90' 2-0 Mauro counters to 16m mid-left, shoots left instep wide left low as Peng dives. 90' 2-0 Mauro chases another ball to 7m wide left, this time she pulls up and holds. Backpass to Giugliano at 15m wide left, she shoots just wide left low, Peng dives again. +4'. 90+1' (of +4') 2-0 Song touches down box right, Bartoli wins that race and curls around her, up (her) left touch. 90+2' (of +4') 2-0 China regain, chip over the top to Li Ying through box top right. Giuliani races her to 5m box right, dives on ball first.
90+3' (of +4') 2-0 China pass down mid-left, Guagni slide-pokes over endline. 90+3' (of +4') 2-0 Giacinti settles at 7m mid-left, spins ccw to 9m 6-left, shoots right instep to left post low, Peng dives and saves. 90+4' (of +4') 2-0 Giugliano juggles ball over Zhang Rui, chases it to circle top wide left, Han Peng slide-pokes between her legs and bends right foot outward? Giugliano stays down ... brief stoppage, she hops into near touch, Italy finish with 10. 90+5' (of +4') 2-0 Wang Shuang header around 6-top left post, soft pop-up to 3m, Giuliani catches high.
Once the Netherlands joined in they can start playing Ode To Joy instead of the anthems before all the games
It's like they were waiting to get in perfect position before shooting. The Chinese players were taking way too many touches in front of goal. They needed to play faster in attack.
FT 2-0. Italy 16(5)-(5)20 shots(sog), 0-9 corners , 9-9 fouls, 2-2 offsides, 6-3 blocks, 15-14 tackles, 32-23 clearances, 49% possession, 64% (205/323) - (403/538) 75% passing. Italy's central style doesn't generate corners, China's does. The stats look even, but China suffered from a severe lack of precision in the box, while Italy's defensive positioning was superb throughout.
Which would reflect the state of women's soccer. Norway over Australia, Netherlands over Japan, Sweden over Canada - these are all very mild upsets by my look at the rankings, and each of the losers in those games has some key aging personnel which may mean they're not as strong as they were the last couple of years. The top 4 in the rankings would be through, plus such Cinderella interlopers as the #8, 9, 12, and 15 teams in the world making the quarters - with 15 partly making it because they got to play an even weaker team in the round of 16.
Wow: I wasn't just going to ask if Italy has enough energy to see out this win and they score a surprise 2nd goal. Let's see if Italy sits back now and defends for 20 minutes. Was the China keeper late reacting to that shot? It looked like she was--but it was a good strike, and Italy are not shy about welping the ball when they get a cha Yes, China played well and had so much possession around Italy's box but had no cutting edge. 19 shots and 9 corners but no goals and really didn't test the Italian keeper much. But credit to Italy's defenders, who were very organized and managed to get a body in front of every attacker. And then Italy was opportunistic--not many chances but scored twice. One thing about Italy in contrast to China: If an Italian gets a little space with shooting distance, they will give it a go and waste no time doing so.
Not a Golden Generation. It's the inflection point that occurs when: a) enough adult women are participating and b) a country with the culture in the game and the resources decides its time to plug the women's game into all of those resources on the men's side. It's women's international soccer 3.0. 1.0: Scandinavians staring pro leagues in the 80s through Norway's title runs. 2.0: Large countries missing something (whether it was infrastructure, culture, financial commitment) playing a numbers game to get to the top ten. 3.0: Started with Germany as a "proto 3.0" when 2.0 was starting, but it's basically putting it all together. Largish size. Good male infrastructure that can be tapped into to provide technical/club support Rising female participation. The men's regulars of UEFA (England, France, Netherlands, Italy, Spain) are putting things together. I don't think this is a case where Italy is a one off. And I don't really think China has fallen mightily if you were to take this team back to the late 90s/early 00s either. Countries like Italy are putting the entire package together and are improving at higher rates.
Qualification de l'@AzzurreFIGC pour les quarts! #FIFAWWC #ITACHN 👏 pic.twitter.com/HGvRwiej0j— Sport-Digital.fr (@SportDigitalFR) June 25, 2019
Sure she was, although any Italian like me will tell you that the words are spelled differently: to say "panic" you have to spell it pànico, while the family name of our former FW is Panìco.
Yeah!!! Cool. I was about to post a pic that I found but thats not necessary anymore. Thank you very much!
Wow. You are welcome of course to teach us all the secrets of Italian names and their actual meanings. Is there any name about "roaming around free" perhaps?
No, stubifier doesn't drink too much coffee or anything else: he was spot on. Although I am very happy for Italian win and I had called it (only Germany and England had a less close score), I noticed too that some of the girls were gassed since the beginning. It's not a case that Girelli was subbed out at 40' and Bonansea was the biggest let down of the match: she looked slow and sloppy, to the point that I had to wonder if she was injured. I concluded that they were simply tired: despite upcoming professionalism in Italian League, these girls are not used to the tension and the fatigue of this kind of tournaments. That's why I can't actually see her winning their quarter final, whicheever team they will end meeting, but especially if it will be Netherlands. Of course conditioning could probably have been better, but I guess the main problem is these girls aren't still ready for a competition that's one month long.
What @Chicago76 writes is of course correct: it's about two years that men's professional clubs as Juventus or Milan started backing up women's teams in Italy too, and the result is obvious. But I wouldn't underestimate the change of coach at the helm of Italian NT: Euro 2017 was the swan song of Cabrini's era. With Bertolini's tenure, from 2017 on, Italy became so much better! Let's give credit where it's due.