everyone thought this was the tournament the world caught up with the US and it wound up being complete domination.
Can only guess it was given to Rapinoe, as it will be her last WC. Rose was more deserving & will have more opportunities. Still a travesty
Rose looked awesome but a lot of her best plays didn't result in goals (until the last one of course). That dummy earlier on in the tournament was great. She was on fire against England but was turned away on her attempts. Recognizing her with bronze honestly feels appropriate given the results. But she was maybe the best looking player out there.
Eh, I disagree. Germany was the only squad that could beat us in Canada, at least four or five teams here were close to our level. Getting a side as good as the Spanish in the R16 is a good sign for the game, the French outpossessed us, and the English were a missed PK away from being level late. This squad is technically superior to the 2015 side, but I do think that gap is closing and wouldn’t characterize the knockout stages as complete domination.
Thank you. And the gap is closing rapidly, which one should expect given that this "dominance" is entirely the result of title ix.
Hi. I stole this for my Facebook status. Thought I’d admit it since rv12 called me out. Whatever, Rose da Gawd
I watched 2 full games and highlights of all the others this run...Was there a reason Horan didn’t play in the final? I thought she was easily a top 5 player in the games I saw...I know Rose is nails and Julie Ertz is solid; I didn’t see many other players that were better through the midfield.. And do people think Rapinoe is still good? I mean I know she scored 3 PK goals and had a sitter vs France and a few vs Thailand, but it felt like they had better options, at least that’s what I gathered from reading the pre WC coverage. Not trying to get all political, I just thought she wasn’t as good as other options leading to the cup. Admittedly, I did not see every game.
Ertz was a tank for the entire knockout round and her tactical flexibility helped close out every match. I think Mewis-Rose-Horan is our best midfield (and will be for the next 4 years), but Ertz killed it this tournament
Yeah I say that was my preferred midfield because Ertz was awesome and made me eat my words. Also enjoyed Zach being a total fanboy for her, rocking her jersey across France
Alex Morgan trolling the world talking about men grabbing their sacks in celebration then goes on to twerk on camera.
the "closing the gap" talk is so stupid and it reeks of how bad off the men's side is because the point isn't that the USWNT will always win (did everyone forget on the 16 year gap between '99 and '15?), it's that they'll always be around with a chance. the men don't and probably never will have that but every WC and every Olympics there's a chance our women will finish first and that's the goal, to be in a position to do that. the US didn't lose any ground, other teams have caught up but that absolutely has zero effect on how good our program is each year. the only major sports team that this doesn't apply to is US women's basketball because there is a goddamn gigantic gap between our team and literally everyone else. the gap's been closed for years and years, quit worrying over it. if nothing else, the fact that this is by far the most competitive the women's scene has ever been and they just defended a WC title by rampaging through undefeated should speak to how well things are still going.
So many things to recap this tournament with... I was fully expecting to lose prior to the tournament. We just didn't seem in good form for the past...oh 3 years. And defense/GK was such a huge question. It no longer seemed that scoring on the US was the daunting task it was in 2015. But maybe I underestimated how dominant the midfield is. I still don't think our Back 4 is as good as the scorelines make it out to be...but the control by the front 6, and Ertz playing her CB role just much further up the field, didn't expose them often. But Crystal Dunn I thought was great given the fact she's not playing in her position. Her speed and tenacity made her much less of a pylon than we thought. She was still beaten a good amount when tested 1v1 but she always recovered so nothing was ever easy. Again, Ellis wins in spite of her personnel management and not because of it. We still never really got the Mewis-Horan-Rose midfield we deserved. Having the QFs be 7 European sides and the US (while also beating a Euro side in the R16) is a gauntlet I didn't see us overcoming but god damn they did it anyway. Was Thailand really our best game? Rapinoe deserves everything coming to her and ultimately having her as a spearhead for the women's game and rights is a good thing. Was she the best tactical choice? No. Was she the best player for the golden ball? Probably not. But you also can't understate her 100% PKs mark and all of them were huge moments. Just ask England. The European teams all got a ton better and they are investing $$$ big time. If the women are still fighting for reasonable/equal pay using an embarrassing USMNT as a benchmark, then we will stop getting to these finals. We already saw how quickly the Dutch exploded with investment. Spain looked solid. England went from Cinderella to offside VAR and a PK away from knocking us out. All of those teams are getting better still and the money will be in Europe.
I would disagree with point 4. Ellis won the tactical battle in every game but Spain. She was good. Made good subs, as much as we hated them dropping into the 5-4-1... it kept working. Talent doesn’t win 7 games in a row alone. Got to give Ellis credit too IMO
It's fair to debate but not subbing until the 85th against Spain was something to overcome. England was invited to attack for 30 minutes and really should have paid off twice. I'm not even counting the PK...White should have buried the initial pass she was wide open for. "Working" it sounds like is playing the result and not how the game went when we could/should have been able to continue to pressure like we did in the Final. The Final against the Netherlands was a much better example of things tactically improving. I agree talent alone doesn't win it all and she deserves some credit. But still think the team had to overcome and it was harder on them than it had to be.