Still others have thumbed their noses by bringing up that, a couple of years back, the side lost a scrimmage against a FC Dallas under-15* side by some distance. This gets met with some broad straight out of Dave Lozo's GSF academy coming through with the they weren't really trying excuse, and allusions to insecure men who would dare bring this up, as if a victory against 15-year old American boys is supposed to be groundbreaking.
Aside- they call it under-15, but it should more properly called '15 and under.'
No, whether elite US women footballers win or lose a scrimmage against a u-15 side is not relevant. Bokolis hasn't seen any footage, and I imagine it has been burned or locked away. We don't know at what levels the sides were playing. It is reasonable enough to speculate that they boys were going at 90%-100% and the women were going at 70%.
It is far more damning that they would have to go that far down the latrine to find a pace of play and level of athletes that suits their preparation. You see, if playing full bore, this USWNT could probably hang with a u-17 side, or u-18 side taking pity on them. They've already learned that they can't practice against a serviceable college side because the male players can't figure out the appropriate amount of pity to take.
A side of 15-year old boys going virtually full-bore provides the women with a tolerable amount of physicality and speed against which they can practice.
Of course, 15 year old American boys aren't well-drilled footballers. They largely rely on their athleticism. This, of course, does nothing to help the women become better footballers.
And, Bokolis' issue with the assessment of this squad was that, while they had, far and away, the best athletes, this world cup showed quite clearly that they did not have the best footballers. Sweden, England and the Netherlands all had better footballers.
Hey, jerk- the US beat all those teams!
In all those cases, their superior athleticism won out. Against England, they also flat-out got lucky- lucky that VAR caught the offside despite England again splitting the US centre-halves after having done so on their lone official goal, lucky that the England women made like the England men when it came to taking a penalty.
That said, they were never threatened. Bokolis thought Alex Morgan stumbled onto brilliance with the tea-sipping display, but the raised pinky was bad form.
Sweden punted the group stage match, apparently trying to play possum in case of a possible meeting in the final. The US clearly dictated the play, but had trouble producing any football capable of breaking down Sweden, and benefited from the dodgy new-age offside interpretations on the second goal.
By the time of the final, it should have been abundantly clear that the Netherlands had no shot of standing up to the superior US athleticism. Nonetheless, it took a dodgy VAR penalty decision for a foul on Alex Morgan, who had been diving/embellishing all tournament, to break the ice. Bokolis immediately dismissed this in real time, even as I quickly texted my group that, sooner or later, this diving dishrag was going to get one of these calls. Sure enough, here came the prompt to re-referee the game. I also told my friends that I would bet one of my testicles that Rapinoe was going to her right on the PK. How the Dutch keeper didn't deduce the same is beyond me.
The second goal was legitimate, and took advantage of what should have been the glaring liability in the Dutch side, the centre-half wearing the number 3 jersey. She was exposed in the Japan game, and this should've been known. The US should've piled on about four more.
Bokolis must admit that I had no prior knowledge of the Dutch side, much less that they won the latest Euro. I immediately noticed that they all played like they thought they were Dennis Bergkamp. Of course, they bunkered up once the competition got better, which reinforced Bokolis perception that their best female athletes are still riding bicycles or speed skating, playing field hockey or whatever.
The Norwegians were better footballers, too. But they didn't measure up athletically and weren't deep. They had nothing left for England. Bokolis will leave out Germany, as this was not even close to a proper German side.
Spain were not better footballers but, thanks to their tactics, the US did nothing from open play. They won two penalties, one on an excellent embellishment by the only proper footballer on the US (Tobin Heath), and a dodgy one on what was a straight-up dive, and a bad one at that.
Perhaps it wasn't surprising that their best performance was against France, who had the most similar squad makeup, enabling the US women to press their athletic superiority against a side who weren't necessarily better footballers and worse yet, were set up to rely on their athleticism to bully lesser sides.
Since Bokolis always says that Ligue 1 is MLS, but faster, I got a kick out of the females being similar. France had two singularly unique players in winger Kadidiatou Diani and the giant centre-half Wendie Renard, players for whom the rest of the world had no answer. To boot, the side was stocked with players from Olympique Lyonnais, which has won the women's Champions League four years running.
Like the Norwegians, the birds from Lyon also figured out that they might not be as good without Ada Hegerberg. They tried to match the US athleticism, and they failed, big-time.
The new-age nonsense worked against the US in this game, as they had their third goal taken away because the VAR machine said a heel was in an offside position. Get the fuck out of here!
Nonetheless, the US outplayed the French, and only conceded because the player wearing the number three jersey (Mewis) played the whole French team onside by dropping too early on the free kick. The analysts neglected to bring up what was in their face, instead blaming it on Horan, who was apparently marking Renard but, like the rest of the team, trying to play the French offside.
To boot, those analysts didn't figure out to give Crystal Dunn credit for the job she did on Diani until after the match, by which time the whole world had already weighed in. They hadn't done it at halftime, when Dunn had already plugged what, going into the match, seemed like the biggest liability. It was all the more amazing because Dunn, playing out of position at left back, had shown herself (in prior matches) to be a naive defender, allowing herself to be pulled out of position in search of something to do. Diani certainly had a few tricks up her sleeve to wrong-foot Dunn, Dunn's fight allowed her speed to hang with Diani.
The French were neutralized, and there was maybe one other person in the world who could have done that job as well as Dunn. But the Velvet Mafia didn't want her on the squad because she wasn't feeling the rainbow, so Dunn got the chance, and gets all the plaudits.
Bokolis had a chuckle because her teammates seemed to refuse to pass Dunn the ball. I wondered whether they didn't trust her, or they didn't want to give her too much to do. Subsequent games suggested it was the latter. But, hey, at least they let her play.
Bokolis would now give individual assessments of each player...would- but I don't want to break any ground.
You know the rest, lift the cup, parade in NYC, Rapinoe drops a few f-bombs while demanding equal pay (if not more) based on wild distortions of reality, a bunch of them dressed up like porn whores at the ESPYs- what's that? It's their prerogative? Sure it is, just as it is Bokolis' to say they dressed up like porn whores- and now they'll go back to playing in front of 6,000 at their league matches while the rest of the world forgets about them until the next cycle.
No one can say this in the face of their distortions because they'll just shout it down as insecure men and patriarchal hate and all this other nonsense. Bokolis will give them more credit than they deserve by calling it an attack of cognitive dissonance rather than than their own attempt to counter bullying with bullying.
You see, ladies, you can't get paid like the men because, while the footballing world is going to be locked in to every qualifier for ever major nation (and most middling and minor nations), the world is set to pick your plight back up in June 2023. What's your next trick?
No, whether elite US women footballers win or lose a scrimmage against a u-15 side is not relevant. Bokolis hasn't seen any footage, and I imagine it has been burned or locked away. We don't know at what levels the sides were playing. It is reasonable enough to speculate that they boys were going at 90%-100% and the women were going at 70%.
It is far more damning that they would have to go that far down the latrine to find a pace of play and level of athletes that suits their preparation. You see, if playing full bore, this USWNT could probably hang with a u-17 side, or u-18 side taking pity on them. They've already learned that they can't practice against a serviceable college side because the male players can't figure out the appropriate amount of pity to take.
A side of 15-year old boys going virtually full-bore provides the women with a tolerable amount of physicality and speed against which they can practice.
Of course, 15 year old American boys aren't well-drilled footballers. They largely rely on their athleticism. This, of course, does nothing to help the women become better footballers.
And, Bokolis' issue with the assessment of this squad was that, while they had, far and away, the best athletes, this world cup showed quite clearly that they did not have the best footballers. Sweden, England and the Netherlands all had better footballers.
Hey, jerk- the US beat all those teams!
In all those cases, their superior athleticism won out. Against England, they also flat-out got lucky- lucky that VAR caught the offside despite England again splitting the US centre-halves after having done so on their lone official goal, lucky that the England women made like the England men when it came to taking a penalty.
That said, they were never threatened. Bokolis thought Alex Morgan stumbled onto brilliance with the tea-sipping display, but the raised pinky was bad form.
Sweden punted the group stage match, apparently trying to play possum in case of a possible meeting in the final. The US clearly dictated the play, but had trouble producing any football capable of breaking down Sweden, and benefited from the dodgy new-age offside interpretations on the second goal.
By the time of the final, it should have been abundantly clear that the Netherlands had no shot of standing up to the superior US athleticism. Nonetheless, it took a dodgy VAR penalty decision for a foul on Alex Morgan, who had been diving/embellishing all tournament, to break the ice. Bokolis immediately dismissed this in real time, even as I quickly texted my group that, sooner or later, this diving dishrag was going to get one of these calls. Sure enough, here came the prompt to re-referee the game. I also told my friends that I would bet one of my testicles that Rapinoe was going to her right on the PK. How the Dutch keeper didn't deduce the same is beyond me.
The second goal was legitimate, and took advantage of what should have been the glaring liability in the Dutch side, the centre-half wearing the number 3 jersey. She was exposed in the Japan game, and this should've been known. The US should've piled on about four more.
Bokolis must admit that I had no prior knowledge of the Dutch side, much less that they won the latest Euro. I immediately noticed that they all played like they thought they were Dennis Bergkamp. Of course, they bunkered up once the competition got better, which reinforced Bokolis perception that their best female athletes are still riding bicycles or speed skating, playing field hockey or whatever.
The Norwegians were better footballers, too. But they didn't measure up athletically and weren't deep. They had nothing left for England. Bokolis will leave out Germany, as this was not even close to a proper German side.
Spain were not better footballers but, thanks to their tactics, the US did nothing from open play. They won two penalties, one on an excellent embellishment by the only proper footballer on the US (Tobin Heath), and a dodgy one on what was a straight-up dive, and a bad one at that.
Perhaps it wasn't surprising that their best performance was against France, who had the most similar squad makeup, enabling the US women to press their athletic superiority against a side who weren't necessarily better footballers and worse yet, were set up to rely on their athleticism to bully lesser sides.
Since Bokolis always says that Ligue 1 is MLS, but faster, I got a kick out of the females being similar. France had two singularly unique players in winger Kadidiatou Diani and the giant centre-half Wendie Renard, players for whom the rest of the world had no answer. To boot, the side was stocked with players from Olympique Lyonnais, which has won the women's Champions League four years running.
Like the Norwegians, the birds from Lyon also figured out that they might not be as good without Ada Hegerberg. They tried to match the US athleticism, and they failed, big-time.
The new-age nonsense worked against the US in this game, as they had their third goal taken away because the VAR machine said a heel was in an offside position. Get the fuck out of here!
Nonetheless, the US outplayed the French, and only conceded because the player wearing the number three jersey (Mewis) played the whole French team onside by dropping too early on the free kick. The analysts neglected to bring up what was in their face, instead blaming it on Horan, who was apparently marking Renard but, like the rest of the team, trying to play the French offside.
To boot, those analysts didn't figure out to give Crystal Dunn credit for the job she did on Diani until after the match, by which time the whole world had already weighed in. They hadn't done it at halftime, when Dunn had already plugged what, going into the match, seemed like the biggest liability. It was all the more amazing because Dunn, playing out of position at left back, had shown herself (in prior matches) to be a naive defender, allowing herself to be pulled out of position in search of something to do. Diani certainly had a few tricks up her sleeve to wrong-foot Dunn, Dunn's fight allowed her speed to hang with Diani.
The French were neutralized, and there was maybe one other person in the world who could have done that job as well as Dunn. But the Velvet Mafia didn't want her on the squad because she wasn't feeling the rainbow, so Dunn got the chance, and gets all the plaudits.
Bokolis had a chuckle because her teammates seemed to refuse to pass Dunn the ball. I wondered whether they didn't trust her, or they didn't want to give her too much to do. Subsequent games suggested it was the latter. But, hey, at least they let her play.
Bokolis would now give individual assessments of each player...would- but I don't want to break any ground.
You know the rest, lift the cup, parade in NYC, Rapinoe drops a few f-bombs while demanding equal pay (if not more) based on wild distortions of reality, a bunch of them dressed up like porn whores at the ESPYs- what's that? It's their prerogative? Sure it is, just as it is Bokolis' to say they dressed up like porn whores- and now they'll go back to playing in front of 6,000 at their league matches while the rest of the world forgets about them until the next cycle.
No one can say this in the face of their distortions because they'll just shout it down as insecure men and patriarchal hate and all this other nonsense. Bokolis will give them more credit than they deserve by calling it an attack of cognitive dissonance rather than than their own attempt to counter bullying with bullying.
You see, ladies, you can't get paid like the men because, while the footballing world is going to be locked in to every qualifier for ever major nation (and most middling and minor nations), the world is set to pick your plight back up in June 2023. What's your next trick?
