If you come that far out to clear the ball as a goalkeeper, you clear it either far down field or out of play. She cleared it low and straight to a Japanese player's foot. It still required an outstanding finish, but the poor clearance gave Japan the opportunity. I can understand the argument that Japan forced the mistake by forcing the goalkeeper to make that play, but I would still have expected her to do better with it. I agree that the mistake on the Sawa goal was worse, though. It depends on how bad the mistakes are, though. Wambach's goal against Brazil was the result of several mistakes. Cristiane should have taken the ball to the corner instead of trying to pass and losing the ball. A deep-lying defender kept Wambach onside. Those were minor mistakes, and the kind of mistake that I think you mean when you say 90% of goals are the result of mistakes. The goalkeeper coming out was a big mistake, though. That type of play is one where you can really fault a player for allowing the goal. I pointed out the two mistakes by the Swedish goalkeeper because I think those were in the same league. They were almost entirely her fault, and Japan benefited. I'm not arguing that's a bad thing for Japan . . . it's actually good. Sweden made mistakes and Japan punished them for it. I was just arguing that the game was hardly a 1-sided affair (as another poster implied), and with better goalkeeping, the score would have been closer. Japan has been punishing teams for mistakes. The US defense has been pretty solid since a poor first half against North Korea, though, and I think it's unlikely Japan will see the kind of scoring opportunities they had in the Sweden game.
JD I was shocked when I read your post...I feel the same about the WC final! Good post! I too was very surprised to see the US reach the final, but sometimes tourneys go that way...remember the Greek team winning the Eurocup with ugly soccer.
Isn't this pretty obvious? It's the defenders/gks' job to keep the ball out of the net- when the other team scores, by definition they had to screw up somewhere along the line.
Obvious, but few ever thinks about it. That's why you get the earlier posts that I was responding to. And there are actually occasions where no one makes a mistake, and the other team may just have been too good in the build up or delivery.
#3 Daiane Menezes Rodrigues. Sweeper behind the 3 defenders' high line In Ynterstella's beyond-awesome reverse angle fan video, you can see that Daiane's 1st post-goal reaction is to raise her right arm for offside. Also the subtle right curl on Rapinoe's cross, which pretty much created the entire 1 diameter rightward separation from Andréia's fingertips and Wambach's head. Plus all of Rapinoe's celebration, which is worth six rewinds. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxywlzPj93U&feature=feedf"]2011 Women's World Cup + Brazil vs USA 2:2 goal Megan Rapinoe to Abby Wambach in 122'‏ - YouTube[/ame] Don't make Rapinoe mad -- you wouldn't like her when she's mad
I think the goalkeeper completely misjudged the flight of the ball. She really had plenty of time to get there, but hesitated.
the mistake is bitching about 5'7" defenders in brasil, having one clearly over 5'7", Aline Pellegrino, and not instructing her to mark a 100 goal striker who plays taller than 6'0" on air balls at the END of a game,especially, instead leaving a sweeper who plays under her 5'6" stature to elevate with that striker on the far post. Kleiton Lima - WC's #1 Shameful Coach.
No. First of all, the men's Dutch team is now the greatest soccer country to have never won the WC, while the US women have won it twice. Secondly, Holland is considered by soccer purists to be the home of the "perfect" game, while no one is going to consider our women to be ideological center of training/growing soccer talent.
I disagree, when Women soccer is not profitable for clubs, the American College system is the best system to develop soccer talent. That may change in the future, but I bet many teams in the world cup have a few players that played in the USA college system.
Except this time the good guys (gals) will win. Enough talk. Let's get it on. I've gotten so used to the early game times that 2:45 PM ET seems like an eternity.
Japan deserve the title. I feel this unbeatable halo around them, like Italy 2006 after beating Germany. 2:1 for Japan in 90 minutes.
Hope you're right. The Japanese may have plenty of German support at today's match. Even Silke Rottenberg has wishes for a Japan victory. http://frauenfussball.zdf.de/ZDFsport/inhalt/30/0,5676,8280382,00.html
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPNY8NaVPBE"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPNY8NaVPBE[/ame] In order to be "Remembered" this USA squad has to step from under the shadow of the 1999 squad. They will be Remembered! USA.
I don't disagree... other than to say a less than ideal clearance hardly constitutes a 'mistake' on Lindahl's part. I was forced to comment b/c ironically not a good couple minutes before posting I saw the goal again (wanted to see the finish on the shot) and she was under intense pressure. I also wanted to see if she absolutely had to come out... and in my opinion she did. The attacking player had half a step on two Swedish defenders and Lindahl struck the ball a half second before the player got to it. The angle they both approached the ball almost caused them to collide... so on the clearance Lindahl really couldn't follow thru... hence the "poor clearance" as you described it. Would be interesting to hear what someone like GKbenjie thought about that play.
Kick off is 20:45 in Germany (8:45 PM for those who do not understand a 24 hour clock); that is 14:45 (2:45 PM) ET. The ESPN coverage begins at 2 PM ET. And ESPN2 has a 1 hour sportscenter countdown show that began 3 minutes ago. (no, i am not Oliver Tse in disguise )
Kick-off on 03:45 am on Monday morning, if they get a large audience it is a really big break trough for Womes Soccer in Japan. On the Upside they should get almost 100% of the TV viewers at that time