For all the flack she has received, USWNT coach Jill Ellis has led her team to their first World Cup since 1999, avenging their lost to Japan in the 2011 WC Final.
Ellis took a lot of heat during this tournament because of her team’s lack of scoring and relying too much on her team’s defense to win games, but in the end it paid off.
The U.S. is now World Cup Champions and Jill Ellis and her team earned it.
Although some still say they played poorly in the beginning of the tournament, Ellis’s team finished the job. They picked up their offensive intensity in the China game and didn’t look back.
Ellis didn’t panic when her team didn’t score a lot in the beginning and her starters didn’t step up. She trusted that her team would eventually figure it out offensively and they did.
In the process they found a new star in Carli Lloyd, who had a hat trick in Sunday’s game. Lloyd scored most of the goals for the U.S. in this tournament.
In their last three matches, the USWNT outscored their opponents 8-2. Not bad for a team who was suppose to be struggling offensively.
Even though her scoreless streak ended Sunday, Hope Solo was masterful throughout this tournament. Going into tonight, she had a scoreless streak of 513 minutes, so even if the U.S. didn’t score a lot of points, Solo made sure no one would score on them either.
Jill Ellis strategy whether you understood it or not, worked and now the US are World Cup Champions.
It’s time to lay off Ellis and give her credit for bringing the Cup home.
