Despite the fact that we are in January, seeing snow on the Adriatic Coast in Cesena is not very frequent. I've missed most of the game, but I see Italy is leading 2-0 right now. Considering that Wales barely missed the qualification in a group where England looked like the natural winner, I'd say Italy is doing well in these friendlies. Let's hope that anyway they have planned to peak in June and not this month.
Italia 2 - 0 Wales (Ilaria Mauro 15', 45') I've seen Jessica Fishlock was playing with a face-mask: had she her nose fractured recently?
68' That is goal number 178 for SINCLAIR!!! SEVEN goals to the FIFA record for most INT'L Goals in football. 🇨🇦 1-0 🇳🇴#CANWNT 📺 LIVE: https://t.co/boMWuRBVRt pic.twitter.com/L7c4faMB3S— Canada Soccer (@CanadaSoccerEN) January 22, 2019
As expected, Spain loses to the US 0-1 with a goal by Press. We still struggle with a lack of athleticism and can't make up for that vs the top teams.
WATCH the highlights of #CANWNT 1:0 win over Norway. Goal by @sincy12, her 178th for Canada! pic.twitter.com/kPmTo1cP6k— Canada Soccer (@CanadaSoccerEN) January 22, 2019 Turkey 1 - 1 Slovakia (Turkoglu 22' - 84' Slukova)
I was impressed by Spain---beautiful passing and style of play--but agree the team needs a player or two up front with a bit more size/athleticism/pace and one in the back as well. But the team played well, all things considered, and will surely get even better going forward. Spain made the U.S. chase a lot in the first half, but the U.S. was better in the 2nd with the addition of new, speedy forwards.
Agreed, after an excellent first half, Spain's intensity dropped in the second half and the USA took advantage of it. A 1-0 loss is not a bad result though. It is a lot easier to work on fitness when you have technical players that the other way, because players with high fitness level but less technical ability will need a lot more work to reach a top technical level.
This has happened to Spain also at U-20 WWC this summer: they reached the final, but their second halves were regularly worse that their first halves. Why Senior Team and U-20 share this issue? Is it a question of conditioning?
Which is opposite of the mens teams (who they are trying to emulate). The men start ok but usually finish games really strong.
Didn't Spain sub out six players last night? I didn't see much of the second half, but I think each team had up to six subs, and I believe their coach made several changes, which made them less effective as Spain doesn't have the quality depth that the U.S. has--nobody does.
The thing that I noticed about Spain is that they could enter the final third of the field, sometimes with a numbers advantage, but then someone would hold up the ball and they lost the numbers advantage. The did this a significant number of times. If they want a lesson, they should watch France, which does not do this.
Spain want to play tika-taka, but that is a hard way to score against a good disciplined defense like ours--and, yes, once you pull the ball back, you continue to possess but you give opposing defenders a chance to get back, and then scoring is even more difficult. They try to pull you out of shape and find an opening, but the U.S. stayed compact and Spain struggled to get the ball into the box. Their wingers didn't really want to go 1v1 either. Playing direct is not their style and they don't have the athletes for it. France does, and plays a more dangerous counter-attacking style, much like the NC Courage and Athletico Madrid. They win the ball in midfield and it's a jailbreak; they will try to make two passes, get the ball forward to one of their speedy wingers or forwards and get a shot while the opponent has few defenders back. It's the best way to score in soccer, really. And the U.S. did it a few times, too, and Press scored by just getting a quick pass and outrunning two defenders down the field. I'm not even sure if the U.S. has a distinctive style of play: it seems we can play different ways and win. It's not often you see us chasing as much as we did in the first half against Spain, which forced us to play counter-attack. And while we got some corners out of doing so in the first half, Rapinoe and Heath weren't able to do much.
here's one friendly previously not mentioned, Catalonia defeats Chile via shootout.. Don/t know more info other than whats given here Catalonia vs. Chile - 21 January 2019 - Women Soccerway don't know if they got help that b\Barcelona is in Catalonia(though Spain started 7 Barca player vs the US), but still pretty impressive vs an WC bound team considering it's their 1st game in like 4 years! and here is the full game between the US & endless passing Spain, but about the only highlights your going to get is commentator, Ian Drake, urging Spain to please stop passing for once & take a bleeping shot! lol
Croatia Cup to be held 26 Feb-4 Mar in Croatia 26.02.2019. GRP1 UKRAINE – CROATIA GRP2 SERBIA – MONTENEGRO 28.02.2019. GRP1 SLOVENIA – CROATIA GRP2 BOSNIA – MONTENEGRO 02.03.2019. GRP1 UKRAINE – SLOVENIA GRP2 SERBIA – BOSNIA 04.03.2019 - Placement matches
6 matchs au programme des Bleues pour la prépa à la Coupe du Monde Féminine 2019 👊Allemagne 🇩🇪: 28/02 à LavalUruguay 🇺🇾: 4/03 à ToursJapon 🇯🇵: 4/04 à AuxerreDanemark 🇩🇰: 8/04 à StrasbourgThaïlande 🇹🇭: 25/05 à OrléansChine 🇨🇳: 31/05 à Créteil➡ https://t.co/hxed9BbP1b pic.twitter.com/GqvsSygYuM— Equipe de France ⭐⭐ (@equipedefrance) February 5, 2019
England's World Cup warm-up matches: England v Canada - Friday, 5 April (Academy Stadium, Manchester City) England v Spain - Tuesday, 9 April (Swindon Town) England v Denmark - Saturday, 25 May (Walsall FC) England v New Zealand - Saturday, 1 June (Brighton & Hove Albion)
Norway will play two games against New Zealand at Marbella in April. The matches will be played April 5th and 9th and will be the second-last test for the World Cup in France. - We are pleased to have two matches against a World Cup clear opponent. We have chosen to add them to Spain to get the best possible conditions. This will be another step in the preparations for what will happen in June, says national team chief Martin Sjögren. Norway and New Zealand have met six times earlier. Norway has won three, two have ended a draw and one with Norwegian losses. The last time the teams met the double matches in Stavanger in 2014. Then it ended 1-1 in the first match and 2-0 victory to Norway in match two. New Zealand, like Norway, is ready for the World Cup this summer, where they ended up in a group with the Netherlands, Canada and Cameroon. Norway's last match before the World Cup is under precamp in May. Source: NFF website
APHRODITE CUP in Cyprus: Schedule: 27.2 Estonia v Malta, Cyprus v Lithuania 28.2 Estonia v Lithuania, Cyprus v Malta 2.3 Lithuania v Malta, Cyprus v Estonia
I like the name of the cup, since, according to most versions of the myth, Aphrodite was native of Cyprus. At the same time she's the quintessential feminine goddess, so she's very apt to represent a women's tournament, full of beautiful ladies playing the beautiful game, since, you know, she's the goddess of beauty.