Japan's roster is out and, as I had predicted, it was the toughest nut to crack for Panini! Mizuho Sakaguchi squeezed in it, although still partially recovering from her year-long ACL injury, but not only the three players I had already mentioned (Rin Sumida, Rika Masuya and Moeno Sakaguchi) didn't make the roster: Nadeshiko League top-scorer Mina Tanaka was also left out. Putting Kumi Yokoyama on the album instead of Tanaka would have been a safer choice for Panini. Also, young Full-Back Asato Miyagawa was preferred to the more experienced one Saori Ariyoshi as a back-up for Sameshima and Shimizu. So, Panini only guessed 12 players right out of 17. Nailing the correct Japanese team has always been historically hard (Panini had failed big time in 2015 also), but so far, with 5 misses, this is the worst record for the 2019 album out of all of the the rosters that were unveiled so far.
Australia out: here Panini made an unremarkable 14 out of 17. They had Alex Chidiac, Kyah Simon and Tameka Butt in the team. I would have honestly expected at least these last two in the roster. And maybe Princess Ibini also, even if she's very young. Incidentally: I still miss 69 stickers out of the 480 of the whole album. Does anyone want to PM me about swapping?
Oh, per WWC 2019 rosters thread I am warned that Tameka Butt is now called Tameka Yallop! So, actually Panini's record was a respectable 15 out of 17 (they couldn't actually track down the upcoming marriage, could they? ).
16 out of 17 for German roster (only Lena Petermann appears on the album who didn't make the roster). Some DFs are indicated on the album as MFs and viceversa, but overall a very good guess from Panini. Wunderbar!
Looks like Panini failed big time with Brazil's roster, but actually I am not sure, because you never really know how a Brazilian player is officially called! For instance: I suppose Beatriz Zaneratto (as on the album) is the same as Bia Zaneratto? But what about Débora? I hope this isn't an alternate name for Debinha... Anyway: it looks like Poliana, Rilany, Daiane and Rafaele are definitely out of this roster (unless they're listed under very different names). Beatriz Zaneratto and Débora are pending. So, we're at 11 to 13 correctly guessed names: however you look at it, nothing to write home about.
Sweden. For a moment, I was hoping for a perfect record here, but it looks like Hanna Folkesson didn't make it. So it's "just" 16 out of 17.
Yes, the only surprise was that Julia Roddar toke the last spot on the team instead of Hanna Folkesson or Mia Carlsson.
With South Korea, Panini sticker album had one of its worst performances so far: not only 5 players out of 17 were missed, but one of them was the GK! If you put just one sticker with a GK on the album (some teams actually have two), you only have to correctly guess one of the three best GKs of a nation: they wasn't able to do that, so Yoon Younggeul appears on the album, while the actual GKs' trio is Kang Kaae, Jung Boram and Kim Minjeon. The other 4 players appearing on the album, that will miss the WWC instead, are Hong Hyeji, Shim Seoyeon, Jeon Gaeul and Han Chaerin.
13 out of 17 for South Africa: Panini had a different 2nd GK (Roxanne Barker) and three field-players that ended up not being called (Nompumelelo Nyandeni, Kgaelebane Mohlakoana and Melinda Kgadiete).
Looks like Panini album only missed two DFs in Chile's team: Geraldine Leyton and Fernanda Pinilla. 15 out of 17.
And Spain is the third "clean sheet" for Panini, after Norway and USA. 17/17! Another notable tidbit is that the pictures of the players in the official roster issued by RFEF (Spanish Federation) are exactly the same as the ones on the Panini stickers. I had already noticed that the South Korean pictures had surely been made in a same session for the album and for the official roster, but only some of them were exactly identical, others were slightly different (a smile, an expression). This time, instead, with Spain, all of the pictures were 100% identical (including impressive Mapi Léon, with a "looks can be deceiving" sentence tattooed on her throat! ).
15 out of 17 for Argentina. The two players Panini album had at the WWC who are actually missing are Amancay Urbani and Yamila Rodriguez.
There is still some mistery about the 23th member of Jamaica's roster. Anyway, Panini should have correctly guessed 14 players out of 17. Old Christina Chang (34 y.o. next month) and very young Giselle Washington (just 18, by a month) are definitely out of he roster; ther is a Matthews, on the album, but it's called Jadyn Matthews, so I assume it's not the same as Cheyna Matthews.
This last injury makes Panini's Brazilian performance even worse (the worst one so far, I'd say), since Adriana was on the album (and Luana, of course, was not)!!!
No great surprises for Italian roster: of course, Cecilia Salvai, who recently suffered an ACL was out . Lisa Alborghetti, who was part of the provisional list, was also left home, since Martina Rosucci, who had been out injured for several months, is now fit enough to be part of the squad, so Alborghetti had to leave her place to her and has been cut. All in all, just a 15 out of 17 for Panini, but all of the choices were very reasonable (it would have been a 16 out of 17 for sure if it hadn't been for the injury of Cecilia Salvai, who would have been a lock-in starter otherwise).
I’m getting some stickers soon and I’m excited. For anyone, I’m wondering how much you’ve spent already on your stickers, and how much of your book is complete? I’m starting with 100 packs of stickers Would be very into swapping with people.
I started with two boxes of 50 stickers each too, and with them I reached a point where I was missing about 70 stickers. Then I started swapping, although finding people to do that is not as easy as with the men's World Cup.
I had the felling there were a little too many DFs in Nigeria's roster on Panini album : two of them were cut, Josephine Chukwunonye and Glory Ogbonna. So, a respectable record of 15 out ot 17. Nigeria keep having an impressive number of FWs anyway (9 in the roster, 6 on the album): well, I assume they will be a very offensive team.
As far as I can see the only two players not in for Canada’s squad but who are in Panini are: Erin McLeod & Diana Matheson, both injured.
I can confirm you're righ @mzbats: only two players missing, so 15 out of 17 for Panini. Of course positions in defense/midfield/offense were mixed up in the album, but that's quite usual. When we're going to get the last two remaining rosters (China and Thailand), I want to recap how good a predictor the Panini album was.
Based on the FIFA final update (Thanks @mzbats ), we have the following results for China and Thailand: - only 12 out of 17 for China! I hope i didn't miss any name or any particular transilteration, but dates of birth were there to help me: GK Wang Shimeng is not part of the roster; the other missing players should be Liu Huiting, Huang Yini, Xiao Yuyi and Yang Lina (who, judging by the different dates of birth, is not the same at all as Yang Li). - 14 out of 17 for Thailand. 2nd GK Nuttaruja Muthtanawech is missing, as well as Nipawan Panyosuk and Suchawadee Nildhamrong (who was the only Thai player appearing on the album as not playing in Thailand, since she was indicated as a member of California Golden Bears, USA, not sure what kind of division). Panini wasn't really great at nailing Asian teams, some of the worst perfromances came from them (Australia was actually quite accurate, but I refuse to consider them "Asian"). A recap of the general performance will follow, for all of the (few) people interested. Edit: a check of Brazil roster confirmed that Beatriz Zaneratto is the same as Bia Zaneratto and that Debinha was put on the album by Panini as Débora. This makes Panini poor performance for Brazil a little better.