I wanted to talk about a few point's relating to the tournament, but for now following on from WC and Olympic coverage, all I can say is this, can somebody please find a home for the once respected musings of coach Emma Hayes. Again she's found her self lost and confused during Eurosport commentary, coming out with even more stupid transatlantic hypothesis to explain the simple issues of football, to put alongside her many other 'Emma Hayes ways to improve the sport of women's football' quotes. Her latest brain storm/NCAA rip off during the Japan vs Mexico match was "we should have more substitutions allowed so the girls don't get tired", after seeing the more physically robust Mexican girls chasing Japanese shadows for a solid hour , lol.
Plus can somebody explain why Germany aren't starting Rosler? I can only assume she's still having fitness issues, because I thought she was one of Germany's most dynamic youth prospects during Frauen-Bundesliga play.
Rolser. She has come back from an ACL injury, so I'm also assuming that she isn't quite as fit as the others yet. She did play 90 minutes in the preparatory match against Sweden in early August.
I assume in the next matches she will most likely replace Hegenauer or Leupolz in the starting eleven. But who knows, I don't get Leuploz' position anyway. She usually plays DM, so why does Petzelberger have to play that position? Also Jenni Cramer doesn't look very fit, too: And Carolin Simon looks like she want to kill the guy next to the photographer (or maybe she just saw the opponnents' bench?)
I thought there were some random player selections going on, so thank you for letting me know I'm not just overly critical. Lotzen isn't the right type of forward to lead the line when you have Marozsan around, neither Hagenauer or Leupolz's game look suited to the wing, and like you I don't get Petzelberger's CM/play maker role either. All the right players seem to be there, but it just looked all wrong versus China.
Is there any way to be worse than Switzerland? I mean they're soooo bad that Mexico, which are a bad team on their own, now look like favorites to reach the quarter-finals.
Well, it's completely normal for U-20 players to have no consistency. So maybe I shouldn't blame the teams for not performing, but instead should just praise USA and GER for being consistent all the time. At least Switzerland are consistently bad.
Japan seem to have woken up now. Their supporters are very lively - and very monotonous. Do they only know ONE chant? I'm starting to miss vuvuzelas. And Lotzen consistently offside. Nice to see that Grings has an heir.
A tweet from Ali Riley: #NZLvJPN this game is so exciting! But Shibata sounds a lil like 'ciabatta' so I finally had to go to the bakery at halftime and buy some.
LOL, Germany didn't even qualify for their last U-20 WC though, so maybe the often long and random nature of UEFA U-19 championship qualification has more to do with Euro disappointment in these competitions than simple consistency? England were the U-20 Euro champs two years ago, and they were awful going in to the WC alongside a French team that were just as ordinary as anything witnessed from Switzerland this year. Lotzen can only dream of taking up the intelligent offside positions a quality forward like Grings instinctively found herself drawn too. Instead Lotzen's play remains naive and obviously bad/lazy offside calls that drive you mad as you watch them occur over and over again.
I seem to be getting an unexpected language from my Eurosport player. It claims that it's Swedish, but it sounds decidedly Slavic.
You could watch the FIFA stream. Quite good quality and the commentator speaks English. Match itself is quite good, but mainly the defense of both sides deserve a mention. Germany overall a little bit better, with more goal scoring opportunities and a better offensive in general, but Ghana had one single very good chance and nearly scored. Worst German players are Rolser and Lotzen, but at least Lotzen isn't offside all the time. She just isn't there at all.
Oh, thank you - I forgot they occasionally had streams. Plus you get theat rousing little theme tune every time it freezes and you have to reload .
Chojnowski and Hegenauer replace Rolser and surprisingly Hendrich in the second half. Well, Hendrich is quite delicate for a DM and maybe had some problems with the strong Ghanaians.
Yessssss .... just as I was staring in disbelief at the 0-0 score at 90 minutes in the play-by-play, seeing that Magull had come on in the second half and whispering to myself "Come on, Lina..." - she scores!
Nice, those late winners are frustating for the losing team, but always a delight when you won through such means.
Well, I wasn't able to watch the match, but judging by the number of times Gilmoy's play-by-play mentioned the name of the Ghana keeper vs that of Germany's no-longer-little Laura, and also looking at the FIFA match stats re shots, corners and possession, the German win was at least not entirely undeserved.
Norway now lead 2:1 against Canada after they missed a penalty and were 0:1 down. Apparently they want to show that UEFA isn't only Germany this year.
Wow, I think Germany were trying to score, and trying to play, but that match reminded me of the seniors versus Nigeria in last years WWC group stage... Ugly. A whole host of players were poor, but I have to say that the myth that the German women favour a physical/athletic based game, is just that, a myth. Hopefully Ghana are the only team to test this fact, as they found never ending joy dismantling and bullying Germany's best points of danger into timid submission. I still don't understand some of the positional selections, but at least subs like Chojnowski were a big plus this time, while little Magull saved the entire team demonstrating the simple quality few have found from minute 1 of the first game. Ghana's defensive abyss tactic made it near impossible for Lotzen, or in fact anybody to be offside in this match, but I'm still under the impression that this girl simply wont work as a forward in this team too, so something has to change, but who are the other options. Rolser... Who knew Marta would be reincarnated as a Norwegian, and her name would be Caroline Hansen, lol.
It wasn't that bad. Ghana played way less ugly than Nigeria back then and they actually tried sometimes to score a goal. Yeah, Germany has some rather leight weight players, but I think they did their fair share of fouls as well. But when your DMs are called Hendrich and Petzelberger you can't bully anyone. Hendrich weighs 56kg (3rd lowest) and Petzelberger 52kg (lowest). Apparently Meinert doesn't like strikers or players on that position. The DFB lists 4 strikers, but three of them (Petzelberger, Marozsan and Rolser) actually play in the midfield. So maybe Meiner shouldn't have nominated midfield players like Heinze or Jäger who don't play at all and instead should have called up Rudelic. Rolser always plays on the wing. Petzelberger could play way more offensive (like during the EURO 2011), but she has to play DM. Lotzen can do way better, but currently it just doesn't really work with her and there is no one like Popp in the squad. Hansen was great. She should have scored a goal herself, but still was my girl of the match.
Damn *work*! If it didn't pay for my internet connection... I read a rather glowing review of the Norwegians somewhere but, since I haven't seen their matches, I just put it down to Nordic collegiality.