Here's all the matches at Al Garve's Cup, from the various users who uploaded them to YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=algarve&filters=long, week&lclk=week http://www.youtube.com/results?filters=long, week&search_query=algarve&page=2
Oh this is great, look at what else we've stumbled on from that search: USA vs. Brazil (2011 WWC Semifinal) (English language - American television Broadcast):
Which game have you watched ? 3-0 at half-time for Japan. I would have loved it, but we were very far from it. The Nadeshiko had one and only one real opportunity, following Kawasumi''s shoot and which ended in a rugby scrum on the goal-line That was all. Germany had two big ones : the first with a very dangerous cross by Alushi which created panic and Iwashimizu cleared it in an urgen tway out of the field. And teh second wit hanother Alushi's cross for Sasic's header. I even could add another cross by Laudehr that Saki saved in corner at first post. Those 3 opportunities were less big than Japan's, so I would certainly not say that Germany would have deserved to lead 3-1 at H-T, no, not at all, I think that 0-0 was right (it could have been 1-1, actually). But 3-0 for the Nadeshiko... well....
They tend to do so but is seem not to be followed to 100%, and seem to be followed stricter for the top four than the rest. But if followed I must say the 2015 groups would look more fair than the 2014 (given of course they do not move any teams down to up from the C group): Group A Germany Sweden China Norway Group B Japan Iceland Denmark USA
Well, quite the suckie tournement for Norway! Not sure what transpired. Would love to hear some comments from the coach! Was he simply experimenting with line-ups/new players and not at all interested in the game scores? I know some key players were missing. Polar opposite of last year for them. Oh well, I hope they play well when it counts (WWC quallies).
You forgot that (normally) France should be back in Algarve next year. So, that means that one of those teams would go either to Group C (China ?) or to Cyprus, or stay at home... It's obvious that USA, Germany, Japan and all the Algarve real organizers (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland) can't be moved... So... Oh, yes, that would be China... But... Can Señor Garve keep only one Asian country in the tournament (the one that counts, that is Group A and B) ? That is the question...
Iceland isn't one of the organizers, so they can be moved down to C if the result show they should(it do not) just as Finland was about to be (when they moved to the Cyprus Cup). And I am not sure the three is safe either, IIRC none of the core-Scandinavian trio have ever been last team from A&B and then lost the placement game so it is quite possible that they have the same standard for themselves as for other and move Norway down to C (that would probably come with raising the C group status a bit, more like the Cyprus Cup but probably not fully so, but still have the final between the A and B winners).
...or actually USA could be moved to group C. After all they sucked, didn't they? I know that their sport-culture is not used to the promotion-relegation system, but maybe they should learn... (Just joking, know it won't ever happen )
It could, but relegation in Algarve Cup only seems to happens to teams that show lousy Algarve results AND not a great FIFA ranking, so they are safe for now (as should Germany,Japan and Sweden currently be even with lousy performances). And team is rarely relegated for one bad tournament (unless they where a fringe team to start with), IIRC it was after the second or third bad Finnish tournament in a row they changed to Cyprus (likely to avoid playing in the C group).
I've felt in the last few months, this girl has quietly become the best player in the world here's the Germany vs Norway game, for a full ten minutes it's deja vu for Norway all over again (2013 euros), and do hat they couldn't do previously, score a pk against Angerer. But Germany's stranglehold soon takes over. The question though must beget; where the heck is Hegerberg?
thanks hotjam2....Hegerberg, Hansen (was Hegland there?), Pedersen, Gulbrandsen all missing I believe! Still, I think they should had at least marginally better results. Their defense wasn't bad, based on the scores, and that is a good thing. Where is Pedersen, also injured? She has such potential, Cecile.
It's not exactly 1991 anymore. U.S. and Norway can't even finish in the Top 6 of an Al Garve Cup. That would have been unheard of back in the Mikhail Gorbachev years. The rise and fall of U.S. and Norway has certainly opened up some room for new nations to prosper. Nations such as Congo and North Pole can now emerge into the forefront of world prosperity in women's football. Greenland can benefit from Norway's demise. I think a CONMEBOL team, such as Chile, has already trimmed some of the fat off of USA's meat recently. "As one nation starts to fall, another begins to rise." -Adolf Gibbler Congratulations to Iceland for capturing the Bronze Medal at this year's Al Garve Cup. Cold climate nations are on the rise, and will only lead to a dominant North Pole by the 2063 WWC. The ball started rolling at last year's Euro tournament. 3 of the 4 Semifinal teams were Scandinavian. And Denmark crushed USA. Cold climate nations will dominate the future FIFA Top 20.
Don't know if this has been mentioned before, but the build up play for Denmark's 5th goal vs USA, was a pure thing of beauty. I kept reading the goals they scored were all off the back of poorly defended counters, but finally seeing it now, the passing and movement involved in most of what they actually converted looked pretty good to me, with the 5th nail in coffin as good as a team goal you'll see in the women's game too; and this from a likely non WC qualifying team, playing a second half of their second string... wtf ...... lol
after being tortured from reading 4000+ posts on American message boards on how Christen Press was the 2nd coming of Christ, I was sort of hoping she'll receive a spanking in this game! That's why I was shocked to see Denmark sub 4 of their 5 back line starters at the beginning of the 2nd half. But give them credit, they held on to win! and while the US fans will say they didn't have Morgan or Halliday at this tourney, so were Denmark missing possibly two of their best, Roddik-Hansen & Harder. Hopefully Denmark will cherish this victory as right now it don't look like their be making the WC. Their only in 3rd place in their group qualifiers.; loosing to Switzerland at home, incredibly tying Serbia(9-0 losers to the Swiss) and still got twice Iceland to play
Even with Harder and great possession stats, they still really struggled to score goals at the Euro's, but their football was easily alongside France as some of best on show in Sweden, so we'll see how the Algarve break helps Denmark moving forward, but even if they beat Switzerland, WC qualification may be way beyond them now anyway. Not a major fan of the Algarve Cup, but some of the results this year...
she's really good on offense but whats even more impressive is her defense! Perhaps not to us fans liking(as we like to see her score more goals), but both Neid & Frankfurt coach Bell have pulled her back on numerous occasions to holding mid where she's become a MONSTER blocker. She might of not only lead the AC in tackles but altered the game as well. For example, in the AC final; despite the tight 0-0 half time score, the Japanese coach wanted to win and felt that the legendary Sawa was getting too distracted or couldn't get passed Maro(who stripped the ball away from her on several occasions. So at the start of the 2nd half, he subbed Sawa for Iwabuchi, a phenom dribble, in the hopes that at least she could get passed Maro. But it proofed to be a horrible decision & game changer! as Iwabuchi got hopelessly outclassed by Maro, also lacked the field vision of Sawa and Japan's 1st half crisp passing(which kept them in the game) got shut down in the 2nd. But it's still a lot of fun watching Maro on scoring opportunities. Iceland was in a defensive shell in their game against Germany. So if get the opportunity for Maro to move up, and thank fully center-fwd Sasic stepped aside on occasion to let Maro come down the middle and proving that she could be a world class striker as well(2 goals for her in that game)
That midfield triangle of Maro, Goeßling, Keßler..... man its so hard to deal it. Goeßling and Keßler in the double pivot is the best midfield paring in the world. Maro is a match winner, shes a verital player who can play a variety of different positions and has the quality to pull a goal out of no where. Shes a nightmare for opposing teams.