USWNT

Catarina Macario just became a US citizen (this week?) and could not play for the full USWNT until FIFA changed the rules this year. She was called into camp but is still not eligible until FIFA rules on her eligibility.

She is an awesome talent!

One thing about the college players though is that they seem to struggle at first. They can't quite play at the speed of the pros initially. I hope Macario is on the Olympics squad, though as an attacking mid I don't know if she is better than Lavelle. Plus there are only 16 field players on the Olympic roster. I definitely think some of the older players may be left out and should be for the Olympics. It is time for some young kids to get out there. I feel like we need younger players at defense more than attacking positions.

As an aside I think it is fantastic that Lavelle, Mewis, Heather, Press and Morgan went to England. I think it will give them more minutes and more experience than the limited NWSL seasons.

awesome that Press and Heath's jerseys outsold Man U men last week. Pretty cool!

Julie Fowdy kept speaking of age ever since Sweden destroyed this team. 2 of 3 top players thru this tournament were Lloyd and Rapinoe. Other then Sauerbraughn the older players were not the problem. The belief playing half staffed inferior teams leading up to a major tournament was the problem.A coach has to make tough decisions and put a starting lineup out there and not this 1a 1b, to not upset anyone

US's only advantage right now is depth, most other countries don't have the player pool to grab from. They can build a team with their top 11 players that can compete and win a world cup. But we all know, you need players 12-23 to win a world cup. Players get hurt, players pick up multiple yellows, players are just off their game. We can go to our bench and replace a quality player with a quality player.

That gap is closing though, but that right now it is our only advantage.
As i mentioned, the dutch's top 3 players to me are better than any american who played in the Olympics. Those 3 women are studs and complement each other perfectly. All 3 are soccer players vs just physical specimens that are bigger stronger faster than the opponents.

For the Olympics, I think Vlatko returned 17 players from the previous World Cup. Right now there is an “entrenched group” that has been there at least 5-years and they may be a tad bit complacent.

IMO, we need more young, rising talent constantly pushing the veterans. The US National Team should always be in a state of change, ever evolving. I absolutely love Berhalter’s two team system. Genius. More competition to hold your spot while giving visibility and exposure to both young rising talent and veterans vying for another shot.

What advantage is depth if you don’t actually use it to your advantage. Just watched two current ncaa athletes literally carry Canada in the second half and et, then literally win a gold medal for their country.

Agreed.  It's no different than any other sport - team wins a championship, they're told how great they are, complacency sets in some and they lose out to hungrier teams the next season.  It's why you see so few repeat champions.  In women's soccer, there are really only 2 trophies that truly matter - the World Cup and the Olympics.  The only team to have won those 2 titles consecutively: the U.S. in 96 (Olympics) and 99 (WC).  Interestingly, of the 15 total champions crowned between the Olympics and World Cup, the U.S. has won 8 of them.  Next closest countries: Germany (3) and Norway (2).  

I'll repeat what I wrote earlier on a different strand.

US Men showed heart and grit and huge work rate in Gold Cup. US Woman did not. I think talent is important, but when the world is/has caught up, which it has, we need more players who are talented AND have heart/grit/work rate to elevate to the next level.

I can spot MOST girl's who have gone to several USWNT youth camps a mile away. They go down easy looking for fouls. If they don't get the foul, they stay down while the play continues. When they lose the ball, it's someone else's problem and don't chase. If they don't connect on a pass, it's the other kid's fault. Their work rate is low. They can play great 3 v 3 soccer and can score 8 goals against the lower tier clubs, but don't elevate in big games. They play essentially an entitlement game. For example, one of the top mid fielders who appears to be "next" plays in the ACC. I have never seen her sprint or go into a 50/50 tackle. Yes, she has a great touch and is really good at dumping off passes here and there. We saw our youth's lack of tenacity at the last national woman's youth tournament (which this player was the quarterback of the middle)--I think it was the woman's U-18 or 20 team which got knocked out early in the tournament with an abysmal showing leading Mark Carr to scoot on to U of Oklahoma. Bottom line, the criteria needs to change especially as the talent evens out world wide. Playing pretty girl easy peasy soccer against Grenada does not work against Sweden.

R u speaking of Jaelin Howell? I have seen her play many ACC games. It is interesting because the announcers always gush about her. She is smart and seems to find great passes and scores herself when it counts, but I don't see a big difference between her and many other ACC midfielders. She is good, but the team around her is also amazing so I have a hard time seeing how much is her and how much is the team around her.

Your statement calling the youth national team kids soft I cannot say that I agree with. I do not think that they are entitled or feel like the mistakes are always their teammates etc.

I don't feel like the USWNT lacks grit either, but it is hard to stay up for every game and every tournament. Everyone lacks focus at times including the best players in the world. I have seen Messi and Ronaldo both play flat. Were they complacent during the Olympics? Probably. They had a 44 game streak without a loss. Hard to blame them.

The men's team has had some grit, but let's not forget that they have also been a mess for a while. We have a good group now to be excited about. I hope they qualify for the World Cup and get deeper into the tournament than I have seen them do in my lifetime.

Happy to see Pugh is back in the fold!

www.ussoccer.com/stories/2021/09/andi-sullivan-sophia-smith-and-mallory-pugh-added-to-roster-for-september-matches-vs-paraguay

Made it to the 70th minute before dozing off, watching a youthful USWNT vs Australia. By that time it was well under control with a roster full of new talented players! Hope the trend continues.

Is it likely that will USSF (MLS) will change anything about women’s soccer? I suspect not.

Amen

UEFA has money. CONCACAF can not fund USSF and other national associations the way UEFA does with its associations in Europe, but I get the point. Not sure CONCACAF would fund them like that either, even if they could. 

Below is a link with an interesting article touching on what's happened here when pay-to-play, politics, short term profits/greed through market manipulation methods hurt the well being of the sport those soccer businesses are supposed to serve: 

www.linkedin.com/pulse/pay-to-play-how-youth-soccer-became-big-business-what-chris-hummer 

Quoting its very last sentence, my favorite: "Ironically, the key to reducing pay-to-play might actually be U.S. Soccer spending more money at the top, while enabling even more professionalization in the form of clearly-defined payment systems to reward non-professional youth clubs that are good at developing players. The resulting clarity in both a truly elite pathway, and creation of a marketplace that would sort out the charlatans, would actually help a vast majority of parents save thousands of dollars per year and keep a lot more kids closer to home every weekend." 

Looks like the end of this infighting may be at hand... from The Athletic

The 28 U.S. women’s national team players who sued U.S. Soccer for pay discrimination in 2019 have reached a proposed settlement with the federation on Tuesday morning. U.S. Soccer has agreed to pay $22 million in back pay as direct compensation to the players as part of the resolution of the long legal dispute, which goes back to a 2016 complaint filed to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The federation will also put an additional $2 million into a fund dedicated to players’ post-playing careers and charitable endeavors, for a total of $24 million. Each player will be able to apply for up to $50,000 from this fund. The players will also be in charge of proposing how the $22 million payment will be distributed between them, subject to final approval by the court.