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They had a lean decade between the 99ers and 2011 but the 2010's has been pretty awesome to the women. 3 WWC finals, 2 wins. In recent memory, they've had a great run.

Also, btw, someone recently wrote a comprehensive history of the USWNT which dates back from their inception in 1985 to the preparation for the cup in 2019. I would highly recommend buying this book. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1419734490/

Seconded for sure. Watch some soccer and, if you like books, go read up on the game. There’s a fairly short but really high-quality list of books that you can hit to get a varied taste of soccer, from history to tactics to biographies to silly books about English soccer clichés.

But there is no substitute for watching the game, and even playing around in your back yard a bit. Enjoy!

(Edit: there are other books on the shortlist out there too. Also, there are plenty of fun and informative podcasts related to the sport if you’re into that sort of thing)

I would go to r/footballtactics or other similar subs. The False 9 is a decent resource. But real quick a note on formations

The important thing to keep in mind is that there are 3 phases in the game and the shape varies based on the phase. For example if the lineup card says 4-4-2 you can expect 2 banks of 4 in the defensive phase and fullbacks overlapping the wingers in the attacking phase with one DM and one hybrid midfielder in the center. With 5-3-2/3-5-2 in the defensive phase you will usually see 5 at the back and then 3 at the back in transition and when in attack you will almost always see 2 at the back (unless American players coached by Klinnsy are running it but I digress) with your ball playing defender stepping into a DM spot.

Also to understand Guardiola's system I would look up grid theory (4-4-2 actually had a surprisingly decent article on it) and to understand the 4-2-3-1 run to perfection I would read up on Jose's Inter squads.

Edit: Also, there are more exotic formations like the old Mexican 4-3-1-2 and the Zambian (IIRC) Christmas tree when they won the Africa Cup of Nations some years ago. The latter formation is something you can probably find a couple decent articles about and it's a good one to use when you know your squad is inferior. Hell, Dortmund broke it out today. I know they won't run it the same way the Zambians did but it's still fun to see.

Edit2: http://thefalse9.com/

Edit3: https://www.amazon.com/Inverting-Pyramid-History-Soccer-Tactics/dp/1568587384 - Inverting the Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson

http://spielverlagerung.com/2014/12/25/juego-de-posicion-under-pep-guardiola/

until someone comes up with a good algorithm (I'm skeptical it will ever be accomplished), we're going to have to rely on the wisdom of the crowd, which, by the way, is not a bad way to go about this sort of thing: https://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-Crowds-James-Surowiecki/dp/0385721706

I enjoyed the book How Soccer Explains the World book for the anecdotes on different teams

Have a read of Black People Don't Play Soccer? By Robert Woodard.

A good read.

We out here.

There's the mandatory Clint Dempsey poster

Nope, sorry. hes given so much into US soccer. He even wrote a book

just read the book.

Here is the mobile version of your link