Considering that more than half of Ghana's squad will still be eligible for the 2014 edition of the tournament, I was pretty impressed with their level of sophistication. It's rare to see even senior African teams use width as effectively as they did in attack. Not that I expect to see any of these players in 2 years, mind you. Ghana seems bent on a policy of having their female youth sides "play up" to higher age levels. If they didn't do that, they might even be able to take the title in one of these competitions. I guess that at least they can't be accused of an overemphasis on winning.
Azerbaijan bows to Mbock Bathy It would be a shame to see such a talent wasted. Can we get her a transfer to Lyon?
she's already at guingamp (which has taken over st-brieuc) so she's in pretty good hands already. but with the bidding war that's going to heat up between lyon and paris they're going to have to put in a special effort to keep her very long.
Sophistication...? I saw Ghana use many of the same successful U-17's tactics at the recent U-20's WC, and nobody was using words like sophisticated to assess what they saw from that young Ghanaian side. Yeah, we have seen more established female teams finding ways to win by deploying the defend deep, defend tough, and attack whenever the game then becomes stretched tactic, but I just don't see this being very effective at the senior levels for a structurally underdeveloped program like Ghana. Utilising a far more (even if still robust) expansive game, Ghana have actually produced better/more complete performances during their other FIFA tournament outings, so I'm thinking that Ghana (and maybe Nigeria too) are simply destined to join DPR Korea, as national programs that simply figure out how to win at the youth levels, with no clear view to anything more.
A couple of Ghanians on Ghana youth teams: http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/SportsArchive/artikel.php?ID=242485 Therein lies the problem. I will state emphatically here and now that age-cheating is part and parcel of Ghana football and it will take a massive paradigm shift in our mindsets to gradually eradicate it. Bluntly put, the pressure to win has resulted in over-aged players being selected for our junior teams all the time. Players who are genuinely under 17 years are not considered because they are seen to be too smallish or too young to win anything for the Black Starlets. The sad thing about it all is that age cheating is not only limited to football, but to almost all walks of life in Ghana. Civil servants reduce their ages to prolong their working lives so that they officially reach the age of 60 years, when in fact they are years older. Clearly 90% of players in Ghana have falsified their ages, and that is the worst kept secret in Ghana football. http://www.modernghana.com/sports/402563/2/yaw-preko-admits-age-cheating-in-football.html “At our time, it was the FA that gave you the age. You go with your colt's card, and they take two or three years out of it.” “We've all cheated. South America, Asia, there is no country that brings the right age,” he said. After men's age testing was implemented at last year's U17 men's tournament, the four African teams won a combined two games and none made the quarter-finals. Ghana were semi-finalists in 2007 defeating Brazil. Nigeria were finalists in both previous tournaments (2007 and 2009). After age verification neither qualified for 2011. After an age verification methodology for women is approved we'll likely see a similar shift in the women's tournament.
here's the full length euro champ game that could be an ode for the French u17 SPOILERS while France dominates(at least in style) much of the game, Germany edges out a win in penalty kicks. France's midfielder Sandie Toletti plays brilliantly, though hats off to German counterpart, Sarah Dabritz. France was'nt playing this game with their wc mvp, Mbock Bathy What I like is anybody's opinion if it's really to early to tell if these kids are going to become the future stars? A quick check from the 2010 u17 wc reveals; The champion, South Korea, did'nt seem to impress at the 2012 u20 wc( quarter final exit). Out of the 3 top scorers from 2010; Kyra Malinowski(Germany) retired due to injuries Kumi Yokoyama(Japan) overshadowed by the likes of Yoko Tanaka & Shibata at 2012 wc top scorer Yeo Minji, disappeared(at least not listed on their 2012 u20 team) but then again, she's from North Korea
a bit old in the news department. Most observers of that particular game said that even in defeat it was France who had the better opportunity for success headed into the WC, but identifying potential stars of the future on either team.... In less your looking at a player with Iwabuchi/Marozsan level talent within that age group, you may as well toss a coin when your assessing any players chances of eventual development. Really.... I'm sure I would have noticed that, or did I miss something? LOL, wrong nation. She was there in Japan, but for that other Korea. You know, that other Korea that lives on the opposite side of that famous DMZ thing Plus according to the FIFA's articles, she was also forced to miss numerous games thanks to continuous injury problems anyway, so I don't think we were ever going to see the real players potential during the U-20's WC.
The soccer way website only got Kyra playing in one gameIfor Essen) in the last 2 years. I wonder what her career would of been like if she did'nt suffer from injuries?