2016/08/16 Tue S24.Brasil - Sweden Brasil (Oswaldo "Vadão" Fumeiro Alvarez): Poliana for #2 Fabiana da Silva Simões (injured). 16 Beatriz Zaneratto João, 9 Andressa Alves Alves da Silva, 7 Débora Cristiane de Oliveira 10© Marta Vieira da Silva 5 Thaìsa de Moraes Rosa Moreno, 8 Miraildes "Formiga" Maciel Mota 6 Tamires Cássia Dias Gomes, 4 Rafaelle Leone Carvalho Souza, 3 Mônica Hickmann Alves, 12 Poliana Barbosa Medeiros 1 Bárbara do Monte Barbosa Sweden (Pia Sundhage): Blackstenius for #13 Fridolina Rolfö; Appelqvist for #10 Sofia Jakobsson (and Asllani to the front?). ~~~~~~~~ 8© Lotta Schelin, 11 Stina Blackstenius, 9 Kosovare Asllani 17 Caroline Seger, 7 Lisa Dahlkvist, 14 Emilia Appelqvist 16 Elin Rubensson, 3 Linda Sembrant, 5 Nilla Fischer, 15 Jessica Samuelsson 1 Hedvig Lindahl
Nervous af. Let's go, Brasil! Gawd, some body Kate's mic. 6 minutes in and she's already ruined the match with her commentary.
07' 0-0 All Brasil pressure and probing. Sweden have two lines across their own 25m, retreating to own box top. 08' 0-0 Schelin runs onto a high bounce at ~13m left post! Rushed chip-volley launches high. Too many empty seats, but I can't blame Rio home fans for being priced out. 11' 0-0 RB Poliana turns inside past box right foot, ball poked into near touch. Brasil likes to push one FB up, but it's usually LB #6 Tamires. If Poliana is also up, one good longball counter and ... 12' 0-0 Brasil chip way high to box right foot, Marta offside. 15' 0-0 Blackstenius chases to box right foot, Tamires shields ball over. 16' 0-0 Brasil ping at circle back. Brief foray up wide left, Sweden swarm it at circle top wide left -- extending their front line to circle back. Brasil switch right, quick entry pass to box top mid-right, flick square right. Poliana(?) drives to 12m mid-right, shot blocked right. Somebody shoots just high over right 90, off the back right support pole. 17' 0-0 Inside-out pass to Marta at 5m wide right. Quick cross blocked over by Sembrandt(?). 18' 0-0 Marta right ck, inswings to 2m 1/4 left. Lindahl punches it across, off a head and over endline left.
I get why he's doing it, but I don't entirely agree with Vadao's decision to play Marta wide right. Without Cristiane's presence in the middle, I think you need Marta closer to goal.
Good gawd, this shit is beautiful. Get these shots on frame girls! edit: breaking that bunker tho. Nice save for Sweden.
22' 0-0 Piaball is working as expected: Sweden are compact and active in disrupting. Brasil rapidly shift sides and test both flanks, but can't dribble up the middle, make short through-balls, nor ground crosses from the sides. 23' 0-0 Brasil switch left to Tamires at arc top wide left. Tamires touches to 8m wide left, chips a high cross to 10m 1/4 right. Debinha heads a gentle lob over Lindahl's fingers, off crossbar, bounces over. Touched or cleared, ck. Brasil need a couple more of those half-chances, and some power on the shot. 25' 0-0 Brasil chip diagonally to Marta at 7m mid-right -- Sweden not panicked, just rotate (their)leftward. Marta cuts back to 10m, shot blocked by Rubensson. Marta chases to endline, cross blocked over by Rubensson. Sweden cede that space and deny all of the connecting flights. 27' 0-0 Marta left ck (Brasil 5-0 in cks), inswings too early, to 0.1m 3-right. Formiga(?) twist-heads wide right into side netting. Appelqvist bumps Lindahl down? 28' 0-0 Rafaelle(?) long diagonal serve from ~circle left to Marta at box top right. Marta jukes Rubensson, drives down mid-right to 7m, shoots early with left outstep across mouth -- beats Lindahl's dive but wide left all the way. Andressa Alves(?) can't pounce at far post. Marta finally turned the backline with pure pace.
30' 0-0 Formiga(??) weights perfect through-ball outside-in from 25m box right to 6-top right, Beatriz cuts past Rubensson too high and chases. Fischer slide-clears and gets ball first, Beatriz lunges studs-up into Fischer's shin, then twists down backward. Foul on Beatriz. Very nice pass, tho. 39' 0-0 Blackstenius dribbles to 5m 8-right, cutback eludes Mônica, backpass to 8m center misses behind Schelin plowing her way to 4m center. Formiga collects. 41' 0-0 Brasil chip from midfield wide right to ~box right-ish, Lindahl catches a shot at right post. 42' 0-0 Sweden chase to deep mid-right, lose it. 43' 0-0 Brasil hoof from midfield to Lindahl?
At times it seems shooting in women's soccer has regressed. I remember many impressive goals from distance being scored back in 2007 World Cup era. Doesn't seem to happen as much anymore.
It seems like every team utilizes the same strategy against Brazil. Play the 10-man (woman) bunker defense and hope to get lucky on the counter or shootout. It's frustrating.
They certainly do. And this is a more compace defense than they showed against USA. Lots of nice passes. Good thing their shooting is a little off.
Our(Brasil)poor finishing is going to cost us, I believe. Sigh. Lindahl is channeling Lydia Williams. GF is playing out of her mind, atm.
44' 0-0 Rafaelle cedes a corner? Sweden right ck, poor to 10m mid-right low, Brasil kick it away. Sweden shoot from ~arc top mid-right, deflected right and over. 45' 0-0 Sweden 2nd right ck, equally poor to 11m mid-right low, Brasil clear it again. Sweden regain, float a shot from ~arc top left toward right post, Bárbara catches. That's Sweden's game plan to a T: they bunker-and-counter even on their own corner kicks HT 0-0. +0'. Brasil 71% possession do something (or Pia will be here 4 more years)
I would pay good money to see Hope Solo call Nilla Fischer a coward to her face, in a dark alley in Rio..
Yawn. Hope Solo lacks tact, but the basic essence of her comments is correct. Sweden does not have the skill to compete, so they clog the midfield and defend, defend, defend. Rather than call it "cowardly" I would call it realistic. It is a legitimate strategy for an overmatched team. They don't want to get blown out 5-1 again. But to the Brazilian players, the fans at Maracana, neutral onlookers, and all who appreciate good football, it is immensely frustrating to watch. In a way, you can blame the tournament format for boring games like this. With 12 teams, and 8 advancing, it gives mediocre teams like Sweden a chance to advance. Just like last year in Canada, they advanced in Rio as a third place team in their group. With a more sensible 16 teams, they would have been eliminated.
I physically suffer when I see a so dominant team not to score... I admit they aren't shootig much either... But I really dislike Sweden's style of play. Don't get me wrong, I am not playing Solo and calling them "cowards" or something, but frankly I don't find them entertaining tactically nor technically and I wouldn't like to see this particular brand of football in the final... Brazil don't finalize and they already risked from some counter-attacks. Please explain to me: why no Cristiane? I admit i didn't watch previous Brazil's matches in this tournament, except some short highlights, so I could be way off-base, but these Beatriz and Debinha seem quite mediocre to me: wouldn't Cristiane give the team more chances to score?
Cristiane suffered a hamstring injury in the first Sweden game and hasn't played since. The NBC commentators said she might appear today.
Cris is injured. Hamstring injury from the first meeting with Sweden. I'm not mad at Sweden at all. If we can't hit our shots, that's on us, not Pia.
Goalkeeping and defending may have improved too... I also remember players being given all the time in the world to shoot and keepers dropping the ball into the net... that's also gone down too I've noticed Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
Looks like a carbon copy of the US/Sweden game -- although Brazil seems a bit quicker than the U.S. For Sweden, it's the same strategy. The winner may be the team that's freshest in the second half.