Or put another way there are over four times more registered female soccer players in the USA than there is population in total on Iceland.
Watching the video again I heard a baby cry when A-Rod missed a shot. A-Rod's baby? Additional comments: A-Rod is a bit slow pulling the trigger on shots. Press is a picture perfect shooter. I can't figure why she is goalless in so many games. Morgan looks like a left forward to me; Press should be in the middle. Based on the highlights, Chalpny looks like the POTM.
Officiating at this tournament has been a shambles. In the BRA/GER game Marta should have been red carded for assaulting a German player who was already on the ground. There was a foul called, but no card.
I saw that incident. Marta was very lucky to stay on the field. A more competent official would have at least given her a card. But the bad officiating doesn't excuse the actions of the players. I'm not excusing Marta, nor am I excusing Lloyd because of craptastic reffing.
In all honesty, I thought that Popp should've been carded as well when she plunged into the Brazilian defender in the first half with her forearm slightly extended. I know she was trying to head the ball, but the impact was way more excessive than the header called for.
I saw that. That was my thinking too but she did it in a way she could have claimed she was just going to get the ball. Most good referees would have tossed her immediately though.
Well I didnt mean average rank because CONCACAF screws that up...I meant that Ellis played more high end teams that she actually had a chance to get a draw or lose to.
In Japan Sasaki is expected to the honorable thing while in Brazil no one really cares bcause the "girls" shouldnt be playing anyway. Im sure right after Gulati finished his scathing email to Iceland, he wrote the Japanese and Brazilian Feds to explain how important Algarve is.
You could say the same thing for Italy, England and half the planet. Between their longstanding lack of results and sportsmanship, Brazil are a leading contender for global shame in women's football. Not sure comparing to them achieves much.
I find people's reactions in moments like this so revealing. I also love Lauren Holiday's reaction of walking over to Gunnarsdottir and saying I'm right here. That's a teammate I want on the field.
The biggest gripe I have with refereeing in the women's game is the inconsistency. They tend to let really vicious fouls go, but give yellow cards for ticky-tack stuff.
You know what? Americans dish it out as well. Everyone on the USWNT aren't angels either. I was at the Orlando game last year when Carli Lloyd elbowed the Brazilian needlessly and deserved the red card, the same Carli Lloyd who viciously threw Vanessa DiBernardo on the ground in the Red Stars vs. Flash game last season at Toyota park. So when the US plays "dirty", do you call them out? When you call out other country's players for rough or "dirty" play, you have to be able to do the same with your team when it happens. Let's not be hypocrites.
A lot of people do. The world cup is rapidly approaching, the WNT is beset with issues of form, and games like these (especially against a team like this) should be taken as opportunities to prepare for the Cup. Having said that, all is not lost, and we move on.
And how exactly do you expect them to know which backups to bring to the WWC, if they never use them? Beating Iceland with the usual starters off of a brilliant shot from Lloyd or a set piece is not gonna help the team when they go in dead tired against a French team, that recently beat them when fully rested, tomorrow. If they loose to France, what that would tell them is: "We can beat Iceland... But we're not gonna win the WWC because we can't beat France."
The only thing consistent about Women's Soccer is inconsistency! Even though Iceland and the USA tied it still feels like a loss to me!
When the starters struggle to beat the #19 ranked team, why would you expect the backups to beat #20?
We've always had trouble beating Iceland, though. We've played them what, ten or eleven times with at least one other scoreless draw and three or four one goal wins. We've only blown them out a couple of times in the early days, though we've had several 3-0 finals... they play well against us.
Or at least to play well...the way u can tell it isnt a talent problem is the second string players do just as badly in this system as the starters.
And that's a fair point but what's frustrating is the lack of adjustments. If what ur doing doesnt work on Iceleand for the first 30 minutes that's good on Iceland...if it still isnt working after 90minutes that's bad on u.
Kind of a digression but I was curious to see how a France "B" team would perform in the Istria Cup (in Croatia) that's going on simultaneously with Algarve and Cyprus. In a way, you can think of it as a "C" team, because the usual backups are of course with the senior team at Algarve. I think they beat Wales (rating approximately 1630) 1-0, tied Costa Rica (rating 1597) 0-0 and tied Bosnia-Herzegovina (rating 1353) 3-3. The results against Wales and Costa Rica seem not bad at all to me for a "C" team but the tie against Bosnia isn't particularly good for a country whose senior team is now clearly one of the top 4 or 5 in the world and may be one of the top 2 or 3.