Tag: Thailand

Women’s World Cup Daily – June 20

Posted on by Backline Soccer

June 20: Matchday 14

The group stage is over. It took 14 days and 32 games to eliminate a grand total of eight teams. It’s actually kind of a silly process, but so many of these games have been so great that I find it hard to really complain. 

Cameroon 2 – 1 New Zealand

Netherlands 2 – 1 Canada

In the day’s early games, the Netherland confirmed their status at the top of the group with a win, albeit not a particularly easy one. The real excitement was in Cameroon v. New Zealand, where we looked set for yet another ‘draw that helps neither team’ until literally the final seconds of the game, when Cameroon found their winner. It was an absolutely magical moment for them, and a well-deserved result for a team that has played tough in all three games. That result did eliminate Argentina and Thailand, and really put the pressure on Chile for the late game–forcing them to win by a clear three goals to advance.

The Canada-Netherlands game mostly confirmed things we already knew about these teams. Canada did an excellent job killing off the game for about an hour – showing why many of us have tipped them as team that could go further than might seem plausible. They’re not going to beat many of the other top teams, in the sense of outplaying them. But they can neutralize just about anyone. 

At the same time, the Dutch did find two goals, one more than Canada had conceded over the entire rest of 2019. So even though the Netherlands still didn’t quite look right, there were a few solid glimpses of the team that won the Euros. It was enough to net them the two goals they needed. 

If they expect to go significantly further in the tournament, they’re going to need to get better performances from their defenders, who once again looked pretty shaky. They also may want to consider whether the likes of Jill Roord and Lineth Beerensteyn might deserve a start. They’ve been getting very little from Lieke Martens and Shanice van de Sanden. It’s hard to argue against going with proven talent, and the substitutions have been working well. But they’ve also had to ride a decent bit of luck to win their three games.

Sweden 0 – 2 United States

Thailand 0 – 2 Chile

Heartbreak for Chile, who came achingly close to qualifying for the knockout stage by only managing two of the three goals they needed. I was in Le Havre watching the US so I didn’t get a chance to see it, but it sounds like this was the truly exciting match of the late time slot, one which was unfortunately probably seen by a tiny fraction of the people who watched the other game.

But since I was one of those who watched the other game, that’s where I’ll have to restrict my comments.

After two matches that were effectively uncontested, the US finally got to face some serious opposition. It didn’t actually look that serious in the opening twenty or thirty minutes, as the US moved at breakneck speed and looked like a constant threat to score. Sweden struggled badly in this period to do anything with the ball, occasionally finding a little space out wide but almost nothing else. And they also seemed at a loss to cope with the US ball movement and speed of play. They didn’t really press, but also didn’t drop back to limit space. They mostly just backpedaled and then got turned by either a dribble or pass. It looked like it might turn into another bloodbath.

But eventually Sweden got their bearings, and the US dropped off a bit. The second half was much closer, with Sweden finding a lot more time on the ball, getting a lot of dangerous play from Kosovare Asllani in the middle and from Sofia Jackobsson out wide. Fridolina Rolfo also looked dangerous after she came on as a substitute.

Still, in spite of those threats, the US never really looked to be in danger. After a wonder goal from Tobin Heath (officially listed as an own goal), they rested fairly easily on their 2-0 margin.

In the end, that pretty much just means they held serve. This was a second-string Sweden team, with quite a few changes from their primary XI, and the US would have been expected to win pretty easily. Which they did. And that’s fine. When you’re the best team in the tournament, as long as you hold serve you’ll probably win. 

But this certainly was’t a dominant performance, and it showed that all the weaknesses we’ve discussed at length are still there. 

It also exposed one newish weakness: Megan Rapinoe. I don’t think this is actually that new of a phenomenon, since I actually struggle to think of examples from this year when she’s really been Megan Rapinoe. But this was a particuarly rough game for her. She was virtually nonexistent in the attack, and actively blew up several promising moves. It’s possible that this is her lingering injury. Maybe it’s rust from lack of training and limited games. Maybe she’s just finally reverted to the aging curve we all expected her to follow a couple years ago. Or maybe it’s just a bad patch and she’ll be back in top shape soon. I certainly don’t feel comfortable saying for sure. But given how dynamic Christen Press has been in that exact role, it’s certainly time to at least consider whether Press should be the first choice there for the upcoming knockout games.

Notes

– If you didn’t see it already, check out my post on last night’s truly mad experience: Scotland, Argentina, and the Human Condition.

– The second US goal was allowed to stand. And according to the rules as they appear to be written (and interpreted), that is apparently the correct call. But by any reasonable interpretation, it should clearly have been disallowed. Carli Lloyd very obviously interfered with play from an offside position. This is the rule, apparently. But it is an absolute nonsense rule and we should absolutely not tolerate it.

Tomorrow’s action

There are no games tomorrow. I don’t really know what we’re supposed to do with ourselves, to be completely honest.

 

Women’s World Cup Daily – June 16

Posted on by RJ Allen

June 16: Matchday 10

Sweden 5 – 1 Thailand

Sweden get the three points, as expected, and pretty easily in the process. This group is very strange, with both of the big teams having faced incredibly weak opposition in their first two games. Everyone else is a week or more into a serious tournament, while the US and Sweden are still out there on the training ground. I don’t know if that will end up mattering, but it’s certainly peculiar.

Sweden will be happy to see some of their important attackers open their accounts, and in convincing fashion as well. They ‘only’ got five (and the fifth was a literal last-second VAR handball penalty). But there were a couple very nice goals in the mix.

Again, it’s Thailand, so don’t read too much into into, but for a Swedish side that often looks ponderous despite having a lot of theoretical firepower, a few nice goals are a good segue into their big match against the US. They’ll be much happier with their first half performance, but even the second half saw a few very nice moves – especially the 4th goal which was just about the perfect example of how to create space out wide and then execute a thumping header.

For Thailand, this was another frustrating game, but one with some genuine positives to take away. They put up far more opposition this time around – actually making some threatening attacks, and doing a bit more to disrupt play, especially in the second half. And they were rewarded with a genuinely deserved goal at the end. 

The first half was better than last time, but still exhibited many of the fundamental problems that had plagued them against the US: physical deficiencies and a lack of technique, combined with a frankly bizarre approach to the game. Repeatedly, they lingered on the ball and were dispossessed, or tried a low percentage pass which obviously went awry, rather than a safer play that would have allowed them to regroup a bit. It genuinely seemed to me like they were a team that had never faced opposition that were better than them, and how no idea how to adapt. They were continuing to play like you would against inferior opponents, and then getting stomped by Sweden when it didn’t come off.

It may have been the halftime talk, nerves finally settling a bit, or something else, but when they came out for the second half they finally looked like the team we had expected going into the tournament. Still the worse team in many ways, but with a far more coherent approach to the game. The defensive shape was more solid, covering players started backing up the first line of defense, and they even started winning some tackles. And when they got the ball, there was a bit more clarity, with players starting to pick their heads up and assess, rather than dribbling into a sea of Swedish defenders or sending an aimless pass away to no one.

Dropping Miranda Nild into the midfield made a big difference here. She wasn’t a particularly good defender one-on-one, but she did a lot to occupy space. And she got much more time on the ball – where she was a critical calming presence. The same can be said of Silawan Intamee, who put in a real shift today, and did a huge amount to buy her team some breathing room. And of course the goal-scorer Kanjana Sung-Ngoen, who kept making those runs all game, and was finally rewarded at the end.

I’m now thoroughly invested in the Thailand Redemption Arc, so I hope their final match against Chile is at least competitive. If they can play like they did in the second half, it should be.

USA 3 – 0 Chile

This was another dominant performance from the United States. They scored 10 fewer goals, but a huge part of that is the difference between an almost impossibly bad goalkeeping performance in the Thailand game and an almost impossibly good performance from Christiane Endler today. Chile also put up sterner opposition, of course, but with a different keeper this could easily have been 7-0 or even worse.

The US made a whole host of changes, and with the substitutions, they’ve now given minutes to every single field player, which is a major change from past iterations of the team. Several of the new additions did very well. I’m not sure anyone did enough to play themselves into the starting XI, especially given how much Ellis tends to lock herself into place on that front.

But this game certainly demonstrated that the US can handle some necessary rotation in the frontline. Christen Press was phenomenal out wide, which actually isn’t anything new – she’s really grown into the wide role a lot in the past couple years. But this was maybe the best she’s played there, and a clear demonstration that she can be a fantastic creative force out wide, as well as a serious goal-scoring threat. If not for Endler standing on her head, Press would have had a brace, maybe more.  In the middle, Carli Lloyd got two goals and was once again dangerous. It didn’t seem like she was really up for 90 minutes at full throttle, but it remains abundantly clear that Lloyd is not here as a token gesture. She remains a deadly player in the attack who will absolutely contribute going forward. And then there’s Jess McDonald, who earned her first World Cup minutes, and nearly got a goal in the process. McDonald’s story is truly wonderful, and I hope to discuss it more in a piece coming later.

Further back, Morgan Brian looked good, and even more important: she seemed to grow into the game. Her first half was fine, but her second half was truly impressive. With Ertz lifted, Brian occupied a deeper holding role, and did so with distinction, controlling play, spraying passes, and generally making it impossible for Chile to do much of anything on the rare occasions when they got the ball. It’s been a long, hard road back for Brian, but she’s here, and showed today that it’s not just a legacy thing. She played very well. And you could tell a similar story about Ali Krieger, who seemed far far away from the national team just a few months ago. But tonight she played 90 minutes and more than held her own in the process.

So what is there to ultimately make of all this? Well, to be completely honest, probably not that much. All we really learned is that the B team is also excellent, and they all appear to be primed to contribute whenever they’re called on. That’s hugely important, but it’s not really news. Beyond that, the US thoroughly outplayed Chile, surprising no one. But the unfortunate reality is that these were more training senses than true matches. The next five games are the real World Cup, and until we see how the US fares in higher stakes matches, we can’t really say anything for sure.

Notes

Before the tournament I tweeted:

I was thinking about that today, and celebrating just how much I’ve learned over the course of this tournament. How many names that were entirely unfamiliar but who are now on the tip of my tongue. How many teams I now understand far better. How many stories I have now heard.

And then multiply by by a thousand, by ten thousand, by a million. How many people before today knew about Endler? And how many more will now remember this performance forever? Think about how many games Kanjana Sung-Ngoen has played in her career, how many goals she’s scored, that went almost entirely unnoticed. And then think about how many people around the world celebrated with her today.

And then think about just how much more there still is for all of us to learn. 

It’s truly wonderful to be a part of it. I hope you’re all enjoying it as much as me.

Tomorrow’s action

  • China – Spain. This will be a really tricky one. Both are on three points and are just about through, no matter the result. But a 2-0 or 3-0 could still leave them potentially vulnerable to being overtaken for that last 3rd place slot. The additional complicating factor is that it’s almost certainly preferable to finish 3rd in this group rather than second. The runner-up will probably play the US, while the 3rd place team will play someone much worse. Spain are currently ‘winning’ the tiebreaker, so a draw would leave them second. Top-level teams are never going to throw a game, but it can certainly influence tactical setup. Basically, expect China to play for an aggressive 0-0 draw.
  • South Africa – Germany. South Africa are all but eliminated, and Germany are virtually certain to finish top of the group. Germany need at least a point here to ensure they don’t get stuck playing the US, so they’re not going to take it easy, but I don’t expect a full-scale assault. This feels like a comfortable 2-0 to Germany.
  • Nigeria – France. A point would guarantee Nigeria a spot in the knockout stage, while a narrow loss would leave them in decent shape, but needing results elsewhere to go their way. On sheer quality, France should win this comfortably. But they don’t need much from this game and several of their key players are banged up, so will probably rest. That could give Nigeria some space.
  • South Korea – Norway. South Korea are all but eliminated and would to win by 2 or 3 goals to even have a chance. That’s unlikely, though certainly not impossible. But more realistically, they’re playing for pride here. On the other side, Norway could lose this game and still probably finish second, though they obviously prefer to win and lock that down.

I’ll be in Le Havre to see China v. Spain. I hope it’s fascinating, though I fear it will be a tedious 0-0 where no one does much of anything. Either way, it will likely determine who the US plays in the round of 16 so from an American perspective it will certainly be worth watching.

Women’s World Cup Daily – June 11

Posted on by RJ Allen

June 11: Matchday 5

New Zealand 0 – 1 Netherlands

I was only able to watch about 20 minutes of this game (see below in the Notes), but I followed along electronically the best I could. From what I can tell, this was not one of those games which requires us to ask whether New Zealand deserves credit for shutting down the Dutch, or the Dutch deserve blame for failing to create anything. Rather, it’s one of those games where the Dutch created a million chances and eventually one of them went in.

Compare, for example, these two performances:

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xG isn’t the end-all and be-all, but it certainly tells part of the story. And the story here was: the Netherlands were unlucky in their finishing. And considering the lethal strikers they have at their disposal, there’s no particular reason to think that will continue. Again, not having watched most of the game, I’d caution against assuming that the Dutch are in trouble.

For New Zealand, this was an agonizing result. To hold out for 90 minutes only to concede at the death will be frustrating beyond belief. But they didn’t really need anything from this game. They kept their goal difference down against the high-scoring Dutch, which likely ensures that a single victory will be enough to make them one of the advancing 3rd-place teams. Anything beyond that is gravy.

Chile 0 – 2 Sweden

Unlike the day’s first game, this was an example of a heavy favorite being unable to break the deadlock because they genuinely just couldn’t create enough chances. But unlike yesterday’s masterful team defensive performance from Argentina, Chile was merely solid. They set up their defensive block, and waited for Sweden to come at them. And it mostly worked.

The opening fifteen minutes were nervy, and Sweden looked like they were inching closer and closer to the goal. But instead of heightening, the pressure began to ease. By the 60th minute, it increasingly felt like we were in for another 0-0.

But then came the weather delay. After a lengthy wait for the lightning to depart, the teams came back out, and Sweden finally seemed to have developed a bit of urgency, and an understanding that going wide and sending in crosses is not a complete strategy. And so the goal finally did come, and then another to seal the deal.

It wasn’t a great performance from Sweden, but they got the job done. Meanwhile, Chile did more than enough to do themselves proud, without quite ending up with anything to show for it.

USA 13 – 0 Thailand

I talked about my thoughts here.

I have literally nothing to say about the specific content of the game. We learned no lessons, and there is nothing important here to analyze. The US got the three points they were always going to get. Time to move on.

Notes

– This afternoon, I took the train from Paris to Reims to catch the US game. It was extremely fast. I love the trains of Europe so very much.

– My plan was to get to Gare de l’Est an hour early and catch the first half of New Zealand-Netherlands in a bar or café. But I couldn’t find a single place showing it! To be somewhat fair, that was partly because TVs are less ubiquitous in Parisian establishments than in US ones. And I managed in my broken French to ask in several places with TVs if they would put it on (French friends: does “est possible de regarder la Coupe de Monde Feminin?” mean what I think it means?), but they didn’t have the channel.

– One underrated storyline: the US just played its first game of the World Cup. One day later, France will play its second. If that quarterfinal does end up happening, that means the US will have played five games in 18 days, while France will have played the same number of games spread out over 22 days. That extra little bit of rest could make a real difference.

– My official position on the Hope Solo/Jill Ellis ‘controversy’ is that I don’t care about it at all and you shouldn’t either.

– For those keeping track, these are the Official Players of the Backline Soccer Women’s World Cup daily column: Barbara Bonansea (Italy), Sydney Schneider (Jamaica), Lorena Benítez (Argentina), Miranda Nild (Thailand).

Tomorrow’s action

  • Nigeria – South Korea. The two teams from Group A that lost their first game. South Korea were blitzed by France, while Nigeria played Norway a bit more evenly. But it all resets here. In this format, though, even three points is usually enough to make the next round, so neither are anything close to out.
  • Germany – Spain. The two winners from Group B, neither of which really performed up to expectations. Both faced teams that mostly sought to frustrate rather than create, so this will be a very different test. Germany will be missing Maroszán, after the referee in the previous game allowed China to kick her to pieces, which is a big loss. But if there’s any country in the world that can survive her absence, it’s probably Germany.
  • France – Norway. This should be a much sterner test for France than their opening match. If they can brush Norway aside as easily as they did South Korea, they will truly lock down their status as World Cup favorites. For Norway, with three points in the bag, they can treat this as a bit of a freebie, which might give them the freedom to find a result.

The US beat Thailand 13-0. I was there. It felt gross.

Posted on by RJ Allen

I just attended my first World Cup game featuring the United States, my home country. A game which they won by an absurd margin. Am I happy? No. I feel gross. I wish I hadn’t been there. I wish I had gone to Rennes, or just stayed back in Paris. I wish I hadn’t been in a stadium full of Americans, cheering on – with chants of “USA! USA!” and “We Want More!” ringing out around me, while their team racked up double digit goals.

I’m not trying to lob accusations at anyone. I understand that it’s complicated. People paid a lot of money, took a huge amount of time and energy to come here. This is one of the only chances they may ever get to see their national team play in the World Cup. They want to celebrate, and they have every right to take some joy in the process. I get all that.

And still, I have a sour taste in my mouth, and my stomach is churning.

The fans made a deliberate choice to put their own joy over recognizing the pain of others

Because, in the bigger picture, this wasn’t an event to celebrate. The US obliterated the opposition, and they were able to do so because they have fifty years of institutional support behind them. Thailand was overrun, not because there is no one in Thailand with the ability to play soccer. They were overrun because there is no network of support to nurture and develop the people with the potential. There is no coaching system to train them. No resources to pay them.

That inequality is a part of the game, and there’s no way to run a tournament like the World Cup and not have it play a role. So the solution can’t simply be to throw up our hands and give up. We still want a tournament, and that means the teams with more resources are very likely to beat the teams without them.

But we don’t have to celebrate it. And the fans in the crowd stepped over that line. I am sure that none of the meant it maliciously. I don’t think they’re bad people. But as a group, they exhibited behavior that we should lament, not valorize.

The coaches made a deliberate choice to run up the score

I don’t blame the players. They kept going because that’s what they do. Maybe they could have cooled it with the big celebrations after the 8th or 9th goal, but in the moment, I completely get it. So while I wish that they had decided to dial things back a bit, I don’t blame them.

But I do blame the coaches. The US made three substitutions. Three forwards. They finished the game with five strikers on the pitch – six, really, if you count Crystal Dunn. There was no need for that.

I understand why they did it. Strikers work on confidence, and you want all your attacking options to feel like they’re in the zone. You want to give them a chance to get their feet wet in a low pressure situation. I get it.

But you could equally argue that the US would have benefited from ratcheting everything down five notches – save legs, save energy, coast to an easy 6-0 win and call it a day. The US does this all the time, and suffers no psychological problems. I’m thinking of the semifinals from the CONCACAF qualifying against Jamaica, for example.

If Ellis had subbed in three more defensive players, she would have communicated to the team: now is the time to practice seeing out a victory. That would have been a perfectly valid tactical goal, would have caused no problems with psychological management, and would have kept this in the realm of a normal thumping. Instead, she subbed on the strikers, and told her team to keep going full pelt. She told them: we want to be the bully.

And yes, sometimes being the bully works. But that doesn’t make it right. And it certainly doesn’t make it something that I personally want to associate myself with. And please don’t bring up goal difference. The US is going to blow Sweden out of the water in goal difference, and that was true by the time they scored their fifth goal.

Sometimes, feeling bad is the only good thing to do

This should have been a happy occasion. I’m at the World Cup. I just got to watch the team I’m covering win a famous victory. It should have been fun.

It wasn’t fun. It was just a sad reminder of how unequal the playing field is, and little is being done to remedy that inequality. None of it is any one person’s fault, and I don’t want to imply that US fans or US coaches caused any of this. They’re merely small parts in a huge story. Poor players who strut and fret their hour upon the stage.

But tonight a lot of people had a choice: do I do the hard thing, and swallow my sense of self just a little bit? Do I put myself in the shoes of the others out there who don’t have what I have? Do I do those things, even acknowledging that it’s going to dull the joy a bit?

I understand why everyone did what they did. No one was being unreasonable. No one was being intentionally cruel. So I hope this doesn’t read like an attack on anyone. I’m certain that I have made many similar choices in my own life. But here, tonight, it felt wrong. And it felt important for me to try and explain why. Even though it was hard.