As the world game grows, the USWNT must adapt to stay on top
WINNIPEG, MANITOBA --
For soccer aficionados passionate about the U.S. women's national team for soccer's sake, this 2015 Women's World Cup contains a big subplot. It's player development, style, system and coaching.
The U.S. women's team was the first powerhouse of women's soccer, credited with launching women's soccer around the world. But with other nations pouring money and resources into their national team programs, the U.S. now faces opponents in international play whose tactical skill and possession-style of play has made the game more versatile, more creative, more complex. That means the U.S. women aren't just playing this month for their first World Cup title in 16 years, they're playing for the future of American women's soccer, too.
Is this the Women's World Cup where the U.S. propensity for the longball over the top to Abby Wambach goes to die?
Believe it or not, this issue is at the center of heated debate about how the U.S. can reclaim the undisputed top spot in women's soccer. And no one knows this debate better than those coaches who've been in charge of the U.S. women's national team.
"Twenty-five years ago, we didn't have a stated mission or style, so when I was asked, I'd describe what we did as athletic, competitive, that we found ways to win," said April Heinrichs, technical director for U.S. Soccer and a former U.S. women's national team head coach.
"If soccer was a 100-yard dash, the U.S. women's team had a 50-yard head start. We had Title IX, we had resources, we had a society that supported female athletes. But as much as we have been leaders in women's soccer, we don't (as a nation) have that essence and that feel that other countries have for the game, where these young girls are watching it on TV, playing in the backyard, having their feet on a ball at a young age," Heinrichs said.
"Today, what we've recognized is that the game has evolved quite a bit over the past 25 years from being physical and psychological to now technical and tactical. There are more gifted players and the rest of the world has caught up," she said.
Heinrichs, like Anson Dorrance, Tony DiCicco, Pia Sundhage and Jill Ellis understand better than anyone that in addition to a World Cup trophy being at stake, so, too, is direction of U.S. women's soccer.
"Everyone supports the athleticism that U.S. players bring to the game but the question is: Where to draw the line on direct style vs. indirect," said Dorrance, a former U.S. women's national team coach and the architect of a legendary program at the University of North Carolina. He perhaps understands better than anyone else the kind of pressure Ellis is under.
Ellis is a former UCLA head coach who worked inside U.S. Soccer as a key member of the player development staff. She was tabbed for the job after Tom Sermanni was abruptly fired after the 2014 Algarve Cup disaster, though Ellis had been the first choice back in 2012 after Pia Sundhage left to coach Sweden's national team.
Sermanni's shockingly fast dismissal suggested that U.S. Soccer was at a high-stakes crossroads: How to keep a popular and powerful team rolling toward the 2015 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Games in Brazil while instituting changes in player development and coaching style to counter the increased skill and competitiveness of other national teams.
Ellis had a 12-month plan that took the team through some pretty heady travel and saw a lot of movement of players in and out of different positions. Likewise, she has sought to scale back the U.S. team's proclivity for the direct style of play -- a tricky equation that has led to questions about the team's ability to win in Canada.
"We can all sit here and play Monday-morning quarterback by criticizing the U.S. team if they don't play well ... but there is a tactical dilemma: Do you play possession-style 25 percent of the time, 50 percent of the time, 75 percent of the time or do you whack the ball over the top. We do have unbelievably athletic players," Dorrance said.
With parity at the top of the women's soccer, this 2015 Women's World Cup will shine a bright light not only on the 23 women who make up the U.S. roster but also on the coach who was charged with putting the U.S. team in a position to win.
"Here's one of my concerns. The USA women traditionally have been a team that puts the other team under pressure," said Tony DiCicco, the coach who oversaw the U.S. team during its 1996 inaugural Olympic gold and 1999 World Cup glory days.
"That's kind of our nature. They are aggressive and they want to be aggressive but you can't do that 100 percent of the time. Yet with a continental-style defense, you're letting your opponent have the ball back there (in their defensive end). What I found over the years is that by playing pressure, high-energy defense, when you do that then we can get opportunities on the counter-attack," DiCicco said.
"The European coaching influences on staff with Jill and Tony Gustavsson -- they have a wonderful knowledge of the game, but knowing what these players need to get out of this funk, part of that comes from releasing them to play high-pressure defense," DiCicco said.
"They're not pressing high enough. I don't see that and I don't think they have the initiative to close players down in the back," he said.
The situation has created a lack of consistent discipline in the midfield, DiCicco said, and not enough balance has been created between the offense and the defense. The team lacks a quarterback in that spot, a player who can intercept passes and win balls. But, DiCicco added he would still blast away on the attack with Wambach and Alex Morgan, calling them the best tandem the U.S. has ever had.
If the U.S. women don't win the World Cup -- again -- a lot of people are going to be talking about what Ellis did or did not do. But the times have changed, and the U.S. knows it is facing a new-world order. France is outstanding. Germany is No. 1-ranked in the world. Japan is the defending World Cup champ and promises to be even better than they were in 2011 -- and Japan was very good.
The task Ellis faced these past 12 months was significant. How to meld nine new players into the U.S. team with high expectations but in need of new blood, yet also make the best use of direct-style stalwarts like Wambach, Alex Morgan, Sydney Leroux and Carli Lloyd?
"As a national team coach, no one knows what goes on inside the camp. And all the different ways to play they've tried, now Jill gets to decide what she wants to do. She's right on the money ... to develop every conceivable weapon. What's going to be fun is to see how this all plays out," Dorrance said.
It will be fun. It will also be telling.
