By FRANCO PANIZO
A win puts the U.S. Women’s National Team into the World Cup’s Round of 16, but in its way stands a familiar foe.
The U.S. is looking to lock up an early place in the knockout rounds of the competition, but will have to beat former U.S. head coach Pia Sundhage and Sweden on Friday in order to do so. The Americans enter their second Group D match riding the momentum of a 3-1 win over Australia, but will likely need an improved performance against a Swedish side that will be desperate for a win after settling for a 3-3 draw in its tournament opener against Nigeria.
Alex Morgan and Abby Wambach are not starting for the U.S., as Jill Ellis has opted to go with a forward tandem of Sydney Leroux and Christen Press. Morgan Brian has also gotten the nod on the right side of the midfield.
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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Considering you don’t even use the words in the right order doesn’t surprise me you know nothing about the game. He never said anything about coaching college cua he never did.
Again, rhetorical questions.
But would you really expect US fans to recognize the voice of the US women’s coach in the 90s?
Not by voice. They say his name and it appears in the top left with JP.
Wouldn’t expect the newer/casual US fans to know him. His name was shown with JP and it’s pretty easy to recognize because of that World Cup victory.
God, such a pissing match.
I suppose I should take it as a comforting sign that people are appalled — appalled! — that I didn’t recognize the inane, mostly incoherent ramblings of the color man as coming from the coach of a team that won the Women’s World Cup 16 years ago.
It’s also kind of awesome that we’re debating the merits of the flank attack of the women: unimaginable when I became a fan during the 1994 World Cup in an East Village bar.
There’s a difference between knowing Greg Ryan and April Heinrichs vs who Tony is I didn’t say you shouldn’t know the voice but when there is the name published in the upper left and you are saying you assumed he coached some players in college. He even mentioned last game of coaching Sydney at the U20 level. That’s what I consider sad especially if you have been following that long.
“Especially sad.”
I’m quite sorry to have fallen below your expectations of the trivia knowledge of USMNT fandom.
Hard to say what was worse: Krieger’s complete lack of creativity or the “color” guy announcer who seemed to have coached some USWNT player in college. I’m referring to the announcer guy who suggested that maybe it was an Asian thing for the referee to call fouls on every corner kick (He really did!) And the same guy who pointed out that the US now had Sweden in some kind of death-grip “half-court game.”
These are rhetorical questions. That guy is worse.
A little/
His commentary is very strange at times but you really don’t know who he is? That’s disappointing as a US fan.
He’s the guy… that won the World Cup with the USA in ’99 (Tony DiCicco). But yeah, some of those comments were pretty out there. Also, hope I’m not the only one, but the officiating in this tournament has been very sub-par.
RE officials.
There were at least three, maybe four penalties that could have been called both ways. It was a very grabby match. Several missed goal-corner kick calls as well.
The German ref yesterday has been the only good, consistent one I have seen.
thoguht the ref of this match was very consistent but did not agree with all the calls…when does that ever happen though?
They consistently didn’t call the Thai players offside. I guess that makes it okay since it was consistent right?
The only thing she was consistent about tonight was that she was bad. There was no room for skill tonight. Way too much hack, hug and pull. It looked like a men’s CONCACAF match out there.
Dont worry, as bad as Press, Leroux, LLOYD and HOLIDAY (caps for xtra bad) wereh, they will all start next game. Jill had her rosters made up months ago
Not an exciting match to watch. Leroux was poor. Lloyd and Holliday were terrible. Agree that the right wide player must be solved. There wa zero sense of urgency in the attack. Our switches were slow. We were slow in possession, no one to two touch passing, just slow prodding in the second half. Way too many long balls forward in the first half. A lot of questions for Ellis to solve in the attack.
On a brighter note, Johnston was a force in the back.
We really need Morgan healthy for the knockout rounds.
if teams are going to load up in the midfield with 3 players vs. US’s two then we need players who can exploit the flank and serve in some balls, my opinion. O’Reilly maybe?
the wingbacks do some great things out there but servcie really isn’t one of them. Press is not a winger. Brian’s strength isn’t servcie, nor is it for Rodriguez who also played out there some tonight. Rapinoe can do it but she is looking to attack of the dribble out there, which is fine, but still if the opponent stacks the midfield with numbers and cedes the flanks, need to exploit that with good service. that is O’Reilly’s game
Maybe Wambach wasn’t the problem
I’d say it was part of the problem because the team had a propensity to hoof it to Wambach instead of playing it on the ground. However, they need to really sort out the midfield. Or maybe they’re conserving energy for the 2nd half.
There are lots of problems