Not sure whether I was imagining it but the US team seemed to play with a strategy - power play for period, then period of cool down keeping procession, then back to power play.
Seemed to enable them periods of hitting hard during which it made England look poor, but not get shattered.
England by comparison seemed to be running a lot without the ball, becoming exhausted for little benefit.
Having said that, the USA have appeared to tail off in all of their tougher matches, with the opponents having the advantage but running out of time. I’d say that was true of the England, France and Spain matches - had they gone on longer I think all three would have equalised.
England will rue that penalty miss - I think if they had converted that, there is every chance they would have been in the final, with a good chance of winning. USA seemed to be on the back foot - but of maybe USA would have just stepped up a gear.
Cheers,
Nigel
We definitely seem to prefer work rate, effort, athleticism and "putting a shift in" in our football, and leave the fancy footwork, slow build up and flashy tricks to the sneaky foreigners. Which is probably why we always seem to come up short internationally, both men and women.
And you're right; the women seemed to resemble headless chickens at times, just running around madly to little dangerous effect. The US team just seemed so much calmer than us, or maybe it was just confidence and belief?
Not that anyone really cares about the pointless 3rd/4th match.
I'm personally quite pleased we went at them rather than playing ultra defensively. Nice to have a bit of pride in our national team's approach.The team that frustrated the americans the most were spain because they parked the bus
If the Dutch do the same I can see the americans getting frustrated and the game being tougher then many on here think
It's how the swedes dumped them out of the Olympics. England and France believed they could beat the Americans in an open game
That was their mistake
I think that was the most British complaint I’ve ever heard! “Outright rudeness”!
That’s probably why England will never win anything. When you have your foot on an opponents neck, you finish them off, you don’t release the pressure because it’s unsportsmanlike.
I watched a lot of games over the tournament, and the USA weren’t the only team out to con the referee for a penalty, England and Scotland included. And if outright rudeness is high on the agenda, let’s talk Cameroon!
I also thought Phil Neville’s comments after getting pumped by Sweden and calling it a ‘nonsense game’ was as rude as you can get.
The magic waistcoat didn’t work, and was about as classless as any of the USA’s exploits.
I also thought Phil Neville’s comments after getting pumped by Sweden and calling it a ‘nonsense game’ was as rude as you can get. The magic waistcoat didn’t work, and was about as classless as any of the USA’s exploits.