Canada does have some variety in their game and they appear to be trying to use it but they are also trying to use one player (guess who) too much and therefore many attacks just end up in the 'keeper's hands. They just won a free kick a couple of quick corners but it all went to naught and every shot they managed to take has been blocked with absolutely no real danger to the NZ goal. Canada seems to lack imagination at this time.
The half ends at 2-0. The score pretty much reflects the play and New Zealand has pretty much outplayed Canada all over the field. I do not think New Zealand can keep up the current level of play for the entire second half. They are pressing all over the field and that is very hard work.
Canada has switched to a three back and two center forwards and that has resulted in a bit more attack in the second half and that has resulted in a goal for Canada. New Zealand is still pressing and could easily have had another goal or two.
New Zealand is tiring and Canada is dominating play on the attack. The last 20 minutes of the second half looks to be most all Canada attacking and New Zealand defending.
New Zealand holds on to win 2-1. For some reason Canada just could not get dangerous shots on goal. I do not think it was all attributed to New Zealand's defense. There was just something off about Canada's attack. But New Zealand did play about as well as I have seen them play and they looked more attack minded than I have seen them play against any team of quality. (That excludes the rest of their regional opponents.)
Spain gets their first goal in the 16th minute. I think there will be more. Mexico seems, at this time, just a bit out of their depth.
The ref badly misses a PK for Spain as the Mexican defender just trips a Spaniard in the box. The foul was clear but the ref's corrective lenses must have fogged up.
The ref is from Canada. I thought they tried to avoid having refs from an involved confederation calling a match. She is, right now, calling pretty strongly in favor of Mexico. Maybe she is pissed off about the third place match.
Pina "should" have a hat trick but she hurried her shot and sent it wide. (BTW: Does anybody know the origin of "Hat trick" or "nutmeg"?)
2-1 at the half. Really nothing much more to say. Most of the play was as I expected and, unless something really changes a LOT, I expect almost the same kind of play in the second half.
Very impressed with Navarro at wing, right now she's the Karl Heinz Rummenge of woso(or at least u-17)
Both coaches are spending the entire game at the edge of the coaching box trying to remote control the players on the field. That says they do not trust the players to solve in game problems or position themselves correctly. It also means that they are possible quite poor practice coaches. Even at this age the play is much too fast for coaches instructions to be heard and implemented in time for those instructions to be received, interpreted and acted upon by the players.
The game ends at 2-1 in favor of Spain. All the real action was in the first half and in the second Mexico just could not hit the goal. They missed pretty badly on several open shots throughout the second half.
Golden Ball - Claudia Pina (ESP) (I'd go with Irene Lopez) Silver Ball - Nicole Perez (MEX) Bronze Ball - Mukarama Abdulai (GHA) Golden Glove - Catalina Coll (ESP) (I'd go with Anna Leat) Golden Boot - Mukarama Abdulai (GHA) Silver Boot - Claudia Pina (ESP) Bronze Boot - Irene Lopez (ESP) Fair Play Award - Japan
Enbuenahora España I know in the men's game, youth success doesn't necessarily translate into senior success but it doesn't hurt. Not sure how it is in the women's game though. At the very least you can usually identify some potential star players. I hope that all of this success for the youth women of Spain can spur on the senior national team. Next year might be too early but it'll be interesting for 2021 and beyond.
Congrats to New Zealand for being the real winner in this tournament. Nothing against Spain, who were the BEST team convincingly in this tournament. But this tournament will be remembered more for NZ's historic performance. Spain is going to be a MONSTER at the senior level soon. And this is certainly not the last youth world cup they will win. In fact, they are now the clear favorite to win the U-20 WWC in 2020. And if New Zealand medals in any women's world cup (at any age level), and USA women do not even get out of their group in the same tournament, that speaks volumes. No one would have seen that coming years ago, but that's the way the women's game has been trending. More parity, especially among the youth. In this one shining moment, New Zealand's U-17 women's team can point their finger at the U-17 USA women's team and laugh, and say, "Haha Yankees, we are better than you right now." And Rachel Yankee can not deny that.
[QUOTE="FanOfFutbol, post: 37315763, member: 21492"...It is said that to understand a culture you must understand the language of that culture I wonder if that same saying applies at all to a "soccer culture."[/QUOTE] True, but when it comes to "soccer culture" I think the language to understand is soccer itself.
Congratulations to Spain, Mexico and New-Zealand. Spain deserved winner of the tournament.Great technical and tactical maturity at such a young age.
I am sad I missed the finals. I am anyway happy that Spain won, because it was honestly the team that had impressed more since the beginning of the tournament and it's nice when you see the team that showcased the best football actually get a well-deserved final title. About New Zealand, I was suspecting that their win vs Japan was a fluke, more due to Japan's inability to score than to NZ's quality, but they showed vs Canada that they were instead well-deserving the first medal (I guess) that a NZ team ever won in an international competition (aside their regional ones). Not sure why, but highlights from the third-place match aren't available at the moment on the official YT channel: I guess they will be uploaded later (or re-uploaded: looks like the video was somehow corrupted). Meanwhile, enjoy highlights from the final, with the impressive duo of Eva Navarro and Claudia Pina: