Korea?

The US Women's team recently tied Korea 2-2 in a match that included a 10 minute period when a key US player was out for medical care, not replaced so that she could return, and during which time Korea scored BOTH of its goals.

The coach has been summarily criticized for leaving the team a player short, but the bigger issue is the play of the other ten that were still on the field.

In the words of the Sportsprof:

It was an exciting game, but make no mistake about it, the North Koreans were the aggressors.

I watch a lot of soccer and the 14 billion passes are fine and dandy, but are mostly passes BACK and to the side. Being "agressors" has almost been lost. I see many opportunities that coaches could be using film to point out so that players have a better chance of seeing and using during future play.

Agressive play - sending balls forward into space, sending balls long, actually ... God forbid... DRIBBLING, all of this isn't a good way to get yourself benched on many teams, and yet the US team almost gets kicked from the 07 world cup for just that spirit missing from their play.

I don't want to return to the 1970's when that was all people did, but all kinds of soccer have their place. Better teams, like tiny Korea in the face of a high quality US Women's team, know this.