The Final: US vs. Japan Sunday, 11 AM PST

On paper you kind of think ho-hum (we've taken them 3x already this year), but after watching Japan just dismantle Sweden... Eeek! Only allowing 3 shots the entire game too. At times it seemed like Japan had 12 players on the field, there just always seemed to be an open player showing squarely to the ball. Nothing complex, just posession ball, slowly rocking the defense (And goalkeeper to sleep).

Style wise, the final very much reflects the Champs League United vs Barca finale in the power vs. technical ability dynamic. It will be a very intriguing 90 mins of soccer, one in which Pia's tactics/subs/formation could very well determine the outcome just because of how consistent and mistake-free Japan has been playing with as of late. On paper you'd think Abby could dominate on crosses and whatnot, but Germany and now the Swedes (Both massively taller sides) have been unable to capitalize. You keep hearing that Japan's weakness is GK, but haha, you have to actually get an attempt to test that out...

I agree with all that. I am not at all confident about this game. However, our defense will be much better than Sweden's, and the game could be 0-0. Japan is quicker and much better at possession than we are. I expect we will not get many opportunities and will need to take advantage of those we get.

Yesss, Megan gets the start wide left!! Cheney will play kind of a recessed forward in the place of A-Rod. I'm still worried how Boxx/Lloyd will handle the quick passing Japanese mids, but at least we have our top 2 creative players in the game from the start....

I like having two genuine outside mids in the game. We lose some speed Cheney for A-rod, but we probably gain it all back with Meghan for Cheney, and A-rod really has been less than whelming. We gain better defense on the outside with Meghan, important with Lepelbic in back of her, and probably also better defense up front. Maybe look for Morgan early if the lack of speed up front becomes too much of a problem, except Cheney really needs to be in the game. Maybe she moves back to attacking mid as before if Morgan comes in. I like the idea of putting Morgan in later in the game to bring fresh speed against tiring legs.

Megan already won accolades this week.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/story/_/page/nextlevel/megan-rapinoe-samsung-level-player-week

She beat out Derek Jeter and his 3,000 th hit home run.

Not too shabby.

14-6 in shots. Really lots of dangerous ones, but only one on frame for each team.

USA has 56#--44% possession edge.

Not exactly what I expected.

Welp, I kind of suspected Boxx and Lloyd might be the downfall in the game, but didn't think it would be like that. Too bad. All those early misses turned out to be fatal...

If you had no rooting interest (actually even if you were a USA fan) you would have to say that was an entertaining match and a fitting end to the tournament.

Very refreshing to see a tournament where the players get on with the game instead of playing games with each other and the referee.

DaTruRochin wrote:Welp, I kind of suspected Boxx and Lloyd might be the downfall in the game, but didn't think it would be like that. Too bad. All those early misses turned out to be fatal...

If you were a Timbers fan you'd be able to take heartbreaking losses in stride. I just shrugged and said, "What can you do? So what if we suck?"

DaTruRochin wrote:Welp, I kind of suspected Boxx and Lloyd might be the downfall in the game, but didn't think it would be like that. Too bad. All those early misses turned out to be fatal...

I sat in front of the tv and thought. "Lloyd will put one over the bar"

No idea how Tobin Heath got on the list.

Purplegeezer wrote:
No idea how Tobin Heath got on the list.

Apparently her inspiring attacking runs when they just needed to hold onto the ball and kill the clock showed confidence? I mean clearly I'm biased, but leaving Rapinoe in there to hold on to the ball might have ended up winning the game. Sigh. C'est la vie!

But yeah, Lloyd spent the whole game kicking Aussie Rules Football style goals over the bar, I was just waiting for the dudes to come out and do the little double pointing signal after each sailing miss...

Not a good weekend for PK's.

Last night I saw Carlos Tevez miss one for Argentina and the are out of the Copa America.


Today Brasil missed 4 spot kicks in a row as Paraguay knocked them out.

Purplegeezer wrote:Not a good weekend for PK's.

Last night I saw Carlos Tevez miss one for Argentina and the are out of the Copa America.


Today Brasil missed 4 spot kicks in a row as Paraguay knocked them out.

Where are the Pooh Jeter "we love free throws" style PK takers?

On an semi-related note, don't look up Jay Mariotti's take on women's soccer. Just don't do it unless you want the sudden urge to throw missiles at a defamed scumbag sports writer. (And I'm talking almond filled pokie missiles, the ones that do the real damage)

Don't need to look him up.

Just as I don't need to see what Jim Rome has to say.

This match reaffirms my disliking of PKs... especially after that heartbreaking loss to Washington. Let them play, cause soccer still isn't nearly as long as cricket.