My significant other and I were watching the fox coverage post the first game and the way they talked about South Africa and Nigeria was sort of cringe worthy. They treated them like the mens coverage for Tahiti in the Confed Cup.
I have to completely disagree with this. Watching that replay, there certainly is an argument to be made that she left her cleat out in a deliberate attempt to get a piece of the attacker. No question. But there is just as credible of an argument to be made that it was completely accidental on her follow-through. And if you are going to award a penalty, a second yellow card and a red card in a World Cup match via VAR, I would like it to be for a play that’s a lot less questionable. To me, that’s not “clear and obvious“. Then again, the rules expert, the VAR and the referee all thought it was a foul, so what the hell do I know.
Go outside with a ball and clear it like the South African player did. You don't keep your leg just hanging there unless you actively try to. The weird part of the clearance is that there basically wasn't a follow-through. Regardless of whether there's intent, it's dangerous play.
Italy about to steal a victory from Australia. With a 95' goal. Aussies had been control and threatening the past 30 mins. Italy crosses the halfway line twice in that spell and threatens both times, gets the goal on a bad read by the keeper off a set piece.
Serious question: Did anyone else grow up having players positioned far outside the box awaiting the inevitable cleared ball off a corner kick? We called those 2 (typically) spots "garbage," because they'd be there to clean up what gets sent out. I ask because I've noticed it a lot lately where corners get cleared and both teams end up with players chasing the ball, as if the attacking team is putting all their eggs in the original delivery. Seems counterintuitive to me given the volume of corners cleared. Am I simply a product of one, now out-dated strategy?
Australia looking like they might take multiple Ls on the same day at World Cups in Europe. At least they got the french open yesterday.
The thing now seems to be to having the defending team put more people up field to force the attacking team to keep more players behind as well. The way teams implement this seems to be leaving that part of the field open.
Ash Barty gave up on tennis in 2014 to take a shot at cricket. She represented Brisbane Heat in the Women's Big Bash League, before returning to tennis in 2016. Now she's a Grand Slam Winner! pic.twitter.com/Zha6Ohy9H8— ESPN UK (@ESPNUK) June 8, 2019
Holy crap. 41 year-old Formiga is on the field for Brazil. I thought I recognized her disagreeing with that yellow card. This is her seventh World Cup. She has made all six Olympic Women's Football Tournaments and is now in her 7th (of 8) women's World Cups. I guess she'll probably continue through next summer's Olympics. Unbelievable.
Cristiane with the first hat trick. All those folks concerned about Brazil missing Marta forgot who they were playing today.
Brazil have a selfishness problem. If they don't sort it out against better teams, they're not going deep. If they do, they'll be fine. They're creating great breakaways, but missing pressed goals under tight pressure with completely unmarked teammates nearby. Oddly they're fine when they build the attack. They pull Jamaica apart and make the pass. But when running up the gut they're not pulling the defense and finding the open player other than the second goal. Having seen Jamaica up close, this should be a 6-0 or 12-0 game. And the chances have been there.
I worked at a school of social work for seven years. I saw all the syllabi. They had a Social Action Day with different issues for students to pick. I never heard the term SJW. It's one thing for the Women to want equal pay from the USSF, but if the USSF won't gave equal pay, the Women shouldn't complain to the Men. The USSF knows the the Men won't win a senior or youth World Cup anytime soon. The Women's World Cup is a chance at glory, and why would they throw that away by not using their best players? Morgan, Lloyd, and Rapinoe are among the most famous, but most of the roster are known by few enough people that excluding some players won't be talked about much, especially if they win. Brazil won 3-0. Brazil had more shots on goal, 6 to 3. Jamaica did okay. Jamaica's Sydney Schneider saved a penalty kick at age 19.
After hearing about the ticketing fiasco where people were buying tickets and the seats weren't together, I assumed much better attendance for games not including the US and France. Prior to this game (and bolstered largely by the opener), wiki has the average attendance at 19,449 with the low being Nigeria-Norway at 11,058 (21,029 listed capacity) and the high being France-South Korea with 45,261 (48,583). All of the games have had full sections empty. For this game, it doesn't appear that the upper level (third tier of seating) is open and there are several empty sections along with large empty blocks of seats. At least the seats look like they could be England fans. It's too bad Europeans don't appreciate soccer.
UNC one-year legend Lucy Bronze - who couldn't have returned if she wanted to, as I'm unsure if she ever actually attended class.
And suddenly those two goals correctly waived off for offside loom large as the sphincters get tight on the England bench.
And by "term" you mean "pejorative". It's like calling things "politically correct" or "PC". It's meant to shut down conversation and discussion not start or continue it. It's an insult, and an act of aggression. It's tool of control.
Why won't they give yellows to players who dive on ball after an opponent scores so they can't take it to the center circle? It is one of the most petulant things soccer players do.