By Eric AdelsonJuly 2, 2015 2:57 AMYahoo Sports
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Becky Sauerbrunn got off the cross-country flight on Wednesday, tired but energized by the United States' semifinal upset of Germany on Tuesday. She smiled into a gaggle of cameras and was asked about the pregame speeches of head coach Jill Ellis.
[Yahoo Sports Radio: Carli Lloyd on growing support for U.S. women's soccer]
"They're really inspirational," she said. "She's really pumped up before every game."
That is quite the departure from the Ellis we have come to know over the last few weeks at the Women's World Cup. Her press conferences are reserved, with just a trace of sardonic humor. Maybe she'll offer a wink and a smirk if sharing a joke. Mostly she returns barbs with shrugs. Last Friday, when asked by a German reporter about a "terrible" call that benefited her U.S. side, Ellis stared out into the crowd and said flatly, "Between the 18s, we're a very good team."
Over the last couple of days, though, we've gotten a glimpse of Jill Ellis the competitor – Jill Ellis the gamer. After the final whistle on Tuesday, she unloaded a scream and a fist pump. Asked later about the boisterous Montreal crowd, she blurted, "Oh man it was awesome!"
Most important, Ellis has shown the kind of creativity and risk-taking that a lot of onlookers wondered if she really had. Coming into this tournament, many thought of her as merely a steward – someone with so much talent at her disposal that she could only screw this up. All the credit for winning would go to the players and all the blame for losing would fall on her conservative style.
It turns out that Ellis had more in her arsenal than a few bland quotes. She had speeches, she had wisdom and she had an 11th-hour surprise that may have put her team over the top.
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Heading into the knockout stage, there seemed to be only outside skepticism of Ellis. And much of it was warranted. Her strategy didn't seem to be about creating an attacking flow, but rather about booting long balls toward Abby Wambach. That was fine for the short term, as Megan Rapinoe could pass as well as anyone and Wambach could finish with anyone, but those players are veterans. Even if the team mustered a championship in that style, how could it sustain itself in a world where other powers like France are rising so quickly with a more dynamic style? There is not another Wambach waiting, and a Rapinoe is hard to find. Would the future of American soccer be the kind of staid, stagnant system that relied on hopeful balls in the box and some savior to replace Hope Solo?
The concern went even deeper, as the World Cup is a showcase for future players – little girls who watch the games on TV and want to choose soccer over other sports. This is how Carli Lloyd's dream began: at Giants Stadium watching the 1999 team win it all. That U.S. squad had oodles of flash and pizazz, including several star players like Mia Hamm and Julie Foudy. Ellis' USA featured an Alex Morgan still recovering from a knee injury and a Lloyd looking lost and bothered through the group stage.
Was the U.S. national team program losing by winning? Was the grinding, borderline-boring style going to leave the next generation of players cold?
The peak of the panic came after an unimpressive round-of-16 win over Colombia, a far less talented club. Ellis bristled slightly when asked about the team's survive-and-advance mode. She said, "This is the World Cup" and "You find a way." But to a lot of people invested in the sport, including some former players, that logic meant finding a way to torpedo the talent. Even Lloyd sent a subtle message through the press before the Americans' quarterfinal against China, stating, "We've gotta take some risks at some point." The final nudge came when Lloyd insisted the players were "just following the direction of our coaches, the coaching plan, doing everything they ask of us."
Lloyd was effectively building a kerosene moat around Ellis' island and pulling out a cigarette.
The team was still good enough to keep winning. Solo is the best goalkeeper in the world, and she had a back line that was dominating enough to let the U.S. slog its way to the final with 1-0 wins. Surely, American fans watched the thrilling play of the defending champion Japanese as they advanced in the other half of the bracket and thought, "Why can't we play like that?"
Then came a bit of strange fortune: Rapinoe and Lauren Holiday both were suspended for the quarterfinal match against a defense-first China team. This would be a test of Ellis' mettle. Would she stuff backups into the 4-4-2 mold she held so dear? Or would she adapt, using the "tools" she often mentioned to create a new approach? The answer to that, and the key to the latter half of the tournament, was the youngest player on the team.
Twenty-year-old Morgan Brian wasn't a defensive midfielder. Her instinct was always to attack, much like fellow midfielders Holiday, Rapinoe and Lloyd. So when Ellis suggested a possible plan to "roll with 6s" with two midfielders out, it basically meant conjuring "6s" – defensive midfielders – out of thin air. The team really didn't have any, other than 38-year-old Shannon Boxx and perhaps Julie Johnston, who had become too valuable as the anchor of the backline.
Two nights before the quarterfinal, Ellis met with Lloyd in the team hotel and told her Brian would play defensive mid against China. That meant Lloyd could focus less on holding down the midfield and more on joining the attack. It was exactly what Lloyd wanted and needed to hear, and it also put a lot of pressure on Brian.
Ellis didn't just roll with a new 6, though. She also inserted Amy Rodriguez and Kelley O'Hara into the starting lineup to inject some speed, something which the 35-year-old Wambach, despite her greatness, had very little. The new look was a revelation, with the two new attackers creating chances and Lloyd looking reborn. Brian, although still battling the urge to push up, helped squelch a feeble China counterattack. The result was resounding – a 1-0 shutout, with Lloyd scoring and then raving afterward about her new "freedom."
Ellis, who had been criticized for her lack of offensive imagination, had unlocked something.
But that was China. Next up was Germany, a team that would test the Americans like never before. Would Ellis revert to the old way, returning to Wambach and Rapinoe and the 4-4-2? Or would she keep riding with the new crew? The tell would be Brian herself. Asked leading up to Tuesday's semifinal how she would like playing with both Lloyd and Holiday, Brian said, "It would be nice."
Two hours before the Germany match, U.S. Soccer tweeted out a photo of the starting XI. The head coach had made some shocking decisions. Alex Morgan was the lone striker. Brian was back in the lineup, as was Rapinoe and Holiday. And Lloyd was a de facto second striker in Ellis' new 4-5-1. It was a way to serve all purposes: stick with Brian, keep Lloyd running and work Holiday back in. Ellis had soothed the skepticism before the big test even began. Where a lot of head coaches would have served their own ego, she looked at the situation and adapted accordingly.
It worked. The Americans played their best game of the World Cup, dominating the Germans from the start and creating chance after chance. Brian did more than decently covering the back four, getting support from Holiday and even Lloyd on winning the midfield battle. The defense continued its greatness, lapsing only when Johnston hauled down German forward Alexandra Popp in the box that led to a missed penalty kick.
A team that had been exhausting to watch became exhausting to play against. The U.S. was on its way to the final, except with flair. The revolution so many sought for the next four years had taken place within a week – and Ellis had engineered it.
If Ellis stays with this lineup in Sunday's final against Japan, she gets some credit for employing the lone forward in the attack. Morgan was not fully healthy heading into the tournament, but it was Ellis' staff that pushed her enough without risking re-injury to her recovering left knee. Morgan did all the work, but the coaches made sure she didn't overdo it.
It's always fun to play "What if?" Would Brian have found her role if Holiday and Rapinoe hadn't picked up second yellow cards to draw one-game suspensions? Would Johnston have even made the team if not for injuries? Would Ellis have been so creative if she didn't have to be?
Those are questions that may never have firm answers. It's possible that circumstances led the coach down the right path, yet Ellis made the bold move at the right time. For the present and future of the U.S. women's national team, that's all that matters now.
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