Sat 01/12: China 0-1 Canada, Norway 2-0 South Korea. Goals from Elise Thorsnes ("toosh-ness") and Leni Larsen Kaurin.
So I watched the game replay put up by WPS moment. Was looking for specifically Ashley Lawrence since she committed to West Virginia. She is a sublime dribbler and reminds me alot of Erika Tymrak who played for the Florida Gators and is draft eligible this year. This U17 World Cup tournament, the Eurosport announcers were raving about her technical skills and I agree she was very impressive. So I was slightly disappointed that she didn't make an appearance in the match, she stayed on the bench. But I expect to see her get capped in this 4 nations tournament. The match against China was intresting, very disorganized effort by Canada but I can understand, half their lineup were new players so the midfield for Canada was under siege all game long. It was very hard for them to link up with their forwards since players were not where they were suppossed to be, you can see many missed passes between the players. The lack of playing experience between the team was very evident. One player did pick up my attention and it was Kadeisha Buchanan the 17yrs old starting centerback for Canada. Even though she blew a few defensive plays by taking aggressive angles in defending players, forcing her to take one yellow for a missed tackle but what she displayed impressed me alot. Buchanan is tall, lanky and VERY mobile for a centerback, you simply do not see centerbacks with this mobility. They are usually tall players that are there to challenge target forwards, but mobility isn't a key trait for them. Then add to that is her athletic ablity and her good ball movement skills and I can see alot of upside with her. She was outjumping players for airballs and she made this one quick rush up the field which you just don't expect in a centerback to do. At 17, this girl looks raw when she is playing against adults, but give her a few years of experience and she will be a stud. I can see why Canada brought her to the 4 nations cup. I'm going to need to find out which college this girl is going to play so I can keep tabs on her.
Kadeisha Buchanan is going to WVU with Ashley Lawrence. Yes, they are impressive 17-year-olds. Lawrence was a late sub, for Sophie Schmidt. (So WVU fans will note that the two get to play alongside Bry McCarthy for Canada but not for WVU. On a similar note, Nichelle Prince got to play with Tiffany Cameron.) The first half was very ragged, as we should have expected. Canada, I thought, had the advantage in the second half, with the Chinese hardly threatening. It had the look of a practice drill. The Canadians kept up the short passing even though they didn't look all that comfortable and kept possession without making progress. They often passed short when the area was getting congested instead of looking for more space. The midfielders were also dribbling an unprecedented amount for the CNT. Many times they made the wrong decision to dribble but got away with it because they could overpower the Chinese one-on-one.
By the way, for those who didn't see the game, here's a link to the first half http://sports.cntv.cn/20130112/104020.shtml and the second half http://tv.cntv.cn/video/C16624/0926de8cb659423eb31b53ced02a8e5d that somebody else found and posted.
Mon 01/14: South Korea 3-1 Canada, China 0-1 Norway From Norway's FA site, Melissa Bjånesøy subbed in(?) at 81', and lobbet ballen fra 16-meteren, over keeperen is the same in any language 6+3 (+3-0) Norway (needs W or D vs. Canada) 3=0 (+3-3) South Korea (needs { W 3+ and Canada W 1 } or { W >= Canada W }) 3-1 (+2-3) Canada (needs { W > South Korea W } or { W 2+ and South Korea ~W }) 0-2 (+0-2) China (cannot win cup) assuming HTH as a tiebreaker if points and GD are tied
Highlights of Canada - South Korea are up on the CSA site. We are reminded why Robyn Gayle has not managed to win the starting RB spot.
Wed 01/16: 中国 (middle country = China) 2-0 韩国 (han country = South Korea) 挪威 (Norway) 0-0 加拿大 (jia-na-da = Canada) (funny: 大 = large, big) Scores and Unicode from China's FA site. South Korea's FA site lists the fixture, but not the result. Neither Canada nor Norway mention the match not involving them. Canada's team trophy photo from Xinhua. Everybody gets flowers! 7+3 (+3-0) Norway 4-1 (+2-3) Canada 3=0 (+2-2) China 3-2 (+3-5) South Korea
A good reason for Sinclair to be happy to miss these games https://twitter.com/KaylynKyle/status/291559972918132736/photo/1
Oh, man, were they playing in that pollution? Tournament should have been moved to somewhere else - Singapore, Tibet? Anywhere else in China. Seriously.
Chengdu's already pretty far west. Where would you have them play? Guizhou, Yunnan and Tibet are all at incredible altitudes, and Xinjiang is prone to violent upheaval. China's got serious problems wherever you go.
Mallory Outerbridge, former Ottawa Fury player, scored for Frankfurt where she is a trialist, against Zurich in a training match. http://fcz.ch/de/frauen/news.htm?id=1149
Congratulations to former CNT player Linda Hathorn (formerly Consolante) for being hired as head coach of Iona College. http://www.icgaels.com/ViewArticle....B_OEM_ID=14900&ATCLID=206215260&Q_SEASON=2012
Italian SerieA team Verona signed Canadian Alyssa Ann Lagonia, who last season played in the FAWSL with Doncaster Rovers Belles. source (in italian): http://www.calciodonne.it/it/home/serie-a/11655-alyssa-una-canadese-al-verona
Maybe the France game is out. They've announced friendlies against England and Germany in April and June. http://canadasoccer.com/canada-wnt-adds-two-european-friendlies-p153252
You know, I really do think this is their time. A world class performance in the 2015 Cup could make this Canada's Mia Hamm generation.
The CSA commissioned a study of the feasibility of a Division 2 men's professional league in Canada. http://canadasoccer.com/canada-socc...ivision-ii-soccer-viability-in-canada-p153255 The summary document recommends the establishment of a Division 3 semi-pro men's U23 development league, made up of three or four regional leagues. Note that there is a line which recommends that the clubs involved also have a women's team.
There's going to be developmental camp beginning 8 Feb. http://canadasoccer.com/canada-wnt-launches-first-camp-of-exceleration-program-p153271 Most of the players will be 2014 U20s. There are some older players who haven't been seen in NT camp in a while, including Erin McNulty. U. of Michigan coach Greg Ryan will be there. http://www.mgoblue.com/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/020613aaa.html
So what was the outcome of the WNT camp in Florida this past week... Haven't seen any comments anywhere....