Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #513: USWNT v Costa Rica recap

Episode Date: July 18, 2024

A night of total dominance and thoughtful attacking intent held back by our shortage of quality ideas in the final 12 yards. Full timeline from Belz and Greg. Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the scuff podcast where we talk about U.S. soccer. The U.S. women's national team drew Costa Rica zero zero on Tuesday night. Last result before the Olympics. Not a great result. Some hand-wringing out there. Now we head to France with Zambia coming up first on July 25th, which is Thursday, I think, for most people. It's going to be Thursday. Greg, how are you doing?

I'm doing good. Is there some hand wringing? Are hands being rung? You know, I mean, I think I saw some headlines about, you know, it's not the result we wanted going into the Olympics. Yeah. Finishing, we can't finish. We got to, everybody's got to learn how to finish better. I hope we do a lot of finishing.

Finishing drills between now. It is, it is the worst result. I mean, I'm trying to figure out if it's actually. even a worse result than the zero two lost to Mexico. It might be. Like, Costa Rica is not very good. And I know there's, you know, I feel like the ELO rankings for the women are still going to be catching up because of the vast swings that programs will have as, as resources

get shifted their way in different parts of the world. So outcome-wise, yeah, this is pretty horrendous. performance-wise, kind of just an absolutely like nothing to worry about whatsoever situation. Yeah, it was total domination. And, you know, maybe we should just go ahead and play.

I thought the Ielo showed that Costa Rica's related, you know, Costa Rica's like, what, 44th in the FIFA rankings? That's 20 spots ahead of Zambia. You're saying that's not real? Well, I feel like. I do feel like the women's rankings, it is tougher to try to gain much of anything from them. Because, again, you can shift your program wildly from having zero resources dedicated to it, which is where several countries still are. To even, like, modestly putting some money towards that and then seeing a tremendous lift in what you can accomplish.

But no, Costa Rica is, you know, a World Cup team. but, you know, again, there's also just big gaps as you start moving farther down the tiers in women's soccer. Yeah, fair enough. So let's just listen to one clip from Emma from the press conference because it felt like, you know, felt like I was kind of listening to you when she said this. So here we go. Listen, if you play a game of percentages or law of averages, we're creating more and more high quality chances

and we're getting more numbers into the key areas we're getting more touches in the key areas the last part's the hardest part and I'm really patient because I've coached teams that have to break blocks down and it's the hardest thing to do in coaching and if we didn't create situations tonight yeah I mean I might say something different

but I really love the intent of the team. He kept going with it. You know, Trin might score a worldly in the last minute, but their goalkeepers had an outstanding game, and yes, we need to be more clinical. Like, I don't need to state the obvious. That's enough, I suppose. Yeah, she gets interrupted by the loudspeaker,

and, you know, I heard that I assume you would largely agree with what she's saying there. Oh, yeah. I mean, you can, and you can take it as far as you want. So breaking down a low block is a challenge. But what I would say here is we didn't have trouble breaking down the low block. Like that was not a problem. We broke down the low block again and again and again. When I think of trouble breaking down a low block, I think of like the frustration

where the low block prevents you from getting openings. This was not that. This was opening after opening after opening. I mean, the sheer volume of touches in the box. She talked about it prior right before we jumped onto that portion of her statement. I think it was 60-odd touches in their box. I mean, it was just an outrageous passing, or I'm sorry, just attacking drill for 90 minutes.

And we got plenty of joy with everything except the ball going into goal. That doesn't mean that we were like super perfect, perfect. and all of the sequences leading up to it and then just missed the shot. We did squander a bunch of opportunities to push that actual chance creation number even higher. We turned really, really good moments into like average moments with the,

like Coach Hay said, the decision on the last, or the execution decision of the last pass, the first touch of a shooter. Like, they still get their shot off, but they sort of turned a really good opening into a really difficult chance to convert. So there's plenty to clean up.

But, you know, overall, I'm not in any way concerned about our finishing. And I'm also not like super like, oh, this means we are amazing because we create all these chances against Coast Republic. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not going to look like this, even against Zambia, you know, in an Olympic setting. I don't think. If it does, oh, boy, are we in business? And it certainly won't look like this against Australia and, you know, into the knockouts. Yeah.

Germany into the knockouts. Haran. Haran was asked about the field surface after the game. She said, no comment. Just throwing that out there. Let's do the lineups, get into the timeline, because there's a lot of, I mean, the timeline could be six hours, really.

But I restrained myself. Good, because we're at the point where we don't have to highlight every single attacking sequence, because we can now just highlight representative attacking sequences. Right. This is representative of what the U.S. does now, and we did it often enough that we can say that. Yeah, back in the Vladco era,

if we got like six of these, then it was, like, pretty exciting. And now we got 40 of them or whatever it is. Nair, Listen, Naird started in goal, Emily Fox, Naomi Germa, Tuna Davidson, and Crystal Dunn across the back line, Sam Coffey and Corbin Albert. and Lindsay Horan in the midfield.

I guess Haran be the most advanced one. And then Rodman on the right wing, Sophia Smith at Stryker, and Mal Swanson on the left wing. So Albert gets the nod in the midfield. Haran up to Lavelle's spot after Lavelle was a late scratch due to groin tightness.

That was just a precaution, according to Hayes. So basically the plan for Hayes was to run it back exactly like we did against Mexico, except that Dunn replaced Nice Wonger on the left. And I guess that was also a load management decision. Yeah, Nice Wonger not being in uniform as a load management. I don't know. It's hard to know whether like we would have rotated it all if it weren't for the load management.

But it does feel like this is, this is Emma's preferred 11, right? Yeah. And so. Notably, Jaden Shaw, not in it. Not really in the preferred 11. Anything else notable about it? I thought Fox played better last, you know, in this game than she did against Mexico. Caviata way.

It's hard to know. I mean, Costa Rica Rica offered nothing coming at us, which is fine because Fox has been strong defensively anyway. But she wasn't asked to do that much. There was no, there was no, like, ball progression necessarily. you know like it was it was all very steep I'll give you I'll give you there were there were some moments where some ball progression progression was necessary and in those moments we actually just carved them up pretty easily and got people right open running in the fox but there was there was very little for for fox to do as a stay at home right back Costa Rica's lineup

noelia bermudez gabriela guienne fabiola via via via lobo So Bermudez is the goalkeeper. Gian Villalobos, Maria Cotto, and Maria Elizondo, across the backline. Raquel Rodriguez is the nominal six in a, what's I guess supposedly a 4-1-4-1. Daphne Herrera, Gloriana, Villalobos, Emily Valenciano, and Presia Chinchilla,

across the band of four and then Maria Salas at Stryker. So I definitely think it started out in a 4-1-4-1. Line of confrontation for them. They initially sort of teased out that they'd meet us

with their lone striker up at their attacking edge of the circle. That didn't last very long and didn't even last very long within the possessions where they would start that way. Like after two or three passes around just our back three,

you know, very no pressure as we were just making those. passes we just moved the entire their entire block 25 yards deeper into their into their half and eventually with again no real progression necessary their line their new line of confrontation was at the other edge of the circle on their defensive side with their striker so they were they were sitting in that block and they weren't particularly even good at it that's that sort of the thing there were still massive windows to pass into to hit players in pockets and there were there were big windows even like

in the box. You know, we got all those touches in the box because it was easy to just hit a player's feet and somehow, despite all those Costa Rica bodies in the frame, you could still just hit a player in the attacking line in the box with like a decent bubble of space around them. Yeah, it seemed like even, you know, the windows of the pockets of space were so big

that somebody could receive the ball, take a touch going back the other way, towards where the ball came from, without looking behind them, then turn around with another touch. And then they still have like nobody within 15 yards. You know, there were a few times where Sof got in a spot like that. Maybe it's not very good training for the Olympics. Like that's, it really isn't.

And in the, you know, when I'm saying that you don't take much from all the attacking, the only thing that that I'm taking from it is, is intent. Because the intent is obvious, something we have hammered on forever. and we'll just continue to do so because now that it's happening, I just want to make sure I'm appreciating it all the time. But when we get the ball in those wide areas, what used to be like crosses 100% of the time

with nobody coming over to soccer. Like that was always the, my freeze frames in the discord, we're always like, here's the ball out wide with Dunn or out wide with Nyes Wong or Fox or whoever. Every single other US player, hips, belly button, facing the goal and they're just jogging towards the goal waiting for a cross to come in. Yeah.

And now it's so obvious to see, ball goes out wide to somebody. You have one or two players moving from central areas to the ball and like change your whole body shape, go out to the ball to play with that teammate. The number of like reverse passes we saw into the box where somebody starts driving in and then hits the ball against the grain to a player's feet in the box. More in this game than we saw in the entire last cycle. Yeah. I still think those cutbacks will get, we'll get in. do it in the timeline. I still think those cutbacks could be you know sharpened up a little bit.

Oh, for sure. That's that's the new low-hanging fruit for this team is the better execution of the cutback. It's not very good right now. No, it's not. All right. So jump in if jump in if I miss anything, but I'm going to go straight to the sixth minute in the timeline and we get a pretty good chance. It's coffee pings it over to done. good diagonal pass over to the sideline. She plays a quick pass inside to Smith,

who is showing, who is showing to her, which is awesome. Smith tries to dance around a defender and has it poked away straight to Haran. Horan sort of plays a first-time pass back into Smith's path as she runs into the box. Smith then shifts it onto her left foot and has a good hit from a tight angle, saved by the keeper. With some difficulty, I will say. because it was such an amazing shot, I just think the keeper didn't,

wasn't able to, like, handle most shots cleanly. It rainbows off the post and gets an ooh and on, off from the crowd, but still zero, zero. Yeah, I mean, not much to add here.

It was another example of the amount of space that Sophia had to receive that ball. I mean, when she hasn't poked away, it's almost because it surprised her how much room she had, and she kind of ended up taking it wrong way back into the defender instead of just running away from the defender who'd given her kind of a runway to just race past her to the inside, which you don't usually get.

So easy recovery then after after gets poked away and easy execution for Lindsay Horan to put Sophia Smith into a shooting position. We're doing good here. Yeah, I still appreciate, even though it's easy, I still appreciate the weight of the Horan pass into Smith's path. It's very nice. So eighth minute, good ball from Tina over the top for Dunn. Good chance for a cutback, but it doesn't beat the.

So again, as you may remember, Dunn's playing on left back. She's out on the left side. She tries to cut it back with her left foot. Doesn't beat the first defender. So I didn't love this one, and I'm actually going to call it more of a cross than a cutback. Just because the distance has got to go. and and again there's no there's no pick out here like you're not picking out the window you're trying to cut it back through and the theme i think of our cutbacks and crosses uh cutbacks in particular is we're still we still sort of

hit just hit them roatly like we just get there and just hit it across and it's not we're almost never picking out the spot we're trying to hit the window like here are the defenders here's the window and the tell is we hit very few like cutbacks back at sharp angles or even like medium angles. Almost every cutback is square. And a lot of them are actually like veering towards the keeper, like slicing to the keeper, which is almost always just a waste of a cutback.

Because no one can get to it without being offside. So again, I think that's going to be, I think I'm sure this will be addressed and I'm sure we can clean it up. We will never have a game in a competitive scenario with this many opportunities again. But very much hoping that we can clean up some of the angles were taken, the decisions and execution once we're in these super dangerous spots. Yeah.

Yeah, we're just going to be a lot more messy cutbacks to talk about before we're done here today. Or, you know, veering squares. And the mess. This is like, this is absolutely the coaching point that I think I would take from this. And again, in my coaching days, I would just compile all of those. You compile all those cutbacks and you're like, look at the spots we were in. Look at, you know, the players in the second wave arriving. Yeah.

How open they are is the attention is all in the first wave. How do we, how do we like start to identify that and make a decision about where we want to put this ball? Okay. 11th minute. Coffee wins it in the press, heads it to Haran, but she's offside. Heran flicks it over to Swanson. Would have been a great chance if Haran had gotten back on side in the press. Um, she was pretty high upfield.

So she flicks it over to Swanson. It's, it's flagged offside before Swanson can even take a shot. But, um, you know, just two steps offside there. Uh, yes. I mean, her hand is not going to be our fastest, uh, mover on the Y axis. I think within 30 seconds, actually, it didn't make the timeline, but, uh, it might have been Trin tries to like, again, hit Haran behind down the line. And heran very early.

in this. The ball doesn't go out of bounds by that much, but Horan very early realizes she's not going to be able to chase the ball down. And so it goes out over the end line over a goal kick. So it's, I mean, she has, we'll get to her vertical runs. She does make some decent vertical runs in this game and it's dangerous on them.

But that through ball to her over, over a large distance is, uh, is not the play. Yeah. I mean, I wish we could be a little more, um,

thoughtful about that, you know, like, I guess she's, there you're playing soccer. You're like, that ball is on. You're not really thinking about who's,

who you're passing it to that much. They are. Know your personnel. That's a, at this, at this level, and even levels below this. Like,

you, you know who your teammate is and what, what kind of ball they want. We've all played, we've all played adult soccer with, with the less mobile versions. Of ourselves. Of our younger selves.

And we've become that person. And it's like, no, for this person, you have to hit the ball exactly to the spot where they, they can get it. because they aren't, they aren't going to have a large radius to collect a ball. So they had,

Emma has had to come in and teach the team how to show for each other in possession. Now we're learning to cut it back against the grain. That's the next step. That's the evolution here. And then, and then we're learning. Just some galaxy brain stuff here. I said when,

when we were getting it, like any coach is going to be thrilled at the opportunity. to have such a, to make such a dramatic difference with a player pool as talented as our player. Yeah. It does. I mean, and I will say it's, it is totally different than it was, even under Twyla. I mean, like, the soccer's getting a lot better for sure. It's very encouraging. All right.

It's just wave after wave of attack from us. We're patient. We're attacking in different ways. We're just not getting it done in that final 12 yards. 14th minute coffee a coffee corner goes long it's recirculated to germa nice left-footed ball diagonally to swanson and she fizzes it across and it's bundled in by smith or a cost rica defender i'm not really sure because they didn't show a replay but swanson was uh was was flagged for offside right around the 1320 mark yeah uh it's tight it's one of those where she doesn't have to be

that far off um this is a good example of like when the square cut cut cut back is on and that's because Swanson is like offside, she's able to have gotten behind that Coast Riga and be blocked, collect it, and then you're squaring behind their line. The issue we had was Coast Riga would have so many bodies so deep that you're never really in position to hit a cutback behind that back line

where they're racing back. They're always in position to be front of the ball. So most of our cutbacks, again, needed to be more through windows or back at angles instead of into the teeth of that. that block. And the thing is we did, we did, as Hayes said in the press conference afterwards, we did get numbers in the box.

Like we had players arriving for that back angle cutback, the one that you, where you play it, you know, back to the top of the box from the end line. We just didn't really do it, maybe at all. Not even once, did we? No. And there were some notable misses. since we're kind of talking about the numbers and the shape of that backline against those cutbacks. The thing is when you can't get behind them,

when you can't get around the corner and be fully behind their whole set of four defenders, the movement of the players waiting for that cutback is super important too because you can't just wait for it to get to you. And you can't even really just try to think, I just have to beat my player to a spot. Like when you get out in transition and it's two attackers running against, against maybe three in the box while, you know, Trent has it wide.

A lot of times it is just like, if I can beat my player to a spot, I can score. And we have players who are very good at that. Sophia, Mal, Jane Shaw's been doing it. Like, I'm very confident in our players

being able to beat even good defenders to a spot to get to that ball. When it's eight bodies in the box that you're cutting into, it's not just about beating your, your man to a spot. It's actually like occupying a spot that that affects the entire block. So what I thought we were missing, that I'm a super long way of saying,

what was I thought missing in our movement in the box was the sacrificial run or the decoy run, where somebody has to run themselves out of a good scoring position to the ball, like that hard run across the goalie's face where if the ball meets you, you won't actually be able to score. You'll have to, you know, just deflect it and keep it alive. But that will draw bodies from. from the block over to your run and free up the people behind you. So when we get to more moments, we'll kind of be and put them in like those categories.

Was this one where we were missing that or were we needed to have that run? Or were we solid here in our movement? The classic sacrificial run is the one to the near post, right? Where you just run. Beyond the near post. Like you have to get to where you are closer to the cutback player than the defender in that area of the zone. As an amateur soccer player, that is my specialty, the sacrificial run. It's my main value add to my team.

All right. 15th minute, a fairly straightforward ball between the sideline and the centerback from Dunn to Smith. And Smith just runs onto it. It's just easy as you like. She's in a 2V1 with Swanson streaming to the inside. She squares it to Swanson. Her first touch is unfortunately quite heavy, narrows her angle to shoot considerably. and her shot is blocked by the onrushing keeper.

She still nearly put it through the five hole. But anyway, zero, zero. This was one of the heavy first touches I was talking about. Like, this should be a really good scoring chance. And it turns you a pretty, it's still a decent scoring chance, of course. And it's a good save, but much more difficult than it needed to be. This is one of the few examples, again, where Costa Rica didn't get into their deep block quickly. They had just had an attack, and Neer had the ball in her hands.

And it wasn't a fast transition from us either. So it was a little just loose recovery from Costa Rica to allow us to hit, hit those big spaces again as easily as we wanted to. Yeah, I think this is frustrating for a lot of people on the finishing discourse, you know, the first touch there. Yeah. And that could be turf, like there could be some turf issues contributing to that as well. I mean, that's certainly my operating principle here when I see Mal Swanson take a poor touch.

17th minute Trinity wins like four cage matches in a row on the sideline and she's off to the races gets cynically chopped down from behind by Priscilla Chinchia Yellow card for her Trin gets up and she's ready to throw hands She looked aggrieved

She looked aggrieved again For most of the night, I think Which is a little worrying Like we're very worried about this, right? Because this is a friendly that we're dominating. And so you got to kind of assume

that in a much higher stakes moment against better competition, you know, those emotional responses could be even, you know, could be escalated even more. And like, Trin's toe in a line there where in a non-friendly referee who's

trying to manage emotions in a match, it's super easy to just do double yellows there and Trinity's on a yellow for a nothing play. Like the ref's clearly going to come give this player a yellow card for clipping your foot intentionally. You're not going to get like hurt by her doing that. It's frustrating.

But like, like, just, just trust the referee to handle it. And we got to just move on to the next play. Wait, I'm marking it. Did she get a yellow card too? No, no, no, no. So Trinity didn't get a yellow here. But in a competitive match, it'd be easy for a referee to give Trinity a yellow for her reaction. Because she got up and stood over her.

and jaught at her. And if the referee wants to manage things so it doesn't escalate, we've seen some matches recently where that escalation was very obvious and referees lost control of sort of games. You know, there's just no reason to take a yellow in this scenario.

Yeah, no. Yeah, she's got to keep a lid on it, I guess. Not sure if that's the correct way to manage a motion with lids, but something like that. So 22nd minute, Trinity and Lindsay Horan craft a good break forward on the counter, a bit of good fortune. So Trinity plays like a sort of fizzed ball into the center circle for Horan as she's striding forward. It does really well to take it down and then just dally's on the ball a little bit too long.

Has it tackled away from her, but fortuitously straight to Trinity. and then it's in the box with Smith, and she tries to turn and gets crowded out, wins a corner. And suing corner, Horan nods it into the box, but nobody really attacks it. So there you go.

Yeah, this was, again, it was one of the other few moments where Costa Rica are high upfield because this was a set piece for them that only Fox wins, and then we do get out and run. Credit to Costa Rica, like, they are working hard to get back.

And Horan gets caught by two players, to get squeezed out and again luckily they squeeze out leads to the ball just going straight to Trinity and Sophia gets squeezed out by two players that she tries to round somebody into the box so they are working hard to be like if you don't have really clean touches we will be there to to disrupt it kind of see like Haran's that's not heran's strongest suit to be like um sort of leading the charge in transition you know on the dribble no it's it stood out because Horan knows that. Like, that actually stood out for her not moving it sooner.

She definitely, the same pass that ended up getting made by Costa Rica was on earlier for Horan to hit. Yeah. She should just, yeah. Um, 24th minute, a nice cross from Dunn after another corner and there's that kind of scary clattering between Trinity and Bermudez, the Costa Rica goalkeeper. Um, they really, they really came together pretty hard. thankfully everybody's okay i think

yeah trinity was watching the ball the whole time so i don't think there's any i don't think there's any this wasn't her being like looking for that chance to do a little damage yeah and i think she took plenty of the damage herself so yeah nice little bit of work from corbin albert

on the half turn in the 29th minute finds a vertical pass to smith smith gets chopped down on the half turn I'm just clocking it because you know this hasn't been Corbin Albert's strong suit playing, you know, receiving the ball cleanly and playing with subtlety in the middle of the field and it's good to see a little

bit of it at least. Yep, yep. And then, you know, with the caveat, but the Costa Rica caveat, but you got to show it, right? So, yeah, a little bit. That's right. 30th minute, nice entry pass from Fox to Smith. She's running into the cutback zone.

So with like a player on her left shoulder on the right side, her cut back just can't find Albert or Swanson in the box. I think Albert was on, but Smith, I think Smith just kind of hits a blind pass here and it's cut out. There's a subtle angle to this one. So this is not fully square. She's definitely, she's not just hitting it behind the back line and just hoping. So there's some intentionality here.

But yes, I think it was sort of just like a blind, angled cutback. Yeah. Which isn't the worst thing in the world. I'm not saying that's terrible. We just, you know, we've just got to keep layering on levels of purpose. Smith is such a paradox, I think, because she, because she, you can do so many things with her, you know? Like your team, she creates so. many opportunities for your team.

So it's almost like all the coaching, like the coaching staff should just spend all its time on her. Like refining her decision making in the final third, refining like those things. Because that's where, that's where like the biggest payoff is going to be. I think you're on to something. Like, yes.

You get, you get 10% more execution from Sophia Smith. And all of a sudden you're scoring five goals a game, you know. 30th minute nice sequence of passing from Dunheran and coffee leads to a coffee shot from the top of the box blocked Obviously we're stacking up chances and corner kicks But not really threatening the gold mouth that much 32nd minute Rodman gets into another scuffle this time with number 13

Valenciano I mean she was really mad at Chinchia earlier I don't know if I emphasized that enough she had murder in her eyes And now she's into it with Valenciano. Let's see. Water break. And then we get in the 37th minute, a nice coffee diagonal for Haran. Moran tries to reach out and poke it in past the keeper at the back post.

Pretty acrobatic from old Lindsay. It hits the post. This is actually very close to a goal, even though Julie Fowdy kind of missed. the action on the telecast. So here I guess we can talk about Horan's deployment because, you know, we tend to favor her sitting lower as her starting position. But she can obviously bring danger in these moments. She can make these kinds of vertical runs from a little deeper.

And you can find her head and she does a lot of clever things. She can do a lot of clever things with a ball in the air with her techniques. and then the other thing, the other reason I'm not too bothered about the fact that she was deployed more as a 10 than a deeper lying player in this game is because there was no progression to really make. You know, because Costa Rica is sitting all the way on top of their box, Germa and Tierna Davidson are standing on the ball unopposed

in the areas where you would really think that we would want Horan, usually. So there's just nothing, again, the tactics in these guys, games are just flattened out to the final 25 yards. So it's like, well, where would you want her in once we get the ball in the final 25 yards? Even if she starts deep, you don't mind her attacking forward. It's coffee's job to be the safeguard. So she's just, she's just already there from the stuff.

Yeah. Because Gurma could go where she wanted to, basically, with the ball. You know, she's like dribbling all over. Yeah, I was going to say, I think Tierna draws a couple of fouls at the top of the box. Like we are, there is no, there is no, like, there are very few layers here. It's, it's one perimeter around 20, 30 yards out, and then attackers, just moving free. Yeah, I mean, hopefully, you know, against Australia and, well, in Zambia, that, like, we're not playing through balls to Lindsay Horan. 39 minute mark, a diagonal from Tierna to Iran. Heron can't get good purchase on the header.

She did have Swanson running at the Gold Mouth. 40th minute, Fox over the top to Trinity. Trinity taps it inside to Smith. She's a bit messy in the way she collects it, but she gets a shot off and draws a diving save from the keeper. Almost immediate, go ahead. Yeah, well, that's what I was going to say. These are just right on top of each other.

You don't even move to a next clip if you're watching the, you know, on a review, you're just like, oh, the next thing that happened after that last chance is another chance. Right. Yeah. Again, almost immediately another shot for Sophia. Fox to Horan, Horan to Smith. She lets it run past her and has one from the edge of the box. Kind of ripples the outside of the side netting.

We get a gorgeous ball from Tierna to Sophia Smith in the 44th minute. Smith tries to cut it back for Horan and it's deflected to the keeper. But, I mean, she's really, to your point, she's not really trying to cut it back. She's just trying to square it for Horan here. Smith had Rodman arriving on the other side of the penalty marker. I don't want to have the screenshot in here, but Rodman's coming diagonally at the penalty marker from outside of the box on the right side. And all Smith has to do is just kind of clip it back behind the whole Haran contingent. And it's, and Rodman's arriving on a ball that's just sitting there for her to smash.

And this is going to be a thing that comes up later again, too. Right. And this is where you have to use the, you got to have that coordinated movement and use the movement of one runner to open up angles and find that second runner, find that second wave of an attacker. Well, whether Horan intends for it to do so or not,

her movement here does open up the, don't you think? Oh, for sure. No, it does. And that's where it's then on, on, on SOF to identify that. And, and this is a tough one anyway, because, like, Horan is actually open. It's a really, like, a last ditch sliding play from the defender to deflect it with her chest. You know what I mean?

Like, she's just sliding and it just deflects off her chest to the keeper. So it's, it's a really narrow margin of success for Costa Rica here to have, to not have had. Otherwise, Lindsay Horan gets a tap in. But, okay. Yeah, that's fair point. I just think the window is there, the window is there with nobody having a chance to cut it out for her to play it to Rodman. If she sees Rodman. And the keeper being like dead to rights because she's committed to Iran.

So if it gets all the way to Rodman, it's open that city. The other thing I want to say that struck me about this sequence is just how on that pass is going to be when you have. So I know we've talked about it before, but you specifically. they have talked about the pass between the centerback and the sideline to Sophia Smith. She's going to be able to get on the end of so many of those, I mean, especially if we're playing against somebody who's not in a low block or not retreating into a low block. It's going to be on.

And so, again, that's why her decision making and her technique in that final 12 yards is so crucial to the whole team. also just want to give Tierna some love here. I mean, again, this is not just because of this performance, but I feel like her passing in general has been excellent and a real strength. So it used to sort of just be, you know, we would go forever on Naomi Germa, which we still do,

but to have both our centerbacks hitting seams the way they are and having the confidence and ability to do that, will be a huge deal for us. It's going to be so fun when we put nine up on Australia, you know. I feel like, yeah, I did feel like Fox was having a much better game than the last one. I recognize your caveats. And let's take a little break, come back and talk about the second half. Okay, we're back.

Any first half thoughts, Greg, before we plow through the rest of this timeline? Yeah, I think we just plow through it. And again, the themes are going to be pretty much the same. Okay. Well, I'll try to make it as long as possible. 49th minute, Fox entry pass to Smith. She turns and burns right at the near post,

rips one, saved well by the Costa Rica keeper. Just this goes back to your point about their job. just being huge pockets of space, even like right in front of the box. Yeah. Costa Rica have shifted into a four, four, five one,

so sort of a flat five in the midfield. And yeah, they just, they can't cover the gaps. The gaps aren't, they aren't leaving like huge gaps objectively. Like the midfield and defenders are in a tight enough line,

I think. It's, they're just unable to adjust their spaces quickly enough. They just don't, I don't know if they just don't have the hosses, uh, or if they're just a little, slower in reading them.

But once we do hit a player in, they just, yeah, they just are incapable of closing, closing her down in a meaningful way. Mm-hmm. And so she just has basically a free pass for the next 20 yards and then, I mean,

nearly scores here. So, yeah, not only does she have a free pass. Like she has this free pass where it would work if it were just her. She's also being escorted by Mao, like three yards ahead of her. into the side.

So it's like if the defender had, I mean, we have a two on one here. It would have been a perfectly dangerous attack if it were just so. We literally also have Mal there who just turns into a superfluous attacker. And again, you can just like, you can just kind of,

that helps put in perspective how outmatched Coast Rieke are here. And again, huge credit to them. What a result for them? Yeah, but how much credit do they really get for it? I mean, if we're being honest. It doesn't matter. Like, you know, I mean, for them at the end, when that final whistle blows,

that is a huge moment for all of those players and that coaching staff. Yeah. And you can even know very well, like, we got so lucky in this game. But who cares? Like, you worked your asses off for 90 minutes against a team with incredible talent with a, you know, good coach. And you get to leave with, you know, arguably one of the best results in your program history. Yeah.

All right. Well, 50th minute, more patient stuff up on the left side, and then Haran drifts across the top of the box and has a decent effort from 20. Keeper saves it on the bounce. 51st minute, Corbin Albert Keyes a counter with a tough tackle at midfield. Smith moving fast with the ball, slips it to Swanson. I think in this time, this time a better cut back in the general direction of Haran. Iran hesitates a tad, and it rolls past her.

I'm not sure what she wanted it, where she wanted it. Maybe she wanted it further back. But I would venture to say I want her to attack that ball and bury it. Because I think Swanson put it in a place where she could get to it. I mean, if everybody was on the same page. Yeah, this one to me sort of just screamed that that adult league player that it's got to be, it has to be just right. They just aren't going to.

but yes this was this was the right again much more of a purpose and intent to the cutback and again like it's two runners she cuts it back somehow and we have two free shooters and it just is in the one spot where neither of them can get to it yeah so maybe this is one where the where sof i think it's sof who's ahead of heran right needs to make a more determined run to drag a more determined sacrificial run yeah to make it out because it's kind of where you can put it in an area and it's you're not even sure which one you're passing it too because they're both so close. So yeah, make more distinctive runs, you too. Trinity does two defenders down in the right corner in the 53rd minute, a little reverse

pass to Swanson in the box, and she smashes it over and wide. Not really a shot, not really across. Not really Swanson's best night, I wouldn't say. Which is, you know, doesn't say much. She's still extremely dangerous out there. Yeah, but no, the highlight here is the Trinity decision in execution. Again, to take that player on 1 v1 and eventually 1 v2, she skips past two defenders. And then to hit that reverse drag pass to Mal in the prime goal scoring, goal-creating space.

Like, this is what we're after. Yeah. Okay, here's one cutback where I have a screenshot of it. It's a good buildup in the 54th minute from the back. Fox beats her, beats her guy, finds Trinity. Trinity threads it from the sideline to Lindsay inside. Then Lindsay plays Mal Swanson in behind, down, you know, in behind the centerbacks. Swanson has a step on her defender, and she tries to visit across to Smith.

Smith kind of has to step behind her defender to stay on side. And for that reason, I think, isn't quite able to get to the ball. It's not a terrible sequence, but the thing is, Corbyn Albert is just, she's arriving at the top of the box completely wide open. And Swanson is totally capable, I think, of wrapping her foot around that ball and leaving it for Albert if she sees the option. She just doesn't see the option. And so the score remains zero, zero.

Yeah, this is a fun sequence because it starts with Emily Fox. You know, you could say it starts with the list of Neyre, way down on our end. And this is like, again, one of the very few times Costa Rica made the decision to come up at us. And it was like, it was a decent pressing cue to read for them where Fox has it on the right sideline goes back to Neyre. And they're like, okay, we're already up here. We're going to go. We're going to try this. And they get it to the point where they have Emily Fox on the sideline close to the corner flag.

And actually, like, the defender hits the ball off Fox's foot. And it's like this could be a moment that Costa Rica could exploit one of the only times in the game. And the margin is that close. But then the disrupted ball stays with Emily Fox. And she very then comfortably advances it up to Haran, who really cutely clips the ball. Oh, I'm sorry, to Trinity. And Trinity really cutely, like clips the ball six yards to Horan between two defenders. And Haran's just in a massive amount of space because while Costa Rica's front group thought they could do a little press,

here their back group did not stay connected at all. This isn't their game apparently. And that's how we're just now getting one of the few full-on open field transition moments of the match. And yes, the easy thing here is it doesn't need that much explanation. Hit the 45-degree cutback to the wide open player that all the defenders do the thing where they're all paying close attention to the ball in Sofia as the other runner as a first runner. And they'll all like just turn their heads and it's like that slow motion real

that there is a totally free player who's going to now hit an open net from seven yards out. Yeah. The cutback would end up putting Corbin about 10 yards out to hit an open net. Yeah. Yeah, as everybody's like slamming on the brakes, trying to turn around and it's too late.

Oh, no. So we do. That's that second level of sophistication in these moments and awareness and it is it is literally like easy to develop that. I truly believe that that's something that can be instructed pretty quickly. You think they're talking about it in on the plane right now?

I mean, I don't know when they're when they cover it. But you think they're going to talk about it. I'm meeting schedules. Absolutely. I 100% think they do. You know, Emma said the last pass is the hardest one. and it's not just executing it's making sure you're picking the right

the correct final pass to set up your goal yeah okay 54 minute mark lovely combo up the left side from tierna done Albert and swanson Albert's last pass to swanson is a good choice but swanson was offside I mean this was actually really slick my move of the game for sure yeah

uh it's just too bad I mean swanson's offside I don't know if she really expects Albert to keep the, you know, to keep the thing going, to keep the ball in the air as, you know. But anyway, she gets tackled in front of goal. It spills Haran. Heran slots at home starts to celebrate, but she kind of knows already. Swanson was off by a lot. We didn't get a replay, but it seemed indisputable.

And so this sequence is where I like to talk about how that kind of soccer is so contagious. And in those moments you can just tell, like, these decisions build on each other. And everyone involved, like, you start to feel it as it's happening. And you know you're, like, creating something, like, beautiful. And that's, it's my, it is by far my favorite kind of thing to happen in the soccer game. There is a lot of in and out in this one. It's like tierna into, was it tierna into Dunn?

Done. Yep. Yeah. And then Dunn back out to Albert, maybe. Albert to Swanson to Dunn and then back to Albert. I mean, very, it is just... It's a whirlwind. Oh, yeah, whirlwind of movement. Love it.

60th minute, another set piece, skips to the back post. It's laid off by Tierna for Corbyn. She kind of soft-shoes it a little bit, and it's blocked accidentally by Horan, unfortunately. Brilliant layoff. from Tirna though again Oh, I love it.

Tierna's having a day. And yeah, at this point, I mean, it's already been just like a laffer in the sense of like, you just throw your hands of like, oh man, how,

how? And then you have this happen. And I know, I don't think it was this sequence, but eventually you do get the shots of Emma on the sideline. Just like, just like, we're doing all of the,

all of the right things. Yeah. Oh, also, Also, uh, Horan, Horan, uh,

was considering the bicycle kick in the follow up to this. Oh, that's right. Yeah. So she, she, she, she knew she was going to hit the Costa Rica player next to her in the head

if she did it. So she pulled up, but. Yeah. Uh, but again, it's, it is not surprising at all that Lindsay Haran would be like,

well, balls, I'm facing the wrong way. The ball's over my head. We know what to do here. and she's going to do it. Yeah, what a player. She is.

Not even a very good game for her, all things considered, but, so we're one hour in, total domination, can't score. So many chances. I don't have time stamps for these,

but there's a Swanson cup back that can't find anybody. Robin does somebody and then rolls it across to Smith and her shot is wide with her left foot. Seventh-seventh-man. it we get a Corbyn back heel. Is she coming out of her shell a little bit?

Again, this stuff's contagious. So you got people, you get a little bit of momentum playing this style and it just builds and builds and builds. Really rough Crystal Dunn execution on that Corbyn back heel. Just kind of like skies a non-cross, non-shot out of balance at the near post. It's like she was trying to, she was trying to land it on top of the goal. Like she had a personal challenge. And then there's a quadruple sub right after that sequence.

Williams comes on for Smith, Lynn Williams for Smith. Actually, yeah, she comes on for Smith, but moves to the wing, and then Swanson plays as a nine. Casey Krueger comes on for Emily Fox. Jayden Shaw comes on for Corbynard, and Emily Sonnet comes on for Sam Coffee. I got to say watching this game, I was thinking, everybody said this for months,

that Sonnet is perfect for this Olympic Rock. her. But she really is. She really is the perfect utility player. I mean, plays three positions. Boringly. Reasonably well. Yeah. I mean, I'm coming around.

I'm coming around on her. This is, this is just great utility prep, right? To have Lynn Williams play forward last game and then this game, she's going to come in and play wide. And you've got Kruger who can play either fullback spot or centerback. So the, some of these picks might not have been like as a.

exciting as being like we could get a young like a younger player but no it's the Olympics you take the players who have a really solid base level of play at multiple spots to fill your bench yeah um so yeah too many good attacks to mention them all but here's another one shall shall work somebody up the right side manages to poke it to swanson at the edge of the six and her shot is just nicked wide um on the ensuing corner, it goes right to Horan just inside the box, and she takes it on the half folly

and sends it over for three points. So this is like a intentional pass to Haran's feet. Yeah, behind the amoeba, behind the corner kick defensive amoeba, which I love those because they look so pretty. They almost never really work against. It's going to take the technique of your life. The Jaden Shaw,

the Jaden Shaw bit on the right side of the box, though, where this was honestly something I thought we needed to do more. So along with the cutback, the pause and composure of that player receiving the ball in that space in the box I thought could have been better all night.

And I don't know how translatable that will be anyway because you're not going to have that kind of space, I don't think, in the Olympic matches. But the willingness to like not just move it really quickly off your foot when you get it in the box, but to challenge the defense to

see how they're going to react to you collecting it in this incredibly dangerous area. I thought there were a lot of times where we too quickly recirculated. If you want to do a quick combination pass to another dangerous run in the box, great. But I thought there are times where we get into this incredible real estate and then very quickly moved it back out to like a coffee or Albert or even Tirna Germa. And so this is kind of, Shaw, Shaw's kind of giving me what I wanted to see there of, like, let's see what, let's actually see what I can do in this space and see what develops as I do it.

Do you wish Trinity was doing more of that too? I mean, because she did keep dribbling a few times. I'd probably put most of it, to be honest, on, like, on Mao. In this game, in this game. Just like, oh, like, hold it for a second and see who's available, like, ahead of you or see who will run past you or see if you can shimmy past somebody rather than just being like, keep moving. But it's nitpicking because,

this is all new for us as a program to be doing this. So it's hard to be mad at like a rhythm pass, even if the rhythm pass is kind of a surrender of the situation you create. Okay, Rodman gets a chance after a Costa Rica gold kick. Horan heads it to Williams, who kind of collects it, and then plays it quickly out to Rodman out wide, and so that this goal kick turns into an immediate chance for the U.S. Rodman drives and rips one from the right side

and draws a diving save from Bermudez. Williams can't quite get any purchase on the rebound and it's out for a corner. But this is a real chance. Like this is a real good shot from a good spot. Full time, like plenty of time to tee it up and have a swing. Yeah, and the rebound's dangerous. Good movement here on the,

So the ran header to Williams creates the immediate transition moment, really good for Mao to instantly slash past Williams. And that's what opens up the big lane to Trinity. So that kind of, again, that kind of movement and read from the team in a transition moment is good to see. It had gotten a little vanilla in the past where it was just everyone stays in a vertical lane and just kind of all move forward together. Yeah.

So nice interchange there, as basic as it is. only a few more things here. Heron gets frustrated with Kruger for not hitting a first-time cross after she slipped in on the overlap by Rodman. Instead, Kruger takes a touch. She doesn't have a chance to cross it. I mean, she does have a chance

her cross is blocked and it's another corner. Rand was free on the back post. I don't think Kruger even noticed Horan through the whole sequence. Neither her openness nor her frustration. Because there are so many bodies between them. You literally can't. see her. But yes, it would have been the perfect. Heron knows. This is the perfect moment to

float it over everyone. The nice, you know, that clip textured ball with all the backspin, and then Heranne gets to tee up her volley. That's what she, I'm sure that's what Heranne was imagining in her head. She wanted another chance at a bicycle. You would if the, if the clip crosses a little bit behind you. You can't, you can't get anything behind, any power on it. It's behind you without a bicycle kick. Chance after chance after chance in the last 10 minutes, just one of those nights. I don't know what there is to say about it, except we are playing good soccer,

patient soccer for the most part in the first 100 yards of the field. And yeah, we probably do need to be better in the final 12 if we want to win a gold medal. I think that's right. I think, again, this isn't just variance, right? There's plenty of variance here. We did enough here to have scored a hatful of goals.

But it is more than just variance. Like it is, as we've been saying, It is decisions. It is identifying the right, the right player, the right movement off of the ball in those areas. So it is, there is still room to improve without just saying, next time we would have scored more out of the chance we had. I mean, mostly, yeah, it's mostly about that final pass

and then the movement from everybody who doesn't have the ball before the final pass as the final pass is hit, right? Is there another major category? Not for this match. This is what I'm taking from it. Okay. Croy Bethune gets her second appearance, comes on for Swanson in the 80,

around the 88 minute mark. 95th minute we get a Germa ball to Horan, just behind the back line. Good run from Horan. This is kind of like classic Vlocco ball, just float it in, hoped for Haran to head it in. She can't time the header right and bloops it over the bar.

but I think it's a good chance and then we get one last chance from Rodman cutting in and flashing one over the bar with her left foot the one that Hayes said could have been a worldly in the clip I played earlier. So that's it. I think the diagnosis is pretty simple. Yeah, I would absolutely say it is.

We are actually better than Costa Rica. Yeah. This is going to hit, I mean, we were talking about all the ELO rankings, For the women, it's actually just the FIFA rankings because they run a pretty basic, I think, ELO calculation. But this is going to hit our EO pretty hard. You know, we dropped off a number one in the world

and we're letting Spain add that cushion by drawing this match. You just got to beat them in Paris, right? I think that's the answer. And that is, you know, next week. It's coming right up. Not looking ahead, not looking past the group stage, not even looking past our first group match.

We got to take care of, one attacking sequence at a time. Yeah, next week it's on Thursday, it's Zambia, and then we play Germany, and then we play Australia. So lots of two, I mean, three really interesting games in the group stage. Oh, yeah. Zambia games are must watch with Banda, and they have, I mean, her coming out was the Olympics before,

and again, you know, talking about Zambia, they were pretty well hemmed in in the World Cup. between Spain and Japan, I think, just kind of demolishing them consecutively. But, you know, that was, even that was Banda at, what, was she 20 in that, a year ago? So she's been doing a lot of things since then. And it's, it's going to be something where every time she gets involved, it's going to be white knuckle. Yeah, I mean, I did go back and watch that Japan Zambia game. last week and Banda was completely neutralized.

So you think she's kind of a different player now or a more terrifying player? I don't know. I mean, again, I would have said she was terrifying going into the World Cup as well. It would not surprise me if we button her up and she doesn't get looks at us. That said, we have had some defensive clown shoes moments

where we've kind of gifted our opponent looks. She loves that. She will take that. Yeah. Yeah. You don't like catch her or you don't bank on her bottling it and making a mistake to create to cost her her own chance. So that's just what I mean about white knuckle. We could totally, we could as a team completely prevent any chances whatsoever from Zambia.

But I'm not, I'm not like super confident that that would happen. Okay. I think we'll score four goals, though, so it's going to be on Banda to put up four. Yeah, she can't do it. I don't think. It's going to be four to three. Now, if we give up three goals to her, I'll be pretty disappointed, and I'll construct a viciously detailed timeline. All right, I think that's it.

We got a men's U-20 roster episode dropping sometime in the next 24 hours. Their tournament starts tomorrow. So look for that. And thanks, Greg. Thanks, everybody for listening. It's on to the Olympics. We'll see you.