I have no idea how good or bad South Africa is but with only 2 shots in the game, effort only goes so far.
89' 3-1 Spain ping ball around at circle left. Torrecilla long 30m ground pass up centerline picks out L.García cutting right-to-center through arc right, with 2m lateral separation from Matlou(?). Dlamini slides out past spot, L.García steps left around her and Dlamini undercuts Matlou tumbling. L.García trots past both to 6-top 1/4 left, taps in with net empty.
2 or 10 shots doesn't mind, the game was clearly a draw. SA create the same danger with 2 shots that Spain with 20.
3-1 final. If true what everyone says and we have won on bad calls, I don't like this at all. Our coach needs to change our approach, doesn't have to be huge but needs to change to be a little more direct at times and use the width better (judging from what I read at Marca and from the times I've seen us play before). With this current coach, I doubt the changes will happen. I see us maybe a draw versus China and a loss to Germany.
Agreed, why I'm mixed. Ultimately, what I'm thinking is that it was a yellow card-worthy act (upon review), which was in the penalty area, thus the PK. One of those tough calls, and it ultimately changed the game by taking off a player. Indirectly, it led to the Spain's third, and their almost-4th. And seemed to deflate SA entirely.
Feel really bad for South Africa. They had this game up until that first PK. They lost all momentum after that.
The SA women really had Spain on the ropes. That missed opportunity at about min 55 by SA might have gotten them the win.
Crossing needs to improve. Same issue Germany had v. China. If Spain can get those crosses in well, they might have a chance v. China. And Germany has the same issue v. SA.
Yes, and the South African coach was literally petrified after that (I came back in time to watch the last minutes of the game, but I missed Spain's third goal; @Gilmoy's description is not enough for me to understand if at least this one was any good, after two PKs). We really needed the VAR to get this? Beautiful goals disallowed for microscopic off-sides and so bad calls that any referee could make them alone, without the help of the technology. In this case, the human wasn't even going to make the mistake, if it wasn't for the VAR guy. Bottom line: if in the end it's a man who has to make the final call, mistakes will happen, with or without VAR, so is it really worth? And I don't think technology is advanced enough to assign this duty to an algorithm or an Artificial Intelligence (nor would I want to have that: next step is putting robots on the pitch to play instead of humans and call it a day).
Are we potent in the air? Crossing won't really matter if we have a poor aerial game. Unless you are more thinking of how Man City plays, get to the end line, cut inside and pass hard across the goal.
It was not an spectacular goal. This today's offside was not microscopic at all, it has the entire doby offisde. About the PK, Could you imagine that a former spanish referee in a radio said it's a clear PK because he thinks the South African player, after she deflected the ball, she has the intention to hurt the rival because she knows where the leg was. I don't know if consider this funny or idiot. Well, I think VAR is a good idea, it has to improve, that's true. But most of the times is more useful than not I guess.
not sure how you consider us the favored team, this was our first ever world cup win...even if it wasn't the cleanest win
I haven't seen Man City play, so I can't comment on that. But there were multiple times where Spain had a player or two in the box in great position to tap the ball in, either in the air or on the ground, and Spain continued to his cross consistently too long. As a former defender, I would do all sorts of chippy stuff (never what was done), but it looked like it was professional-level chippy. Vilakazi made no attempt to withdraw her studs-up cleat before the contact. Compare that to the handball by Van Wyk, where she did try and withdraw her arms (too late) and it was a consistent call. If you look at the play, Vilakazi never bent her knee in preparation for the contact. And, IMO, it is one of those catch 22s. It was not really all that worthy of a PK since it was not caught in real time. But on review, it was card worthy due to the violent nature of the act, and unfortunately it was in the penalty area.
I think is being too simplistic. SA will have face lower seeded teams in route to qualification, so the ranking will be lower by default relative to Spain. That said, I do agree that Spain was the clear the favorite.