Sundhage brings European flair to American attack

SINSHEIM, Germany – The American women haven’t looked the same since Pia Sundhage got her hands on them.

After years of getting the ball to their forwards and letting them overwhelm defenses with their superior athleticism, Sundhage has injected a little European flair into the U.S. offense.

“I was always saying the States played a little too direct,” said Sundhage, a Swede who is the first foreign coach the U.S. women have had. “They’ve been very, very successful, don’t get me wrong. So I wanted to change that, but it couldn’t be too big of a change. With a successful team, you can’t change too much.”

When the two-time World Cup champions play Colombia today, fans will see a possession-based offense. Instead of relying on the forwards to begin the attack, Sundhage wants the offense to develop in the midfield.

Think the fluid, pretty style of Barcelona, and you get an idea of what Sundhage is going for.

“Really knowing how to break down teams with many passes and much possession, truthfully that’s the best way of defending is holding the ball,” Abby Wambach said. “That’s why Barcelona is so good. They literally force their opponents into submission because they always have the ball. It’s demoralizing when you don’t even get much chance.”

Opponents used to know exactly what was coming when they played the U.S., regardless of who was in the lineup or where on the field the Americans took possession. But they were powerless to do anything about it. The U.S. forwards were either bigger or quicker – or both – and more skilled.

But the rest of the world is closing the gap on the Americans as countries devote more attention and resources to their women’s programs.“We need to be smarter. We need to do different things,” Sundhage said. “Change the point of attack more than once. For me, the game is about rhythm. In order to find rhythm, in order to decrease the tempo sometimes and increase the tempo, you need everybody involved.”

Now when the Americans get the ball, Sundhage wants it to go to the center midfielders, usually Carli Lloyd and Shannon Boxx.

Based on what they see, they can send the ball out to the flanks or up to one of the forwards. Or they can direct it back to a defender and start the whole process over again.

“I think it’s good for our system,” captain Christie Rampone said Friday. “We can’t always rely on one thing. Teams are getting better, stronger, putting more into their programs, as you can see. All these games (at the World Cup) have been close and they’ve been very good. So I think we need that addition to our attack.”