Good news for the US WNT as they previously beat Sweden 2-0 and won last night against Nigeria 1-0. Congrats to them as they move on to a quarterfinal!
However..........I am not feeling confident that the #1 favorites to win the tournament look exactly like they can win. I almost don't think they will make it out of a quarterfinal. Why am I bashing on them you say? They won two games and tied one - that's good right? Well sort of. But if you saw their play.....not so good. Out of 6 halves of soccer in 7 days - they only had 2 good halves. The rest were not so good. And you could say things like - oh they played in a typhoon or the pitch wasn't all that great. Sure....sure.....but these are professionals. And when I mean professionals - our women have been in residency camp for two years. What does that mean you say? It means that our women have been living either together or centralized in SoCal and training about 4-5 days a week together every week for the past two years. They have traveled to other countries and played as well. The men when they go into residency camp.....do so for like a week or two weeks before a world cup - because they play for club teams - our women primarily do not. So that should give you some perspective.
Coach Ryan also has not done a stellar job IMO either and has looked scared, hesitant, uncertain, indecisive and frustrated at times. I would like to see him chew some body's a$$. Or better yet - SUB someone then.
Last night he makes a questionable first sub at about 75 minutes for an outside midfielder. Then he finally takes off the central back in like the 80th minute or something who is sitting on a yellow card (they can accumulate through the tournament and after X amount (it's usually 3 for the men but I kept hearing 2) they serve a suspension. He keeps his star player (Wambach) in (whose legs looked heavy and tired and looked like she was dragging) and instead subs the Captain out with a few minutes to go. But then what proceeded to occur is what really pisses me off on all levels.
So we are up 1-0 and in the last 5 minutes of the game we do what some other teams do but what I think is the (one of) worst form of sportsmanship and a bad coaching decision. Wambach at this point had hit the ground about 5 times in the first half and about 3 times already in the second half. Now when you hit the turf - it take a small toll on your body and you could hurt something in the process but it sure doesn't feel good. So they "posses" the ball by way of dribbling to the corner and just sitting on it basically waiting to either get hacked or have the ball kicked out. Which at that point - we get the kick or the throw and it becomes ground hog day for the rest of the match - in the corner and hang out because we are so bored with this game kind of mentality. This kind of crap doesn't happen in American sports. So as a result - the other thing they did - was have Wambach be one of the two players that played this Mickey Mouse game in the corner. Well guess what happened - she hit the ground about 4 more times in 7 minutes doing this. Meanwhile the crowd of course was booing and deservedly so.
Now think about it from this perspective. Nigeria is sitting on the third game they are about to lose. They have nothing to be excited about and now on a national stage they are being jerked around by the best team on the planet. So you say, what would I do? Cause I know that is what you are thinking.
Well........I've been in this situation before - both sides of the ball.
I would try to break her leg.
Yes I really said that. And I mean it. It is one of the few times my competitive nature turns on its head and says - we are no longer playing a sporting match. And if I have nothing to lose or feel it is worth it.....well it's like Star Wars........anger turns to hate....hate leads to the dark side........this scenario happens very quickly on the pitch. And if you think I am mean - well Julie Foudy was saying the same thing during the game so it isn't just me.
And why is the star player in the middle of that???? Bad coaching. Even if I was another player on the field - I would have said - Wambach, get your butt out of there and I'll take it for the team. Because Abby only has so much playing ability in her for a span of 2 weeks when she is constantly hitting the turf like she is, has a broken toe, 11 stitches in her head - and that is all we know of. She is a targeted player and well you need to protect those players when you can - not throw them in the firing line.
Tony says - well some teams see that as possessing the ball. Sure you can look at it that way - but I think it is a chump way to end a game - especially in the World Cup and personally - I thought it showed a lack of class.
My two cents for the day...
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