Do I see right, no Patri Guijarro? Is she injured or is it a technical choice? Ok, she's just 20, but I feel like the Golden Boot and Golden Ball of U-20 WWC 2018 should anyway be a key-player for Spain.
Wow: No Van der Sanden and no Dekker on the Dutch roster. Both apparently have thigh injuries. This gives the coaches an opportunity to pair Van der Gragt--who is healthy again after a long stretch of injuries--and Bloodworth at centerback and try and get Van der Gragt ready for top-level action. It might be the best pair in central defense for the Dutch. Dekker has been a good player for The Netherlands for a long time, but she's 32 now and not very fast and her ball skills are suspect--she got red-carded against Switzerland the last WC qualifying playoff game after losing the ball. You really can't afford to have a slow(ish) centerback.
An important point you make, it means she is suspended for the first World Cup game. So they definitely need to work on a solution for at least one game.
Except, neither of them are. It was common in the 19th century that some families adopted family names. According to Íslendingabók, a website run by the pharmaceutical company Decode which researches family diseases (that is, diseases that are passed down generations) and has mapped the genetic code for every Icelander, I have a common ancestor with both players in the 17th and 18th century. Very much Icelandic.
Oh, ok: I didn't know that. I guess this naming convention, although surviving, it's anyway a minority, right now. Well I can imagine that, despite having more than 300.000 inhabitants, the originary families back at the time of its colonization hadn't to be so many, so, yeah, I can see how it is surely quite ordinary to have common ancestors with many people, in Iceland, if you go back enough.
With the US having their own little fake meaningless tournament it is hard for an old man like me to find info about how the matches in the Algarve Cup might be streamed or otherwise watched in the US. Does anyone know a safe reliable site that might be providing feeds for the games. Preferably I would like English, German, Spanish or Japanese (if they speak slowly ) but I will take what I can get. I think I might be able to find a feed at game time but it would be easier if I could find something I can count on before time. Thanks.
Beacuse of the fact that Japan has been invited to that little fake meaningless tournament you were talking about, I have the feeling that Japanese TV won't broadcast Algarve Cup this year. But I'll let you know should I discover that for some reason (promoting women's football anyway?) they decided otherwise.
...they are all fake meaningless tournaments, no? cyprus? algarve? australia? but it is by playing these that teams gets ready for the real one this summer.
My issue is actually that these friendlies are called tournaments and not that they are played at all. A tournament should use regular substitution rules and not the excessive six subs and there should at least be a final match to actually produce a winner. The Algarve is closer to being a tournament, and I think it would also be better for most teams to play in as it is a more tournament like format but even it is just a group of friendlies as I understand the format. It does however have a final and mostly a clear winner. Playing friendlies, a lot of friendlies, in a period of time leading up to a major tournament is a good thing but calling a given group of them a tournament is simply misrepresenting them to the public. it is like the old child's riddle: Q: How many legs does a dog have if you call its tail a leg? A: Four; Calling a tail a leg does not make it one. But it really does not matter very much. I just do not like hyping things like this by puffing them up to make them seem more important than the are.
Be careful with that word, "fake". There actually is a fake tournament this year: - https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/pinatar-cup-2019.2090758/ (Probably no need to bump that thread!) Suspicion was aroused when they (IAST) didn't call it a tournament – they called it a "product". "We're gonna win the product"
You are right, with the current clown act in the US capital you are right, "fake" is a dangerous word to use. BUT, here in the US, today is an important holiday, "National Margarita Day," so any misuse of words can be explained by having consumed too much salt. As I said I have no problem with the matches at all. It is just that people make them more have than they really deserve. These matches are really just friendlies grouped together. I actually wish there were a few more of them but, even if there were, my viewing would be limited due to the media's and soccer federation's greed for money.
A lot of these group friendlies have been organized as "tournaments" partly to promote the matches and generate ticket sales. I mean, the U.S. NT only plays in one real tournament every four years, that being the World Cup. I supposed you could count Concacaaf as another--but with only one other real competitor in that region, it's not much, and so you've got to market She Believes and other group friendlies as quasi-tournaments, at least.
When Iceland and Scotland played against each other last month Elín Metta Jensen (23) scored two goals. What will she do tomorrow. A talented player who has had her up and downs in the last couple of years. Losing her father, having to put football second place while studying to become a doctor, getting penalized inside the box against France in Euro 2017, a game Iceland subsequently lost 0-1, but then had a great game against Germany in the qualifiers for the world cup, scoring a brilliant goal and providing two assists in a 3-2 upset victory in Germany. Its the goal number two for Iceland in the video.
I'll be interested to see if Miedema and Van de Donk play for The Netherlands tomorrow. I hope they do /not/ play as both surely need some rest. Miedema was kept out of the Continental Cup final this past weekend until the 62' or 67' mark because of tiredness. Van de Donk has a played a ton, including the full final plus overtimes against ManCity. She's got to be spent. No pressing need to play either of them--being fresh in June is the priority, not a friendly now---but we'll see....
Norway's matches will be streamed at nrk.no. Not sure if they'll be geoblocked or not, but regardless, here's some links (which hopefully will stay unchanged until the streaming starts)! Placement match doesn't have one yet (presumably cos they don't know what time it'll be). NRK's geoblocks are usually fairly simple to defeat. https://www.nrk.no/video/PS*c6c20108-1e12-4c92-a8a7-b48444eb64be https://www.nrk.no/video/PS*ac6cec13-0c81-48bc-878b-21cce98326c0