domestically though no one who follows women's soccer in france has called her that for years. it's one of those things that distiguishes the ins from the outs, like calling it frisco. she's not really a big favorite here in lyon either, and not generally in the best 11. but she does have her matches, like the win against PSG near the end of the season. 90' of top-drawer stuff.
Nice to see a referee that called the game fairly. France lost because they couldn't convert their chances, not because of some ludicrous penalty kick awarded.
Well, no surprises really: Jenny Palmqvist is one of the best women referees around, you should have seen her perfect performance in this years WCL final... I guess she didn't get the final match only because she already had an Olympic final in her resume, while Bibiana Steinhaus hadn't it. But she's as good as it gets when it comes to women refereeing (and I guess that's the reason why FIFA infringed its tradition of not giving final matches to referees of a federation that's involved in the match: there was an european team on the pitch, but I guess that, after the mess in the USA-Canada semifinal, they wanted to give the best refereeing as possible to this match, even if this meant a swedish referee with France on the pitch).
Guiginol all is not lost --France can be a dominate force in the women's game. Many of us "outsiders" are just a bit disappointed that the ladies didn't build upon last year's impressive showing at the WWC. The opportunity was so ripe. Do you think that the FFF will shake things up and bring in a new staff for this squad?
Or drop the ref quotas and allow multiple refs from individual nations. Don't know if it would help, but they have to do whatever they can to get the best refs - no matter what.
yes yes, we know all about that. but if they couldn't beat japan or canada in the matches we saw... teams they had already proven they could beat... at a certain point the future has to be now. the one hope is that bini gets the axe like, tomorrow. bust my guess is that when euro 2013 starts he'll still be at the helm, and soubeyrand will be closing in on her 200th cap... what a waste.
Nadeshiko Japan, 4 years ago, were in a similar spot to where France is now. They had an heart-breaking 4th place in Beijing, and look where they are now. France has two possible paths: they can crumble to pieces, and lose everything good they showed 'til now, going away in a shadow of gloom, or they can make this defeat their fuel to come back for more in the next 3-4 years cycle. Japan did that, but it needs mental strength, planning ahead, self-confidence, cohesion and support from National Football Federation. It's admittedly a lot of things to need for, but I can see France being the next best thing in Canada or Rio.
Ya the Pedersen crew probably would have called Kyle offside on the goal, even tho she wasn't in the play. When a crew is bad, expect anything. Let's not forget in the last minutes Can-USA game the ball tapped WELL over the goal line by Leroux, yet a corner was awarded and could have decided the game .. Someone mentioned in a NZ game Pedersen was involved, and NZ had 12 players on the field and Pedersen didn't count the players at the beginning of the half ... Finally the NZ players realized it, and one went off ... Pedersen still didn't know and would have allowed play to continue for God knows how long
I think the problem is that France get credit for winning the home league and UEFA WCL as Lyon. All of that play together makes them such a good team. But then they blame the long home league season and UEFA WCL as taking too much stamina and making them too tired for WWC and Olympics. Which one is it? You can't have both. Or the Coach needs to very his lineup enough to save the players fitness for the important games.
Congrats to Canada. Haven't seen the game yet, but it sounds like the team's luck turned from bad to good in this game. Surprised Tancredi was allowed to take the field. Was there any attempt by the Olympic Committee/FIFA/whomever to reconcile the Colombian player's suspension with the leniency shown to Tancredi?
I am so annoyed that I wasn't able to watch most of the second half, although I apparently didnt miss anything inspirational other than Matheson scoring. A couple of thoughts. The Canadian tactical approach in the first half was that of a team that knew it didn't have much in its legs. In the first few minutes of the second half it was pretty clear that they were backing off balls that would have been 50/50 on Monday. Finalists will have played six games in 16 days. That's a lot. Canada and the US are returning from a 120+ minute leg-scorcher on Monday. I think it became clear today that Canada left everything on the pitch on Monday. I am very interested to see how the US responds to the Japanese approach to the game without burning themselves out before the end of the first half. If they can do it, their conditioning coaches are geniuses. I am very, very happy for Diana Matheson. Her actions after the goal say everything about her attitude. It's all about the jersey. She has been solid as a rock in the midfield for a bunch of years and doesn't get the recognition she deserves. It's nice that she's getting her time in the sun. The best thing France could add to their program is better psychological training. The miss on the PK against Japan was glaring, but the panic in their game in the offensive third of the pitch speaks to a lack of confidence that is killing them. The high shot rate that has been mentioned in this discussion as evidence of dominance is more accurately described as evidence of impatience. Le Sommer's shot on the idk is a another example. She overstuck it by a ton. I once heard Sinclair answer a question about what makes her such an effective taker of free kicks around the goal. She mentioned that she practices those kicks after every team practice and that she goes through a checklist in her head in which the mantra "Don't overstike it!" is repeated several times.
Tancredi still might end up suspended. I guess she said some things to Pederson after the game. Lol, I support her. Honestly, Fifa couldn't justify suspending any of the Canadians players this game after that game against the Americans. Twas pathetic what we witnessed. France will be fine. Very talented squad, outplayed Canada, but couldn't convert. They've poured a lot of money into their program, I expect them to continue their upward climb. Great team to watch.
France should TAKE THEIR CHANCE and Necib still got a long way to go if she wants to become the female Zidane.
Matheson scoring the winning goal is the 2nd best moment of the Olympics after Abily and Miyama's post-match sportsmanship.