Women's World Cup
 

It seemed like this is a hot enough topic that it could deserve its own thread.

For those of you not following the action on TV, in today's first match, Sweden beat North Korea and at the half, the US is up over Nigeria 2-0. In another match that is not being televised, I belive Russia is up over Ghana 1-0. At 9:55 ET tonight will be Australia vs. China, so tonight is a good night to catch women's soccer on ESPN2. More games will be televised on Sunday, first on ESPN then ABC then ESPN2. And just FYI Froggie, your Canadian ladies lost their first match but bounced back nicely with a win over Argentina.

~tk

Russia snagged their goal on a free-kick from the right-side of the box. The "wall" by Ghana sort of parted like the Red Sea.

Set piece, damn set piece. :D

Nigeria really does some hard challenges. I will say this for them, though, at least they don't lay writhing on the ground when they get theirs (see: Brazil).

I hate injuries and hope that player isn't seriously injured but I definitely say good answers by Hamm and Wambauch.

Re: Women's World Cup
 

Thankf for the update. We don't get ESPN (or ESPN2 for that matter) in Canada, and their canadian counterpart (TSN or RDS in French) are not showing anything related to soccer at the moment or at any point this evening... oh well...

FM

The Aussie ladies scored one against the run of play against China, as China's keeper totally botched a read on a through ball.

USA won 5 - 0, and Sweden looks to be in good shape to advance in second place out of group A.

Yeah, that was a gorgeous goal by the Aussies.

They just got an AWESOME clearance by Salisbury. The cross went past the keeper and Sun Wen deflected toward the open net. Salisbury made an all-out effort to clear it. Then she met the goalpost. Goalpost is strong.

ROAR.. I saw USA TROMP Nigeria.. 5-0.. Mia with 2 goals.. on my side.. wohooo

I think TheLionKing needs to run a women of the women's world cup surviver competition.

That's all, I don't have anything intelligent to add about the actual soccer being player :)

p.s. don't forget to include a couple of the refs, the cute female ones I mean (sorry The Afoci)

Glad the Swedes managed to hang on for a 1-0 win, to score as early as they did took a bit out of the North Korean sails. Sweden clearly pushed forward from the beginning to get pressure - good tactic when you get a goal, not so good if you get winded and lose momentum when nothing comes.

Nigeria looks beatable with less motivation, as the tournament is over for them. The US - North Korea game should be worth watching, with much hinging on the outcome (and for the legions of Kim Jung Il, there's surely some additional motivation than just sports).

Refereeing seems kinda iffy today.

I wholeheartedly agree.
I also hate tv commentators!

~tk

I wonder if they break down tapes from soccer matches with the refs like they do football/basketball/whatever. Sometimes I wonder about all the refs that get rejected for important competitions like the world cup, when the ones selected seem to...what's the word....oh yeah...suck...when the ones selected seem to suck pretty bad. It was both ways though, at least in the USA/NK match. I loved the card given for diving in 2nd half stoppage time. Maybe it wasn't a foul, but when you get both of your legs swept from under you, you're going to go down.

Oh, and in the previous match, the US made a PK, and then had it called back because of an infraction on the GOALKEEPER. Serious dumbass call. Of course, (Mia I think it was) the US just drilled the next one as well.

We need that bald headed guy to do the finals. I never remember his name, but I'm always glad to see him on the field.

A few things.

The PK was retaken (per a friend of mine who was at the game, not watching it on tv, because you couldn't see it on tv) because there was an encroachment of a US player into the 10 yard radius from the PK. FIFA Laws of the Game dictate the proper restart being a re-take of the kick.

Yes, in ref recert courses and upgrade courses you almost always go over tapes of "good calls" and "bad calls." I expect this year's WWC to become a highlight reel for the latter. I've seen ONE and ONLY ONE game well-officiated, and it wasn't televised (France/Korea).

The bald-headed guy will NOT be at the finals, nor will any other male. The decision was made for this WWC to have only female refs. This does not make the crop of female refs look very good. It's unfortunate, because I personally know some of the good upper-level ones, and they were not invited.

::sigh::
Ok, I'm off my podium.

~tk

Last I knew, despite the fact that there was encroachment by the U.S., there was still some question as to whether that was the reason for the retake by the ref.

Even the men get questionable officiating thanks to FIFA's attempts to integrate officials from more countries. An example would be the USA-Sierra Leone game in the U17 championships earlier this year, and I think there were also some questions about the quality of the ARs in the last World Cup.

"That bald-headed guy" is Pierluigi Collina of Italy.

UPDATES 10.01.03 Results
 

For those of you who haven't heard yet, yesterday (10.01.03) 2 quarterfinal matches went down:

USA - NORWAY 1-0
SWEDEN - BRAZIL 2-1

I was particularly happy with the Sweden victory, since I thought Brazil played really ugly when I watched them last week (they take a lot of dives and the ref feels a need to give them the calls, very frustrating as a ref and former player).

Anyway, tonight are the other 2 quarterfinal matches, first
RUSSIA - GERMANY (7:30 PM ET)
CHINA - CANADA (1030 PM ET I THINK)

Anyway, I'll post halftime scores during these matches since I'm watcng them tonight, for those who are so interested :D

~tk

That was a nice goal by Mueller. Prinz-Mueller-Minnert is going to be scary for the US to try to match up against.

Hanna Ljungberg & Abby Wambach are my new fave players in women's soccer because they're scrappy and aggressive despite Hanna being about 5'3, and Abby being ~6 feet tall. It's very interesting to watch players that different in size play the same style.

Minnert is a defensive player, the offensive player is Meinert.

Oops. My bad. :)

I agree on the Abby Wambach stuff, plus I like some of our younger talent on the US squad, notably Aly Wagner and Cat Reddick. I'm honestly not a huge fan of Shannon Boxx though she's getting a LOT of hype...I think she's a player like Steffi Jones, one who makes some good plays at clutch times and is pretty aggressive, but isn't a star by any stretch.

Ok, updates time. :)
~tk

Canada just scored in the 6th or 7th minute on a header by Hooper.

Germany assaulted Russia 7-1, ouch.

So it's USA vs Germany & Sweden vs Canada/China winner. Nice pair of semis either way :)

UPDATE!
Germany - Russia 7-1
The lone scorer for Russia was a 16 year old player, and she looked like easily the best on the squad. Generally, the Russian squad looked old and tired...and they gave up after they were down 2-0, which allowed Germany to trounce them.

Canada - China ONGOING
In the 7th minute Charmagne Hooper knocked one in for Canada, putting them up 1-0. I'll be honest, China looked a lot better 4 years ago, though Canada's still got a TOUGH 80ish more minutes ahead of them. It should be interesting to see how Canada's squad develops as more of their players attend and play at higher-level US universities. One notable player is Canada's numer 12, who played at Santa Clara last year (I'm fairly certain they won the NCAA Women's Soccer Championship, but I'm too lazy to go make sure, they were playing against Portland...also, Canada's #12 may have been on the Portland squad, I know she was in the final match...). Keep in mind that Santa Clara has become an even better-known soccer school, producing American greats like BRANDI CHASTAIN and Aly Wagner.

More after the Canada-China match (and maybe I'll even check my facts on Canada's number 12).
~tk

Ok, I goofed.
Number 12 is Christine Sinclair (Canada squad) and DID IN FACT go to Portland for school (hey I said she was on the field in the final, didn't say I was positive which side she was for...). Either way, Santa Clara is becoming a better-known good soccer school, and Portland's made some impressive appearances in the College World Cup over the past few years.

Still don't remember who won the Women's CWC last year, maybe I'll go look that up.
EDIT: I went and looked it up: PORTLAND WON LAST YEAR, 2-1 in Golden Goal overtime. Portland's primary keeper went down and hit her head hard towards the end of regulation, so they had a first-year player step into goal, which made it even more remarkable for Portland's victory.

~tk

On Canada...watch #15 Kara Lang...she is a 16 or 17 yo....fantastic player who if she continues to develop may be an elite womens player for years to come.

Wow, bbor, I see what you mean, she's been incredible over the entire tournament!
They just said on the tv that she's 16. Canada's prospects look good for long-term talent. :)

~tk

CANADA WINS!
 

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE!
Canada - China 1-0
Woohoo!!!!!!!!!! GO CANADA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'd like to say how impressed I was with the Canadian squad. Yes I've already mentioned Sinclair and bbor brought up Lang, and we all knew that Hooper was awesome, but today the Canadians played like a team on a mission. They didn't have posession, they didn't have the numbers in terms of shots and set pieces, but they knew what they had to do and they did it. Also, for a keeper who's never played in a World Cup before, Canada's keeper was incredible, easily the best player in the match, commanding the defense and not being afraid to come off the line and get in the air for some great grabs.


Ok, now I'm off to bed.
:D
~tk

Maybe I'm wrong based on the small number of times I've seen her but . . . I like Boxx a lot as a defensive midfielder but not at all offensively. I say this because the announcing team were gushing about her ability to pass and I just haven't seen it. On the other hand, I really dig the physical presence she presents in the back and she's done a solid job winning the ball.

The other player that falls into this category for me is Kylie Bivens. I really thought she was huge in the Nigerian game and I like her defensively. But offensively . . . not so much.

Boxx was good offensively. . . for the NY Power. But as you mentioned she'd been pretty mediocre for the US Nat'l team aside from scoring goals in first 3 caps with the squad.

I don't think the US is going to score more than one on Germany if the midfield doesn't do something more productive than stop Germany's offensive runs.

And having said that, Minnert is still a dangerous player on set pieces, much like Cat Reddick for team USA.