2023 FIFA Women's World Cup

[scott43]

"my mistake... Four coffins..."

 

[crgildart]

I've always been a USA>PL Liverpool/England>Mexico>Spain> supporter in that order. England vs Spain works. Anybody but Brasil LOL...

 

[fatbob]

Lionesses owned the 1st half.

But Matildas looking better at start of 2nd half. And Sam Kerr strikes back! Brilliant! 1-1.

Pretty clinical finishing at both ends. Best I've seen England play although I would admit they've always had the lowest ranked opponent possible this WC.

 

[James]

Wonder if Kerr would’ve been sharper longer if she came in at the half. She missed at least one just before the second England goal. Her goal was fantastic though.
Congrats to England, they certainly deserved to win this one.

 

[geepers]

Pretty clinical finishing at both ends. Best I've seen England play although I would admit they've always had the lowest ranked opponent possible this WC.

Better team won on the night. Matildas looked more like contenders in the 2nd half, ramping up the attacks. But it cost them in defense and the Brits executed well.

Overall the Matildas did better than at a WC than any previous team, male or female, and piqued Australia's interest in soccer. And there's still the bronze medal to play for.

Wonder if Kerr would’ve been sharper longer if she came in at the half. She missed at least one just before the second England goal.

Yeah, that was a damn fine equaliser from Kerr. She had a couple of other good chances but that's the way it goes.

Hard to say if that have worked - she's a professional athlete so kind of doubt it.

 

[crgildart]

Co home team has nothing to be ashamed of. They played well above most expectations. It was fun run to watch!

 

[James]

Better team won on the night.

Is Australia still behind the Matilda’s?

Match could’ve gone another way. England benefits from being together for awhile and having won the Euros. They get you can’t lose focus for short periods. Or rush things like Columbia did late in the game against England/ taking low percentage long distance shots that eat up time when it misses.

Australia coach-
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"All it takes is one moment -- I know that from experience," Gustavsson told ESPN. "That's why you need to play every single moment out there, whether it's defending a set play or you lose the ball in defending transition, or it's a tackle or a one-on-one duel.

"That one moment can be the decided whether you win or lose. You need to live every single moment because that's where the margins are in a semifinal or a final."
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Jill Ellis on the Australia team and her forner assistant Gusatvsson-

"I watched them play against France in the warm-up game, and I remember going, 'This is a well-oiled machine. They're going to make a deep run in this tournament,'" Ellis said. "You could just see it -- the way they stepped together and moved together. It just reminded me a lot of our team in 2019. We were a very well-oiled machine, prepared for any situation…"

"I don't think people are giving him and his staff enough credit for having navigated most of this tournament without arguably one of the best players in the world," Ellis said. "Most of us as coaches would not have said Australia was even close to being a contender without Kerr, so that's pretty remarkable what they've been able to navigate as a staff."
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How Gustavsson applied USWNT learnings under Ellis to Australia's World Cup push

Tony Gustavsson's first head-coaching job at the national team level is with Australia, who have focused their energy and been versatile in the face of issues and injuries to stand one game from the World Cup final.

www.espn.com

 

[James]

Big News-

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Vlatko Andonovski has stepped down as manager of the U.S. women's national team, sources confirmed to ESPN on Wednesday.
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Sources: Andonovski resigns as USWNT coach

Vlatko Andonovski has stepped down as manager of the U.S. women's national team following its World Cup exit, sources have confirmed to ESPN.

www.espn.com

 

[geepers]

Is Australia still behind the Matilda’s?

Absolutely. Matilda mania.

 

[SBrown]

It’s largely political. Rapinoe said 4 yrs ago they weren’t going to the White House if they won. (They went after 2015) Then there was the kneeling in support of Colin Kaepernick before that. Then the lack of singing the national anthem. A good percentage, at least on media, was rooting for them to lose. It’s sick.
That’s why the garbage that Lloyd and Lalas were spewing is so bad, because the haters eat that up.

I still disagree that it was garbage. See article here. Lalas does have that ... air about him, not everyone's cup of tea. But it isn't their fault that freaking Fox News and the Orange Wonder lashed out. You think they should have censored their thoughts because of a bunch of loonies? I see that as cowardly.

 

[geepers]

 

[crgildart]

Younger legs prevailed. over experience Quicker to the loose balls and faster on the breakaways.. Coach managed the turnover/attrition well. Congrats to Spain

 

[fatbob]

Best team won. Way better pressing. Cut out England's quality by affording them no time on the ball.

 

[BC.]

It is always funny how the extra time added always ends after giving the team thats down/ one more chance….lol.

Spain was really good….IMO, technically better than any team I watched throughout the tournament. Beautiful passing…creating their attacks/chances.

 

[dbostedo]

It is always funny how the extra time added always ends after giving the team thats down/ one more chance….lol.

Well, it's not some secret or coincidence or anything - it's intentional and typical. Since the extra time is the minimum add, and refs have leeway to let it go longer, they will usually give an attack time to play out. It's pretty much standard practice, though there's no official rule regarding it that I'm aware of.

 

[James]

Lucy Bronze and Keira Walsh picked the wrong time to have a bad day. I actually wonder if Bronze has some sort of neck/head injury from the Australian game.

 

[James]

Article on the maintenance of the 74 pitches in the tournament.
It’s a far cry from 2015 when 81 players from 13 countries had to sue Fifa for discrimination because they were using turf for some fields. They even had companies willing to donate and install the grass. Nope. The suit had to be dropped for filing deadlines and Fifa threatened the players.

Because of the Southern Hemisphere winter weather, special measures-
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"I went to management and said we're going to need to use rain covers in the tournament. There was a bit of a debate, I'm not going to lie to you because it's never been done in a World Cup, as usually they're summer tournaments. So we brought four covers over from the U.K., we had them in four cities, we've used them six times and they've been enormously successful."
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Mind the grass: Meet the man in charge of every 2023 Women's World Cup pitch

Arguably the most important, yet ignored, figure at the World Cup is the man responsible for every single pitch used in Australia and New Zealand.

www.espn.com

 

[geepers]

Well congrats to Spain.

And.. something you didn't really need to know....

 

[crgildart]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/20/football/jennifer-hermoso-luis-rubiales-rfef-womens-world-cup-spt-intl/index.html

 

[James]

Australia/New Zealand beat attendance records from 2019 WWcup France. I suppose 32 teams helped, plus 75k in multiple Matildas games. Unofficially, 1.98 million tickets.

Can’t make this crap up. Doesn’t anyone read his statements before and tell him to get a clue?
Fifa president -
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“I say to all the women—and you know I have four daughters, so I have a few at home—I say to all the women that you have the power to change,” Infantino told reporters Sunday ahead of the final, according to CNN. “Pick the right battles, pick the right fights. You have the power to change.
—————-

I hope he has at least one daughter in high school to make his home coming painful.

England’s Lucy Bronze Snubs FIFA President at World Cup Medal Ceremony

Lucy Bronze didn’t have to say a single word to FIFA President Gianni Infantino to send a clear message she was not pleased with his latest comments. The England national team fell to Spain in the FIFA World Cup final on Sunday, and when Bronze went to claim her silver medal, she appeared to...

www.khon2.com