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Women's World Cup 2023 Australia/New Zealand


Captain Ron

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26 minutes ago, WBT said:

I'm not a fan of Nike's paint splotch jerseys for this WC.  Or the general trend of having one generic design that you reuse for multiple countries.

This is very much a Nike thing. They have gotten lazy in the last few years and it’s really disappointing. They have been doing it at the club level for a while and it’s very much been noticed. 

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Soccer America Daily
Tuesday, July 25, 2023
Top 5: Youngest Americans in 2023 Women's World Cup

1. Casey Phair (South Korea, 16). Youngest player to ever play in World Cup.
2. Solai Washington (Jamaica, 17). Rising high school senior plays for Concorde Fire.
3. Isabella Flanigan (Philippines, 18). First World Cup player from West Virginia.
4. Alyssa Thompson (USA, 18). Only Tiffany Roberts (1995) was younger U.S. player.
5. Malea Cesar (Philippines, 19). Will play at NCAA D3 Trinity (Texas) University in the fall.


Note: Players who have made an appearance.
Soccer America Top of the News
USA-Netherlands: Dutch have edge in experience but lost attacking style
by Jaap de Groot

Just like during the men's World Cup in Qatar, the tactical choices of the Oranje coach are being questioned. Read the whole story

Alex Morgan: U.S. team liberated after winning equal pay battle
by Andy Scott

The star striker spoke ahead of the USA's clash with the Netherlands, a rematch of the 2019 final. Read the whole story
Highlights: Women's World Cup (Tuesday)

Group A:
New Zealand (0–1) Philippines. (Goal: Bolden 24. Att.: 32,357).
• The Filipinas became the first of the eight debutants to score and earn points.
Switzerland (0-0) Norway. (Att.: 10,769).
• Norway star forward Ada Hegerberg withdrew because off a warmup groin injury.
Group H:
Colombia (2-0) South Korea. (Goals: Usme 30 pen., Caicedo 39. Att.: 24,323.)
• Linda Caicedo, 18, an ovarian cancer survivor, scored in her World Cup debut.
The Philippines celebrate historic World Cup win
by Ryland James

The 1-0 victory over host New New Zealand marked the nation's first ever World Cup win. Read the whole story
Norway is in peril amid Ada Hegerberg injury and player unrest
by Andy Scott

On top of the injury to the former Ballon d"or winner, winless Norway is dealing with an unhappy Caroline Graham Hansen. Read the whole story
TV Watch: Brazil opener averages 11.5 million viewers on TV Globo

• The broadcast of Brazil's 4-0 victory over Panama on TV Globo averaged 11.5 million viewers, the largest audience in the 8-10 a.m. time slot on Brazilian television in almost 15 years ago. Four years ago, TV Globo's broadcasts of four Brazilian matches and the USA-Netherlands final at the World Cup in France were the five most-watched broadcasts in the world, topped by more than 30 million viewers for France-Brazil in the round of 16.
Watch (flashback): USA-Netherlands 2019 Women's World Cup final
by Mike Woitalla

The USA's second Group E game is a rematch of its latest World Cup final win. Here's how that went down. Read the whole story

Women's World Cup: What we're reading (and listening to)

1. From Norway, a voice unafraid to call out FIFA from the inside By Tariq Panja (New York Times)
2. BBC apologizes for asking Morocco soccer captain if teammates are lesbians By Matt Lavietes (NBC News)
3. Bob Marley instilled a love of soccer in his daughter, Cedella. Now she’s changing the lives of women and girls in Jamaica By Matias Grez (CNN)

 

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Whoever is the eyebrow waxer for the Spanish team needs to calm the fuck down!

Por fa-fucking-vor!

Those girls have some of the weirdest fucking eyebrows you’re ever going to see. 
 

About half of Zambia’s squad looks like their inclusion in the squad may have required a full physical. 

The head ref barely speaks English and it is confusing as fuck when she announces VAR decisions… which she has been announcing in Engrish. She, and other refs, need to have a memorized set of lines that relay clearly what the VAR decision is. If these lines need to be typed out on a wristband like American football QBs use, then so be it. 

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Zambia is a tomato can, but Spain looks fucking lethal. They were among the best teams in Euros last summer and merely lacked that killer instinct in the final third. (Which is why England beat them after getting dominated for 80+ minutes). But they’ve been ruthless snipers so far this tournament. Japan should be a good test for them. 

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I was curious about the gringa rubia running around for Panama for...reasons and googled her.

Her teammates call her Frozen, lulz.

Quote

Riley Tanner, de solo 23 años, nació en Grand Rapids, Michigan, Estados Unidos, un 15 de octubre de 1999. Su madre es chiricana y llegó a la Selección Femenina de Panamá por videos.

"Mi mamá vivió en Panamá durante casi 30 años antes de mudarse a los Estados Unidos. Al crecer con mi abuela, aprendí mucho sobre Panamá escuchando sus historias y ahora deseo conocer mucho más de su cultura", confesó la popular 'Frozen'. Así la bautizaron sus compañeras de Selección.

 

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2 hours ago, Napoleon said:

Both of these teams would crush the current USWNT.

Their speed, quick passing, ball control…

…several levels above the American girls vs the Netherlands. 

The USWNT is not elite in terms of possession skills (ball control, passing accuracy, speed of play). We have dominated based on athletic superiority and a direct style of play that emphasized size and speed. Not sure that will be enough from now on, with other nations developing good enough athletes in more sophisticated systems that can neutralize athletic advantages. 

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48 minutes ago, BrickHorn said:

The USWNT is not elite in terms of possession skills (ball control, passing accuracy, speed of play). We have dominated based on athletic superiority and a direct style of play that emphasized size and speed. Not sure that will be enough from now on, with other nations developing good enough athletes in more sophisticated systems that can neutralize athletic advantages. 

We are physically inferior to both of these teams.

We do have a couple o’ far girls that may be able to throw their weight around if the ref allows it. Our “ath-uh-lettuce-ism” will be embarrassingly exposed if we play with of these teams.

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10 hours ago, BrickHorn said:

The USWNT is not elite in terms of possession skills (ball control, passing accuracy, speed of play). We have dominated based on athletic superiority and a direct style of play that emphasized size and speed. Not sure that will be enough from now on, with other nations developing good enough athletes in more sophisticated systems that can neutralize athletic advantages. 

We have won. We haven’t dominated. 

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On 7/26/2023 at 9:37 AM, BrickHorn said:

Zambia is a tomato can, but Spain looks fucking lethal. They were among the best teams in Euros last summer and merely lacked that killer instinct in the final third. (Which is why England beat them after getting dominated for 80+ minutes). But they’ve been ruthless snipers so far this tournament. Japan should be a good test for them. 

Well that turned out to be a huge understatement. Holy shit.

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Not a great showing from CONCACAF thus far

USWNT (1-1-0, 4 points, +3 GD, currently 1st)

Jamaica (1-1-0, 4 points, +1 GD, currently 2nd)

Canada (1-1-1, 4 points, -3 GD, 3rd place)

Costa Rica (0-0-3, 0 points, -7 GD, 4th place)

Haiti (0-0-2, 0 points, -2 GD, currently 4th place)

Panama (0-0-2, 0 points, -5 GD, currently 4th place)

3-3-8, -13 GD

 

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Italy pressing to get a tying goal in the l111+ minutes, a South African player goes down and needs to be stretchered off because…

…a ball hit her thigh…
👀

…okay.

South Africa advances to the next round. Italy goes home. 

Those TVs you hear turning off (or never turning on) all up and down the east coast, Chicago, and San Francisco as the game that the USA was supposed to play in is now the Netherlands 🇳🇱 vs South Africa 🇿🇦.

Advertisers are committing hari-kari as we speak.

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A bunch of American & English girls, plus a few Jamaican girls and one born in Hong Kong fighting for a little island in the Caribbean with swinger nudist resorts, lots of weed & shrooms, and well hung gentlemen that tag American women on girls’ vacations.

Man, Jamaica 🇯🇲 was shitty, but they busted their asses playing klutzy defense against a very fast & skilled Brazilian team that couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn. 

FIFA has to be shitting bricks over losing Italy & Brazil in back to back time slots. Goodbye eyes around the world. Goodbye ad dollars. FIGA must be shitting themselves over how poorly this tournament has turned out so far. 

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3 hours ago, Napoleon said:

FIFA has to be shitting bricks over losing Italy & Brazil in back to back time slots. Goodbye eyes around the world. Goodbye ad dollars. FIGA must be shitting themselves over how poorly this tournament has turned out so far. 

now imagine if that Portugal shot doesn't hit the post. oof.

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5 hours ago, PittsburghTiger said:

 

Jamaica scored 1 goal in the knock stage. That’s half as many as the USMNT did in Qatar, but these Americans (including one born in Hong Kong and one still in high school in Georgia), Brits, and Jamaicans managed to advance after being outplayed for about 95+ minutes (combining both halves’ stoppage time).

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On 8/2/2023 at 8:03 AM, Napoleon said:

FIFA has to be shitting bricks over losing Italy & Brazil in back to back time slots. Goodbye eyes around the world. Goodbye ad dollars. FIGA must be shitting themselves over how poorly this tournament has turned out so far. 

You know, I was thinking about this especially with Germany falling out today.

They really don't give a shit.

Ads and TV contracts were locked in years ago. They don't have to worry about trying to sell ads for the coming weeks. Prices aren't fluctuating because top teams are out. FIFA got their money, they are set.

 

Speaking of upsets ...

We've talked about how teams are catching up to the US. Much of right now is because the US is in a big drop off year, which is something else. But I think with the lower end teams catching up, you're seeing a lot of teams get nicked because of it. Germany, Canada and Brazil - all Pot 1 class teams didn't make it out of the group stage. We aren't the only squad that sees teams catch up to them and the a few top countries not making it out of the group stage shows it.

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kennedy SA

r16 previews

Spoiler

The Women's World Cup moves into the round of 16 this weekend after an enthralling group stage that produced a host of surprises.

It was topped on Thursday by the stunning turn of events in Group H, where Morocco, not Germany, which had earlier beaten the Lionesses of Atlas, 6-0, joined Colombia in the knockout stage.

There were a lot of questions about whether the expanded tournament would dilute the field. Far from it, the story of the tournament has been the fall of many of women's soccer biggest teams, from Germany, the two-time world champion, to Brazil and China, both former World Cup runners-up, and Canada, the reigning Olympic champion, not to mention New Zealand, the first (co-)host to exit in the first round.

Morocco was the only one of the eight debutants to advance out of the group stage, but three other teams won games in their first appearance in the tournament: Philippines, Portugal and Zambia.

In 2019, the top 10 teams in FIFA's pre-tournament world rankings all made the last 16. We've just seen teams ranked 2-7-8 (Germany, Canada, Brazil) go out while teams ranked 40-43-54-74 (Nigeria, Jamaica, South Africa, Morocco) all moved on to the round of 16.

The expansion of the World Cup from 24 to 32 teams produced incredible drama as teams could not fall back on sneaking in the backdoor as one of the four best third-place teams advancing to the knockout stage. USA-Portugal would have been a lot less dramatic four years ago. The same for South Africa-Italy, Brazil-Jamaica and Thursday's two Group H matches.

Brazil, Canada, Germany and Portugal all went out with four points, which would have been good enough to advance in 2015 and 2019.

“Girl,” Megan Rapinoe said after USA-Portugal, “that was stressful.”

She was speaking for herself and her teammates, but she could have speaking for U.S. fans and fans around the world as they watched the final days of group play unfold.

American soccer fans might have been left unsatisfied by the play of the USWNT, but those who stayed up late at night or rose early were entertained over the last week.

The bar has been raised for the knockout stage, where all but one match will kick off in the 1-7 a.m. ET window. The one other time slot for the round of 16 is Saturday 10 p.m. ET. FIFA exceptionally reserved it as the kickoff time for the match involving the Group E winner. Instead of USA-South Africa, it's Netherlands-South Africa.

Still, there are plenty of reasons to stay up for all eight round-of-16 matches:

Switzerland vs. Spain
Saturday 1 a.m. ET (FS1, Universo, Peacock)

If there are doubts about whether Spain had overcome the division among the players between ‘las 15’ -- the 15 players who said they wouldn't play again unless changes were made in the program, including a change in coaches — and those who stayed and also ‘las 15’ who later relented and returned for the World Cup — including star midfielder Aitana Bonmatí -- and everyone else, those doubts were answered in the negative when La Roja lost to Japan, 4-0, after opening the tournament with easy wins over Costa Rica (3-0) and Zambia (5-0).

Not since possession stats have been tracked has a team had more possession at the Women's World Cup and lost than Spain with 77 percent did against Japan. Embattled head coach Jorge Vilda said afterward he took responsibility for the defeat only to then run off a list of things that his players did wrong.

There seemed to be little communication between Vilda, motionless on the sidelines, and his players and the players among themselves during the Japan game. With a team divided, it's hard to see the Spaniards going far.

Will they correct things to even get past a very ordinary Swiss team that opened the World Cup with a 2-0 win over the Philippines and then followed that up with a pair of 0-0 ties? If Spain loses, it will extend its record of having never won a game in the knockout round of a major tournament.

Japan vs. Norway
Saturday 4 a.m. ET (FS1, Telemundo, Peacock)

Nadeshiko Japan is the forgotten team, world champion in 2011 and runner-up in 2015. It went out on a 90th-minute penalty kick following a controversial handball call in the round of 16 against the Netherlands in 2019 and exited with a whimper two years ago at the Tokyo Olympics.

But the Japanese game has always been about the long-term, and the Japanese women continue to produce great youth teams out of their JFA academy centers. Only Spain has done better in recent years at the U-17 and U-20 World Cups.

That's translated to Nadeshiko Japan, overflowing with skill from its attack -- one of the standouts has been Angel City FC's Jun Endo -- to its three-player backline that has yet to concede a goal at the World Cup.

Contrary to many other teams, it's been all smiles on and off the field for Nadeshiko Japan, which leads the tournament in all offensive categories: goals (11), goal difference (+11), goals+assists (21), goals-penalty kicks (10) and expected goals (9.9).

Netherlands vs. South Africa
Saturday, 10 pm. ET (Fox, Telemundo, Universo, Peacock)

The final day of play in Group E began with the USA and the Netherlands tied for first place, both looking to run up the score against Portugal and Vietnam, respectively, to win the group on goal difference.

That proved to be no contest. We all know what happened to the USWNT in Auckland. In Dunedin, the Dutch put seven goals past Vietnam, four in the first 23 minutes, to nail down first place.

How far can the Oranje go without injured star Vivianne Miedema? Its veterans are playing with confidence, and it has a new star in the making in Esmee Brugts, who turned 20 the day after the USA-Netherlands game and highlighted the 7-0 win over Vietnam with a pair of goal of the tournament candidates.



Sweden vs. USA
Sunday, 5 am. ET (Fox, Telemundo, Universo, Peacock)

Are we having fun yet?

The word of the day on Thursday when co-captain Lindsey Horan and Lynn Williams met with the media on their final day in Auckland was "joy." As in the USWNT must rediscover its joy. And fast.

We should know quickly how USA-Sweden -- the seventh meeting in nine World Cups but the first in the knockout stage -- is going to go.

The USWNT has gotten off to slow starts at the World Cup, just like it did two years at the Olympics. Within the first 10 minutes of USA-Sweden in the Olympics opener, it was clear something was wrong with the USWNT. And it was a long day: 3-0 to Sweden.

England vs. Nigeria
Monday, 3:30 am ET (FS1, Telemundo, Universo, Peacock)

The knock on Vlatko Andonovski is that he's been inflexible, unwilling to change tactics when nothing has gone right.

On the other hand, England coach Sarina Wiegman made changes after star midfielder Keira Walsh was lost with a knee injury suffered in the Lionesses' second game against Denmark, and they worked brilliantly.

England switched to a 3-4-1-2 formation with Lauren James playing behind the two forwards and two former U.S. college stars -- Lucy Bronze (UNC) and Rachel Daly (St. John's) -- pushed into wing-back positions.

James, who did not start the opening game against Haiti, responded with two goals and three assists against China to take the World Cup lead in goal contributions with six.

Australia vs. Denmark   
Monday,  6:30 am ET (FS1, Telemundo, Universo, Peacock)

Australia's great mystery continues: Is Matilda superstar Sam Kerr fit to play in the World Cup?

It wasn't until hours before the opening match that anyone even knew Kerr had injured her calf. Ahead of the third group match -- a must-win game against Canada -- Kerr said she would be "available," but what that meant wasn't entirely clear.

Australia blew out Canada, so no one got to see if Kerr could go, and for how long.

After practice on Thursday, teammate Mackenzie Arnold, the Matildas' starting goalkeeper, said Kerr was doing individual training.

“What she had to do, she looked like she was quite comfortable doing it," Arnold told reporters.

Not exactly encouraging.

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Colombia vs. Jamaica
Tuesday, 4 a.m. ET (FS1, Telemundo, Universo, Peacock)

The great coach Lorne Donaldson was asked after Jamaica clinched a berth in the round of 16 with a 0-0 tie against Brazil if that  made the Reggae Girlz the World Cup's "Cinderella team."

"Cinderella wears a pretty dress, so I don't know," he responded with a laugh. "We're going to take it one game at a time. If we can wear a pretty dress, we'll put it on."

Colombia and Jamaica are both Cinderella stories. Notoriously neglected programs overcoming years of under-funding. Both fortunate that many of their players have made their way to Europe, mostly playing at small French and Spanish clubs. Both lucky to have budding superstars, Bunny Shaw for Jamaica and Linda Caicedo for Colombia.

"Everyone is looking at these smaller countries," Donaldson said before the Brazil game. "Governments and everybody, cut the bullcrap, it's time to step up and support women's football."

France vs. Morocco
Tuesday, 7 a.m. ET (FS1, Telemundo, Peacock)

Nine months after they met in the semifinals of the World Cup in Qatar, France and Morocco will meet in the round of 16 at the women's tournament in Adelaide.

No one gave the Lionesses of Atlas a chance of advancing after their 6-0 loss to Germany in their World Cup debut. After the Matchday 2 results -- France over Brazil and Colombia over Germany -- everyone assumed it would be France-Germany in the round of 16, bad luck for Les Bleues, who exited to Germany in the World Cup 2015 quarterfinals and Euro 2022 semifinals.

“After the first match of the tournament, I think 98 percent of people thought it was over, apart from us,” said Morocco coach Reynald Pedros. “We thought we could do something, because football is magic."

Soccer was magic for Pedros -- he set up one of the most brilliant goals in French soccer history, exchanging a one-two of volleys with Patrice Loko before his Nantes teammate put away the return pass with another volley against PSG in 1994 -- until it wasn't. His playing career went downhill after a missed penalty kick cost France a berth in the Euro 1996 final.

Pedros' only previous coaching experience was at a fifth division men's team when he was named the Lyon women's coach in 2017. In two seasons, Lyon went unbeaten in 44 league games and matched that double with a third and fourth straight UEFA Champions League title.

The French know little about Morocco, which went six straight games without a goal before beating South Korea 1-0 in its second game at the World Cup. But Pedros knows all about France, having coached many of its stars, from Wendie Renard and Eugenie Le Sommer to Selma Bacha, who was only 16 when he gave her her first pro start at Lyon.

 

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