<R David Smith writes...>
> Subject:      USA-France
>
>      A UPI article I just read said that the US was outshot by France 36-17.
>It claimed that they were outshot 18-4 in the third although the USA scored the
> only goal.  From what I saw, this does not sound right.  How are they
> determining shots in this thing?
 
From my viewing of the game, I'd say it was fairly accurate.  The French
team took a lot of long shots and would shoot at just about any opportunity.
They were hunting for rebounds and got very few due to good defensive work
in and around LeBlanc.
 
There were a disturbing number of defensive mistakes (like the giveaway
that led to the goal) that resulted in one on ones with LeBlanc.  In fact
the game probably would have been a lot closer with a little luck on
the part of the French.  The U.S. got the game's biggest break with a
kicked in goal that was allowed by the ref.  It was not touched by a
stick after the time it was kicked.  It did go off the goalie, but I
thought that it should still be disallowed (comments from real refs, please).
 
Also, the power play differential led to a lot of shot opportunities.
 
The differential doesn't mean the French dominated play, however.  It seemed
the U.S. was trying very hard to pass in front of the net.  Worse passes
may have turned into a lot more poor shots :-), and made the shot
differential less.  I didn't see the U.S. try a lot of shots to force
rebounds, they seemed much more intent on setting up plays.  If they
didn't have a lead after the second period, they probably would have
played more like they did against Italy in the third period of that game,
getting a lot of shots and dominating play.
 
The U.S. definitely had better shot quality.
 
 
/matt
 
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Matt Jonson       [log in to unmask]