Key events
79 min: CHANCE FOR THE USA, as the ball is kept alive off the corner kick, and Horan gets a decent header on frame and away from Berger’s body, but the capable German keeper is able to make the save.
78 min: Hegering remains down. The crowd has started what is often incorrectly called a “Mexican wave.” It’s a wave.
Bibiane Schulze Soriano replaces Hegering.
Would the USA bring on Jaedyn Shaw? Is she healthy?
76 min: And enough with the whistling. Use your words.
Rodman turns on the right and wins a corner. Not bad work there.
Hegering, who blocked the cross, is down and may also have a cramp. As a reminder, Germany are short-handed at this point – though another way of looking at it would be that they’ve brought in alternates who are well rested.
75 min: Bühl dribbles 20 yards undisturbed by a US midfielder, then dishes to a teammate who is easily dispossessed. There’s some whistling as if a foul occurred. I don’t think it did.
73 min: Germany work the ball around the top of the penalty area, and Minge shoots from 22 right around hand height for Naeher. Maybe not the best option available.
Have I mentioned the USA might want to shore up central midfield? Maybe?
73 min: Should Hayes leave Rodman in the game because she can, like Jude Bellingham, be ineffective for all but five seconds that change the course of the game? And unlike Bellingham, she’s a very effective two-way player?
Or should she sub in … wow, not many options.
72 min: Rodman has the ball again and crosses into nothing again.
The ball pings around to Smith, whose shot through traffic deflects off Lynn Williams, who’s standing in front of her.
71 min: Now Horan, playing in her professional home of Lyon, wins the ball 25 yards out. The attack is promising until Rodman passes into two German defenders.
On her day, Rodman is one of the best attackers the USA have had in a long while, which is saying a lot. This is not her day. She still tracks back very well, of course.
70 min: I’ve received an email that’s too long to read while Germany attack again, then win possession in central midfield. Nüsken bails out the USA by fouling Horan.
68 min: I’ll repeat from the Japan game, though, that the USA played smartly against Japan by simply maintaining possession without running too much.
But Hayes will need some subs here. Germany just brought on Laura Freigang for the ineffective Anyomi. Again, I’ll say Korbin Albert needs to be on the field now.
67 min: Anyomi races alone down the right flank as Dunn is caught elsewhere. She crosses, which is huge mistake because the USA have, I’ll say again, the best center back in the world in Naomi Girma, who’s right there.
Anyomi falls to the ground with an apparent cramp, and Naeher sportingly helps her stretch before trainers arrive and everyone takes an unofficial hydration break.
66 min: Champion and Foudy are belaboring the stress of the Olympic tournament, with many games compressed into a couple of weeks and some unusual travel involved. They’re not wrong, and the biggest issue is the roster size. Having 18 players and four alternates is simply absurd.
63 min: While injured and tired players are tended to, here’s a comment from Matt Turner:
Regarding your halftime pet theory, I think it has some validity. My daughter is part of an NWSL academy and their matches against local opposition are frequently one-sided, to the point they are attempting to play against the boys in the upcoming season. But this is why clubs now travel all over the U.S. in the ECNL (Elite Club National League) in order to find more difficult competition. This works, but it also contributes significantly to the pay-to-play problem in this country, with travel costs going into the thousands of dollars each year. Maybe in a country as large as the U.S. you’re damned either way?
Also, if you have 20 chances and only take 2 of them how do you beat an opponent 10-0?
Because the team as a whole gets 100 chances.
The problem with the ECNL is that there are also other leagues that have top teams, so a good club from Loudoun County can fly to Florida to play games that are no more competitive than they would find in Arlington. And so on.
US Soccer needs a unified youth soccer structure. But their lawyers are already busy fending off lawsuits from, say, a dormant league with a lawsuit that persists for no reason other than vengeance.
62 min: CHANCE FOR THE USA, by far the best of the game. Girma plays it ahead to Swanson, who gets around Berger and … hits the side netting. Might have opted to pass.
The flag was apparently up, but we haven’t seen a replay, and I seriously doubt she was offside.
60 min: As much as I admire Emma Hayes and her resume, to the point at which I wrote a piece for The Guardian questioning why she would bother to take this job, I have to question that sub. Germany are controlling the center of the field, at least until the ball reaches the stout defender Girma.
58 min: The sub is likely to be Lynn Williams, but while she’s not the most popular player on the team for various reasons we don’t need to discuss here, Korbin Albert should be the one coming in. The center midfield is being overrun.
A comical no-call from the referee as Bühl runs over Rodman. And Rodman is down injured.
It will indeed be Williams, but we can hear Emma Hayes yelling, “Is she OK?”
Apparently so, and it’ll be Rose Lavelle, who’s rarely fit to play 90 minutes, coming off.
So … Swanson to midfield? That won’t help.
57 min: Guinn goes for a repeat of her long-range goal against the USA in their group-stage game, but this one is wide.
It’s been mostly Germany in this half. Emma Hayes is preparing a sub.
56 min: A long pass deflects out, and the USA win a goal kick to the chagrin of Anyomi, who charges 30 yards to scream at the referee. She may be right, but that’s where refs should draw the line on dissent.
55 min: Lohmann with a dangerous cross for Germany, headed clear by Girma.
Brand ends up with a shot from the top of the area, but it’s an easy roller to Naeher.
US fans surely getting more than a little nervous here.
54 min: Lohmann knocks down Coffey and is surprised that the referee makes the correct call. Sorry, but there are 400 TV cameras pointed at you. One of them is going to find the foul that was committed.
53 min: Lavelle gives up the ball rather cheaply at midfield. Good thing the world’s best center back is behind her.
Girma had some unfathomingly high number of completed passes in the keepaway session that was the Japan game.
52 min: Rodman crosses, and it’s not bad, but Berger is alert.
51 min: A momentary lull.
Kate Blackmon writes: “I was at UNC, 1985-1990, and used to watch the women’s soccer games for a dollar. I also taught at least a couple of them as undergraduates — they were proper student-athletes, unlike (American) football and basketball players. I remember seeing Mia Hamm play as a 16-year-old and wowing everyone, before she went to UNC.”
At least one player went to class with my wife. UNC had a few academic issues a few years later, but I don’t think they involved the women’s soccer team.
Today, of course, players in all US sports practically transfer midgame, so who knows what classes they’re attending.
49 min: Undoubtedly, the fingers will be pointing at Emma Hayes if the USA fail to win her, because in the eyes of many US fans, the players are never, ever, ever, ever at fault.
But Smith and Rodman have long struggled with consistency in the final third. Hayes can’t change that in a couple of months.
Now another collision in midfield, in which a German player fouls Girma but the free kick is given to Germany.
I sometimes struggle as a ref to point the right way when the teams change ends at halftime. Maybe that’s what’s going on here?
47 min: Horan barges her way in the air past Lohmann to win a header, and both players wince after the impact. The foul, perplexingly, is given against Germany, and the USA get an undeserved free kick.
Maybe the USA have proven so inept on free kicks that they are now forced to take them when they foul.
46 min: This is better from Germany, a solid run down the middle to split the center mids and then put the ball wide to Bühl, whose cross is blocked by Fox.
Gordon from Aberdeen checks in again: “This tournament continues to disappoint. A poor first half with little excitement. But, with the USA having failed to score early, Germany are growing in confidence.”
Fair.
Sub: Emily Sonnett replaces Tierna Davidson. Were they expecting to get just 45 minutes from the returning center back?
I’m on a message board that has some experienced referees offering their takes on what’s going on in the football world. Just checked and found this:
“Is persistent infringement no longer a thing? Even the Guardian is annoyed at the ref.”
So there you have it, I can now cite the message board citing … me.
Joe Pearson clarifies the stat: “Opta gives the shot at 23:48 to Brand; the one at 27:07 to Nüsken. I thought you were referring to the latter.”
I don’t mind the long lob going uncredited – one could argue that it was a long pass that got away and sailed to Naeher. Brand’s shot on goal was the best opportunity of the game.
Here’s a pet theory:
US players lack the quality on finishing or on that final pass in the attacking third because they grow up playing in so many uncompetitive games in which their youth teams crush another youth team 10-0 or something like that. It’s easy to look like a monster when you get 20 chances and just need to finish two or three of them. It’s more difficult when you get two chances and score on one.
Granted, this theory is undermined by the fact that the NWSL is far more competitive from top to bottom than the leagues in Germany and Spain.
Halftime: USA lead 0-0
Perhaps that’s unfair – the USA have had more shots than Germany (7 shots, 5 on target), but Germany had the best shot of the half, even if the Olympic stats feed didn’t notice it.
45 min: Hegering will need to be careful now. She can only foul three more times. Maybe four.
Horan fouls as the free kick is floated again, another set piece in which the USA are not convincing.
44 min: YELLOW CARD TO HEGERING. Fourth time’s a charm, and she cynically knocked down Swanson just as Rodman was preparing to pass to her linemate.
42 min: The German leaders at the moment: Hegering has 3 fouls, Brand 2, then 1 each for Hendrich, Lohmann, Nüsken, Rauch and Anyomi.
The latter seemed to be the most painful, as Fox didn’t recover all that quickly.
41 min: Champion does note, though, that one of the nicknames they were considering is the name of a Chinese crime syndicate.
The ball is played away from one of the three, Trinity Rodman.
40 min: Julie Foudy and Jon Champion of NBC are trying to nail down a nickname for the three US forwards.
Let’s talk after they score in this game.
38 min: ESPN’s stat feed says it was Brand who had the German shot on goal.
Maybe we have three games in alternate universes. It was only a matter of time before the USWNT joined the MCU.
37 min: Smith misfires from the top of the area.
Dunn maintains possession but passes aimlessly.
Horan wins a corner.
36 min: Just for a change of pace, Smith is dispossessed cleanly for a change.
But then Anyomi barges into Fox. That’s eight or nine fouls on Germany, depending on which site you’re checking, and it’s getting frankly comical. Persistent infringement is a thing. Trust me. I’m a ref. (Or I can read.)
33 min: The official IOC site maintains that Germany have had no shots at all and therefore none on target. I must have hallucinated.
They get another one, but it’s a long-range effort that arcs gently into Naeher’s arms.
32 min: Smith is away on the left and tries to center it back to Swanson, but Germany intercept.
31 min: THAT, the official stats feed records as a shot. Not the shot that made Naeher sprawl and tip to the recovering Dunn.
Joe Pearson says Nüsken had the shot in question.
30 min: Lavelle takes the free kick and places it impeccably on the head of a German defender.
The USA regain possession, and Horan puts a semi-shot into Berger’s hands.
