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You are here: Home / Open Threads / WWC US v Spain

Reader Interactions

90Comments

  4. 4.

    Adam L Silverman

    Why are the US and Spain fighting over the white working class? Isn’t that Bernie’s schtick?

  8. 8.

    trollhattan

    @RAVEN:
    Heh. “I can NOT not be rich!”

    The phone experience is suboptimal. Crisp display of half-centimeter tall players.

  11. 11.

    trollhattan

    Eventually we were going to run up against a really physical team. Spain is that team.

  13. 13.

    Martin

    @TomatoQueen: Yeah. The pain doesn’t take you out of the match – but if you lose your peripheral vision out of that eye, then you’re going to miss a lot of plays.

    There should be a rule that all players need to have a different hair/color pattern. Rapinoe makes it a lot easier to watch on a non-tv.

  14. 14.

    trollhattan

    @Martin:

    There should be a rule that all players need to have a different hair/color pattern. Rapinoe makes it a lot easier to watch on a non-tv.

    Gonna be a real challenge if we get Norway-Sweden.

  15. 15.

    trollhattan

    Not happy with our left side defense–seems like Spain’s at their most effective there and Dunn’s often out of position. I’d also like to see Horan subbed in, but for who? Way too many shots off frame.

  19. 19.

    smintheus

    The US looked far from impressive so far. Most of their attacks are flubbed, and the last 20 minutes they relied heavily on long and often erratic passes rather than moving the ball through the midfield. Their heads don’t seem in the game…maybe poor preparation. They also seem to be going too much to Rapinoe, who is not playing particularly well today, when they should be turning to Heath.

    The US defense is starting to look cringe worthy; Spain’s aggressiveness is exposing all the weaknesses I suspected were there. US defense relies far too much on back passes to the keeper, and several defenders are tentative as well. Too slow in reacting to fast attackers, and too timid about dribbling the ball out of danger. Spain nearly scored a second goal on a badly judged pass to the keeper by Dunn.

    Spain is seemingly at the top of their game today. Unless the Americans come out in the second half a lot sharper at both ends of the field, I think Spain is likely to take this match.

  20. 20.

    Kathleen

    @RAVEN: Argh! OT! I caught up on first 2 episodes of new season last night. Riveting. MacBethian in the rapid unraveling of characters’ lives. Streep is chilling.

  24. 24.

    Kathleen

    Did you hear Bonnie’s mom ask her “What did you do this time?” I wasn’t sure I heard it right. If so there could be another secret exposed. ETA Supposed to be reply to RAVEN.

  27. 27.

    Raven

    This “one v one” shit really irritates me. It’s not any faster than say one on one!

  28. 28.

    A Ghost To Most

    @Betty: Still 1-1. The game is getting decidedly chippy, esp. from Spain. Very wide open game with lots of runs and missed passes and shots.

    Eta penalty on Spain

  30. 30.

    Martin

    Ok. That was a bit of a dive, but it balances the one that drew a card for Rapinoe.

  38. 38.

    Amir Khalid

    FIFA has to do something. In high-stakes football matches, VAR is badly needed but it can’t be allowed to be such a drag on the flow of the game.

  39. 39.

    Amir Khalid

    @Raven:
    It wasn’t long by the standards of the gridiron sport, but three or four minutes is an eternity in soccer where the idea has always been to keep the game flowing..

  40. 40.

    Martin

    @Gravenstone: Yeah. For men and women, mind you. Granted, the men are largely there now at least in terms of cut, not so much in terms of color.

    I’m not suggesting the ankle-length anime hair, that’s just impractical, but I think we can do with just adding some color. I’d like to see some Goku shit on the guys though.

    I mean, I’m assuming that 20 years from now we’ll be watching this through some Pokemon Instagram AR filter so it’ll be Shaymin or Emolga scoring that goal. I’m just trying to ease into it. Actually, it’ll probably be all sponsored, so it’ll be the Michelin Man beating the Ronald McDonald defender scoring on Mr Clean.

  41. 41.

    A Ghost To Most

    Spain bringing in subs, and picking up the pressure. This is turning into a rugby match.
    7+stoppage left.

  42. 42.

    smintheus

    Can anyone remember the last time the US had a shot on frame, apart from the 2 penalties?

  45. 45.

    trollhattan

    @Amir Khalid:
    That, plus generates gobs of stoppage time added which, in the case of Australia-Norway probably had them playing a third extra period.

  47. 47.

    Amir Khalid

    @smintheus:
    Long balls are a perfectly good way to move the ball quickly, if you have players who can hit them accurately and consistently, rather than just pray that they get to the intended recipient.

  48. 48.

    A Ghost To Most

    @Betty: Alex Morgan will feel it tomorrow.

    Lavelle out. L. Morgan on.
    1+ left.

    Horan on, not Morgan. Golden girl.

  50. 50.

    Martin

    @Amir Khalid: I’m not sure why the ref needs to be doing that. Put a panel together of experienced players and referees, have them review the replay, and send the call down to the field. Give them a limited amount of time. If they can’t figure it out in 30 or 45 seconds, then it’s too close to deserve a card or penalty kick – play on. If you feel like you need to debate and review it for 5 minutes then it shouldn’t be called.

  60. 60.

    trollhattan

    Whew. Feel lucky to be moving on. Spain should hold their heads high.

    ETA France has a lot to ponder studying Spain’s many successes.

  63. 63.

    Betty

    @A Ghost To Most: I appreciate your updates. Not sure why we were blacked out here. We saw the US v. Sweden and France v. Brazil. I hope we get to see the next one.

  69. 69.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @A Ghost To Most: Has anyone picked up the ball and run with it yet? No? Then it’s not rugby.

    Maybe I am nitpicking, but using rugby as a shorthand for physical and/or rough play annoys me.

  70. 70.

    smintheus

    @trollhattan: She’s often hanging out in the center rather than guarding her wing. It could be partially because Spain’s attacker along the right side plays rather tentatively, but several times Dunn gave her gobs of space before closing on her.

  71. 71.

    Betty

    @smintheus: This is Dominica, not the Dominican Republic. Not Spanish. Our cable company gets the usual US channels. Had seen the other matches on Fox.

  72. 72.

    trollhattan

    @Betty:
    A. Kinda jealous. :-)
    B. Hard to say why you’re getting some matches and not others, seems like it would be either/or. Here in Calif. I’ve been enjoying my mighty phone display via the Fox Sports app and watch/record at home either on the local Fox affiliate or Fox Sports 1 (plus FS2 during group play). None of that will help you at all, sadly. FIFA seems to restrict so much as replays hosted in other regions. Wish I knew why.

    ETA, if you have Fox the screwup must be local, although today’s matches are on FS1 and not the Fox network.

  73. 73.

    cmorenc

    (disclaimer: USWNT fan from US here)

    NEVERTHELESS: terrible second PK call against Spain – a careful look at the replay clearly shows the Spanish defender managed to slightly deflect the ball with her foot *before* the foot caught the US attacker (Lavelle) – and the manner in which the Spanish attacker was trying to get to the ball first with her leg was perfectly fair and legal, provided she made contact with the ball first (which again, she did!). And all this is completely aside from whether Lavelle took a dive on a feather-touch from the Spanish defender’s leg. I could see the CR missing the touch on the ball in the pre-VAR era, but there’s absolutely no excuse for the CR and VAR to both miss it with plenty of time to watch repeated replays – on my initial view of the replay I hadn’t even considered the possibility the Spanish defender had touched the ball before contact with the player, but though the deflection was slight, it was nonetheless quite obvious even on initial view, unless the ref crew had their head so buried in their collective ass exclusively focusing on the contact issue that they failed to see what was plainly there.

    Also, why no YC against Spain for PI for an obvious pattern of fouling Alex Morgan – there’s no requirement that the fouls all be committed by the same player, when there’s a pattern of fouls by different players that add up to collective targeting of a dangerously talented opposing attacker via repeated fouling.

    Also, as great and valuable a player as Rapinoe has been for the UNWNT, including her skill at taking pKs, she has visibly begun to slow as age is catching up to her.

  75. 75.

    smintheus

    @Betty: Gotcha. You can stream the games through various feed aggregators, such as BeastFeads (works best if you have an ad blocker).

  77. 77.

    smintheus

    @Betty: I watch most of my hockey and soccer via Beastfeeds, have been happy with it. Don’t feel any need for cable.

  80. 80.

    cmorenc

    @smintheus:

    The US looked far from impressive so far. Most of their attacks are flubbed, and the last 20 minutes they relied heavily on long and often erratic passes rather than moving the ball through the midfield. Their heads don’t seem in the game

    Disagree – the real problem is that Spain proved to be a much tougher, more skilled opponent than the US expected, capable of playing the US team dead-even, aside from the excessively rough play from the Spaniards at times. But for two rather soft PKs, Spain scored the only goal in the run of play and would have won 1-0 but for the PK calls. The US team played like they expected a really good scrimmage warm-up opponent they’d beat 2-0 or 3-1 as good preparation to play France, despite the team talk’s official line that they were only looking at one game at a time and taking Spain seriously.

  83. 83.

    trollhattan

    @burnspbesq:
    Fouls were 18 to 4, in case that’s any indication.

    France are relishing their extra day off compared to US. Friday night in Paris vs. the host? Does not get any better/tougher than that right there. Everybody wanted this to happen.

  84. 84.

    smintheus

    @cmorenc: You appear to be saying exactly what I was saying: The US was not playing well as if they were not fully engaged, whereas Spain was playing at the top of their game.

  86. 86.

    trollhattan

    Let’s go Canada! (I can mention them here, right? :-)

    Hoping for another international goal or two for Sinc in this one.

  88. 88.

    Kent

    @trollhattan:

    Fouls were 18 to 4, in case that’s any indication.

    I have not refereed at anything like this level of play but I’m curious if a game this one-sided in terms of fouls and rough play earns a team less deference when it comes to judgement calls on things like PKs.

    In other words, is a referee watching one Spanish foul after another and being aware of the need to keep the match under control going to be quicker to make the PK call on those sorts of close judgement calls? That wouldn’t be the case for the first one in the first 4 minutes of the game, but perhaps played a roll in the 2nd one towards the end of the game.

    Be curious to hear with David Anderson says.

  89. 89.

    billcinsd

    @Martin: Using players is a horrible idea. Few of them even really know the rules for when they played and once retired they usually really don’t know the rules.

    A time limit makes sense, it’s not an obvious missed call if it takes more than a minute or so, so the call on the field should stand — not reverting to just playing on

  90. 90.

    billcinsd

    @cmorenc: Well, I have not seen the play, but getting the ball first is not always an indication that no foul occurred

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