68' 5-1 Butt ground chip from ~30m box left to arc top center, Foord back-cuts the high line perfectly up centerline and chases alone. GK #12 Daniele Neuhaus comes out above own box top, loses race: Foord toe-pokes past her into box, chases to 8m 6-right, passes ball into empty net. Australia have been sharp all week, while Brasil's next generation get a severe lesson.
81' 6-1 Butt pulls a cross from 25m mid-right into arc left, Kerr splits Monica and Leticia and chests ball high into own stride. Kerr maintains her run, leans past them both, plays one shin-bounce at 10m 1/3 left to settle ball, flicks left instep across mouth past Daniele stranded, into back right low. Monica or Leticia probably have to slide-poke that away: don't just let Kerr keep her balance and the ball. 82' 6-1 Australia subs in (5 of 6) #17 Princess Ibani for #20 Samantha Kerr.
FT 6-1. Australia clinch the inaugural Tournament of Nations, with 9 pts and +8 GD (+11-3). USA was their only clean sheet
Brazil looked pretty bad today, it was almost like they were trying to beat their men's WC semis game, lol! Matildas are the Tournament of Nation's CHAMPS!!!
it's 1-0 US over Japan at half time. Pinoe scores on a break away, but after a shaky first 20 minutes, Japan has stabilized and making a game of it with some close calls of it's own. The game is still up for grabs, Guess who ever wants this the most, will win it
3-0, final for US as Alex Morgan scores. Final standings 1) Australia 2) USA 3) Japan 4) Brazil this tourney lacked the intensity of the Euros, but there was some nice clinical play & of course lotsa goals, especially by one team! Hopefully Australia will rise up in the FIFA standings,,,,way way up!
here are highlights of the final two games; Brazil worst loss in 22 years. After getting their first female coach, that the players don't seem to want to play for her, In some of the goals, there's not even any defenders trailing the fast breaking Matildas I thought Japan really tried to take on the US in the open field & did have some chances. Alas putting caution to the wind was their undoing as playing too high left some much free space for the US attackers to roam about & without a workable off-sides trap to oppose them. On the US side, flnailly some clinical finishing(though in part due to the space that Japan conveniently provided), but the team is still missing that playmaker after Halliday retired
My conclusion after watching the highlights/some of the games: Australia was very impressive, deserved to win USA is USA, they'll make a competitive to the next world cup Japan was dissapointing but I know they missed some players Brazil are as usual awful in defense
4:09 when the Japanese player hit the ball - seconds later they scored. Look at the THREE Brazilian players outside the 16 box who didn't even bother to run back and help the defense. 3:43 the Japanese attack start which led to the goal, look at the Brazilian players i mentioned not bothering to work back, instead it looked like they were covering some invisible defenders outside the box lol. Awful
Brazil's defense looked terrible through out the 3 games. the GK, Barbara, gave up two goals which were squeezed right between her short side & goal post vs the US. Then it's either Latin female macho or stubbornness(as they had the US on the ropes for 80 min.) that made them give up for the next game,(since they lost already any chance to win the tourney) as their defenders were no where to be seen in some of those highlights when the Aussie's pretty much fast breaked to their 6 goals
Sam Kerr is on her way to FIFA POY at some point int time if not soon. She is amazing. I love watching her in the NWSL. Add Australia, Ned, Denmark, Spain and Austria to the list of teams that may very well beat the USA in 2019.
I don't follow the European teams much but from what I've seen so far this year of the USWNT \ and the NWSL Kerr is my favorite to win POY this year. Second would be Rapinoe.
It is much more likely that players that distinguished themselves in an official tournament are awarded over ones that shone in a friendly one: therefore, Lieke Martens, Pernille Harder... UEFA Champions' League could also be taken into consideration: I expect a good placement from Saki Kumagai, who was already in the shortlist last year and won that throphy for the second time. I am afraid Morgan's contribution wasn't enough to grant her a spot. On second thought, knowing how FIFA POY jurors use to vote, I guess it will be Marta or Lloyd...
I can't see why you think Kumagai has chance for POY? She might of not played in this tourney, but she did at the Algarve Cup where Japan placed a disappointing 6th. She might a member of the over stacked, Lyon, but they didn't win the CL in dominating fashion: loosing a game in the both quarters & semi finals(only winning on goal difference to advance) and then having to go to PK's after a scoreless 120 min. in the champion game, where PSG decided to park the bus & Lyon countered by parking it's own bus at midfield. Cary Lloyd did win POY last year,. The question is why? Well it wasn't for her pro club performance as she missed half her games. It wasn't for her Olympic performance, as the US was eliminated in the quarters. You got the feeling that her voters forgave her since she was coming back from injuries in both cases. So her real standout performance must of been captain of the US squad that won the She Believes Cup. So hence, your under estimating just how important these so called friendlies tournies are. Now going back to why no German won the POY even though they won last year's supposedly biggest tournament? That's most likely because they had so many of their players did so well that it was too hard to pinpoint just one over all outstanding talent. In a way, you could say the same thing for the Dutch; even tough they decided to give the mvp to Martens. In case of the Tournament of Nations, it was Sam Kerr's phenom play that stood above everybody else and should make quite an impression over anybody. Now getting back to what's more relevant to this threat, blissett,got to ask you again, why on earth hasn't the J coach been fired yet?(after all, you came on another threat to say Jill Ellis should be fired)
Not at all. I just said that if you wanted to choose Netherlands' situation as an example of why Ellis shouldn't be fired (that's the title of the thread on US boards, I didn't choose it), well that wasn't the best possible choice of an argumentation, since, if anything, it seemed to point in the opposite direction. I don't have an opinion about Ellis remaining or not on US bench: was just pointing out that your argoment didn't seem to support well your opinion (or, at least, what I was perceiving being your opinion).
Rapinoe is out for at least 5 weeks, plus her Reign team fell to #5 place & without her, possibly out of play off contention http://equalizersoccer.com/2017/08/11/megan-rapinoe-undergoes-knee-surgery-out-5-weeks/ looks like for rightful POY, it would be between Kerr & Martens. Since the Euro championship got to be considered a more established tourney, got the feeling Martens will be favored. The only thing that might atop her from winning is if too many other Dutch make the top ten shortlist
On the other hand, the tournament Kerr starred in was all top 8 teams and Australia beat number 1 in the World. How many hat tricks a month is Martens getting?
but then on the other hand; whether it was Ellis or the Nakeshiko fans; their all were whining about how they were still "experimenting" with using 1st time capped players & God only knows what he Brazilians were thinking(giving up 10 goals in two games). Most Euro teams came in a way fully loaded/better prepared