Love that old typewriter photo, Lorell.
You asked about my reaction to the USA / Netherlands game:
The draw almost assures that the USA will advance to the knockout stage by finishing first or second in their group. Linsey Horan responded to an overly hard tackle (which should have been a foul) in the best way. You've probably heard the phrase "Don't get mad - get even" Horan did both. (That's the way my daughter did it too in her playing days. She was almost always the shortest player on the field. I soon learned not to get upset when someone took her down with a rough tackle. Instead I just waited for the payback. I remeber one game in her coed league when this over 6-foot guy was being unnecessarily rough on the women players, and when they complained he just laughed and said "That's soccer. Deal with it." He made a hard tackle on my daughter, who bounced right back up, saying nothing. About 10 minutes later daughter made a slide tackle, taking him down hard. She looked down at him still on the ground and said "Now THAT'S soccer.")
Back to the USA game. We sure could have used a win, because USA and Netherlands will probably finish with the same number of points, and the first tie-breaker is goal differential (goals scored minus goals allowed) in the 3 games of group play. Currently the US has a goal differential of +3, while Netherlands is at +1. Netherlands third game is against Vietnam, a weak team, and should win by a large margin (by 5 or 6 possibly). The US finishes with Portugal, a much stronger team than Vietnam. If Netherlands wins by 6 goals, USA must win by at least 5 goals to finish first in our group. And why is that important? The team that finishes #1 in our group next plays against #2 in another group (group G if I remember correctly, and that is likely to be Italy, ranked #16 in the world. But if we finish in 2nd, we'd play #1 in group G - probably Sweden, who is ranked # 3 in the world, and always gives USA problems.
Lorell, I forgot to answer two of your questions:
1) My daughter watches from the stands. She has no affiliation with the US team other than that her husband has been part of the team staff for many years.
2) To the best of my knowledge she pays for her tickets herself. I imagine tickets are expensive, but they afford the costs. The US team as an organization (the USWNT) extends some benefits to fans, such as easier access to flights (but certainly not on the team's flights) from venue to venue and some assistance in lodging (usually at AIRbnbs and facilitating booking of non-soccer-related tourist type outings. They (the USWNT) does a fantastic job of assisting fans.
You asked about my reaction to the USA / Netherlands game:
The draw almost assures that the USA will advance to the knockout stage by finishing first or second in their group. Linsey Horan responded to an overly hard tackle (which should have been a foul) in the best way. You've probably heard the phrase "Don't get mad - get even" Horan did both. (That's the way my daughter did it too in her playing days. She was almost always the shortest player on the field. I soon learned not to get upset when someone took her down with a rough tackle. Instead I just waited for the payback. I remeber one game in her coed league when this over 6-foot guy was being unnecessarily rough on the women players, and when they complained he just laughed and said "That's soccer. Deal with it." He made a hard tackle on my daughter, who bounced right back up, saying nothing. About 10 minutes later daughter made a slide tackle, taking him down hard. She looked down at him still on the ground and said "Now THAT'S soccer.")
Back to the USA game. We sure could have used a win, because USA and Netherlands will probably finish with the same number of points, and the first tie-breaker is goal differential (goals scored minus goals allowed) in the 3 games of group play. Currently the US has a goal differential of +3, while Netherlands is at +1. Netherlands third game is against Vietnam, a weak team, and should win by a large margin (by 5 or 6 possibly). The US finishes with Portugal, a much stronger team than Vietnam. If Netherlands wins by 6 goals, USA must win by at least 5 goals to finish first in our group. And why is that important? The team that finishes #1 in our group next plays against #2 in another group (group G if I remember correctly, and that is likely to be Italy, ranked #16 in the world. But if we finish in 2nd, we'd play #1 in group G - probably Sweden, who is ranked # 3 in the world, and always gives USA problems.
Lorell, I forgot to answer two of your questions:
1) My daughter watches from the stands. She has no affiliation with the US team other than that her husband has been part of the team staff for many years.
2) To the best of my knowledge she pays for her tickets herself. I imagine tickets are expensive, but they afford the costs. The US team as an organization (the USWNT) extends some benefits to fans, such as easier access to flights (but certainly not on the team's flights) from venue to venue and some assistance in lodging (usually at AIRbnbs and facilitating booking of non-soccer-related tourist type outings. They (the USWNT) does a fantastic job of assisting fans.
Don't blame me - I didn't vote for him!
Nikon D7500 with Nikkor 18-300 mm; PSE2021, PSCS5
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