Just quoting myself on this because that's also what she was doing on the pens. She can be brilliant, she's just maddeningly inconsistent.
Also for future reference: while UEFA geoblocks their youtube stream but (as I found out once Eurosport decided to cut the celebrations) you can get around it by using stuff like http://hola.org/
People were deprived of a potentially exciting encounter here, with the crowds general lack of enthusiasm for events taking place on the field, and this threads random tangents concerning the history of sporting culture born from American baseball lol, probably telling the main story of what we all saw... I think Bremer was the player of the match in normal time, with Kumagai the POTM over the entire 120 mins. Kerschowski was the worst player on the field over the 120 mins, but special mention needs to go to her coach Ralf Kellermann too.. Anyway, even if the tournaments final match truly stunk like never before, Lyon finish the 2015/16 WUCL season as worthy champions, with both finalists needing to look towards rejuvenating teams clearly a few levels away from what they once were.
Yeah, seemed like Wolfsburg was banking on Being German while relying on Lyon to Be French and it almost paid off. Weird that Lyon had Hegerberg taking the first penalty, though. While she's really good at scoring in open play she doesn't really have a history of putting pens. Last time I can remember her taking one was for one of the youth NTs, and she missed that one too.
Which is odd considering all the foreign names on both teams... With all the hype, do you think she had a good game today....? Considering she was up against a very average CB like Peter for most of the match, at times today she still looked like the player I remember seeing at Potsdam. For various reasons I think both sides gave a poor account of themselves, but for having a lot of touches outside of the box, Hegerberg appeared very quiet to me.
CHAMPIONNES D'EUROPE!!! Yes! The best team in Europe finally win the cup!!! In a very under performing final from both side, Olympique Lyonnais have won it in the most dramatic way possible, sincerely who could have thought that Wolfsburg would have been so bad but still able to equalize at 2 minutes from the end.....that Bouhaddi after being unfairly criticized would have stopped two penalties in a row ....Well the game was certainly forgettable but who cares!! Lyon is European Champions 2015/2016!! Imo the performances were so bad from both side that only Kumagai (player of the game....what a performance!! Bremer and Renard deserves a note higher than 6.... A curiosity, Jeen-Michel Aulas just announced that the players will party with him this week end at Saint-Tropez. As I said, Italy's Patrizia Panico give SAKI KUMAGAI the official player of the match award, What A Performance from Saki!!
She had a good first half, what with scoring and almost setting up Le Sommer for what would've been a brilliant goal. She also seemed spend a lot of time in defence though; you'd have Necib and Le Sommer up top while Ada was covering the left flank in front of Majri in her own half. Overall a middling match, I guess? Her teammates weren't really looking to set her up in the second half either, because hey, they were comfortably up by one goal and could hoof the ball in the general direction of the goal instead of trying to pass.
I kept seeing her running on the shoulder of Peter (which was smart), but beyond the long ball route, for the amount of touches she had, she never went 1v1 against any defender effectively enough to make her presence more known throughout the match. Meh, like you suggest the game was a dud, but I'd still put most of the blame at the feet of Wolfsburg's defeated defensive approach, and Lyon's overall insipid attack, to get the low levels of creativity we saw today. Comfortably leading an awful side by one goal isn't the kind of comfort that affords such monotonous general play, and it almost cost them big time too. It's makes me wonder how she would have looked if Wolfsburg's plan was to open up and actually play football at some point prior to the 80 min mark, but against a ponderous defender like Peter, I expected to see more from Hegerberg given the level of praise thrown her direction this season.
yeah - you joked about how many foreign names there were in today's match, and I was saying that Lyon was the "lesser of two evils" from the French side in terms of foreign mercenaries.
True , Ada had a great game in the first hour but many of her offensive partner "weren't" there today, specially Abily and Necib who multiplied bad decisions like never seen before but I think the fact that this is THE last time for many of them to play the WCL made them felt the pressure like never before and consequently make mistakes....I guess. ???... The only foreigners who acted like a "mercenary" was probably Asllani, the vast majority were extremely professional even those who couldn't adapt to French culture or way to play (Rapinoe). Overall we all agree this wasn't a great final in terms of quality displayed but who to blame?...Lyon didn't had a great game offensively but at least came with the clear intention to win the game, Wolfsburg? What was their game plan?...Did Kellerman really thought to defeat the armada two times with this negative approach??...lol..deluded.smh ps: so happy for Bouhaddi's haters...now they can move on hating someone else. OL won their first WCL May 26 2011...exactly five years ago. Ada Hegerberg is the first Norwegian to win the Champions League? Really? 735905046760697856 is not a valid tweet id Queen Lotta and her successor
First Norwegian goalscorer in a CL-final at least. We've had a few players on winning squads down the years.
For any club that I feel wields too much money/power, I call pejoratively their foreign players mercs, no matter how devoted/integrated to the club they actually are. (So I include Sinclair&Henry at Portland and Little&Melis at Seattle in that category.) I mean it more a slight to the club than it is to the players themselves - though it certainly applies to some such players more than others.
It's pretty far out to call Sinclair a mercenary, no matter how you define it. Portland is her home and has been for many years -- since well before she started playing for the Thorns. Plus, Oregon-Washington-British Columbia is its own country, didn't you know that? Ecotopia.
Nevermind, it was actually just a replay of Japan winning WWC 2011, with Kumagai scoring the last penalty...
Yea I was being facetious about the comfortably leading thing, I wasn't trying to suggest that was good in any way. I was mostly annoyed at the way Ada would get the ball, hold it up for a bit, pass it on and then watch Majri run up and down alongside the edge of the box for a while until the Germans took the ball away from her.
I was there: it was not as they were pro-German in general. It's that, from how the game had developed at that point, the crowd was seeing Wolfsburg as the clear underdogs (apart from the goal, OL had showed at least 3 or 4 clear cut chances, and they did look dominating, both technically, tactically and physically [Nilla Fischer had cramps since the middle of the second half, for instance]). So, Italian people turned to rooting for Wolfsburg for mainly two reasons: they wanted the underdog to make a comeback and they wanted to have a match, while, until 88', the match, while not being totally boring (at least to my eyes) hadn't seemed like an actual contest. Most people were rooting for Wolfsburg, because they wanted to see some kind of fight and they were happy that the game had been at least stretched to extra-time and then PSO, because the show had been more entertaining this way. Add to that the fact that, especially in second half, Schult was very good at communicating with audiences behind her goal, soliciting applause and in general making a show that was much appreciated by some: she somehow managed to "click" with supporters and win some neutral ones to Wolfsburg. Actually, there was no other reason I guess, and, before the game, all the people I heard from had come to the stadium just in the hope of watching a good game, with no bias for Wolfsburg or OL. Also, very few knew anything about the two clubs or even about women's football in general (a couple just a seat ahead of me was surprised that women had 45' minutes periods and full extra-time of 15'+15': the man vaguely remembered WWC 1999 and even asked me if penalties would have been taken in the run from the center of the pitch... ).
A note about PSO, that someone (even in sports media!) call a lottery, while there is a lot more to it in my eyes. Penalty-takers' choice from Wolfsburg seemed particularly poor to me. Nilla Fischer literally could hardly stand on her feet: I was seated in front of Wolfsburg's half of the pitch in second half, and I can tell you I saw her cramping multiple times since about 60'-70' at least. Her PK was indeed very weak and gave Bouhaddi all the time in the world to catch it, after she had dived to the right side. You don't choose a so weary player for a PSO. Also Bussaglia, despite having the advantage of being a former-OL player (thus probably motivated, well-knowing Bouhaddi, etc.), was notoriously mentally weak under pressure, like she showed when she missed a PK vs Japan in the semi-final at Olympics 2012. For the last PK of the series, you choose a cold-blooded and mentally strong Kumagai, who had been able to master her emotions in the last PK of WWC 2011, not a nervous one as Bussaglia who already broke under pressure in the past...
Prior to her minor injury a few weeks back, Hansen was looking like a little beast during the second half of the Bundesliga season, so it's a shame she couldn't have returned in time to showcase what can do in the UCL final. Of course I know Hegerberg was the individual who came into this final carrying the most kudos points, but watching Hansen during Bundesliga play, you can see a unique player developing with Wolfsburg, who can do things on her own in ways that typically remain rare within the women game globally. Many will tell you Wolfsburg's coach has had a pretty shocking season, so I doubt Hansen alone would have been enough to change the negativity of his approach to this final; however, when they start looking to the amend things for the near future, I'm pretty sure Norway will have another standout player who'll be front and center of another WUCL wining team very soon...
I have been a frequent visitor to DFB-TV this season and I have watched some of Wolfsburg's matches and most of the highlights made available. Hansen has indeed looked impressive in between her injuries. In Norway, Hansen has always been thought of as the number one talent with most x-factor and Hegerberg as clear number two, but Ada has been the one breaking scoring records and picking up prizes recently and thereby taken over Hansen's role in the limelight. But Caro is the sort of player you give the ball to when you're running out of ideas and you want something to happen. She can unluck a locked match with a few magical moves. Fortunately both players are very dedicated professionals and hopefully will drive each other forward to much success. Wolfsburg's loss in the final probably just made Hansen more determined to win. She is still seeking her first Bundesliga title as well. I think Ada's success is triggering her in a good way.
Lol , you're absolutely right...I completely forgot about Ingvild Stensland winning it with OL in 2011 against Potsdam..my bad, somebody right it(Hegerberg being the first) on the internet and I believed it without checking..never trust the net! By the way ten players who were part of that Lyon squad still won the Champions league yesterday...continuity is always positive. LOOOOL...com'on you can't be serious or taken seriously... Loool...NOT YOU BLISSETT!!! so just because somebody missed a penalty FOUR years ago she's mentally weak ??...lool... for your knowledge Elise never missed a penalty in her career before that one...your reasoning really disappointed me to be honest. Hansen presence wouldn't have changed a thing as Wolfsburg's Kellerman already played like that three years go against OL so there was a premeditation.....but this time he found somebody tactically better than Lair.
The main man with his team: Elise, always one of us. #LessonsFromTheBiggestWomensClubFinalOfTheYear #UWCL How to treat your opponent after they lose a close game pic.twitter.com/FPQwDRrMB3— Pinay Futbol (@PinayFutbol) May 27, 2016