Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - W Gold Cup: USWNT v Argentina recap

Episode Date: February 24, 2024

Lots to be encouraged about! Lots to work on. Twila and the team are putting the ball on the deck and trying to play through the opponent. A good test against a pretty defensively solid Argentina side. Full recap from Greg and Belz.Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon! Patrons get a private feed for the Monday Review, which is, among other things, a run-down of club action for national team players every week with Watke and Vince. We have recently added patron-only content that’s available every Friday. Patrons also get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed OTHER LINKSScuffed on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAoundrEkZUgZ13IE5XIqrg We’ve streamlined and revamped the merch we’re selling. Check it out: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Scuffed on Discord: https://discord.gg/X6tfzkM8XU Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the SCuff podcast where we talk about U.S. soccer. We got another convincing win. We seem to be endeavoring to play with the ball on the ground. Jaden Shaw got a brace. I'm pleased. Greg, you? I am pleased. You know, I said last time out, just the mindset is what I'm looking for right now.

I'm not looking for everything to be perfect. And I totally agree. We are trying to keep the ball on the ground. We're trying to mostly play a little bit of soccer. There's going to be some growing pains, but if you're taking growing pains in a 4-0 win against another World Cup team, I think that's a direction I can be okay with. A team that was kind of a tough out at the World Cup. I mean, they weren't easy to play against, and not easy to play against for us last night for big stretches of that game, I would say. I mean, it didn't seem like it was ever in doubt, but. No, this happened to be a ball go-in game for us

where like first three looks we got, you know, we're 3-0 up. But, yes, they are not easy to play against. They didn't offer a lot coming back at us. But they were committed. They are aggressive. You know, they want to get into you a little bit. So I think it's a great opponent to play for a team that's trying to find its way through

and not just give up on playing. because it would be easy to, right? You're playing this committed low block, a 5-4-1 shape that they kind of rolled out defensively. It'd be easy to get impatient to just fling it into the box. We did get impatient at times, but it wasn't always flinging it in the box. It might have been trying to hit a pass into a window that didn't really exist. But we were, I still think, you know, the bar for me is low. We were trying to play.

Yeah. It seemed like we kind of got impatient in the second. half. Things got a little more struggley late in the game. And so we want, I don't have that much to say about the second half. I mean, there's some stuff, but not a ton. Let's do the lineups. Casey Murphy and goal, the big tall, lanky goalkeeper, Casey Kruger at right back, Naomi Germa, Tina Davidson as the centerbacks and then Crystal Dunn as the left back. Corbyn Albert got the start in, I guess would you call it a double pivot? with Haran? Yes, I absolutely would call it a double pivot. We'll do the full lineup and then I'll

kind of jump in with the how our shape was a little a little lot different from the Dominican Republic match. Very much looking forward to that. Okay, Rose LaVelle as the, I guess 10 in this lineup. And then we had Shaw, Morgan and Rodman across the front line. Rodman on the left, Shaw on the right, tucking in as she does. How was it different from how we played against the Dominican Republic three days earlier. So again, the Dominican Republic was an on-paper 433, and if you're not sure exactly, a nice time to check is literally like right

as the other team is about to do a kickoff. And we went through the Discord and had some still photos from that Dominican Republic match. And it's funny because even before that, the pre-match huddle, you had the four defenders with the goalkeeper and then the other six players, the attacking six, central midfield and forwards,

all just doing their own thing. so you could kind of see, yep, this is on paper a 433, and I think it was the same thing in this match. Now, unlike the Dominican Republic, our fullbacks in this one did not pinch in the way that Sonnet and Nyswanger did against the Dominican Republic. When we built out in this, we built out in kind of like a 244, where the centerbacks kind of stayed as a deep relief valves,

and then Dunn and Kruger stayed wide, but didn't get as advanced as they might. might do to create, to have one of them or both of them up to create like that two, three, five shape that we saw in the, in game one. So it was very much like they would stay on the line of the double pivot of Horan and Albert. And then it would just be about like usually Shaw, dropping out of that front four to try to create like a midfield overload, which you could do against Argentina because they were running that 5-4-1. So they kind of only had two players really committed the midfield. They'd have one from the line to try to step.

in if we ever brought three into central midfield but um we had we had varying degrees of success sort of accomplishing that yeah not just we weren't we didn't have an a spectacular amount of success but we really didn't yeah um but yeah again it's nice to see us trying to do it because we were trying to play it through the lines a lot and i will say right now i was pretty pleased with the way corbin albert passed the ball between the lines something I'd been looking for from her and hadn't seen much with PSG and not in the game against the Dominican Republic either, really. Yeah.

In my opinion. I'm glad you were, I feel like there were, again, a range of opinions on her. I felt she grew into it. I felt at first, but I think the whole team did. I think the whole, we all kind of, the entire team kind of struggled early. Again, it's weird to say struggles as we racked up three goals in 20 minutes. but open play-wise, I thought we kind of struggled to find

to solve our way through it. I think it's still sort of in our DNA to try to go wide first and that was really hard to do because of their width in the deep block their back five. But we eventually started being like,

okay, well, we can just try to carve them up through the middle. And I think it was almost like a noticeable switch when Corbin, Albert in particular, started looking for some of those passes. And you did get a, couple of nice sequences that, you know, just didn't come off. Right.

We'll get into them because I think we've got them in the timeline. But let's do the Argentina lineup. Laudina Oliveros and goal had a nice save. Also, very much misjudged the flight of the ball on that Morgan header, I thought. So the back five would be Julietta Cruz, Miriam Majorga, Sophia Brown, Aldana Comedi and Eliana Stabili And then the four would be Romina Nunez Bonina Prininger

Camila Gomez-Ares Mariana La Roquette And the striker was Yamila Rodriguez With purple hair She had to come off with an injury Late in the first half Was replaced by Palomar The timeline

Yeah, let's get right into it. Okay, so I just feel like I have to mention this. Some trouble on the broadcast in this game. Two booth teams live at the same time early in the game. And then later the audio wasn't synced with the video very well. And then there was a point where they lost the audio completely, which was kind of nice. But anyway, just a little production note there.

Production-wise, were you watching on Paramount or ESPN Plus? Paramount. Was ESPN perfect? No, I don't know. No, I was watching on Paramount as well. The ESPN replay, ESPN Plus for me, is better to watch for the replays, for the rewatch. No issues with the video. I didn't have the sound on.

But anyway, I was just curious if it was the feed, you know, that everyone was getting or if it was a paramount issue. Well, there was one, yeah, I don't know. I guess I don't know for sure. But there was one point where they had two different booth teams talking at the same time. And that's kind of crazy. Anyway, why don't you take the first timeline item, the first non-production one? Sure, sure. We got three and a half minutes in, a nice third man running action where we were building

around that width. And when we would get success building through the wide players, it would come on like a nice little around the corner pattern. So we hit it out to Trinity's feet where she's just sort of facing the field, not trying to put her in behind. And she clips a nice first-time ball into like towards Horan, who's sloth. flashing from central midfield up through the towards the box. It kind of misses her.

I don't know if it was aimed at her or not, but it misses her, but she keeps a run going, so it works the same as the dummy. It goes all the way through to Morgan, who hits a first-time ball to Horan, who's just kept her run going, and it hits a nice seam, and it just looks really fluid. It's got that real nice team sweeping move to get in behind. Heran floats a crossover. She's got two central runners at that point, Lavelle and Shaw, who are both, attacking. So again, that adds to that sweeping nature of it with everybody moving in concert.

And it goes over both of them, but finds a wide open Casey Kruger, who collects it a little clumsily and then doesn't decide she's going to shoot her pass for a while. And by the time she decides to cut it back, Argentina's kind of read her and picked it off. Yeah, telegraphed it a bit on the cut back to Morgan. Yeah. I was annoyed on in my initial watch with how many times Rodman gave it away in that pattern you're talking about because sometimes she would try to croiff it and sometimes she would just one touch it. But it is actually a really nice pattern.

And on rewatch, obviously the execution wasn't perfect from Trinity, but I like what she was doing there. I like that quick first time. Sometimes she did it so she'd have her feet on the chalk, her heels on the chalk. Sometimes she'd hit a first time right-footed pass. Sometimes she'd hit a first-time left-footed pass with her in-step. Sometimes she'd try to croy fit. But she was definitely trying to find that runner, often her ran, sometimes Lavelle, running parallel to the sideline,

15 yards inside the field. And it was a good pattern. I liked it. Yeah, we'll get to a few more of them. Four and a half minutes in, so about a minute later we get a, case of Horan doing her like dally on the ball superpower that she does. It's funny because there's there's like nothing going on here. She just gets it in midfield.

She's got her back to the goal. She's got a Argentina defender on her back and she's looking at like four wide open U.S. players within 10 yards of her. All she has to do is tap it away and you know, there's no issue. But she could just hold it because she can. But also Argentina are not here to play friendlies, right? Like, they're going to get into your ankles a little bit. And so her hand absorbs a couple of hacks that she probably doesn't need to.

And just in the interest of extending her career, I'd like to see her not do that kind of ball holding against a team that's totally willing to take your ankles out. Yeah. There's no reason for it. I mean, obviously she had a very good U6 coach who didn't yell at her to pass the ball, you know. But yeah, I'd like to see her build a little more. more rhythm early. So I don't even mind the rhythm with her and specifically because, because, you know, she does have this ability to hold it and then eventually spin the

player if they overcommit, but I don't know. It's like you've got to know your opponent too. And if they're going to come in hot on those heels, it's like just save yourself the destruction. And then about a minute later, she gets the ball in a similar situation, facing her own goal. And again, has a couple of wide open options right behind her. This time there's no dallying, though. She just, like, it's kind of a loose transition moment.

Yeah. She just swivels and hits a really nice diagonal ball to Rodman on the ground, who does the same thing she did in that other pattern and just kind of nudges it behind the back line for Alex Morgan, who's in. And we have a pretty good chance here. Morgan can't find a way past the goalkeeper who kind of meets her at the ball. Yeah. She does get a shot off, but it's blocked basically off her foot.

Really good chance. I don't know if the, did you, they didn't really show a replay of it, but did the keeper get a hand to it, or did it go off her? I could tell her hand or like, yeah, her, like her shoulder. She just stayed big. It was a good, good goalkeeping from a pretty small goalkeeper. I think she's like five, seven listed at, which comes into play later. But, yeah, that same pattern for if we are going to go out wide,

to have it just be a quick, pinging out there and just let our wide player bounce it into a slashing, like, vertical runner. Yeah, lovely from Iran and Rodman. Maybe Rodman's brightest moment of the game. Yeah, that's all. What's next, Greg? Eighth minutes, Argentina's big chance. They've done, like, nothing going forward so far.

They don't even look like they're trying to. They hit it up, like, they knock the ball up field, and then immediately start retreating. They don't even go chase the long balls they've been hitting. They retreat into that shape. But this time, it's just an Argentina goal kick. There's a little bit of head tennis. We are comfortable numerically, and so suddenly we are not comfortable.

And it's just, you know, we're still comfortable positionally, but there's a little two-on-one against Tehran with the head tennis, 45 yards from goal. And that little bouncing ball gets picked up cleanly by, I don't remember which Argentina player was, but very awarely hits it on the volley on the bounce and just has it dipping just off the angle of post and bar. No way Murphy is anywhere near this.

Right. It was a lot of get, I think. think who also put one in the back of the net that was called off a little a little bit later I don't know I mean this is kind of just a black swan event you know this uh this shot this chance I think you think you think it's sort of a in some way sort of a troubling weakness from us from her no okay no I don't think so I mean again it took it took the the strike of her life just even get it too even like close to scoring and again it's just it's such a nothing play like you could maybe say Iran and Corbin Albert aren't like the bruisiest double pivot where we might lose more of these little head tennis battles. But even losing this, I mean, in most cases,

it just turns into a three on five for Argentina and they don't really have anything that they're looking at to do. So yeah, just a one in a million hit that was not quite the one in a million they needed. Let's talk about the goal, the first U.S. goal. It's a little bit, uh, a, of an odd one, I would say? Yeah, we came right back from this moment off the post and create a corner kick. We earn a corner kick going the other way. And then in the corner

kick, whatever, the aftermath, we take the corner kicks in the right. After the first clearance, it finds its way up to Horan on the left side line. And again, she can just dally. She just has this ability to have the ball for as long as she wants, and she draws two Argentina players over. One of them lunges in, gets

impatient, and Horan is a smart player, so she kind of goes down easily with the lunge, uh, earns the foul and Argentina immediately protests. The two defenders close to her protest. Everyone else is like looking away. It's strange.

And then you get some real veteran guile, uh, from 19 year old Jaden Shaw. Yeah. Just kind of trots into that wide open space inside the box. Uh, Horan leads her into it with a simple little pass. And then all of a sudden it's,

it's Shaw with nobody on her and she rifles it in at the near post. Beats the keeper. Nice shot. As Vince would say the Jaden Shaw era is upon us. It is and it's, you know, the shot or whatever, I don't think she's like necessarily a ridiculous finisher yet. But she's just got that ruthless mindset, right? Like she's 19, but she's not switching off. No.

She's constantly thinking about where she can get an edge. And this is just, yeah, it's just a really savvy moment of play from her and, her and both. Her and, you know, taking that peak while she's on her knee getting up, aware of the, of aware of her surroundings. And it's a good connection. The goalkeeper is still not in the play while Shaw's taking like her second or third touch. Right. Finally almost gets into position, but that, like six inches that she's off ends up being the difference

because that's all, that's all the room we needed to sneak in at the near post. kind of fascinating that Argentina did such a good job in the run of play for the most part trying to contain us but they they couldn't they fell asleep on this in this situation and oh yeah a couple others eight players like eight players all like looking anywhere but where they should have been looking it's kind of incredible we they get a chance this is a really good chance to score they were kind of lucky they didn't. 12th minute, a set piece from

wide right, and it's swung in, knocked down by Sophia Braun. She wins it, knocks it down back across the box for Mariana La Roquette, who has totally been lost by her marker. And she settles it and dispatches it nicely far post into the net, but was a step offside,

just a half step. Easily could have been 1-1 there. Yeah, it's a nice finish. It was, we ended up in a kind of a not ideal situation where Rose Lavel is sort of setting our edge as the defender. We end up with a very accidental but great and effective offside line because Lavel like pivots back towards where the ball goes instead of sort of staying open to where her player is moving.

So it works out fine, we'll take it. It should also point out that this set piece was created. It's not a dangerous place to give up a set piece, but it was super unnecessary. It was like Argentina had launched a ball from that sideline during open play, and after it had been launched, Trinity Rodman just didn't like something that had happened, kind of like two-hand-shubbed the Argentina player

after the ball was gone. And she kind of can get a little hot in these moments. Like we've seen it in other games. I know when we were down in Nashville, we saw this against Japan. Like, if she feels like she's been wronged, she'll get into some afters. do you foresee her picking up the ball and punting it out of the stadium at some point? No, because she goes right to like, she's going to, like, throw an elbow.

I feel like she's more like, yeah, I don't know. She's going to retaliate with some physical play, so it's definitely something I'm always keeping an eye on. Well, did you see when she left a foot in on that heavy touch she took in the box? And that could have been. Yes. I mean, it should have been, it should have at least. going to yellow. I mean, you never know, like something like that can get looked at. And if they think that, you know, if the angle of your foot's just a little bit wrong and they're like, oh, studs are

showing. Like, with VAR, suddenly you can find yourself in the locker room. Studs were in fact showing on that one, I would say. All right, what's next, Greg? I mean, you're just carrying the timeline on your broad shoulders. Well, I had to put this one in here because it's so rare, but at the 1230 mark, we get a Naomi Germa whoopsie. No, I don't, I don't believe you. It turns out. I didn't see it. If you play enough games of soccer, you'll eventually make a mistake. And Naomi Germa, confirmed human, is just, you know, we're just building out of the back casually. And she drives towards the center line with the ball at her feet. And she drives directly into Argentina's line of defense and is dispossessed.

And they're kind of running back at us. But they've sort of fooled themselves into thinking they're good at 45-yard shots. And so they try one here, and it, like, trickles out 15 yards wide for a goal kick. Yeah. Don't get ahead of yourself, Argentina. another Argentina set piece in the 16th minute. This one blasted at the goal, I think, deflected slightly by Kruger's foot, but goes kind of straight to Murphy.

She spills it, but picks it up just in time to prevent a rebound chance. And then we get a goal, another goal for the USA, and this is a lovely goal, I would say, off a throw-in. Don throws it into Lavelle from the left side down in the attacking third. Lavelle plays it back to Dunn, then Dunn plays a nice little pass into Haran as Lavelle kind of drifts towards the end line. Horan one touches Lavelle into the outer parts of the cutback zone and it's a good dipping ball across. Shaw arrives to meet it with a low volley with the left foot and thrashes it in up and to the keeper's left, totally unstoppable, right in front of Alex Morgan, who I believe Lavelle was trying to pick out.

Yeah, it's a very aesthetically pleasing goal, of course. I love a volley. Alex Morgan probably is one I'd assume getting picked out because she had found quite a bit of space in between the two, in between two of Argentina's centerbacks. And Alex Morgan does really well to react at the last second to clear out of the way. Yeah. Because she was coming back. The ball was within range of her to collect.

She just wouldn't have had a shot. So she had the last second bails on it so Shaw can, can, take her hit unobstructed. So lovely hit from Shaw, good confidence in her technique to actually put her foot through it and not try to do anything cute to try to like tamely keep it on frame. And the movement, yeah, the movement on the throw-in,

we were having a hard time from open play breaking Argentina down, but really nice, subtle stuff on the throw-in rotations to totally bamboozle Argentina. By the time Lavelle gets it, they have like four players out near the sideline. out of the play. Yeah. So, really good from Haran and Dunn and Lovell, all three in that sequence.

People, you know, in the game thread on Discord, people were really frustrated with the way Dunn was playing. I didn't, even on rewatch, I mean, she did have a couple of giveaways that I didn't like, but I thought overall she was pretty decent in this game. Do you disagree with me, or? I don't disagree with you. I don't think she had much to do. I think her and Kruger both, because of the way we were building, they had very conservative roles,

so they weren't asked to, like, bomb up and down the field. Because of the width that Argentina were keeping, there wasn't, like, big space for them to overlap into. So it really was going to come down to, can our central players have that nuance, have a little bit of guile and cut Argentina up? And so, I mean, Dunn wasn't doing anything spectacular, but Argentina weren't coming at us so she didn't have to defend.

And yes, she wasn't going to be the possession, fulcrum that was going to unlock anything. So I don't know, it might have just been sort of the way the game shook out. Yeah. Okay, well, let's go to the next goal. And so this is just a flurry of goals from the U.S. 19th minute. We get the Morgan header on the Kruger in-swinger.

It starts with more joy up the left via Haran, Rodman, and Lavelle. Like, the passes weren't. I think a couple of passes in this sequence got deflected, but there was still, there were a lot of those because we were just kind of pressing up that left side a lot. So Horan, Rodman, and Lavelle, Lavelle whips it across again, and Shaw meets it sort of further away from gold than the last time, lets it ride across or can't quite get a shot off.

It gets squibbed out wide by the goalkeeper, the onrushing goalkeeper for Kruger, who runs over and collects it, and then steps back on her left foot and swings it in. Morgan meets it with her head, just pops it up. I mean, absolutely lobbs the goalkeeper who did not play Little League softball. I'm pretty sure because it took her like half of the flight of the ball to figure out where that ball was going. It was, and then flapped at it.

I was not impressed. I'm going to defend my goalkeepers here. Okay. One of those, you see this happen because it's such an unusual trajectory, right? Alex Morgan is probably 16 yards away from goals. This isn't like near. So if you want a U.S. prior to compare this to, I would actually say Tim Howard against Omar Gonzalez in Trinidad,

where it pops up that high, so it's like basically just coming vertically back down to Earth. And you see keepers get that timing wrong a lot. And we remember how Howard flapped at it. You just don't time it that way. It's not the physics you're used to. So, yeah, this keeper who's only 5'7 and is trying to track this ball as it's about to sneak just under the crossbar. And she just cannot do it.

So you get a bit of comedy because she actually starts her dive after the ball's already in the goal. That's I was going to say it was so theatrical. So she's at her highest point as the ball is actually bouncing on the ground. Yeah, tough. But yes. It's not one we're going to get a lot of, I don't think. Alex Morgan's stationary header from 16 yards away. But Morgan, you know, she sort of stretched out her arms, celebrated.

She's not going anywhere, folks. She's not going anywhere. Not today, anyway. So I'm going to probably incur some wrath a little bit from the listeners. But like, and Alex Morgan is great to have around the house. Like, it's so nice to just have that sitting around to be like, oh, we can put Alex Morgan in this game. She's done some things. Like, we're talking about a two-time World Cup Olympic gold medal winner here.

You may incur the wrath. I'm going to ignite the wrath and say that we got more soccering through it from Alex Morgan in this game than we got from Sophia Smith at the nine. There may be a lot of reasons for that. and I'm not saying it's a definitive data point in any way, but that's what happened last night. I wish you all the best. Thank you. I need it.

22nd minute, some clever stuff done, plays an entry pass to Horan, which is an elegant first touch into a pocket of space, and then tries a little reverse left-footed pass that, so Rodman and Morgan are both more advanced than Horan, and they both kind of try to make the run. They're right in the middle of the field. They're trying to make the run a little bit curving out to their left. They both kind of make the same run.

Rodman turns her head away from Iran just long enough to miss the ball, which would have let her right in on goal. It was a really clever little moment from Iran. It just didn't quite connect. Yeah, and we'll get a few more of these, and this is exactly what I was hoping, what I think we needed to keep doing. And we did a little bit of it.

So it's that finding the essentially breaking Argentina down straight up the middle, right, with these little clever passes, clever little runs and hitting the seams through their back five and through their, in the pockets against their four-man midfield. Another one in the 24th minute, lovely little entry pass from Albert to Rodman, who receives it with her left foot just behind the line, but Rodman's touch is heavy. So, I mean, this is a pass that cuts through two lines to Rodman, and she receives it with, I mean, opens up with her left foot facing goal just the touch is a little heavy and this is the one where she clatters into Aldana Kometti hits her shin or ankle pretty hard with her studs um so that's the one I thought

she could have at least got any yellow for Robin maybe shaking off that offseason rust a little bit a lot of missed opportunities for her in this match I also did like the patterns that she was trying to repeat so I'm a little bit unclear on what I what my you know what my verdict is about her in this game so I like this run again same kind of move where we're trying to go straight up the middle no sense messing about going out wide with it and Rodman in this case wasn't receiving it out wide she was making that run right along the top of the 18 yard box

and we get that nice pass into her so again I'm I'm encouraged because I thought it took us a while to get to this point 25 minutes but once we're doing it we're showing some promise. And then another one, right in the 33rd minute. Lovely stuff, I thought. Albert with a disguise pass on the ground, so she's got her head up,

like she's going to play it out wide to somebody, and then just a little, clever little pass on the ground to Shaw, who's darting into the pocket of space between the lines, Shaw takes a touch and then plays a left-footed ball that slices through the back line, not unlike the one that Albert plays to Rodman earlier, puts Lavelle in on goal. Lavelle, all alone in the box,

just winds up and tries to smash it from a disappearing angle and shanks it pretty much. Yeah, but everything else looks like a really well-tuned choreography, right? Like, that was such an in-sync sequence. from from Corbin coming checking back to receive it and yeah just looking everybody looking very efficient and economical

and that right up until Lovell can't wrap her hips around it Buscetti from from Albert I would say what else much I'm I gotta say again much more impressed with Albert than I was after the DR game much more impressed than I was on the first watch of this game too so I uh

I'm ready to embrace Corbyn-Albara as a six more than I was yesterday at this time. I'll join you. I mean, again, I'm open to just about anybody in giving everyone a shot to see what they can do. And while the Dominican Republic was not a game that I was going to draw any conclusions from, she was doing some things here. Certainly, like I said, grew into it. So her name popping up in some of these nice sequences, a good sign. Yeah, totally.

last 15 or so of the first half pretty uneventful other than the yellow for miriam majorga for flying in on haran that comes up later because myorga gets a yellow carded for a handball and then sent off but i did especially you know right right in that like let's say after the third goal through the 35th minute we were um it was a nice a nice television experience for me and i do i do think there was like an intentional shift towards not going out to the wings as much and trying to really find the way, find the path through the middle of the field on the floor. You think Twyla made an in-game adjustment or did Lindsay just make the call herself? I'm not sure. I was like looking for it. I was checking to see if I could find like

instructions caught on video and I didn't see anything. Yeah, I didn't do there. Like I said, Rodriguez came off with a knock late in the first half, the striker for Argentina, who was, you know, a pretty decent presence for them up top. And then Estefania Palomar replaced her. At the half, Sophia Smith comes on for Alex Morgan and Emily Sondit for Corbin Albert. Smith lively right off the bat running onto a ball and winning a throw-in and then a corner kick. I love to see that energy right off the bat. 47th minute, a good job from Lavelle after her own bad corner kick

finds this way back to her. She finds Dunn drifting into the cutback zone. Dunn does, in fact, cut it back for Sophia Smith. And Smith blasts it well over from, I don't know, 16 yards. There was a penalty shout off the ball as Rodman seemed to get dragged down. It also kind of looked like Rodman was doing some stuff. Rodman does things. I wondered if she was like pulling on somebody's ponytail in that clip, but maybe not.

Probably not. I think Rodman belongs in an era that doesn't have video review. So it was a no call after much video review, which seemed like the right choice. 52nd minute we get Kruger smashing it off of a bronze face off a wonderful Lindsay Horan carry down the left side and then an unsuccessful Trinity cutback in the loose ball moment that ensues Shaw's steps and pokes it to Kruger who just takes it first time

again hit Sophia Braun's face pretty hard immediate head injury protocol and it looked like it was goalbound if maybe headed right at the keeper Yeah, we are, we're mostly camped out in Argentina's half. So, you know, we'll talk about it on a lot of these, but it was still, I mean, Argentina are much better than the Dominican Republic. And the way that shook out wasn't in the territory we're occupying so much as like what we could do in that territory.

So for the Dominican Republic game, we had such comfortable possession everywhere. Like in the box, we were comfortably possessing the ball with Moultrie and Albert. and against Argentina, it just wasn't as comfortable. We were still always on their half, but the windows were smaller. More things were getting deflected. There was just more slop, Argentina, or more aggressive. So you just ended up with a lot more like contested play.

And us usually coming out better, but not quite clean enough to get really clear chances, even though we got a lot of shots, there weren't the wide open shots that we want to build towards. It just really seemed like a useful exercise for our team, you know, this game. And I'm really glad Argentina and some other South American teams are in this tournament. It's a big help, I think. All right.

Rodman wins a loose ball in the final third in the 54th minute, steps into the box from wide and rips one at the near post. It's a good shot. I like the confidence. Saved by Alvaros. It's a save you kind of expect her to make, I think. Yeah, it's a comfortable one even for a 5-7 goal. keeper. Another quick restart in the 56th to Rodman on the right side. She's just in space down there while everybody's lined up over in front of the goal and she floats one of the far post.

Horan tries to meet it over a marker and kind of meets it with her midsection. It is on frame, but not really a shot. Yeah, it's like the upstream salmon attempt. 59 25 minute 25 second mark a good cut back from Smith to Horan after Kruger recovers it and quickly slips Smith into the box Kruger very efficient in this game I thought um ran gets put off by her marker as she tries to strike that cut back from Smith doesn't get much purchase on it but it's a good it's a good choice from Sophia definitely yeah and that's what we want we want the uh we want the cut back volume just keep Keep that coming. Yeah.

61st minute Fox comes on. Emily Fox comes on for Kruger. Nicewanger on for Dunn. So we're just keeping those fullback legs fresh. And the game was a lot less interesting after that, I would say. Yeah. Interesting note on Fox. I don't know if this is interesting.

I believe she was the only outfield player to not start in either of the two games. And so Corbyn Albert was the only player to start both. Am I incorrect there? It sounds right. I'm going to go with it. Yeah. So it was something we were wondering about, right? It was the fullback situation because we had five.

And so we are giving all of them some minutes, and it does feel like maybe we're getting a little bit of fullback tape to put in front of Emma. Yeah. Yeah, good short. There's only a couple more things here. Good short corner from Lavelle to Shaw, back to Lavelle, and she's stepping into the box, serves it up on a platter for Sondon. it, chest high ball, kind of swinging in towards the goal.

Sonnet just can't quite make good contact from point blank, and then it has a good laugh about it with Trinity. So that's how Sonnet rolls. And the producers, I assume, missed the chance to cut to Horan to see how she was reacting to the laughter? Nope, yeah, they're keeping that quiet. We got it. We got to, like, if they want to build some heat around the team,

like you got to embrace that stuff. Yeah. Create some drama. Horan was probably furious. Cut to a previous shot that you've been sitting on of Horan looking frustrated, even if it's not the one that was reacting to that. Have they not worked on reality TV before? Yeah, no.

They need to up their game. Got to figure out how to keep just one booth on the audio feed first, I think. So baby steps there. 75-ish, we get the penalty. It's a nice, longer shot that was going way over. But Majorga kind of threw her hands out to stop it. I don't know what she was doing, but her hands were out. Clear penalty, I think.

And she gets a yellow. She gets sent off. Brand takes the penalty, stutters, dispatches it with authority to the keeper's right. 4-0. USA. Yeah, it's such a crazy ball-go-in game again because it's 4-0, and it really doesn't feel like we've created a bunch of clear-cut chances. Like even the goals are kind of fluky.

We get the freebie off the, you know, fluke handball. We get the Jaden Shaw trickery with the quick restart. Yeah. You know, we have the throw-in. And then we have Morgan's really bloopy broken bat header. So, again, it's nice to be able to completely dominate the team. Argentina's, I think, finished with three shots,

and they were all from 40-plus yards. So, again, total control of the match. but it's an interesting score line for a game where we weren't getting a ton of that joy in the last 10 to 12 yards. Yeah, I would say the three clear-cut chances that didn't go in would be the Morgan one where the goalkeeper made a nice save. The one where Rodman took a heavy touch, that could have been a really good chance. And then the one where Lavelle blasted at wide left. That's what I'd say too. And again, I love that we created those openings through that sort of.

Right through the middle. Yeah, carve them up passing. And then we got to mention this, because it was, you know, one of the great goals that doesn't count. A good sequence where Rodman plays Haran into that left corner, the way she's been doing all game, just a quick one-touch pass.

And then Haran tease it up and has a left-footed... I'm curious what you think. Was it a shot or probably it was a pass? The one that went in? I think shot, friend. Okay. Because Haran's pretty clean technically and there sure isn't anybody in the box that she would even be crossing to. It's amazing shot then.

Yeah. And she might not have even been offside if the, you know, I mean it looked maybe like she was a little offside, but the angle was not the right angle to tell that. So it was called offside and called off, but she hit it hard. and it went off the bottom of the crossbar and then just settled in the side netting far post. Completely beat the goalkeeper. And it's too bad it didn't count, I guess. I mean, that's just her knowing that she's up against a 5-7 goalkeeper.

From those angles, like from that wide angle, it makes the keeper even shorter because they're playing basically four yards off of their back post if you think of it like that. If you can shape your geometry. So I'm not. confirming here, looking at the video again, Haran never like shapes her hips

or shoulders back to the field like she's trying to cut it. Everything is aimed right at the goal. I think she's shooting here. Okay. She's a clever one. She's a good player. She's a really good player. I'm thinking

Haran, Shaw, Germa, and, you know, assuming she is anything like her old self, Mal Swanson, or who we need to be building around. and um very uh very dotable omission in your list there bells who are the who my couple i guess yeah we have a lot of good players when that didn't even narrow it down uh sophia smith top right sophia smith on any analytics chart she like breaks the models i know and then and then obviously world cup match winning goal score rose lavelle what do you think of lavelle what do you think of her

I mean, you're going to be reluctant to draw any conclusions, I suspect. But I think she's really capable of having low-impact games, is how I'm going to, like, hedge here. Okay. How's that? I mean, I can agree with that. I just think when we, as we gather all our forces ahead of the Olympics, you know, as everybody starts to come back, and you think about what your front six is going to be. I mean, we could be watching Cat Macario play actual soccer

within a matter of weeks. Right. Yeah, it's going to get crowded. It's going to get crowded. It already is crowded, and it's going to get more crowded. So if, say, Albert is the, continues to sort of show that she can do it at the six, and she emerges as that six behind two more advanced midfielders,

then you've got Albert and Horan for sure, right? I mean, in Twyla's mind, it might be Albert, Horan, and Lavelle for sure, no matter what. But I'm just saying in my mind, Albert and Iran for sure. And then you've got to have Shaw on the field somewhere. That's really the interesting one for me, is whether Shaw has to be on the field

or whether they consider Shaw just an outrageous luxury piece. Not luxury isn't like you have to build your team around her, but luxury is in, we have this many good players that we are sitting with Jaden Shaw ready to come in off the bench or to rotate in a tournament because you can play or out wide and still fit Lavelle in, but then you're sitting another outrageous attacker in, you know, when Swanson's back or Trinity Rodman or Midge Purst. So, I mean, I feel like this is where you're going with it, right? Well, it is exactly where I'm going. So if you play Shaw out wide right and you insist on

starting LaValle in the midfield, then you're sitting two of Rodman, Swanson, and Smith. Two of those don't start. So that Lavel can play midfield. I feel like Emma's going to get them all in. No, I honestly don't know. But yes, I think that because we have. Smith could play the nine, I guess. Yeah, Smith the nine, because we have so many outrageous talents, it effectively makes

all of them replaceable. in that sense. Like, oh, well, it can make sense to bench any of these players because the other ones are all so good. Not that Shaw was... You're hearing me say that, but you're saying, no, we're not benching Jane Shaw. She's in every game starter. I feel that way at the moment. We're ready for that era. I think we're ready for that era. Well, I just love the call. I mean, you mentioned the ruthlessness, the ruthlessness and the guile on that first school. Just the calm that she plays with. And she wasn't perfect in this game. but she plays with a lot of calm and she loves to soccer through it.

She's got the techers, you know, I mean, it's all, she's got, she's the full package. I don't see the same ball security from Lavelle. No, Levelle's, yeah, she's going to make her money with like the movement, like the rotations, the kind of stuff we saw her, you know, playing off of players, playing off of Horan, playing off of Rodman.

I think that's how Lavelle's going to keep her place or keep the minutes she gets. She did serve up two gorgeous balls in this game. Right. I mean, that's what we're saying. She's got the assist to Shaw. It's not like she doesn't have her own highlight reel of doing people on the dribble. She can embarrass some folks. So it's one of those, again, we're talking about champagne problems here for the winningest women's national team program and soccer. Yeah.

We can have our cake and eat it too. Check out our YouTube channel. If you're interested in this, join the Patreon. You know, you get the Monday reviews every week. We'll probably make the Monday review this week public last one of the month. And the game on Monday is against Mexico, last game of the group. We're still figuring out exactly when we're going to recap it. It may be on Wednesday, and maybe late Tuesday, late Monday night.

We'll see. Group math breakdown, a draw against Mexico, and we win because they tied our Argentina, so we'd be well ahead of them. And then there is, I feel like there is some shenanigans tournament-wise about how much we win our group by, because that dictates who your second round opponent, or your quarter-final opponent is. They recede the whole tournament. So if we do tie Mexico, we could be at risk of being like a third-place team if other

teams and other groups win all three of their games. Does this make sense? So, you know, we'd finish first in our group, but we could finish as the third best group winner. I see, yeah. If the other teams, if the other groups have a team that wins all three matches. Truly, we're in pretty good shape with our 9-0 goal differential right now? I believe so.

Okay. But really, so we're in good shape with goal differential, assuming we beat Mexico and finish on nine points. Then we're at nine points with a really. a really good goal difference. And that ought to do it. But I'm just saying it's a wild one to try to track. I haven't done all the permutations yet.

Well, we should be able to beat anybody we play in this tournament. So I shouldn't worry about too much. Right? We're not looking for laughers all the way through. No, we want to be challenged and improve. Give us Canada. Yeah. We want the Canucks.

All right. Thanks everybody for listening. Appreciate it. We'll see you.