Trinity Rodman to the rescue!
After over 100 minutes of lackluster soccer from the U.S. women’s national team, Rodman took matters into her own hands with a clutch curler to send the Americans into the Olympic semifinals with a 1-0 extra-time win over Japan at the Parc des Princes on Saturday.
The 90 minutes of regulation told the story of an increasing challenge for the USWNT in which they struggle to break down a low block. In this case, however, rather than lacking the finishing product on a host of chances as we have seen in the past, the Americans struggled to create chances at all against Japan’s organized 5-4-1 defensive structure in Paris.
Similar to the final group stage game against Australia, Naomi Girma’s passing statistics became the biggest storyline of the first half. After completing 79 passes in that first half (more than Australia’s 75), Girma completed an astonishing 105 passes in the first half against Japan — a new record for any player in a major tournament knockout match since such data began being recorded in 2011.
Still dominant, the USWNT possession dropped slightly in the second half from 78% to 70%, but the passes continued to be played in the defensive third. By the end of regulation, Girma and center-back partner Emil Sonnett completed 152 passes to each other. Once the Americans reached the attacking third, however, they couldn’t complete a pass to threaten Japan.
Surprisingly, head coach Emma Hayes didn’t make a single substitution as the team began to tire in the late stages of regulation, only making her first at the start of extra time with Lynn Williams replacing Mallory Swanson.
Individuals continued to fight for the opening goal as Sophia Smith pressed alone, winning the ball from Japanese center-back Moeka Minami, and putting herself in on goal for the biggest USWNT chance up to that 96th minute. Unfortunately, Smith saw her shot saved but she wasn’t the only individual leaving everything out there.
Seemingly, Rodman was one of the exhausted players on the pitch having run up and down the flanks all game but whenever needed, she always had one more sprint in her legs. As she showed against Australia as well, there’s something about the end of a first half. In the 104th minute, Rodman found some space for herself, cutting back on her weaker left foot for a shot, but skied her attempt.
Surely she was fatigued, but she also had the grit.
Three minutes later, in first-half stoppage-time of extra time, she tried again. This time, the 22-year-old Washington Spirit winger expertly curled her finish into the far-post side netting for the breakthrough her team had been craving so intensely.
At 22 years, 75 days old, Rodman became the youngest player to score an extra-time goal for the USWNT since Heather O’Reilly in the 2004 Olympic semifinal and the first player of any age to contribute to a goal in each of her first four matches of a major tournament since Alex Morgan and Abby Wambach did so at the 2012 Olympics. Not bad company to keep.
As the second half of extra time began, Hayes substituted midfielder Rose Lavelle for fullback Jenna Nighswonger to secure the clean sheet and the victory for the USWNT.
Now, the Americans head to Lyon for their record 15th major-tournament semifinal on Tuesday where they will face either Canada or Germany for a chance to play in the Olympic final back in Paris at the Parc des Princes on Saturday.
rico po,
For what it is worth, he seems to have a good grounding as a manager.
In other words he came up through the ranks and put in his time, in the BL, which is a good level. Allegedly he and Nagelsmann are BFF.
+Nürnberg’s academy, coaching the B and A juniors.
+Youth coach on Nagelsmann’s coaching staff at Hoffenheim in 2017
+ 2018, he became Nagelsmann’s assistant, working with the first team
and academy.
+ 2019, Sven Mislintat signed Matarazzo as first team coach of VfB
Stuttgart. Sacked in October 2022.
+ 2023, he returned to TSG Hoffenheim, as manager of the first team.
He isn’t flashy but seems to know his business.
Rodman was the difference. She used her left foot, while shooting from a RW position. (Players who play RW, who are right footed; always shoot right footed & the ball rarely goes in because of the extreme angle). Nobody on Japan’s team can deal with her athleticism. Diranovich, Gary Page, Striker91 take notes. Her father is an American NBA Hall of Famer. Her genes allow her to beat majority of her opponents with lil effort. What she has been working on is futbol/soccer skill or fundamentals. People who say stuff like “Top 6 league”, will never understand American athleticism because they’re close minded. (There’s 100 league that pay. There’s 50 leagues that pay a living wage, yet you only pay attention to 6?). These people aren’t Americans yall. No one coming from Eastern Europe understands this. Djordje Mihailovic is highly skilled soccer player, yet sux as an athlete. No 60+ year old coming from San Diego, understands this, especially a 60 year old who has yet to name any sprinters or pro athletes from San Diego. I’ve been here 7 years, Gary Page, you have not named 1 athlete from your hometown that is a pro Hall of Famer. Striker91 – Where are the Puerto Ricans who dominate the NBA, or NFL? Why are there not more Boricuas playing soccer? You skin color idealists have no clue. There’s no American exceptionalism!!! It’s hard work. All ethnic backgrounds!! Just because someone comes from Europe or is Caucasian doesn’t make them an automatic starter. The USA women are more athletic than most countries. Soccer skill is what’s going to earn them a medal. The men suffer from a lack of athleticism because USSF is run by skin color idealogs.
my deal is you watch both teams (M & W) when they try to play short passes and break down a low block team that way and we have no particular skill or advantage at it. we do not have some barca academy churning out technicians aplenty. both teams have a player or two (reyna, lavelle) with high skill passing levels but not a whole unit who excel at it. but tiki taka assumes a team like that. so should “do a slow build and let the other team get back, and we will pass them to death” be the tactics? no. it’s not a team strength. it’s trying to force some theoretical construct some aesthetically oriented fan liked to watch, onto a team that lacks the pieces to execute it. both teams.
that and i think as we have seen for a few years now, the “world” figured it out. japan got back and fouled us if they had to.
no, to me our best chances would come when japan was pushed up and we would go on a break using the wing athletes. i actually think the athleticism needs to go up on both teams, as well as integrating that in the game plan/system. i know folks want to improve the skill level but it’s solid, and we can keep working at it. but we are NOT unusually good at skill soccer. most teams trying to win international tournament games are not running schemes designed for aspects where they are as good as the next team. they try and play to some perceived strength of their team and/or they try and negate opposing teams’ strengths.
for “system” one normally plays to strengths. to me the men and women right now are still more or less landon donovan-style athletic teams, fairly skilled but mostly just gifted athletes — including pulisic — which, duh, should play an athletic style. use height and speed. play for counters. play for set pieces. play more organized and physical defense that athletes can do.
when the skill level improves, we can keep nudging it that direction — as it materializes — not before then. scheme should not be an exercise in wish fulfillment. i wish i was more skilled so i will try to play like 2010 spain. scheme is supposed to be used to win games. if you can’t pass a team off the field and break down low blocks very well, then your scheme shouldn’t be about that. i know japan posed an unusual challenge but i felt like we backslid a little into a scheme which asks the athletic but often sloppy attackers to break down a tough defense. there were a bunch of times i wanted us to just keep sprinting downfield and flank japan before it could get back — which plays to the athletes. as opposed to pull back off and build up — which asks for skill we only have so much of. i don’t see germany being difficult but spain is going to be even tougher than japan was. you need a more rigorous gameplan than just we will pin the opponent back. the opponent will then play for counters and PKs and japan came a couple dozen minutes from bottling it up and leaving it to kicks. ideally what we do doesn’t leave it to 1-0 or kicks.
people keep talking “skill,” the real version would be guys who can speed past opponents like mbappe, make incisive passes like reyna or messi, or take them on the dribble. for some strange reason people obsessed with 100% ball on the floor sell this keepaway stuff as “skill.” passing the ball 5 beats too early, sideways, is not a decisive skill, not what wins games.
so if people are going to talk about skill, start teaching up some actual individual game changers and not just teams knocking the ball around.
IV: or perhaps Gregg was just crap at teaching it. Nancy has turned quite a few “unskilled” players into technical passers that are always looking to progress the ball forward. The other thing he teaches that US tends to struggle with is positioning and off ball movement. Nancy does advocate what he calls “resting with the ball” where The Crew slow down the game and pass it around to prevent fatigue or letting the game get too open and have the defense stretched, but can turn it on in a blink when they spy an advantage. If you watch The Crew midfield, they almost always receive and turn, very rarely do they hit it straight back or sideways always trying to progress. Always looking to draw in the defense before passing on. If you watch The Crew attackers someone is always moving into empty spaces either to receive or draw the defense out. The amount of movement and speed of play difference between Wilfred’s brand of possession soccer and Gregg’s is easy to see. I’m not saying they should hire Wilfred but just that there are many ways to play possession soccer not just “keep away” or tiki taka. Winning the possession battle in soccer doesn’t guarantee victory but you are far more likely to win if you have the ball more. If you are going to give the other team more of the ball you have to be incredibly efficient in the final third.
It’s: The more you go down this rant the less I understand what point you’re trying to make. The NT against Uruguay played 8 African Americans and would have been 9 had Dest been available. Yet you seem to be saying everyone only supports white players. If your point is we need to get our best athletes and develop them into skilled technical soccer players that makes sense, but it also sounds like you’re saying that white people can’t be athletic. You said all ethnic backgrounds but then said not Eastern Europeans. You denigrated white players then called people who were disagreeing with you “skin color idealogs”? Can you without personal attacks and hyperbole explain your point because I think most people are confused by what you are trying to get across.
Can someone tell US Soccer that it is ok to use subs in games, and occasionally rotate players. Do our senior teams really not trust anyone past the starting 11? Why bring 18-23 players then? The USWNT was very lucky Japan didn’t steal that game today. Our players were gassed around the 60 min mark and Japan began to counter, but they just don’t have the players to finish. The shame of it is they could have rotated/rested heavily the last group game, and then you ride your starters and maybe they can go again if you win. Maybe not so easy for the men after losing to france to open but still. I just can’t believe we will ever go deep in the knockouts without using more players.
hey jb, do not agree players were gassed at the 60 minutes mark. the way the game played out, there was very little running needed by the Americans because of how Japan played, very slow paced game, same as the Zambia game like that. That said, there is also Davidson and Shaw with knocks, and Coffey out on yellow. Add the GK, and that’s 4 of the 18 out, leaving 3 subs, who all played. But, I wonder why there isn’t more player rotation too and wonder about the cumulative effect. we’ll see vs. Germany
when these teams bunker and counter the key is to not push too many numbers forward to get a goal because it leaves us open to the counter, which is exactly what they want. we were lucky not to get hosed by getting too forward and not recovering on the counter more than once. If we were more dangerous on corners it would put a lot of this bunkering crap to bed
i agree. both teams come across to me as getting conservative on personnel under pressure. and it’s fine to want your starters out there for key games to start, but you need to rotate people for freshness, and you need to trust your subs. i feel like US soccer right now is taken over by a meritocracy cult where “the best” are supposed to start — and with GB’s selection it is dubious he picks them right — and subbing is weakness.
we have regressed in that way. good world cup teams have their mathises, holdens, and bennys they can bring in off a bench. who they think can win games too. they trust their bench out to about 15-20 people to be as useful as the starters. we are too up our tookus on who the best are to consider that the important thing is not hyping 1 guy for being big club but finding 15 we can work with to win games.
it’s grasping the basic fact that an exhausted team no longer is a better option than its subs are. maybe we need like a running meter where people can see an exhausted weah or pepi is like 75% of himself.
if you look at swiss, holland, or wales, the game went away second half. ditto even the red card games. we need full game tactics and subs we can trust.
re the women, williams for swanson. if you’re nervous about giveaways in a tight game, sub forwards.
i think way too many US fans are like conservatively scared of their own shadow. a player who is walking after 80′ is no longer whatever star you think they are. the odds they are going to win you the game are low and it’s taking meritocracy too far to be scared to sub the starters. it’s like a half baked HS coach about to be knocked out of the playoffs who can’t believe he is losing, won’t sub “because they are my best chance to turn this around,” even down a couple goals, and won’t even put on his bench for garbage time as they are about to be eliminated. it’s that level thinking. can we quit pretending leaving the starters on 0-0 when yes they looked exhausted is genius? your’re confusing paralysis and fear with coaching. “oh, gosh, if i do anything we might lose.” yeah, great thinking there future sir alex. where do i mail the hall of fame membership? pffft
winners know a next few players they can put on to get results and not be scared we lose.
JB: I think Emma’s limited time with roster encourages the lack of rotation, she just doesn’t have that trust yet. Without Coffey and Davidson they were already using two subs. Figure in they lost Macario before Olympics started, you’re already on your 15th best player as the first off the bench. Shaw’s health I believe is still under question and your next in line is Nighswonger a FB. Emma only brought 5 attackers if Dunn is playing LB and if Shaw can’t go that’s 4. There were only 4 MF once Forward Willliams replaced Cat as well. For some some reason we only dressed 17, not sure why no Croix Bethune but I’ve been traveling so maybe I missed it.
jb,
“Do our senior teams really not trust anyone past the starting 11?”
I guess not.
“Why bring 18-23 players then?”
That’s the rules.
I don’t know about Gregg’s sub policy but he’s gone so it doesn’t matter.
Hayes says she stuck with the 11 starters because the team hasn’t been together that long and need the time to build up chemistry. I’m guessing she thinks they need that to win a medal.
“Our players were gassed around the 60 min mark and Japan began to counter, but they just don’t have the players to finish.”
They weren’t THAT gassed.. They recovered and got their second wind. Now they know they can go 120 minutes. So that’s a good thing.
I’m assuming Hayes knew the Japanese well enough to know that the USWNT could handle them regardless.
Still, it was a very gutsy performance by Hayes and her team.
Can someone smarter than me explain the strategy of not using subs. It appeared to me the team came out tired – soft passes, poor accuracy and decision making, slow to react or play the ball, lack of intensity. This game was Japan’s for the taking with a more aggressive game plan.
Who do you sub and what position ? The small roster limits your options. The add in injury to Davidson, Shaw, and Coffey out on yellow accumulation. The Williams sub was needed and should have been sooner. Just her bigger body and frame allowed more of a target and holding presence. The US was forced wide with multiple shut down defenders. Horan was again not allowed any freedom on the ball and showed fatigue and a poor performance.
Everything just seemed a little slower than usual and not clean in the final third. Also the ref allowed a lot of contact and defenders to play through the backs of players. Great scenario for Japan to steal a game but they didn’t
It will be nice to get Coffey back and her various skills and grit. She really is a great second ball winner and sets the tone in midfield for the rest of the team
Hoping Davidson recoveries from injury and Shaw can be an option off the bench
Super proud of Rodman grabbing the game, something Smith and Swanson are capable of. Pretty cute when Smith came up to Rodman after her winner you can see her say,” I’m so happy for you!”
Ok, I just looked at the rotation and sub patterns of the final four teams. Only Spain seemed to try to rotate and only Brazil used more subs than the US. In fact, during the group stage, the US used more subs before the 76th minute than any remaining team. Germany has used the least subs.
you just listed horan as tired. i think she’s overrated. you then threw in the other 2 forwards with rodman as untouchable when only rodman was really creating stuff.
i get limited subs in a chessmatch but you can also lose chess matches by having players too tired to do their jobs. few does not equal zero. zero was paralysis and japan was starting to get chances.
again, to me, a lot of this is the Meritocracy Cult problem. if a Good Player is exhausted, no longer useful, or even having a bad day, a good coach pulls them if he has any other solid option. the game is being able to tell which guy to pull and which not to. USSF for a few years now has been like anti-sub and then when they do sub it’s inexplicable like yanking reyna, who is having a decent game and producing chances. you don’t do it on your egotistical opinion of players. you do it on either tactics — a package designed to do something together — or you do it on your horse sense of who has gas and skill left to do something.
so, most of that forward line had disappeared except rodman. so anyone else. the MF looked tired. take some of them off. less so defense, which looked fine. and if the US used their brains, it’s not just dude for dude but some sort of tactical concept. you tell the team at half, i may sub on x, if she comes on, make y run, hit that pass. or you sub on a crosser and a target to finish them.
the US needs to get away from lineups as CV contests. sometimes a bench player is a perfect matchup problem for an opponent. sometimes a particular look is a problem for another team. and god forbid we put together a lineup designed to work together to a goal, as opposed to an all star team. that if we want to cross, we have a target in for them. that if we want to counter the striker is fast enough for the speed of play. that if we want to play tiki taka through japan you have enough skill on we don’t turn it over every 5 seconds. or that if that’s not possible the focus shifts to flanking them on counters. and we maybe play faster and more direct and perhaps lofted sometimes, to beat them back.
more team concepts, which factor in bench, less iso ball where we hand it to the perceived star, who we are scared out of our gourd to ever sub.
IV what Twomile just explained to you was there were no other options because of injuries and yellow card accumulation. The bench available were 3 defenders, a GK, and an injured AM.
one more thing about Rodman and I’ll stop; she played a smart and hard working game defensively after some early adjustments, and her weak side balance D came up huge many many times when it had to
hope Fox is OK, she was excellent again and would be a huge loss. Kreuger will need to play the game of her life, and I’m hoping she does if called upon
for the first time in the hayes era i thought i was watching the old offense welded onto a better defense. to me as with the men in the same matchup a couple years ago, you play into the hands of a counter team by obsessing about possession, endless buildup, floor play. they would get back, we would try and nibble around the edges half court.
what i wanted to see, which they did more in the previous games, was win transition balls, play more direct and vertical, get down the field in a hurry, try and get behind them. don’t let the defense set up. service into the box for a tap in. and the whole fed now seems opposed on principle to even occasional kickball. we seemed scared to lose the ball. japan had “a” –as in 1 — shot on goal.
it’s either that or they need a lot more precision a frontline such that they can tiki taka all the way to net through a low block like that. they’d work and work and then the ball to the frontline would be wayward or the forward would turn it over. rodman and co. to me are more volume types than clinical. along those lines, rodman did get the winner and in tough games i lean towards absolution but boy did she ballhog and miss a lot where i was thinking, give that ball up. but the winner was indeed tidy.
but with germany up next i think this is a finals team so this is ahead of schedule on results. US men need to figure out results are what matter.
I think the USWNT was obsessed with not allowing the counter 1st half while in possession while they settled in and diagnosed what was going on–the circle trap from Japan in the central channel/central 3rd. And since that was the main idea from Japan, to bait that trap in the midfield–we saw a lot of what Albert did; I think Japan thought they could rattle her and turn her over in there in her first start, and that did not happen. after Hayes changed from the 3 back attack to the 2 CB cup with both wingbacks higher, adjusting to how Japan was defending, it can get a little more risky but played into the tactical focus shift 2nd half to play from our half over the top into the outside channels (also centrally) direct as you mentioned. so as the game wore on, tactics evolved from the beginning management of the game and then throughout I thought, all the way through the goal and then game management after that
and it was cool to see that type of thing executed especially by this relatively inexperienced group for me. now Germany like again like you said. always interesting to rematch in these tournaments. we’ll see
I didn’t see this game, but have seen most of the others since Hayes was hired. The word from the players to Foudy seems to be that Hayes emphasizes patience and thinks a 1-0 victory is a great result. While I don’t want to downplay a 1-0 win, it means one defensive mistake can turn a victory into a draw. It would seem that Hayes is a very conservative coach who emphasizes possession and defense and figures we can outlast opponents and convert chances we get, rather than create chances. In short she seems to be the exact opposite of what you are calling for. To me, Hayes’ approach is what you take when you don’t think your team is as good as the opposition . That attitude would also explain her hesitation to use subs. While I think we are lacking the killer striker we have had so often in the past, I think Hayes is greatly underestimating the team’s quality and I would personally tend to favor an approach like you cite. Put the other team under frequent pressure by attacking quickly and often. Our strikers are relatively young and the way for them to improve is to have them attack whenever they can.
Gary, I disagree. I think Hayes is over confident if here starting eleven and their ability to manage games with a lead. Guardiola and Mourhino used to be like that and Porter was like that with his great possession Timbers teams. The whole notion my eleven are better then anything you got what I’m going to start and finish with. I can create how cruel the game can be
“While I don’t want to downplay a 1-0 win, it means one defensive mistake can turn a victory into a draw.”
Then the idea is, don’t make a mistake in the first place.
Hayes is trying to create a culture where the practice games are the hardest games they play.
I remember when Germany was at the very peak of their powers, the other team knew they had lost as soon as Germany stepped in the tunnel.
The men should be that way before every CONCACAF game but they are not
an interesting game only for the invested, must have been brutal to watch for a neutral, tactical chess match requiring an aggressive patience and maturity that this young group delivered. Japan got just the match they wanted and the USWNT answered. the Rodman goal, moment of brilliance, sweet ball from Girma who was awesome again. Dunn was incredible in that game, and Albert in her start was super tidy (and conservative by design imho) in that middle channel where Japan was on the hunt for the turnover and break all game. Horan a nightmare for her but came through late on headers but she’ll need to be better. Williams the superb we never got to see in the previous regime, she was excellent. It was fun to see Coach Hayes go into a 4 4 2 low block after Rodman’s goal and give Japan a dose of their own ideas even tho they bunkered in that
5 4 1
The rumor on US men’s soccer coach is Pellegrino Matarazzo.
The kind of selection that on the surface might not be super exciting, headline grabbing, sexy, but over the long haul might turn out to be a very good one. He’s a better manager than the one we had Henry, Dolo, Viera.
rico po,
For what it is worth, he seems to have a good grounding as a manager.
In other words he came up through the ranks and put in his time, in the BL, which is a good level. Allegedly he and Nagelsmann are BFF.
+Nürnberg’s academy, coaching the B and A juniors.
+Youth coach on Nagelsmann’s coaching staff at Hoffenheim in 2017
+ 2018, he became Nagelsmann’s assistant, working with the first team
and academy.
+ 2019, Sven Mislintat signed Matarazzo as first team coach of VfB
Stuttgart. Sacked in October 2022.
+ 2023, he returned to TSG Hoffenheim, as manager of the first team.
He isn’t flashy but seems to know his business.