Women's World Cup 2023 Australia/New Zealand

[BrickHorn 18215]

11 hours ago, Hagbard Celine said:

i was totally wrong on this one

spain were by far the better side

Spain is fun to watch. They play beautiful soccer. 

We could be looking at an all-European final four. Which isn’t entirely surprising. It was clear last summer that the European women’s game has come a long way. 

[WBT 20559]

13 hours ago, Captain Ron said:

I wake up to a bit of a surprise. Japan had been rolling this far. It looks like Sweden dominated until the 2-0 lead. Japan missed a PK and got a straight red for something.

Fox’s highlight package is garbage. 

Sweden is looking tough.

[Hagbard Celine 10848]

i watched nippon-sverige tonight, and although the nips got back in to it, and missed a pk, it was still the right result and i was even more wrong about that result

i thought nippon were a lock

coming back to spain, they looked a totally different side from their group games, which does go to the point of a salty group, but they PWNED the dutchies

PWNED

bet against me against all prior picks

reset mulligan....

espanya all the way pending today's games

[Napoleon 8659]

Watching France 🇫🇷 v Australia 🇦🇺.

OBSERVATIONS:

1) The French Keeper sucks all kinds of lesbian diarrhea ass. She is fucking awful! She is atop the MVP odds at the moment, but it would be for an Australia victory. 
PURE TRASH

2) Each team’s best defense is to let the other team just fuck up. These girls look like high school teams. GIRLS high school teams.

If this were tennis, both teams would be inundated with unforced errors.

3) The French keeper finally made a good play in the 45’.

4) Australia is all about “Go! Ho! Go!”* on the counter and France is slightly more ball control, get the ball out wide, and cross the ball to Australian defenders to head the balls out and maybe get the clearance and then shoot wildly from distance.

*”Ho!” was a typo, but it made me smirk, so I left it.

⚽️

[Napoleon 8659]

The German boy-ish girl who is at the halftime table just said “unforced errors”.

 I have never played in a women’s World Cup, but I obviously know my shit when it comes to identifying shitty play.

[RamjetFDO 10575]

This ref is letting the England girls get mauled. Colombia throwing full body shots.

[shadow_operative2.0 15941]

Pretty slick. 

 

[shadow_operative2.0 15941]

Damn, & England answers at the very end of stoppage. Colombia’s goalie fucked that up six ways from Sunday. 

[RamjetFDO 10575]

Great save by the English keeper to push over the bar.

[LTtxfan 49141]

Damn physical game... England dominating possession in 2nd half so far

[shadow_operative2.0 15941]

I’m thinking “Colombian goalie goes missing” may be a headline shortly. 

[Captain Ron 12862]

Colombia had some good possession late, but I thought they squandered it taking some poor long range shots. Don’t get me wrong, I know the packed in English defense really frustrated them, but they needed to do better. 

[Longboard Horn 40284]

[Longboard Horn 40284]

Spain beats Sweden 2-1. Spain is going to the finals 

[Napoleon 8659]

18 hours ago, Longboard Horn said:

Spain beats Sweden 2-1. Spain is going to the finals 

The game was fairly interesting, but Spain couldn’t get a shot on goal. 

Then… BOOM 🇪🇸… BOOM 🇸🇪… BOOM 🇪🇸 over the course of the last 8 to 9 minutes of regulation. Just crazy. 

Spain’s first two shots on goal were goals. 

[shadow_operative2.0 15941]

15 minutes in to AUS/ENG, we’ll see how long I make it. 

[shadow_operative2.0 15941]

+1 for the bad people. 

Edited August 16, 2023 by shadow_operative2.0

[shadow_operative2.0 15941]

Kiwis tie! 

[RamjetFDO 10575]

That was a rocket from Kerr. Level at 63 minutes.

[WBT 20559]

Great strike by Kerr to tie it

[Buzzrock 14901]

Wow. Wow.

[Buzzrock 14901]

That was ridiculous. She was so far out. And covered. And had a wide open teammate to her left. But she said nah fuck all that. So confident.

[shadow_operative2.0 15941]

Not good, Kiwis. 

[Napoleon 8659]

8 minutes ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

Kiwis tie! 

 

Just now, shadow_operative2.0 said:

Not good, Kiwis. 

New Zealand didn’t make it out of their group.

They never left their country. 
 

Australia with horrible 2-on-1 defending and give up a goal that would get people fired if this were a club team.

England CONCACAFing as much as possible now that they have the lead again. 

[shadow_operative2.0 15941]

Seeing the benches being that cold will never not be funny. 

[shadow_operative2.0 15941]

Drive home safely. 

[Buzzrock 14901]

That oughta do it

[shadow_operative2.0 15941]

Well, can't complain for something to watch from 5-7a. 

[WBT 20559]

England vs Spain should be a good one.  Charles Howard isn't walking through that door!

[shadow_operative2.0 15941]

5 am again, yippee. 

[Captain Ron 12862]

Is it coming home if the women bring it?

I think Spain, despite their toxic situation, is too good. But the final should be great. 

[Longboard Horn 40284]

Well with Spain vs the Brits at least we'll have a brand new champion. Sunday should be a thriller. 

Also, good effort by the Matildas. They have nothing to be ashamed of. 

[Captain Ron 12862]

Also, Kerr is going to be kicking herself for missing that one chance she put over the bar right before England’s 3rd. At least not getting it on frame.

Edited August 16, 2023 by Captain Ron

[Buzzrock 14901]

Is it coming home if the women bring it?
I think Spain, despite their toxic situation, is too good. But the final should be great. 

What’s their toxic situation?

Also, Kerr is going to be kicking herself for missing that one chance she put over the bar right before England’s 3rd. At least not getting it on frame.

She had two good chances after her goal.

[Napoleon 8659]

38 minutes ago, Buzzrock said:

What’s [Spain’s] toxic situation?

Bitches not be liking their coach. 
Bitches signed a letter to the Federation. 
Federation said “Go fuck yourselves, he’s our boy.”

About 3 or 4 girls came back to the team, about 10-12 didn’t. Some of those are Spain’s best players and some of the best female players in Europe. 
Spain is in the final anyway. 

[ztejas 43411]

40 minutes ago, Napoleon said:

Bitches not be liking their coach. 
Bitches signed a letter to the Federation. 
Federation said “Go fuck yourselves, he’s our boy.”

About 3 or 4 girls came back to the team, about 10-12 didn’t. Some of those are Spain’s best players and some of the best female players in Europe. 
Spain is in the final anyway. 

LOL.

So what you're saying is the coach knows what he's doing. 

We should have hired him this cycle. Maybe he would have got Rapinoe and Morgan to quit the team. 

[Captain Ron 12862]

A little more details...

There was an incident September of last year where 15 players refused call up and quit the national team. They did write a letter citing that Vilda should be replaced because he was:

• A bad coach
• Lacked professionalism
• Injury management
• Extremely controlling and invasive of the player's privacy, including insisting on hotel doors never being closed, quizzing them on what they're doing on their time off, going through their belongings after going out shopping etc

I will note finding specific details is extremely hard in this case. The real crux appears to be that the team (if they have all of their players) might be the most talented in the world and they don't think he was good enough to coach this team.

As pointed out the Federation told them to pound rocks and stood behind Vilda as the coach. This cost them 12 players, only 3 came back to the team.

They have made the final, but it appears to be mainly on talent.

https://defector.com/when-your-coach-sucks-everybody-loses

https://defector.com/spain-is-a-big-ugly-mess-with-some-extremely-cool-players

 

[BrickHorn 18215]

Spain is kicking ass with apparently the best development in the world right now (unsurprisingly centered mostly in Barca’s academy). They looked great in Euros and won the U20 World Cup last summer.

[ztejas 43411]

28 minutes ago, Captain Ron said:

A little more details...

There was an incident September of last year where 15 players refused call up and quit the national team. They did write a letter citing that Vilda should be replaced because he was:

• A bad coach
• Lacked professionalism
• Injury management
• Extremely controlling and invasive of the player's privacy, including insisting on hotel doors never being closed, quizzing them on what they're doing on their time off, going through their belongings after going out shopping etc

I will note finding specific details is extremely hard in this case. The real crux appears to be that the team (if they have all of their players) might be the most talented in the world and they don't think he was good enough to coach this team.

As pointed out the Federation told them to pound rocks and stood behind Vilda as the coach. This cost them 12 players, only 3 came back to the team.

They have made the final, but it appears to be mainly on talent.

https://defector.com/when-your-coach-sucks-everybody-loses

https://defector.com/spain-is-a-big-ugly-mess-with-some-extremely-cool-players

 

Maybe he's a monster. I don't know. Maybe the players that quit were spending too much time fucking around. Just saying it's ironic that they all quit and now their team is in the final.

But the dynamics with women's sports are weird and typically more complicated. It's possible he's a do nothing coach being carried by a bunch of 2nd stringers coaching themselves. It's also possible he knows what he's doing and is the main reason for their success. I'm willing to believe either. 

If this was a men's tournament there wouldn't be any doubt that the coach is the main factor.

Unfortunately, if he really is a controlling piece of shit then they're really going to have a tough time getting rid of him now. 

[ztejas 43411]

23 minutes ago, BrickHorn said:

Spain is kicking ass with apparently the best development in the world right now (unsurprisingly centered mostly in Barca’s academy). They looked great in Euros and won the U20 World Cup last summer.

Yeah and in the last WC they lost to the US in the knockouts. They clearly have a lot of talent. That goal to beat Sweden was nuts.

[Captain Ron 12862]

I will just note that a lot of teams had so much talent, even a shitty coach couldn't fuck it up. I think we're pretty aware of one of them

Spoiler

I mean Spain just might be on a completely different level now. We talk about how the US can out talent the world - I think Spain says fuck you on that.

 

It will be interesting to see who wins out Sunday - a near complete English team that is well coached or a half of a Spanish team that has a shitty coach calling the shots.

Edited August 16, 2023 by Captain Ron

[ztejas 43411]

Talent only carries you so far in soccer. I think a lot of them play for the same club teams which is just as important (not sure what the breakdown is now - seems like a lot of the girls that left were Barca). A la some of the recent Germany or Spain men's teams.

If they have more quality than England it doesn't really jump off the screen. Their chemistry and technical ability does, though. 

I'm not even sure they have more talent than the US if we're talking both skill and athleticism. They put 2 balls on frame against Sweden for 2 goals. The US managed 11. They play smarter football and they're tighter as a unit, that's for sure. 

Apparently only 2 or 3 of the girls that left were starters, as well. Most of them weren't seeing the starting XI very much. 

[The Dog 44017]

1 hour ago, ztejas said:

Yeah and in the last WC they lost to the US in the knockouts. They clearly have a lot of talent. That goal to beat Sweden was nuts.

We faced them in the R16 IIRC and I kept thinking "these girls are good and are going to get better". 

[BrickHorn 18215]

56 minutes ago, Captain Ron said:

I mean Spain just might be on a completely different level now. We talk about how the US can out talent the world - I think Spain says fuck you on that.

I think that’s right and I hope this WC was a wake-up call. It was obvious in watching our games that the USWNT players are now subpar on skill and smarts. And the top talent is aging / aged.

We’re suddenly middle of the pack on the world stage. Backed our way into the WC Round of 16 then promptly got eliminated. And possibly more concerning: our U20s failed to advance out of the group stage last year. (Spain won that tournament, btw.)

 

[Captain Ron 12862]

26 minutes ago, ztejas said:

Talent only carries you so far in soccer. I think a lot of them play for the same club teams which is just as important (not sure what the breakdown is now - seems like a lot of the girls that left were Barca). A la some of the recent Germany or Spain men's teams.

If they have more quality than England it doesn't really jump off the screen. Their chemistry and technical ability does, though. 

I'm not even sure they have more talent than the US if we're talking both skill and athleticism. They put 2 balls on frame against Sweden for 2 goals. The US managed 11. They play smarter football and they're tighter as a unit, that's for sure. 

Apparently only 2 or 3 of the girls that left were starters, as well. Most of them weren't seeing the starting XI very much. 

They also got Sweden much deeper in the tournament when everything tightens up.

And let't not forget who won between US-Sweden and Spain-Sweden and even the fact that Spain scored when we couldn't.

I'll say this, when you have the pro clubs that are cranking out talented men day in day out, and then they turn those skills to the women in the same way, they (and much of Europe) are going to blow past the US in terms of talent and it might not be close.

I think you give too much credit to our edge that we had.

[ztejas 43411]

13 minutes ago, Captain Ron said:

And let't not forget who won between US-Sweden and Spain-Sweden and even the fact that Spain scored when we couldn't.

And Japan beat Spain 4-0. 

I'm intentionally not talking about W/L results. We would have beat Sweden too if we didn't have a player that shouldn't have been on the team sky a PK. We also didnt concede to Sweden over 120'. The US and Spain controlled possession to a similar degree against a common opponent. Spain played better against NED than we did but after 90' got the same result. One of us was fairly obviously poorly coached, the other doesn't appear to be.

I don't think there's a huge talent gap between Spain and everyone else. They may have the deepest, most talented pool right now but there's probably 10 teams that can hang with them just fine. I don't expect England to struggle to keep up on Sunday.

[Napoleon 8659]

1 hour ago, Captain Ron said:

I will just note that a lot of teams had so much talent, even a shitty coach couldn't fuck it up. I think we're pretty aware of one of them

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I mean Spain just might be on a completely different level now. We talk about how the US can out talent the world - I think Spain says fuck you on that.

 

It will be interesting to see who wins out Sunday - a near complete English team that is well coached or a half of a Spanish team that has a shitty coach calling the shots.

1) England is missing 3 of their top players from this tournament due to injuries.

2) One of England’s best young players missed the quarters & siemis after purposely stepping on an opponent’s back in the round of 16.

3) England is almost as skilled as Spain, but are much bigger and faster.

 

 

56 minutes ago, BrickHorn said:

I think that’s right and I hope this WC was a wake-up call. It was obvious in watching our games that the USWNT players are now subpar on skill and smarts. And the top talent is aging / aged.

We’re suddenly middle of the pack on the world stage. Backed our way into the WC Round of 16 then promptly got eliminated. And possibly more concerning: our U20s failed to advance out of the group stage last year. (Spain won that tournament, btw.)

 

1) Spain won the last U17 Girls World Cup.

2) Spain won the last U20 Women’s World Cup.

3) Spain’s tall, super-fast, highly-skilled black (half-black?) girl who scored the first goal against Sweden is only 19 and just joined the full squad after being apart of the U20 champs (and maybe the U17 champs).

4) In Spain’s quarterfinal and maybe semifinal lineup, they started 7 Barcelona players, 3 Resl Madrid starters, and one other girl.

NOTE: At least one of the top girls boycotting the tournament is a 25 year-old Barcelona girl who may be Spain’s best player.

[Napoleon 8659]

USA Note:

The USA only faced TWO (2) shots on goal the entire tournament.

They held Sweden to one mediocre shot on goal.

It wasn’t like Sweden posed much of a threat, and that was with the USA missing at least 3 top players. 

If Alex Morgan doesn’t start and Rapinoe never sees the field, a 3-0 USA victory would have seemed unsurprising and fairly unimpressive.

[Braff Zacklin 13552]

At the risk of seeming centrist, I think everyone is making excellent points.

 

[Napoleon 8659]

Bitches World Cup is starting in minutes.

PREDICTION: England

REASON: The American ref will let England beat the shit out of the Spanish squad and will ignore fouls and will not give out yellow cards.

The ref did it for England against Australia in the semifinal and I think that that was why she was picked for the final. More money will flow into the women’s game if England wins, so FIFA is doing what the NBA used to do with Dick Bavetta.

England will foul the shit out of the Spanish in the first 5 minutes. And the will keep it up. Only the 19 year-old black striker for Spain can physically hold her own in the offensive half.