, it seems like Shaw and Horan really click together. It's contagious. It's contagious for sure.

Everyone's going to be doing it. This is the new thing. This is the mid, doesn't it feel like this is the right midfield, you know, too? Like forever? I would take this as a forever midfield. Again, just literally on the strength of this game. I'd be like, yes, I'm fine starting this as the midfield for the entirety of the Olympics, through thick or thin.

Somebody on the Discord was humbly, and I quote, humbly requesting that we, that we be as hard on the men as we have been on the women after that gold cup. And I hope you're happy now. Because we are, we, we loved this performance. Our press is a real problem for Japan, even this late in the game. Fox has a giveaway in the 62nd minute in our defensive third. Again, thought she was kind of messy. Morgan totally messy.

Smith comes on for Rodman in the 63rd minute, son it on for Shaw, and Casey Krueger comes on for Fox. Smith immediately gets a chance from a not wonderful angle to the right of goal on a Morgan pass, and I think it was off a throw-in maybe, and it kind of skips up on her and she sends it to Buckhead.

So this one real quick, though, this is a better chance, I think, than it kind of comes off because of how badly it's botched on the actual shot. This is a really nice pass from Morgan probably your like second or maybe your best moment of the game. And the reason the angle gets, yeah. Yeah, the angle gets cut off so much

because that first touch like bobbles across Smith's body. Like if she takes a normal first touch, Morgan's pass lets her go to goal. So a first touch towards goal even a little bit and she's just looking at the keeper from probably just about inside the post. So like within the frame. So it was just a.

miss, you know, and it happens, but it was, it was a nice moment. It was a dangerous moment. How did she, how did Smith get so open over there? Was it, was it a throne? It was a transition. Yeah, it was like some kind of a, I mean, they, they, you didn't even get the initial part of the play on camera because they were not focused on it. And they cut to it. We just won the ball. And you hear the crowd roaring as they're showing something else. And then you're like, oh, we have the ball and where Morgan has it running at the goal. Okay. All right. Well, So what's what you got? You got something here.

So yeah. So right after that, and these were some of Smith's first actions. Right after that, after Morgan set her up, I noticed. Japan kind of delivers a ball into our box. We clear it and sop picks it up with room to transition. And she just is running, you know, full speed downfield. And she keeps running full speed directly into Japan's like three retreating players and loses the ball. And got a little bit of real visible frustration from Morgan who had been like trying

a race behind the line looking and Smith had all the time in the world to identify it and try to pick it out if she thought she could instead just turned it over and this was right after Morgan had set Smith up and I didn't know if there was maybe a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of tension there on the field a little playing time rivalry going on I mean Morgan hardly in a position to throw stones um what with her glass house and all but uh she's not wrong I mean I'd like Smith to be a little more sort of dynamic in that moment. Not dynamic in the sense of like moving fast forward,

but like sort of having a lot of options in front of her and like choosing one in a decisive way. She tries later and it wouldn't even make the timeline because it just turns into a giveaway. But I felt like it was weighing on her that she didn't hit that one to Morgan because she tried to just force something through to Morgan. Morgan made the run.

And it was absolutely not all. and Smith tried to hit it anyway. Yeah. She also played, it didn't make the timeline, but she also played Haran deep into the corner, and Heran was just like, nope. I'm not getting to that.

Let's see. Good cross in the 69th minute from Nicewanger, skips through to Haran. I'm not, I didn't describe the buildup, but I think the buildup was really nice here. And Haran takes a touch and rips it just wide of the post. Really good chance, really good hit,

too. Yeah, Morgan had a dummy on this and then no one was behind her so it went to a Japan player who just had it comfortably, but then just like forgot the ball, like took one touch and then just kind of kept moving, but the ball didn't travel with her. And so

Horan just walked onto it by herself and just, yeah, just missed it by a couple of feet. Yeah. It happens. Fowdy, it happens. She's got to put that in the back of the net. I'm kidding. Seventy second minute

really nice buildup from coffee, Haran, Swanson. Swanson's pass to Smith, who's streaking down the right channel, is a little errant, but Smith ends up corraling it and slips it wide to Swanson, and she skies her shot. But again, very much enjoying the soccer here. 76 minutes, Smith goes at two defenders on the right side, cuts in deftly and gets chopped down. This is Smith's best moment of the game.

game, I think pretty clearly, and it's a clear penalty. She does this defender. It's real nice. And yeah, go ahead. Well, this was totally unnecessary on the foul because it's three defenders. She's running, she like splits the double team because she's Sophia Smith and she can do that kind of thing. But there's a third defender there to absorb her.

And we didn't have any help for Sophia Smith. And the reason we didn't is because we've been playing for like two minutes down a player. Coffee had had the head injury on that last buildup. They resulted in the swans and miss. And so we're playing without another center mid. Also, just kind of, we didn't note it before. But when Sonic came on and Shaw came off, Horan did move up a line.

And so now the double pivot was coffee and Sonnet. So coffee's out with an injury. We haven't subbed on yet for her. And so we're just playing with 10 players. And Sophia Smith can still do this. And this is, again, for me, this is the value of Sophia Smith is run at three players. you made two of a miss and one of those two fouled you. Yeah.

Yeah, it was a, you know, sometimes you win a penalty and it's just a, to me it looks like, well, that was just really stupid from the defender, but it looked like she, you know, this was like a juke, there was some elegance to it from Smith. And then her hand steps up, puts the penalty away, down to the keeper's right, very nicely taken penalty, two one. And like we said, Japan really, since that opening goal, has not created much, as you know, from this timeline, if you're still listening now.

We created a lot. McCario, Cat Macario comes on for Morgan right after the goal. Dunn comes on for Swanson, and Corbin Albert comes on for coffee. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah, and then Nysewanger actually moves up a line. So Dunn plays left back,

and Nicewanger is playing like left mid and Kat plays straight up like the striker. So we didn't, I think that's notable. We didn't move Sophia up and put Kat on like the wing to play the Jaden Shaw inverted role. Like Kat played, Kat played up at the nine. Again, we're working her back. I'm really curious about this too. If this sub for Kat like Kat was going to happen no matter what.

Like if this was game state independent, even though it's technically like a tournament that the winner advances to play the other winner. I'm curious if we would have done this no matter what, just because getting cat minutes is a priority. I hadn't thought of it that way, but it is notable that she plays the nine and Smith stayed out wide as a winger. 81st minute, Hina Sugita puts Casey Kruger in hell for a minute

and draws a foul deep in the corner. Just got to note it, got to clock it. I mean, she beats her twice and then gets fouled. And on the ensuing Japanese set piece, we do not defend particularly well. Mina Tanaka gets a free header from eight yards out. Puts it, you know, just very comfortably to Neher's left, thankfully. And then I guess my only other things are Macario didn't get too much chance to make an impact. But when she did get on the ball, there was not a lot to get excited about.

It wasn't like, whoa, it wasn't, you know, Swanson's back from a long injury layoff. She's electrifying in this game. I would not say Macario's, Macario was not like that when she came out. Part of it was just what you're being asked to do. Like, if we make the comp of Macario, it's going to be like her getting the ball on the sideline and just like holding it there because we're just kind of running the clock out.

So it's like, what is she trying to do? Is she doing it? Do we even care about what she's trying to do in those moments? Or is it just like, we're glad to have her on the field? Totally. But no, it wasn't, it wasn't like she didn't come in and there weren't fireworks. That's for sure. I mean, that's the main thing is that, like you said, she's back on the field.

That's wonderful news and great to see her back. And, I mean, she did try that clipped ball in the 80th for Sophia, which I like the idea. This was a little heavy. And then the only other thing is 92nd minutes, some outstanding last ditch defending from Crystal Dunn on Japan's second moment of true danger in the game. A really nice through ball and Don is alert to it, slides and gets to it before the

attacker who is just to her right. And that's it from Atlanta. Columbus on Tuesday, right, against Canada. Vince is going to be there. Tara's going to be there. Nice.

I think, if I'm not mistaken, Vince is going to be at Brothers, which is some kind of college bar in Columbus, and you should look him up. He might buy you a drink. Sophia for Morgan, let's swap the goalie out and run it back. Okay. It's tough.

I know it's harsh on Nair. I just feel like, I mean, she's served as well. She keeps serving as well, to be honest. Auditioned somebody else? Yeah, I think we auditioned someone else. I feel like we actually have better shot stoppers. Yeah. So maybe Casey Murphy? That's who I think it would be.

And then Smith at Stryker, otherwise the exact same lineup. Keep it the same. Yep. Give Fox another chance to clean things up. Give Nice Warner a chance to prove that she's there. She's got the possession side. Prove that she can hold up on the defensive side. Let's lift another trophy. Okay. If you are a patron of the scuff podcast, you will hear the Monday review tomorrow. So, you know, check that out.

Check out. Check out the Patreon. Links in the show notes. And thank you, Greg. And thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.