By RYAN TOLMICH
Entering the third game of the Women’s World Cup, the U.S. Women’s National Team has a chance to lock up the top spot in Group D on Tuesday night.
The USWNT is set to take on Nigeria on Tuesday in Vancouver after picking up four points from the team’s first two games. A victory would seal the group’s top spot, while even a draw may be enough to earn first place and a more favorable path through the knockout stages.
Leading the charge will be forward Alex Morgan, who features in the starting lineup for the first time in the tournament. Joining Morgan up top will be Abby Wambach, while Sydney Leroux will come off the bench.
SBI will be providing live commentary on tonight’s match so please feel free to follow the action here. As always, you are welcome to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action (Tonight’s live commentary is after the jump):
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us colors arent black and neon yellow
uniforms suck
still hope we get to see O’Reilly play a true winger role opposite flank of Rapinoe. with Abby and Alex paired maybe the O can get unlocked if we have flank players on both sides who can serve them? Idk. it also would stretch the midfield and create space for others maybe? Heath is a good player, so is Press, so are the others all tried so far on the opposite flank from Rapinoe, but they aren’t true wide players and it’s like a handcuff seems to me
still a nice win, midfield was better, Morgan creates space for others. Abby looked totally gassed for a while down the stretch. Rampone looked good in her few minutes too
Carli Lloyd has been awful all tournament, time for her to earn her playing time for a change.
The US passing in the final third has been quite bad. They should have 2 or 3 goals at the half (In addition to the others that were bad calls). I don’t understand why they don’t play more combination play and through passes. I just saw Argentina score against Uruguay and this is how they did it, Bring the ball up the middle, as the defense collapses, play a ball out to the winger/right back about the top corner of the box at the near post who then makes a cross that’s headed in. That sort of play has been so open so often to the US as well as through passes between defenders , especially on the right side. They certainly should win this game, but if they want to win the World Cup they need to execute much better offensively.
+1 Before that last gasp goal by Wambach, the Title IXs’ execution has been dismal in the box. At times it’s a comedy of errors, only out down by this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9pSsStuuiI
you have succeeded only in A) using a lame “Title IX” jab (attempted twice which ruins any comedic effect) and B) rehashed an 18 month old irrelevant clip (considering said miss was, by definition, clearly NOT a sitter, or even a bad miss; the spin of the ball largely decreased the time allowed to try and steer that ball in).
But I’m sure a highly rated Couch Player such as yourself could have made that in your sleep… go ahead, tell me you could…
True. And let’s just calll it what it is w Alex Morgan– she is not match-fit. The pace isn’t all the way there, the decision-making is mediocre, and it’s hard to justify her as more than a late-sub on this form. She just isn’t herself, and it could be costly in the knockout rounds.
yet when she left the field, even with the USA a player up, all the space got squeezed and the Nigerian backline wasn’t stretched by smart runs, and the midfield connecting was much harder to do. not disagreeing that she’s got rust, of course she does
Decent first half showing from the Title IXs. However, they have been hampered by the turf and the officiating. Two potential goals have been disallowed along with a half dozen balls have skipped out of play.
On a side note, I almost wish that Lou Holtz was doing the color commentating on Fox. Repeating the phrase, “I can feel a goal is coming,” is not exactly rocket science when the team you’re talking about has 70% of the possession.