10th June -------------------------Baltic Cup 2021--------------------------------------- Estonia 1 - 1 Faroe Islands (full match) (Kubassova 55 - Johannessen 41) Faroe's win on pen. 4-5 Lithuania 5 - 0 Latvia (full match) (Sarkanaite 8, Vaitukaityte 11 52, Mikutaite 37, Luizynaite 57) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Malta 1 - 2 Montenegro (Zammit 24 - Bulatovic 13, Kuc 15) Slovakia 1 - 0 Chile (full match) (highlights) (Hmirova) Hungary 4 - 0 Serbia (Zeller 26, Pappai 78 90+3, Csiki 88) Jordan 1 - 2 Tunisia (full match) (Jbrah 66 - Kaabachi 62, Jeddi 87) Morocco 3 - 0 Mali (highlights) (Ayane 2, Saoud 44, Amani 45+2) Northern Ireland 0 - 1 Scotland (full match) (Weir 77) Denmark 3 - 2 Australia (full match) (highlights) (Yalop 15(og.), Sevecke 21, Arnold 25(og.) - Fowler 83', Polkinghorne 90+3') France 1 - 0 Germany (Dali 30) Italy 1 - 0 Netherlands (highlights) (Girelli 13) Japan 8 - 0 Ukraine (highlights) (Shiokoshi 5 41, Iwabuchi 30 58, Takarada 38, Sugita 80, Tanaka 89, Momiki 90) Spain 3 - 0 Belgium (full match) (highlights) (Mariona 43, Alexia 48, Bonmati 75) Sweden 1 - 0 Norway (highlight) (Blackstenius 65) -------------------------------Summer Series 2021---------------------- Nigeria 0 - 1 Jamaica (Blackwood 50) USA 1- 0 Portugal (highlights) (Mewis 76) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11th June streams Georgia v Azerbaijan https://youtu.be/oNsayw4ZTlM Uzbekistan v Iran https://youtu.be/4gu0kvvoRoU Poland v Finland https://youtu.be/QCm-epPG9OI Canada v Czechia (One Soccer TV) Iceland v Ireland https://rte.ie/player/onnow Brasil v Russia https://youtu.be/XpKfKjh3Vik
...Enough said. And the week's big story, yes, bigger than the kickoff of Euro 2000 (again?), it's the Faroes women's first win for four years! That's not a surprise in rankings, since Estonia fell out of the top 100 for the first time, while the Faroe Islands' 2015-17 winning record keeps them in the top hundred for now. But for a nation of 49,000 people, even the penalty win is something of an underdog win. Estonia were up against some resolute defence and needed a great strike by Vlada Kubassova to equalize at 1-1 after 54'. In the 6th round of penalties, Signy Aarna missed and Hervør Olsen scored to make it 5-4. The Faroes' last win was at home to Turkey to WIN the World Cup ...preliminary group, and their commentators lost it. Once seen, never forgotten. https://kvf.fo/netvarp/sv/2017/04/11/foroyarturkaland11042017
11th June Georgia 3 - 2 Azerbaijan (Bakradze 27, Mirzaliyeva 45(og), Bolkvadze 82 - Aliyeva 60, Ahmadova 90+5) Bulgaria 0 - 1 Bosnia & Herzegovina (Hasanbegovic 36) Uzbekistan 5 - 0 Iran (full match) (Karachik 9 30, Burkhonova 46, Khabibullalaeva 56, (?) 72) Iceland 3 - 2 Ireland (Albertsdóttir 11, Jónsdóttir 14, Brynjarsdóttir 39 - Payne 50, Barett 90+3) Canada 0 - 0 Czech Republic (highlights) Finland 2 - 2 Poland (full match) (highlights) (Summanen 24, Klabis 25(og) - Grabowska 58, Pajor 77) Brazil 3 - 0 Russia (highlights) (Bruna Benites 40 63, Andessa Alves 80)
Some action from this one today (Sun 13 Jun), playing in central Japan in Tochigi: Highlights Japan 5 - 1 Mexico - (Mana Iwabuchi 36’, Mina Tanaka 46’, Yuka Momiki 53’, Momoka Kinoshita 73’, Jun Endo 87’ / Alison González 49’) www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgwtYr3edXA - Match info: 'Mexico 1 - 5 Japan', Vavel.com (by Lorena Solórzano)
12th June Luxembourg 0 - 1 Belgium (Blom 9) Armenia 2 - 1 Kazakhstan (full match) (Artin 28, Khachataryan 56 - Kirgizbaeva 72) Uruguay 5 - 1 Puerto Rico (full match) (highlights) (Pizzaro 5, Aquino 14 31, Bermudez 35, Suarez 59 - Farias 57(og)) Slovenia 4 - 1 Croatia (Zver 41 58, Prasnikar 44, Conc 65) 13th June --------------Baltic Cup----------------------- Estonia 4 - 1 Latvia (Tamik 16, Brant 28, Himanen 43, Lillemae 45 - Fedotova 90+5) Lithuania 2 - 0 Faroe Islands (Jonusaite 16, Lauzdaskaite 78) ------------------------------------------------------ Jordan 0 - 2 Tunisia (full match) (highlights) (Lamti 32, Hamdi 83) Malta 1 - 0 Montenegro (Flask 32) Japan 5 - 1 Mexico (full match) (highlights) (Iwabuchi 36, Tanaka 46, Momiki 53, Kinoshita 74, Endo 87) Costa Rica 3 - 1 Guatemala (highlights) (Rodriguez 14, Villalobos 34, Herrera 64 - Aguillar 42) -------------------------------Summer Series 2021---------------------- Portugal - Nigeria (live on ussoccer.com) USA - Jamaica (live on FS1) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Watched the highlights the other day, and just watched the first half. My first impression was that Portugal played defensively and the US just could not break them down. After watching the first half, that was pretty much the same conclusion, though it also seemed like there was an added physicalness by Portugal that put the US off a bit. Perhaps some of that was the heat, but it annoyed me that the commentators couldn't see Portugal's tactics. No respect...no understanding.
1. USWNT core players aren't getting any younger. 2. While athletic proflile of the team remains high, tactically the way USWNT play has not really changed in last 2 years - they are becoming very easy to read. Good pre-match opponent analysis + well timed tackles/challenges during the game can level the playing field in some cases. 3. Womens football developement is on the rise (in some cases - a meteoric rise - in well funded FA's). Gaps are getting smaller.
Portugal went 3-1 up after half-time, but Nigeria came back to equalize very late - Portugal 3, Nigeria 3 Okeke OG 22', Carole Costa 34', Telma Encarnação 48' / Alozie 44', Gomes OG 51', Ajibade 90+4' (I only caught the last few minutes)
FT: 🇵🇹 3-3 🇳🇬Okeke 22(OG), Costa 34, Encarnação 49 / Alozie 45, Gomes 52(OG), Ajibade 90+5@Rasheedat08 picks a 2nd half assist & goal, Michelle Alozie nets maiden goal as 🇳🇬come from 2 goals down to force a draw. Much-improved display by 🇳🇬. Up next: USA - 16/06. #SummerSeries pic.twitter.com/wXHvapWgGU— JWsports1 ⚽️ (@JWsports1) June 14, 2021
Match report: - "Portugal and Nigeria Draw 3-3 in Wild Back-and-forth Contest During 2021 WNT Summer Series" - https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...d-forth-contest-during-2021-wnt-summer-series Does it tell us much? This isn't a great pair of friendly results for Nigeria...
Croatian goal got lost! Wow, this looks like the most surprising result to me! Did Belgium play with their usual starters or with a second-strings team? If they were in full force, this can only mean that Belgium is getting worse and worse or that Luxembourg grew more lately than anyone could figure. I mean we're talking a top-20 team in the world (and maybe top-10, or close, in Europe) vs a team that's never even been on women's football maps! On paper, this should end at least 0-7 or 0-8, not a measly 0-1.
Er, the latter I thought it was a surprise too, but they only had one(?) player in common in this game's lineups, compared to Belgium's last competitive games vs Lithuania and Switzerland. Maybe not quite the renaissance of Luxembourg football yet. (They beat Ireland in the men's game, but that isn't enough!) Match report: https://www.rbfa.be/fr/nouvelles/victoire-de-nos-flames-au-luxembourg More about the Nigeria squad for this week - Oparanozie is still seemingly excluded by the federation. Presumably a new coach wouldn't have the influence to overturn that anyway. Asisat Oshoala and defender Onome Ebi had visa problems coming to the U.S., only arrived soon before the Portugal game, and were substituted out in the 2nd half today (injury/tiredness?) From the Africa thread: More games coming up: Monday 14 June (GMT) Tuesday 15 June (GMT)
Well, and then, after all, it was a Benelux derby! (Not sure how much of a rivalry it represents, but they're anyway close neighbours). Interesting that Diede Lemey, who plays in Italy with Sassuolo, was the starting GK for this game (and she anyway kept a clean sheet, so at least for her it had to be a good game). Not sure if she gets the chance to start with her NT very often, but anyway it's sure well deserved for what she showcased in Italian League this season. Talking about Italy, they will play Austria today with a similar line-up to the one Belgium deployed vs Luxembourg, since, as I mentioned in details in the Women's League In Italy thread, 9 starting members left the camp and didn't even leave to Austria: the 23 players who remained available to coach Bertolini are mostly youngsters or anyway second-string players. A boatload of debuts are expected today (9 players out of these 23 are uncapped).
It looks like a big win for Poland, 2nd half - the Czech FA said the starting XI made 10 changes from the Czech Rep team that drew with Canada on Friday. (presumably also differs from their games in the Euro qualifiers?)
Poland made 3 changes in starting XI from their game with Finland. Basically Czech played their reserves in first half. Poland played their bench in second half. Zofia Buszewska scored in her debut. Paulina Tomasiak also with first cap.
Well, the loss to Jamaica certainly stings. However, Nigeria is ranked a fair amount below* Portugal, so the fact that they were able to salvage a draw from two down against a stronger* team is something good to take from the series. *Of course, we know CAF teams are generally under-ranked, so we can argue about how high Nigeria should actually be ranked versus where they currently are. But in recent years, Nigeria also simply hasn't looked as dominant in CAF as they had been in the past, so who knows?
Austria 2 - 3 Italy (Soffia, 3', 53', Linari (pk) 76' - Billa 12', Wenninger 68') With a PK and some little amount of luck, Italy "B-team" managed to win their away match in Austria (that tried some new players also, but had most of their usual starters on the pitch). To give you an idea, of 16 players Italy deployed today (11 starters + 5 subs), captain of today, Elena Linari, and 3 other players netted together 132 caps; the sum of the caps of the other 12 players was 29, so an average of less than 2.5 caps per player (in fact there were 4 official debuts: Bellucci, Merlo, Filangeri and Prugna). Even if you factor in the 4 more experienced players, today's team had an average of 10 caps per player. I guess it's quite an achievent that a team mostly made of newbie from the domestic league managed to beat #21 team in FIFA rankings at their home. It's a very good sign from the Italian women's movement, that matches "A-team"'s win vs Netherlands.