I thought it would be fun to riff off this format of retrospectives from the UEFA site. http://www1.uefa.com/competitions/woco/blogs/type=wocotournamentblog/newsid=884740.html Moment: Eniola Aluko's second goal against Finland. On it's brilliance and audacity alone, Aluko's run through the Finnish defense and cool finish deserve notice. On top of that, however, is the timing: she got the ball from the kickoff after Finland's first goal and immediately got England right-side up again. Finland were heard from again, but Aluko had given England the crucial respite they needed to get through to the semifinal. Team: Italy Having beaten losing finalists England and given champions Germany their toughest test of the tournament, Italy takes the prize over the Netherlands in the more-than-was-expected sweepstakes. They showed patience and composure after going two goals down against Germany and but for Nadine Angerer's superb save they would have taken the quarterfinal to extra time. Player: Kelly Smith Whether she was holding the ball five meters from goal or shooting from fifty, Smith was all-around the most dangerous attacking threat of the tournament. As an extra, my all-tournament XI: Ingrid Hjelmseth Annike Krahn Daphne Koster Sarah Gama Manon Melis Camille Abily Kelly Smith Lyudmyla Pekur Karen Carney Inka Grings Fatmire Bajmaraj
Moment: Nadine Angerer's save against Italy Team: Netherland Netherland suprised everyone by reaching the semi-final Player: Karen Carney Inka Grings with 6 goals and 2 assists was undoubtly the best player of tournament but Karen Carney, 22 years old, was the biggest suprise. She was the attacking momentum of England and showed a lot of guts in critical situations. In final like other English players she ran out of fuel after 65 minuets, but never gave up until the end. I think the best move of Silvia Neid in final was, putting one of her key players, Linda Bresonik, on the right-back right against Carney in England's left wing. I think without Bresonik at that position the final result could be different.
Moment(s): penalty kick drama in Holland-France game. Team: 1) Germany (worked thru a couple of rough patches to dominate the tournament) and Norway (ok, my favorite team - BUT - with new defense, new goalie, new configuration 4-4-2 , C. Pedersen - outplayed and lead Germany for 1/2 of semifinal match). Their future looks good with new coach, new young players from Euro 09 and "retired" players coming back. Player: Karen Carney (ENG) and Pedersen (NOR) - Carney is fantastic to watch and is a tireless ball wizard (as I've seen too in Chicago ) and unknown rookie Pedersen scored two and was very close to more (opening game vs. Germany, for example).
If anyone wants to catch up with (or re-live) a few of the moments mentioned above, you can find matches on an Icelandic website, http://www.ruv.is . * Click on the red button, SJÓNVARPID * Click on the match date in the calendar * Under DAGSKRÁIN, choose "EM kvenna i fótbolta". And if you're feeling grateful, send some mental thanks to poster "Jan" at womensoccer.de .
MVP: linda bresonik maybe the best player in the world right now...... BEST YOUNG:1-kim kulig (germany)2-sara gama(italy)3-pedersen(norway) BEST COACH:silvia neid...germany second half against norway proove it.... BEST MOMENT: nadine angerer saves against italy and netherlands-france penalties.....LOL TEAM: germany of course but italy is the real surprise of the tournament BEST ELEVEN: ANGERER-BITO;HINGST;KRAHN;PETER-CHAPMAN;STENSLAND;BRESONIK-CARNEY;GRINGS;K.SMITH
Another thing to think about in Retrospective Out of twelve teams three had Female coaches All of those three teams reached at least semifinal, not a single team coached by a women was knocked out of the tourmanet by a team coached by a man. Is it time for more female coaches in womens soccer? at least in Europe?
Kind of helps when Germany and England are two of the three. I think a rock could have coached them to the semi's.
True for Germany, but England was unliklier to reach semi than Sweden and Sweden failed (maybe we had had better luck with a rock than with Dennerby ).