Finally a win for New Zealand! Happy for Ali Riley and everyone else on the team. I wonder what it must feel like after going to her fourth WC.
NZ is the answer to my favorite trivia question about the 2010 Men's World Cup, "What team went home from the tournament without a loss?" It wasn't the winners, Spain, as they lost their opening game, and every other team that made the knockout rounds necessarily lost. It was New Zealand with three draws in the group stage, not enough to get to the knockouts. Those three points are probably the most NZ has ever gotten at a WC up until now.
Welp, not this: "It feels like we dropped points. It feels like we lost." - Kailen Sheridan
Franny Ordega used to give us fits when she played with the Spirit. Aside from her foul on Sinc that resulted in a PK, she gave Canada fits yesterday too. I'm not sure she's an NWSL top-level starter these days, but I'd definitely be interested to have her on a roster. She's smart and she's physical.
Talk about a strange line-up and an underwhelming performance. Somehow Canadian coaches manage to get their teams to play below the collective talent of their players. Canada hasn’t looked good for a while now, even with Fleming on the field. Now the going really gets rough for the Canucks.
Not favorite: watching South Africa concede off of Sweden's corner in the 90th minute, during a miserable downpour. Sweden escaped with the 2-1 win.
So far, several of the European sides have been underwhelming: Norway lost, France drew, England and Denmark pulled uninspired 1-0 wins, and Sweden needed the late goal in soggy conditions to come away with the win.
Sinc is getting ripped apart on the bird app for starting, playing terribly, taking the pen, and missing the pen. Lots of folks questioning whether this tourney will irreparably erode her int’l reputation. Of course, lots of very emotional people saying pretty inflammatory things, but I don’t completely disagree that a bad showing for her as still the centerpiece for Canada could make the end of her career a real crash-and-burn moment. Sad state that the whole world is kinda waking up to what we’ve been experiencing for several years now at the Thorns.
Even saw a reporter online who was upset that she avoided the mixed-zone after the match, which I guess apparently is a required thing for players to walk through (but they don’t have to engage with reporters if they don’t want to.) Rough start to the WC campaign for Captain Canada.
- I assume there's a non-selfish reason/explanation why she's still starting.
- I assume she's at least as self-aware as Rapinoe.
- Canada have some world-class talent who could start for any club or country, though not as many of them as USWNT.
- Canada are in this field's Group of Death.
(2) As to Sinc's play yesterday:
- Sinc wasn't terrible yesterday, but she wasn't transcendent. That's Sinc these days, most of the time.
- She nearly bagged the opener pretty early on. One of the camera angles, down at field level, showed that she really *just* missed it... and she knew it.
(3) As to the PK:
- I've already explained my read of the PK situation, but here's a recap.
-Sinc had faced this keeper before, and the first closeup on the keeper's eyes and body language revealed that the keeper looked rather afraid.
- I'm sure Sinc saw the same thing, and I assume Sinc thought she had the keeper beat and so chose to play it safe. Unfortunately, that's all it takes - playing not to make a mistake ensures making mistakes.
- Sinc's sin was a bad decision, not bad execution - she did what she meant to do. But, she knew it immediately it was a mistake.
- Sinc got in on the rebound much more quickly than others 10-15 years younger than her whose shots get stopped. A player like McCaskill, and so many others, could take a lesson from Sinc on what to do when your PK gets stopped.
- I've seen Sam Kerr sky PKs in WWC competition, putting them nowhere near on frame. No one questions whether she's currently the best (or among the best) in the world.
(4) As to the Molson-fueled public outcry:
- The whole sequence looked terrible, and it was bad.
- It looked worse and worse on each slo-mo viewing.
- There was plenty of opportunity during the rest of the match for the replay to be shown, multiple times and from multiple angles. The broadcast came back to it several times during second-half stoppages.
Philippines keeping it to 2 goals was kind of a moral victory. Watch the highlights for their keeper McDaniel make two amazing, point-blank reaction saves before the 64th minute concession. If the Philippine backline could actually clear lines this one might have been scoreless.
It didn't affect the play (the ball was already gone) but it was a brutal hack from behind in the penalty area, so the CR didn't really have much choice. Foul + penalty area = PK.
I’ll disagree; weak, poorly placed, just as bad as her PKs have been lately (she converted 1 of 3 last season). Big save, yes, but a very poor attempt.
I honestly thought it would be like a 50/50 chance that Canada didn’t make it outta the group stage. They’ve looked so disorganized and have been set up so poorly every game I can remember from them in the last several years. Really not a fan of Bev’s choices over the years…the first is to play Sinclair 70mins and have her take a penalty. Just unacceptable that the 21 yr old striker isn’t taking those…she’s gotta build confidence in big tourneys if they wanna rely on her in the future. I understand Fleming is an PK taker and she was out, but, this is an huge tournament and more players should be pretty practiced up with PK’s. Aside from Sinc just being straight bad at PK’s over the last couple years, she needs to pass the torch. Thankfully she gives them to Soph now for club, but she should be doing that on the national team as well.
For the Thorns, it looks like Soph is the first choice, followed perhaps by Hina. I have confidence in either one...although not perhaps as much as I had in Nadim! She walked up to every PK like she _knew_ it was going in the back of the net. Most of the time it did.
When I said "not awful," I suppose that was generous...but it was at least not directly at the 'keeper and not at belt level. ;) Call it a 3 on a 10 scale...not a 1.
Sinc played it safe. I think she thought she had the keeper beat. The keeper looked terrified at first - just the look in the eyes. So, Sinc played it not to miss, and of course she did.
With that kick? She might have had a chance if the keeper had guessed wrong, or stayed rooted. But once the keeper dove to her left Sinc’s putt was so close to the center of the goal and so slow that had the keeper made a stronger dive she probably would had caught it. As it was she flailed and got a hand to it anyway.
Not sure if Sinc was overconfident and figured any half-assed attempt would work, or worried she’d miss if she went for the inside of the post. Either way…there’s a reason she’s no longer the regular taker…
Shame Vilda/EFF are such fucks because boy do I love watching Spain play! The Athanea/Aitana/Esther trio is such a delight, and Alexia didn’t even start this morning.
The way Spain has curated such a unique play style across ages and genders is very cool imo- This team reminds me a lot of the pre-2008 men’s teams even with the missing pieces. They still don’t have a real striker (the men had Villa and Torres, and I’ve never been fully sold on Hermoso for the women) and are prone to overplaying which will probably be their downfall, but they’re a real fun watch.
(Also, "Aitana Bonmati" is just an S-tier soccer star name. Just sounds *right*)
Having only seen Canada-Nigeria I'm trying to not extrapolate the playing style to the tournament as a whole, but caution that our gals may receive the same kind of overtly physical play on display. Last night seemed increasingly aggressive, transitioning to dangerous, most notably in extra time with the attempted tib-fib fracturing of Lawerence's leg. Can she even walk, today?
Recalling 2019 and Spain's continual mugging of Alex Morgan, I hope to hell the refs pay some mind this tournament. I'd like Soph to return home intact, for starters.
On a lighter note, so nice to see good production again--plenty of cameras and field mics, crisp picture make the broadcast more engaging. Plus, I can ID the players!
For whatever reason, Directstream is fighting with whoever controls Fox Sports Network and I could only watch the match on Peacock en Espanol. Hope that doesn't continue tonight, but who can guess? Ole!
Yeah, Nigeria were pretty physical yesterday. What surprised me is that I didn't see much physical play from Buchanan yesterday, and that's usually something she brings to the table.
My worry is that with so many referees new to the World Cup, they'll be afraid to hand out cards when deserved and we'll see a hack-a-thon. It happened in last year's World Cup too.
For me Ary Borges third goal for Brazil with Debinha having two incredible passes to lead to that goal including a back heal assist. So Brazilian! Borges and Pop will be challenging Soph for the Golden Boot and both Brazil and Germany could go pretty far.
Spain and Japan is the game I would love to see but 12:30 AM is pretty late for me.
The Dutch with the US game looks like a battle between two defenses. Both attacks are strong so the best defense will win. I think the US has to win because I can see the Netherlands running up the goals on Vietnam.
Sweden squeaks by on the back of an own goal. The Netherlands looked very sloppy but Portugal more so. And France! Oof! The favorites on day two got their business done, especially Japan, but on day three they all stunk. If this keeps up, the losers' side of the bracket are going to be a huge dropoff in quality and the final could be a blowout.
It's hard to tell which day is which, what with games starting in the middle of the night. I don't about y'all but I have given up and am just DVR'ing everything to watch whenever I can. Here's hoping for a slow week at work.
Woof, the USWNT looked ragged last night. If we keep playing this way we won't go very deep in the tournament.
Why does Vlatko insist on changing his lineup and formation so much? Surely he knows that players need reps together to learn each others' patterns and habits, yes? Like is Savannah DeMelo so much of an upgrade on Ashley Sanchez that it's worth disrupting what little chemistry we have to have her play a game? Ditto for Julie Ertz playing on the back line. There were SO many cases of misunderstanding in this game, where someone would pass the ball to where they thought another player was going to be, and that player had different ideas so we lost the ball. Excepting the first goal, we were disjointed all game long. Better teams will clobber us with that.
Japan go 5-0 over Zambia, whose keeper drew a yellow and a red today.! Zambia have not 1, not 2, but 3 players named Banda. Oh, the Banda branding possibilities are endless. "Getting the Banda back together." "Smokey and the Banda" (if they can convince someone to adopt that nickname). "Banda-Aid." (showing self out now)
England hold off Haiti 1-0 on a pen, after having already missed a pen. Step it up, Lionnesses. Is Lucy Bronze playing for them? You know, Lionness Lucy? (showing self out now)
And then there was this unfortunately, accidentally racist headline printed by ESPN and courtesy of Reuters: Denmark score 89th minute goal to beat Japan in WWC Group D By Reuters Updated: Jul 22, 2023, 07:34 am. No, that was China folks, and it took Denmark into the 89th minute to find the winner.
5-0 Japan at the end (late stoppage time PK by Riko Ueki...Musonda sent off for a second yellow). No Hina in this one...I expect her to play (and possibly start) in the next one. Japan have a lot of depth to play with and will surely be rotating. I don't think Zambia got a single shot off...dominating performance by the Nadeshiko.
Japan utterly dominating, but getting the worst of several hair's-breadth offside rulings: a second goal called back, then moments later a foul/penalty overruled by another offside.
Then finally a goal stands! 2-0 Japan, 55th minute. Mina Tanaka's third ball in the back of the net...first one to count.
Good half for Japan in the match against Zambia. One very pretty goal on a sweet ball in from Aoba Fujino to Hinata Miyazawa, another called back on a close offside call, and a couple very good saves by Zambia's 'keeper Catherine Musonda. The Nadeshiko dominated possession and kept the ball away from Barbra Banda for the most part. Zambia looked nervy at first but settled into the match by the 20 minute mark. Should be a good second half!
Five games, two upsets so far. (I'm counting the Nigeria-Canada draw as an upset because Canada is the defending Olympic champ, even though Nigeria is a good team.) When will we see the next one?
What has been your favorite moment so far?
When New Zealand scored their goal. You could feel the joy through the screen for all the New Zealanders. That was something.
Same, I was just so joyful for them and their country. Ali Riley looked like she was floating after the game. Love love that for her.
YES!!!!!!!!!
So glad they got to have that moment!
Finally a win for New Zealand! Happy for Ali Riley and everyone else on the team. I wonder what it must feel like after going to her fourth WC.
NZ is the answer to my favorite trivia question about the 2010 Men's World Cup, "What team went home from the tournament without a loss?" It wasn't the winners, Spain, as they lost their opening game, and every other team that made the knockout rounds necessarily lost. It was New Zealand with three draws in the group stage, not enough to get to the knockouts. Those three points are probably the most NZ has ever gotten at a WC up until now.
Welp, not this: "It feels like we dropped points. It feels like we lost." - Kailen Sheridan
Franny Ordega used to give us fits when she played with the Spirit. Aside from her foul on Sinc that resulted in a PK, she gave Canada fits yesterday too. I'm not sure she's an NWSL top-level starter these days, but I'd definitely be interested to have her on a roster. She's smart and she's physical.
Nigeria is super underrated. I have them as the 2nd team to make it out of the group.
Canada has had issues finishing in front of goal for a long spell now, wonder if they can get some improvement in the next two games.
Nigeria is super ruthless. Give them credit, with all the crap going on with their federation.
Talk about a strange line-up and an underwhelming performance. Somehow Canadian coaches manage to get their teams to play below the collective talent of their players. Canada hasn’t looked good for a while now, even with Fleming on the field. Now the going really gets rough for the Canucks.
Not favorite: watching South Africa concede off of Sweden's corner in the 90th minute, during a miserable downpour. Sweden escaped with the 2-1 win.
So far, several of the European sides have been underwhelming: Norway lost, France drew, England and Denmark pulled uninspired 1-0 wins, and Sweden needed the late goal in soggy conditions to come away with the win.
So far, Aoba Fujino's inch perfect ball in for Hinata Miyazawa to slam home. Lovely stuff...
Sinc is getting ripped apart on the bird app for starting, playing terribly, taking the pen, and missing the pen. Lots of folks questioning whether this tourney will irreparably erode her int’l reputation. Of course, lots of very emotional people saying pretty inflammatory things, but I don’t completely disagree that a bad showing for her as still the centerpiece for Canada could make the end of her career a real crash-and-burn moment. Sad state that the whole world is kinda waking up to what we’ve been experiencing for several years now at the Thorns.
Even saw a reporter online who was upset that she avoided the mixed-zone after the match, which I guess apparently is a required thing for players to walk through (but they don’t have to engage with reporters if they don’t want to.) Rough start to the WC campaign for Captain Canada.
(1) As to Sinc's role:
- I assume there's a non-selfish reason/explanation why she's still starting.
- I assume she's at least as self-aware as Rapinoe.
- Canada have some world-class talent who could start for any club or country, though not as many of them as USWNT.
- Canada are in this field's Group of Death.
(2) As to Sinc's play yesterday:
- Sinc wasn't terrible yesterday, but she wasn't transcendent. That's Sinc these days, most of the time.
- She nearly bagged the opener pretty early on. One of the camera angles, down at field level, showed that she really *just* missed it... and she knew it.
(3) As to the PK:
- I've already explained my read of the PK situation, but here's a recap.
-Sinc had faced this keeper before, and the first closeup on the keeper's eyes and body language revealed that the keeper looked rather afraid.
- I'm sure Sinc saw the same thing, and I assume Sinc thought she had the keeper beat and so chose to play it safe. Unfortunately, that's all it takes - playing not to make a mistake ensures making mistakes.
- Sinc's sin was a bad decision, not bad execution - she did what she meant to do. But, she knew it immediately it was a mistake.
- Sinc got in on the rebound much more quickly than others 10-15 years younger than her whose shots get stopped. A player like McCaskill, and so many others, could take a lesson from Sinc on what to do when your PK gets stopped.
- I've seen Sam Kerr sky PKs in WWC competition, putting them nowhere near on frame. No one questions whether she's currently the best (or among the best) in the world.
(4) As to the Molson-fueled public outcry:
- The whole sequence looked terrible, and it was bad.
- It looked worse and worse on each slo-mo viewing.
- There was plenty of opportunity during the rest of the match for the replay to be shown, multiple times and from multiple angles. The broadcast came back to it several times during second-half stoppages.
AMC just missed a sitter. Visions of Portland's Swiss Miss.
Philippines keeping it to 2 goals was kind of a moral victory. Watch the highlights for their keeper McDaniel make two amazing, point-blank reaction saves before the 64th minute concession. If the Philippine backline could actually clear lines this one might have been scoreless.
It was a bummer they had the opener called back. Right call, but still a bummer.
What did you make of the awarded penalty near the end of the 1st half?
It didn't affect the play (the ball was already gone) but it was a brutal hack from behind in the penalty area, so the CR didn't really have much choice. Foul + penalty area = PK.
That's our AMC!
Nigeria giving Canada all they can handle--scoreless through a half.
Watching in Spanish because reasons.
Sinc fouled in the box, under review. Penalty.
Spanish is the Lingua Franca for Canada v Nigeria in Australia.
Still no score at 84’. Sinc’s miss looking uglier by the minute.
And Sinc's PK was not great. Not awful, but the Nigerian 'keeper was all over it.
I’ll disagree; weak, poorly placed, just as bad as her PKs have been lately (she converted 1 of 3 last season). Big save, yes, but a very poor attempt.
I honestly thought it would be like a 50/50 chance that Canada didn’t make it outta the group stage. They’ve looked so disorganized and have been set up so poorly every game I can remember from them in the last several years. Really not a fan of Bev’s choices over the years…the first is to play Sinclair 70mins and have her take a penalty. Just unacceptable that the 21 yr old striker isn’t taking those…she’s gotta build confidence in big tourneys if they wanna rely on her in the future. I understand Fleming is an PK taker and she was out, but, this is an huge tournament and more players should be pretty practiced up with PK’s. Aside from Sinc just being straight bad at PK’s over the last couple years, she needs to pass the torch. Thankfully she gives them to Soph now for club, but she should be doing that on the national team as well.
In the last Olympics, Sinc handed the ball to Grosso for the winning penalty. I wonder if she's trying to prove she still belongs on the field.
Well, she sure proved something…one way or another..
For the Thorns, it looks like Soph is the first choice, followed perhaps by Hina. I have confidence in either one...although not perhaps as much as I had in Nadim! She walked up to every PK like she _knew_ it was going in the back of the net. Most of the time it did.
tbf Soph is 4 from 4 so far, and from memory they've all been very good penalties. I can see her walking up to a penalty like that.
IIRC the only penalty Nadim "missed" for the Thorns was one that the keeper rebounded and Nadim put away anyway.
Correct! PK Assassin Nadim has only missed twice in her career. Once internationally, once in NWSL. I know she scored off the NWSL miss.
When I said "not awful," I suppose that was generous...but it was at least not directly at the 'keeper and not at belt level. ;) Call it a 3 on a 10 scale...not a 1.
Think Fleming is the first choice penalty taker, much like how Soph replaced Sinc at penalties for the Thorns
And Sinc showed us why both squads made that move…
Sinc played it safe. I think she thought she had the keeper beat. The keeper looked terrified at first - just the look in the eyes. So, Sinc played it not to miss, and of course she did.
With that kick? She might have had a chance if the keeper had guessed wrong, or stayed rooted. But once the keeper dove to her left Sinc’s putt was so close to the center of the goal and so slow that had the keeper made a stronger dive she probably would had caught it. As it was she flailed and got a hand to it anyway.
Not sure if Sinc was overconfident and figured any half-assed attempt would work, or worried she’d miss if she went for the inside of the post. Either way…there’s a reason she’s no longer the regular taker…
I thought she was putting a golf ball with her foot.
She tried to finesse it. Always a mistake in a big, big match. Just blast the damn ball!
Shame Vilda/EFF are such fucks because boy do I love watching Spain play! The Athanea/Aitana/Esther trio is such a delight, and Alexia didn’t even start this morning.
The way Spain has curated such a unique play style across ages and genders is very cool imo- This team reminds me a lot of the pre-2008 men’s teams even with the missing pieces. They still don’t have a real striker (the men had Villa and Torres, and I’ve never been fully sold on Hermoso for the women) and are prone to overplaying which will probably be their downfall, but they’re a real fun watch.
(Also, "Aitana Bonmati" is just an S-tier soccer star name. Just sounds *right*)
Having only seen Canada-Nigeria I'm trying to not extrapolate the playing style to the tournament as a whole, but caution that our gals may receive the same kind of overtly physical play on display. Last night seemed increasingly aggressive, transitioning to dangerous, most notably in extra time with the attempted tib-fib fracturing of Lawerence's leg. Can she even walk, today?
Recalling 2019 and Spain's continual mugging of Alex Morgan, I hope to hell the refs pay some mind this tournament. I'd like Soph to return home intact, for starters.
On a lighter note, so nice to see good production again--plenty of cameras and field mics, crisp picture make the broadcast more engaging. Plus, I can ID the players!
For whatever reason, Directstream is fighting with whoever controls Fox Sports Network and I could only watch the match on Peacock en Espanol. Hope that doesn't continue tonight, but who can guess? Ole!
Yeah, Nigeria were pretty physical yesterday. What surprised me is that I didn't see much physical play from Buchanan yesterday, and that's usually something she brings to the table.
Both the Super Falcons and the Super Eagles are known for rough play. Not surprised at all.
My worry is that with so many referees new to the World Cup, they'll be afraid to hand out cards when deserved and we'll see a hack-a-thon. It happened in last year's World Cup too.
Canada w 68% possession and 15 shots but only three on frame.
Nigeria is a solid team. But given the PK miss the CWNT might regret dropping the points.
Yeah, that's the Group of Death in this tournament.
That said, the Euros are off to a slow start today.
For me Ary Borges third goal for Brazil with Debinha having two incredible passes to lead to that goal including a back heal assist. So Brazilian! Borges and Pop will be challenging Soph for the Golden Boot and both Brazil and Germany could go pretty far.
Spain and Japan is the game I would love to see but 12:30 AM is pretty late for me.
The Dutch with the US game looks like a battle between two defenses. Both attacks are strong so the best defense will win. I think the US has to win because I can see the Netherlands running up the goals on Vietnam.
Sweden squeaks by on the back of an own goal. The Netherlands looked very sloppy but Portugal more so. And France! Oof! The favorites on day two got their business done, especially Japan, but on day three they all stunk. If this keeps up, the losers' side of the bracket are going to be a huge dropoff in quality and the final could be a blowout.
It's hard to tell which day is which, what with games starting in the middle of the night. I don't about y'all but I have given up and am just DVR'ing everything to watch whenever I can. Here's hoping for a slow week at work.
Woof, the USWNT looked ragged last night. If we keep playing this way we won't go very deep in the tournament.
Why does Vlatko insist on changing his lineup and formation so much? Surely he knows that players need reps together to learn each others' patterns and habits, yes? Like is Savannah DeMelo so much of an upgrade on Ashley Sanchez that it's worth disrupting what little chemistry we have to have her play a game? Ditto for Julie Ertz playing on the back line. There were SO many cases of misunderstanding in this game, where someone would pass the ball to where they thought another player was going to be, and that player had different ideas so we lost the ball. Excepting the first goal, we were disjointed all game long. Better teams will clobber us with that.
Man, what I missed overnight....
Japan go 5-0 over Zambia, whose keeper drew a yellow and a red today.! Zambia have not 1, not 2, but 3 players named Banda. Oh, the Banda branding possibilities are endless. "Getting the Banda back together." "Smokey and the Banda" (if they can convince someone to adopt that nickname). "Banda-Aid." (showing self out now)
England hold off Haiti 1-0 on a pen, after having already missed a pen. Step it up, Lionnesses. Is Lucy Bronze playing for them? You know, Lionness Lucy? (showing self out now)
And then there was this unfortunately, accidentally racist headline printed by ESPN and courtesy of Reuters: Denmark score 89th minute goal to beat Japan in WWC Group D By Reuters Updated: Jul 22, 2023, 07:34 am. No, that was China folks, and it took Denmark into the 89th minute to find the winner.
5-0 Japan at the end (late stoppage time PK by Riko Ueki...Musonda sent off for a second yellow). No Hina in this one...I expect her to play (and possibly start) in the next one. Japan have a lot of depth to play with and will surely be rotating. I don't think Zambia got a single shot off...dominating performance by the Nadeshiko.
4-0 Japan now (71st minute). Miyazawa has a brace now, and Yui Hasegawa just put a great ball in to Jun Endo for #4.
Japan utterly dominating, but getting the worst of several hair's-breadth offside rulings: a second goal called back, then moments later a foul/penalty overruled by another offside.
Then finally a goal stands! 2-0 Japan, 55th minute. Mina Tanaka's third ball in the back of the net...first one to count.
Good half for Japan in the match against Zambia. One very pretty goal on a sweet ball in from Aoba Fujino to Hinata Miyazawa, another called back on a close offside call, and a couple very good saves by Zambia's 'keeper Catherine Musonda. The Nadeshiko dominated possession and kept the ball away from Barbra Banda for the most part. Zambia looked nervy at first but settled into the match by the 20 minute mark. Should be a good second half!
Five games, two upsets so far. (I'm counting the Nigeria-Canada draw as an upset because Canada is the defending Olympic champ, even though Nigeria is a good team.) When will we see the next one?