one game over looked yesterday was England vs France. Still haven't seen any high lights, but the French win it, 1-0, in the 89th minute. Got to hand it to the French, they used several newbies including one that I've touted for years(but probably more for her looks), Marion Torrent...aka, the Bridget Bardot of soccer!. Here were the lineups on both squads http://us.women.soccerway.com/matches/2017/10/20/world/friendly-women/france/england/2599961/ As for the English; they had an very veteran squad out there but finally used one girl I touted previously as well, Melissa Lawley. But controversy keeps following this team; now their GK coach has been suspended because get this; Aluko claims he spoke to her in a fake Caribbean accent! Got to wonder too, if their new or interim coach, Mo Marley, can keep her squad in 'tip top' shape?
Poor game, played at pedestrian pace with teams neutralizing each other. Not much entertainment, both teams keeping their defensive shape well.
4 Nations Tournament Brazil 2 - 0 Korea DPR (2x Marta) https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1351811411596800 China 3 - 2 Mexiico (Xiao Yuyi 29', Zhang Rui 68', Wang Shuang 74' - Caldeon 1' Ferral 53')
Japan-Switzerland finished just a few minutes ago in Nagano. Result was 2-0 for Japan (60' (?) Emi Nakajima, 90'+3' Mina Tanaka)
blissett must be one happy camper as Korea's & China's previous loss suggest that Japan might still be the footsie queens of the Far East! As for Mexico, their hope is lost somewhat as potential superstar Sofia Huerta(previously played for their u20 squad) decided to sign up with Jill Ellis's tomato can smashers, instead!
Actually in this moment I am especially happy for Japan's performance at U-19 AFC Championships (we're currently in the semifinals), that also count as qualifiers for U-20 WWC 2018. The level of our Youth Teams is very comforting in perspective: there are valuable players in the pipeline, who are almost ready for Senior Teams of the near future.
well I was expecting a a stronger performance out of last year's u20 WC champs, North Korea. But then we really don't know how many of those they used vs Brazil senior match.. Not that much of a fan of the youth tournaments; ironically, the top stars of the last decade's u20 WC's have flubbed or suffered majors injuries during their senior careers Leroux(2008WC) Tanaka(2012) Bremer(2014) Cascarino(2016). But getting back to this current mini tournament; China can seek redemption by beating Brazil in the last game(though they would have to win by a big score to win the tourney outright). But right now, a bit of a weak showing generally by Asian teams(if you include South Korea's performance vs 'the tomato can smashers' yesterday). On the other hand, Brazil, a team that's suppose to be in upheaval, was really helped by their bitter 3 game loss vs the Matildas, as it might of prepared them better for this current tourney? anyways, any highlights of Japan vs Switzerland?
Slight correction for who wants to watch the full video skipping to the goals: the first one, by Nakajima, was actually at about 68' (23' of 2nd half).
Almost none, those young NK champs from 2016 are for most part still under 19 y.o and currently playing in AFC tournament. soon, uploading on yt now
Poland 3 - 0 Greece (Dudek 30', Kamczyk 59', Kaletka 74') France 8 - 0 Ghana (Sarr 37', Henry 46' 52'(p), Asseyi 58' 76', Le Sommer 68' 70', Gauvin 83')
good game for Japan, they seem to have a lot of depth in their squad. Upfront, the halftime replacements, #7 & #11(*sorry, couldn't read the lineups) performed better than the starters/ I take it the #9 was Blissett's lovey dovey, Yummie-moto! While she had some good shots, couldn't score as compared to her replacement. But she also didn't have #7 in there at the time. as #7 proved to be an excellent winger(and just might us forget about the apparent feud the NT coach has with the departed Kawasumi). btw..........was the #14, Iwabuchi? She's usually an attacker but seemed to play DM. As for the Swiss, they did have the bulk of their Bundesliga B type players in there, but were their two prominent attackers, Dickermann & Bachmann, as well as their #1 GK, Thalmann.& they really don't go much deeper. They had two of the tallest players in woso in Rinast & Kiwic, but their nowhere as agile as Renard/ so tend to be easily taken in 1v1 defending situations. But their pretty well ranked at #15.
#7 is INAC Kobe Leonessa's Emi Nakajima, in fact an excellent winger, one of the best we currenty have (and she takes most of the set pieces also, the role once Aya Miyama had). #11 is NTV Beleza's Mina Tanaka (not to be confused with Yoko Tanaka), top-scorer of latest Nadeshiko League with 15 goals. Yes, it was 1.FFC Frankfurt's Kumi Yokoyama, that you apparently aren't able to spell correctly. After all, even quite easy Lara Dickenmann becomes Dickermann for you, so I assume there is really no hope for your spelling skills! Well, consider that she did even better than "her replacement" in past seasons in Japan, so there is still hope for her. No, #14 was Beleza's Yu Nakasato (in fact a CMF). Mana Iwabuchi was subbed-in in 2nd half too, and she made that shot that was barely deflected over the crossbar by Swiss GK with the tip of her fingers. Iwabuchi also had a YC, for an unusual tough challenge. Dickenmann and Bachmann weren't on the pitch for Switzerland on sunday; by the way, I seem to remember that Dickenmann had talked about retiring from NT after Euro 2017: or do I remember wrong? Gaëlle Thalmann was in goal in 1st half, but she was replaced by Seraina Friedli in 2nd half (probably to give some meaningful playing time to both?). If you want to quickly reharse the whole match, Japanese Federation just published these short highlights:
Yes, although I don't think Viviane Asseyi exactly "wanted" to do that. (as good as she can be as dancing, as she showed after her first goal! ). Henry's volley impressed me much more! (although she was left completely free in the box and she could take her time to prepare the shot). Many new faces in this France line-up, even some that I don't exactly recognize (who was in goal, for instance?). I was impressed by Ouleymata Sarr: her goal was quite funny, with the ball rebounding on her head, but what's more important to me is how she created chances and made others score. Also I seldom saw a football player with so long and skinny legs! How tall she is? Is it just her height that makes her look like a walking stick, or is it really her legs not resembling those of other football players?
I'm kinda impressed just that Ghana even arranged a friendly with such a high-powered nation as France! Heck, not often that you see African nations arrange friendlies anyway, much less with non-African countries. Ghana itself hasn't played any matches at all since last December, hasn't played a friendly since last July - though, I guess that July friendly *was* against Germany, so maybe getting France wasn't too surprising. They had a bunch of friendlies in 2015 but they were all against African teams; their three 2014 friendlies were two against Namibia and one against Japan.
4 Nations Tournament China 2 - 2 Brazil Mexico 0 - 1 North Korea (20'(og.)) Final standings Brazil 7p 7-2 North Korea 6p 3-3 China 4p 6-6 Mexico 0p 2-7
Order of final standings perfectly matches order in the FIFA rankings, but still, poor Mexico... Medina hasn't been at the job with the senior team for long, will be interesting to see if he sticks. He's now 1-0-5 with the team.
Well, you know the proverb 'bout eggs and omlets. And De-Cuellar-ization of the team my take some time Let's hope that Mexico FA will show some patience for new coach (if he's competent that is) and won't take an example from Brazil's playbook. I just wonder, why on earth Brazil FA didn't go Netherlands way. To put Vadao as assistant coach to Lima. Ego perhaps? Netherland's FA gave grandpa De Haan and Veurink to Wiegman as assistants coaches and within a year they have comparatively not known lady coach winning for Netherlands coach of the year throphy.
Very happy to see Steph Labbé play at this level, after news of her fight against depression some months ago!