I had to fix your question there. The best goal of this tournament was Japan's goal against USA. It was a hurtful goal for us USA fans, but it was a great goal, and a heads up play. Kudos to the Japanese player for making that play, otherwise it stays 0-0, and USA may find a way to come up clutch in the final few minutes to win the game like they've done in the past at several age levels when it's a close low-scoring game that is tied and coming down to the final few moments in crunch time.
As many here have figured out when I coached I pretty much coached the boys and girls the same. But in this one area I did teach somewhat different techniques. I would tell the girls in the older age groups, "You grew it you might as well learn how to use it." The widening of the hips that occurs naturally gives girls an advantage (and a disadvantage) in shoulder to shoulder (actually often hip to hip) challenges. But even more than that the wider hips give the older girls a moment advantage in kicks. One of my goalkeepers went through much of her puberty growth over one summer and she added almost 30 yards to her goal kicks after learning how to use that moment advantage. The extra padding that also naturally comes with that growth is a bit of a disadvantage because of energy getting dissipated unproductively but the most effective post puberty players have learned to use their body's changes to improve their play. That goal is the first one I have ever see that was scored by the player that got the credit falling on the ball. I've seen many scored by defenders and goalkeepers falling on the ball but I have never before seen one like that. I do have to differ a bit with many here however as I do not think it was a particularly "good" goal. It was an accident and that makes it interesting and unique but it does not make it good. For me for a goal to be truly good it must be intentional.
I know this is a little late, but this is one of my all-time favorite tweets: "U-20 Japan Women's representative who won the FIFA u-20 Women's World Cup and won the Fair Play award.... Your opponent is an important friend who enjoys playing soccer. 【リスペクト～大切に思うこと～】9/1(土)～10(月)の「JFAリスペクトフェアプレーデイズ2018」に先駆け、リスペクトのある風景を紹介していきます。#Respect #jfa📸：FIFA U-20女子ワールドカップで優勝し、フェアプレー賞を受賞したU-20日本女子代表。対戦相手はサッカーを楽しむ大切な「仲間」。 pic.twitter.com/KauFtPaAaR— 日本サッカー協会 (@JFA) August 28, 2018
Georgia Stanway and Fuka Nagano's hugging in the tunnel before the semifinal England-Japan had also appeared in a FIFA video, and it's a wonderful image indeed! You're probably going to also appreciate what JFA President Kohzo Tashima said in a press-conference held in Japan by U-20 NT staff and members after being back from their successful WWC campaign : "We have received many individual awards besides this World Cup trophy, which is an astonishing feat, but more than anything, I am delighted that the team was given the Fair-play award along with the tournament title. We have always kept an emphasis on fair play and earning the award while winning the title is a difficult accomplishment, but this team has done just that". By the way, I always felt the same about Nadeshiko Japan teams. (Off topic here, @CoachJon, but I guess your change of avatar, coming back to Lieke Martens, gives away quite clearly your allegiance for the upcoming Norway-Netherlands match ).
That sounds sexist and misogynistic. You don't, by any chance, wear a large orange cat on your head, do you? Sorry, my impulse control has also been weakened with age.
#U20WWC's Goal of the Tournament:🥇 - 🇲🇽 @lizbethovalle7 🆚🇧🇷🥈 - 🇳🇿 Hannah Blake 🆚🇳🇱🥉 - 🇧🇷@kerolin_nicoli 🆚🇲🇽 pic.twitter.com/GK2YhFmrfX— FIFA Women's World Cup (@FIFAWWC) August 31, 2018
Since this article about France 2018 U-20 WWC in Numbers had been published on 29th of August only, someone could have missed it (I had ). Interesting quotes: "9 U-20 Women’s World Cups is what it took USA to suffer group-stage elimination for the first time". "5 assists is what gave Japan’s Jun Endo the second-highest total at an edition of the tournament. Pauline Bremer managed six for Germany at Canada 2014". "3 countries from the same continent made the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup semi-finals for the first time: Europeans England, France and Spain. Germany, China PR, USA and Brazil ensured four continents were represented in the last four at Thailand 2004". "1 match went beyond normal time at France 2018 – a record low for a FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup. Five of the eight knockout games at Canada 2002 went to extra time". "0 nations had lifted all three of FIFA’s women’s trophies – the U-17, U-20 and senior World Cups – until Japan completed the triumvirate in Brittany. Germany, Korea DPR and USA have lifted two apiece".
The USWNT youth system is broken: From 2002 - 2012 (original success) 2002: U-19 WWC champions (first ever youth women's world cup) 2008: U-20 WWC champions (first team to ever win 2 older youth WWC's) 2008: U-17 WWC silver medal (runner up to N-Korea in first ever U-17 WWC) 2012: U-20 WWC champions (first team to ever win 3 older youth world cups) U-17 - From 2010 - Current 2010: U-17 team does not even qualify for the U-17 World Cup 2012: U-17 team goes out in the group stage at the U-17 World Cup 2014: U-17 team does not even qualify for the U-17 World Cup 2016: U-17 team goes out in the group stage at the U-17 World Cup Cumulative: 4 straight U-17's in which USA hasn't been to knockout stage U-20 - From 2014 - Current 2014: U-20 team goes out against North Korea in Quarterfinal 2016: U-20 team goes out against North Korea in the Semifinal 2016: U-20 team then loses the 3rd place match against Japan 2018: U-20 team doesn't even get out of their group Cumulative: Downward trend in the past few U-20 World Cup tournaments The last four U-17 WWC's, USA did not get out of their group, or even qualify. USA has failed to win any of the five U-17 World Cups. The last three U-20 WWC's, USA is on a major decline against the world. Even youth teams like Netherlands and Spain are now better than USA. Conclusion: The USWNT youth system is BROKEN. Since Jan. 1, 2009, USA has only won one youth World Cup of the past Nine. Therefore, they have only won 11% of youth World Cups since Jan. 1, 2009. We should expect winning at least 25%, one youth World Cup out of every four.
I wouldn't care if the USA never won or even qualified for another youth tournament. Tell me the stats of the powerhouse men's team's who have a balanced youth and full national team winning record! As long as we keep winning at the full team level, I'll be happy as a clam.
As long as they're keeping score, I want USA to be the best at all levels. And the women's game doesn't have to follow the men's game in comparison. The women have their own game. And it would be great if USA won any and all possible games, and especially tournaments. Tell Alex Morgan her U-20 tournament championship and performance in 2008 means nothing. Tell that to her directly to her face.
Very interesting reading: lot of food for thought (by the way: @Lechus7, did you consider posting that on Nadeshiko Japan thread also, maybe while pointing at some of the many elements that could be usuefully discussed there? ). From a statistical point of view, I find interesting that the winner team of Japan wasn't in the very first places of any of the stats except goals scored and shots (one could argue that, by definition, these are the stats counting the most, after all) and an interesting third place in total distance covered by the team (while the other finalist, Spain, is at the other side of the spectrum, at third-to-last place, in this particular piece of stats). Uncharacteristically for a Japanese team, they only had 50% possession, but these data could be slightly skewed by the fact that Japan played Spain twice in this tournament, and Spain was by far the best possession-team of the tournament, wih an average of 61%. Of course, you could reverse the argument, but I guess Japan would have probably won possession vs most of the other teams (except USA, as seen in their group stage match), so I wouldn't read too much into this apparently low number. Japan was fourth in number of passes and fifth in pass-accuracy, after Netherlands, Spain, France (and Brazil for the second piece of stat): I guess this, combined with the distance covered and the shots, talks about a team of players who keep moving together as a unit, thus making it easier to always find a free team-mate in the best position to keep the action alive or to shot with a good angle. Basically, lot of movement without the ball, tied with an accurate handling of the ball itself. I ask if anyone remembers better than me a little detail. At page 6, the report says: "Champions Japan scored six goals through combination play and five on the counter-attack, with just one set-piece goal. They also scored a tournament-high two – together with Germany – of the seven goals that resulted from throw-ins, another in-game situation that they were able to exploit to the maximum, with efficiency and effectiveness key attributes in their triumphant campaign". In the statistics section, though, (page 46) Japan are credited 15 goals from open-play and 0 from set-pieces (and 0 from thrown-ins). What's the right version? I frankly don't remember one of Japan's game coming from a set-piece action (maybe one of the 6 vs Paraguay? ): anyone does? I seem to remember at least one circumstance when Ueki was set free directly from thrown-in, but still I can't remember exactly when (probably vs Paraguay also). If anyone can help, it will be appreciated.
I suspect that the beginning of one of the actions (third goal by Ueki, maybe) was a throw-in, but these highlights are cut too much short to really have the whole actions. FIFA highlights are cut around 2 minutes no matter what, so often they're not enough to get all of the details.
If you're talking about discussion going on in there considering systems of play... Let's say...I do not intend to add fuel to the fire ...but if you insist. There was one I found interesting: Average bypassed/suffered bypasses Japan had 2nd lowest suffered bypasses number (after Spain) Inerviews with coaches of the semi-finalists are quite informative. I find it a little funny though how they poke Ikeda with masked questions to "reveal" on "how You (Japan) did it?" FIFA is starting to put some thought on WoSo as this is the best detailed report on WWC to date.
I wasn't necessarily talking just about that. There are many points in the report that look of special interest for Nadeshiko Japan, including discussion about 4-3-3 and 4-4-2 systems, but not limited to that at all. Oh, I had somehow missed that one, indeed. By the way, how is this piece of stats exactly defined? You suffer a bypass when...? Basically when one of your players loses an 1v1 duel? Or what?
I think it's when ball played by opponent bypasses your defense line (through ball not caught by offside trap or long cross behind last defender)