The defending champs USA defeated Vietnam 3-0 today for their FWWC debut. This was a lopsided match between the highest ranked team and the lowest ranked one. My feeling about this game was significantly mixed. The USA produced 28 shots versus 0 from Vietnam. And still, could only come up with 3 goals. Finishing was atrocious. We need to improve the finishing very much if we want to beat the Netherlands on Wednesday. Morgan missed a PK. Lavelle hit the crossbar. Rapinoe missed a sitter (and Horan missed some 2-3 other sitters but finally scored our third goal). The game was won basically by a single player: Sophia Smith, who was absolutely brilliant. She scored two goals and assisted Horan for the third one. She had several moments of sharp play, wicked dribbles, great crosses, and was by far our biggest star. And this was her WC debut! Couldn't get any better than that for Smith! Morgan played well but was subbed early to save her for the Netherlands game. Her one down point was the missed PK. She assisted Smith for the first goal and the assist was a thing of beauty. Horan played well too despite missing some sitters. Rodman was great. Lavelle came as a sub and had an immediate impact. Sullivan, good too. Rapinoe was the weakest US player. She played 39 minutes and basically couldn't do anything right. I have lots of respect for this 38-year-old veteran but she clearly no longer has what it takes to play at this level. She wasted so many attacks; we could have scored more without Rapinoe squandering offensive plays. What worries me is that we didn't show a lot of harmony between the players, with lots of miscommunication and passes going out of play from some players not understanding what their companions wanted to do (except for Smith who was always accurate). The other problem is that we just can't finish so poorly if we want to defend this title, but hopefully it's just the first game and players are still getting their tournament legs. Spain apparently looked very good. The Euro Champs England play next against Haiti. I'm rooting as usual for the USA, Italy and Brazil. Certainly the last two are not big contenders. Brazil in previous editions of the FWWC got close to winning it all but were never able to pull it off, and this time their squad looks less good than in past editions.
And you had to take the penalty twice to score! Well, I was dismayed at the USA beating Vietnam by only 3-0 (as opposed to 13-0 versus Thailand last time) but it looks like England was even more underwhelming! Anyway, like I said, bad starts are common in World Cups - see Argentina that started atrociously the last Men's World Cup, just to win it all at the end. So I'm sure the US and England will recover from these less than stellar starts.
Hey CF! Indeed, not the greatest of starts for our girls - Alex Morgan's botched PK made me want to cry - but it looks like Sophia Smith is going to have her coming out party at this Cup. Two goals and an assist in her first WC match - I think our next women's superstar is rising.
Just win, baby. I thought Haiti did a good job of maintaining its form on defense, however they had a terrible time sustaining anything on offense.
Indeed. 4 PKs missed out of 6. Even the supposedly top teams looked pathetic. This cup has started with low quality play. We'll see if things improve next. The US used to be a pleasure to watch but we were sloppy and discombobulated. Certainly the exception was Sophia Smith who was a breath of fresh air and I'm very excited for her; if it's not beginners' luck, she's destined to becoming a big star.
Sometimes it is like the German football cup, were 4th,3rd, 2nd and first league play against each other and the lower clubs drag the upper level down to their quality. Games that want to make you throw your TV away. Will be interesting to see how Germany starts on Monday, they sucked big time in their preparation games, uninspired, sloppy and outright bad. As bad as the male team has been lately.
Sophia's the real deal, CF, and she's only 22. This year, she's the leading scorer in the NWSL and last year she was the MVP and led the Portland Thorns to a championship. She also scored 11 goals for the U.S. women's team last year and became the youngest woman to win player of the year since - wait for it - Mia Hamm in 1994. She also led Stanford to a national championship in 2019. FS1's getting ready to replay the game at 5pm ET and this time I'm going to follow her play closely. I think she's playing in Rapinoe's old spot at left wing (?) ....
Indeed, Talon! She's so impressive! See this article: https://www.yahoo.com/sports/welcome-to-the-world-cup-of-sophia-smith-135918513.html A winner!
Haiti were no push over. Be interesting to see how the rest of the group cope with them. England needed a couple of good saves to stay ahead.
I watched the game a second time and I was more impressed with the team's play than I was the first time. The score didn't reflect what a dominating performance that was. Vietnam didn't get a shot until the 73rd minute and then they got their second (and final) shot at 90'+ and neither was on goal. Our girls kept them pinned in their end of the field virtually the entire game. And Sophia Smith shined, of course - two nice goals and her effort on the assist was exceptional. If this is going to be Alex Morgan's last Cup, Smith couldn't have arrived at a better time. I was also pleased with our midfielders - Lindsey Moran played well and scored a goal and it was nice to see Julie Erst back on the field after her maternity leave - she was rock solid, as always. I'm liking our chances at an unprecedented threepeat.
FIFA WORLD CUP HOME PAGE https://www.fifa.com/fifaplus/en/tournaments/womens/womensworldcup/australia-new-zealand2023
FIFA's Top 16 women's teams heading into the Cup: Ranking - Nation - Points 1 USA 2090.03 2 Germany 2061.56 3 Sweden 2049.71 4 England 2040.76 5 France 2026.65 6 Spain 2002.28 7 Canada 1996.34 8 Brazil 1995.3 9 Netherlands 1980.47 10 Australia 1919.69 11 Japan 1916.68 12 Norway 1908.25 13 Denmark 1866.25 14 China 1854.49 16 Italy 1846.5
You missed Iceland at #15. Brazil did look better than its 8th ranking. Very sharp and with no miscommunication between players like we saw in the USA-Vietnam game; beautiful passes and triangulations; always looking dangerous on offense, pressing high. That's what worried me a little regarding the USWNT; we were very sloppy.
Oops. I didn't see Brazil play, but perhaps they deserve to be ranked higher? 3 to 4 of the teams ranked above them weren't terribly impressive, but this is the first round of group play and I imagine a lot of the teams have some rust, nerves and kinks to work out. One thing that pleasantly surprised me was Japan scoring 5 goals - I'm used to seeing them in low-scoring defensive affairs. Their game against Spain next Monday could be a real good one.
Germany showed a very impressive first game. 3 Of its best defenders, are sidelined with minor injuries and will probably sit out the group stage. The replacements were rather good. Still some problems in midfield, passing quality. Those mistakes gave Marrocco 3 shots on goal. In the first half the German offense was not jet klicking, except for Poppe. Second half 1 minute and 3rd goal, game over so to speak. But no, instead of sitting back and managing they kept on going and started to overwhelm Marrocco, which led to 2 own goals, officially. I think Poppe should be given a hattrick. Typical scorer goal, flip your leg in a unclear situation, a Marroccon player tried to do the save on the goal line, but extend into the goal. Could have been even higher, 3 times in the second the upright saved Marrocco. That was rather good and the 0. The clean sheet. Excellent Start
