So barring an upset, US is on track to meet France on Friday at 3:00pm EDT? I’ll be curious to see who cuts out of work early. I may be one of them!
@Sue22 , paint your CC id on your face so we know it’s you in the crowd. ?
According to 538, there is about a 40% chance that the the quarterfinals will not have US v France. France has to get through Brazil, who won’t roll over, and the US has to get past Spain, not a terrible team.
I’ll be the one in red white and blue. 
IMO, we shouldn’t be too impressed with the results so far. The US probably had the easiest draw of the top seeded teams and if I were coach Jill Ellis, Sweden exposed that left side with Crystal Dunn early and often. She’s an attacker not a defensive player.
Personally I’d play Pugh over Morgan, since Morgan isn’t right, and Ertz should be back in the lineup for Spain game, which will help the D out a lot.
That potential France US game is at lunch time out here in the West. ?
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I saw most of the Chile game, and only some of the Sweden game. I was more impressed with Press, Pugh, and Lloyd than their A squad…maybe because I just don’t understand soccer. @sushiritto , can Pugh alone be subbed in and be as effective as she is with another unit?
Interesting 538 citation @“Cardinal Fang” . For other data junkies, this is their methodology:
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-our-2019-womens-world-cup-predictions-work/
I wonder how accurate using data from as far back as 1971 can be. But they have a great track record, so they’re quite authoritative.
Pugh is a great player but didn’t have a great game against Chile. Heath had a phenomenal game against Sweden.
@OhiBro While soccer is like football, in the sense that a QB may develop a 6th sense with a particular WR/TE (e.g., Brady and Gronk), yes, Pugh can slide into the front 3 and be fantastic. These women have been playing together for a while now. So “parts” should interchangeable.
As for the Chile game, almost all US players seemed to sleep walk thru that game. And maybe some of that might have been due to the criticism they took for the Thailand game.
I don’t think the data from 1971 is used to determine the strength of today’s teams; it’s for building and validating the model.
That Australia/Norway match was a good one, although I never like to see a game’s outcome determined by penalty kicks.
Australia was on their last legs. One of their defenders received a controversial straight red card, supposedly denying a Norway offensive player a clear goal scoring opportunity. Not a straight red card to me. I’d call it a yellow card.
Honestly, I’m astounded at the lack of skills in some of these games. Nigeria made multiple mistakes playing against Germany and both Norway and Australia had appalling errors with simple touches and passes. And for the 2nd time that I’ve personally seen in this tournament, where a player lost possession of the ball for her team on a throw-in violation.
Tomorrow, Brazil vs. France should be a really good game.
@sushiritto Glad that I am not the only one who does not like Dunn on defense. She got beat 1v1 repeatedly and this will cost us dearly against the better teams. Even though Davidson is less experienced, I much prefer to see her in that outside back position.
I respectfully disagree on Dunn. While she did have give away 2 balls, I think the other defenders did the same.
Otherwise she was very solid at shutting down attacks. Plus her speed and passing make her great at starting counter attacks.
I have no issue with the red. To me it was pretty close to textbook DOGSO. If Kennedy doesn’t grab her, I think she is through and is closer to the ball.
I do think the Aussies were screwed out of penalty in the 90th minute when Kerr was taken down in the box
I remember Kerr being shoved in the back on a corner kick and also falling down in the box on a ball in the run of play. The shove in the back on the corner kick was closer to awarding a PK to me, but Kerr falling down in the box in the run of play looked OK to me.
On the DOGSO, the ball was kicked over head and the keeper easily had the ball before the Norwegian player would have gotten there. And the Norwegian player went down a little too easy for me.
Overall, Kerr had a bad game. She was chirping in the ref’s ear all game long.
As for the defense, they’ve conceded no goals so far, so that’s a positive.
I agree. It was frustrating at times to watch some of these players blow great scoring opportunities simply by bad touches. That first pk by Australia, good grief.
England vs. Cameroon:
Wow, have any of you ever seen a team refuse to kick off after a goal because they were upset about the call re: offside?
That was weird.
Cameroon is dring me crazy. Why can’t that one player stay onside??? It’s like she’s not even paying attention.
While I understood the frustration of Cameroon for decisions they felt were unfair, their behavior really crossed the line imo. And at the end of the game when Takounda stepped on the England player’s foot/ankle, why in the world was Onguene going nuts over something she wasn’t even involved in, and which was certainly no injustice whatsoever as it was a blatant foul? I’m curious to know what her exact beef was.
I think that was the right call on the non-goal. I was yelling at the TV the whole time. The woman who is giving rules commentary is not understanding what they are saying. The hand/arm of the scorer, not the goalie.
I wish they’d shown another view, from the other side. If the “goal” was off the arm, of course it’s not good and there’s no dispute.
There was one decent shot form the other side but they didn’t pause it at just the right spot. She had her hands up, for sure, snd it looked to me like she touched the ball. But I’m pulling for Marta here. 