I caveat this with, "I can only judge on what I've seen and this is only my opinion," alright let's go! There's a combination of ingredients that contribute towards this mess of a dish called Scotland: - For me, they switch off too often; ie. Argentina, and multiple times during this qualifying campaign. - They remind me of Spain quite a bit, minus the world class defense. They'll absolutely control a game but just aren't clinical at all in the final third; most times trying to pass the ball into the net. They need to shoot from outside the box more to draw low block defenses out and they have the players to do it with Weir, Cuthbert, etc. so that's a bit perplexing to me. -If you really think about it, there really isn't that many goals in Scotland's front line. I mean Thomas and Ross aren't necessarily lighting it up at club. Erin always has that potential but she creates more than she scores for Chelsea. Kim Little's only recently come back from injury and Caroline Weir doesn't really score that much for Man City; so where are these goals suppose to come from? -Ultimately this has a LOT to do with tactics and setup from the manager. For me, Shelley Kerr just isn't it but maybe that's being too harsh? Something has to change though because this is too talented a squad not to be going to major finals.
Yea, didn't see the match but shocked that Scotland couldn't score against Finland and lost 1-0. Too much talent not to put a couple of balls in the net. Finland has a better FIFA ranking than I realized--30 vs. 21 for Scotland, I see (assuming it was the most current)--but still this was a match most anyone would have expected Scotland to win, I think.
Yeah, I can understand a one off result. The problem is Scotland had three straight 1-0 losses vs Finland (2x) and Portugal.
What a great run by Portugal, what a shame for them that they conceded that equaliser in injury time v Finland, still they have got 2nd place cemented as Scotland are out, 7points behind and only 2 games remains. They going to need to play out of their skins in the 2 last games.
Highlights Ireland-Germany Finland goal TADHAL!!! ⚽️Finland score with the last kick of the game as they hit Scotland on the counter attack! ⚽️#SCOFIN #SWNT pic.twitter.com/guQOYL3Jn6— BBC ALBA (@bbcalba) December 1, 2020
Wow, to add insult to injury for Scotland, the Finnish player scored by being smacked on the face by a rebound!
Finland's coach Anna Signeul coached Scotland between 2005 and 2017. Match-winner Amanda Rantanen made her international debut yesterday.
[/QUOTE] i was hyping all year that Wassmuth could be arguably best Bundesliga player , so very glad that she performed so incredibly well in only her 2nd cap(2 goals, 1 cross bar) But giving up the one goal in that fashion still shows just how vulnerable Germany can be—after the mid, Dallmann, slips, the Irish counters quickly against just one left German defender(Hegering) since all the others are up front & out of position. got to say, very disappointing performances from teams dominated by WSL players(which you would think was the best league in the world) I mean Ireland, N Ireland, Scotland, Wales have basically flopped. I can’t blame if the Great Britain Olympic squad will only take a couple of players from those(last 3 squad) Blissett; how did my girls Bruun & Swava do?didn’t get a chance to watch the rematch)
You can not be off side when you are in your own half of the field, good goal bad management by Scotland
If I am not wrong, Brunn never hit the pitch, despite Denmark using up all of their substitutions. Svava was effectively turned off by Bergamaschi in 1st Half (vastly superior marking skills compared to Boattin in the 1st leg match, who had left the Dane free to roam on the wing); in 2nd half Svava found anyway her moment of brilliance, when she left Bergamaschi still on place, dribbled another Italian DF in the box and had her shot saved on the goal-line (by Bonansea, if I am not wrong). She confirmed being a dangerous, interesting player, but she was mostly kept in check compared to the previous game (of course it didn't help her that Denmark was missing so many other players to Covid-19; anyway, Italy was missing for the same reason Salvai and Guagni and the latter was a player who could have most likely kept Svava at bay too).
here's the full France vs Austria game. Beautiful header by Renard for the first goal, if they can find her, she's unstoppable! Denmark vs Italy, with all the blond's Denmark's got they also have two red heads! (Ireland had shockingly none) Even though they the group lead & were missing solid fwds like Nadim, Larsen & Bruun, I like that Denmark didn't hold back & took the game to Italy the same Italian youtuber also posted Sofie Svava highlights. Hmm.....maybe he's after my Wolfsburg finders fee? lol
Basically confirms what I had written earlier: in the 1st Half Sofie Svava has been basically kept in check by #2 Bergamaschi, who only conceded a pair deflections in corner to her. In 2nd Half, Svava found some moments of brilliance when she managed to get rid of Bergamaschi's marking, but not really much more than in 1st Half, except the solid chance she had when she dribbled in the box and shot (not a coincidence that this particular chance was shown multiple times in this highlights! ). For records, the Italian player who saved that shot on the goal-line was Bartoli, and not Bonansea as I had initially thought. Also, this video's soundtrack from Saint Seiya was quite addictive!
Just watched the 2nd half, again felt like Denmark was the better side. Problem with Italy is they just came centrally straight up/didn’t bother with wing play. Girelli & Bonansea weren’t factors at all, Giacanti(the gal that seemed to have just come out of an hairdresser appointment, lol) was by far the busier, though not necessarily effective. As you mentioned, Svava wasn’t all that involved, but that Italians gave up going through her defending left side(she was busier in the previous game as an outside). Denmark surrendered too many fouls towards the end, so something they need to work on. At full strength, their ready to take on top 10 teams, but hard to find since the Algarve Cup been cancelled as well as so friendlies. Don’t want to make Italy feel like old news, but they definitely in need for new blood
Valentina Giacinti sure has a peculiar look. She also was three times top-scorer of Serie A, including most recently in season 2018-2019 (in 2019-2020 the top-scorer was Cristiana Girelli instead). It is normal that she was the busiest forward, since Italy, at least initially, played with a single central striker (some sort of 3-5-1-1) and only later in 2nd Half, when Girelli was subbed-in, the coach actually added a second striker. Coach Bertolini is aware and, although she especially counts on her traditional top players to qualify for this Euro 2022, she recently made a full slew of young raw talents debut on Senior NT. For instance, not sure if you noticed that for this game she started Arianna Caruso in the midfield, who just turned 21 at the beginning of November. Not sure if the new generation of Italian players can be as successfull as the current group, but it looks like the slow tun-over process has already started.
This has been a though week for the Icelandic women's football team. After having qualified for the Euro 2022 the team decided to celebrate at their hotel. Jón Þór Hauksson the national coach got drunk and decided to talk about his players performances. Things escalated quickly when he became personal, berating some of the players and talking about their personal issues. In the end he had to be ushered out of the room by federation staff leaving some of players visibly shaken. Now it has been revealed that some players wanted him out as early as march after a dreadful performance at the Pinatar cup where, according to sources, some of the more experienced players where unhappy with his methods and how he set up his team. Sadly, this is not the first time this has happened. In 2001 another coach left his job after players refused to play under him and in 2013 Sigurður Ragnar Eyjólfsson, who did a tremendous job with the team, refused to renew his contract when a few of the most experienced players tried to undermine him, writing a letter to the federation that they were unhappy with their coach. Those players have since retired and were not part of this group. What makes this case so bad in my opinion is the fact that two of players in the current selection are 17 years old, minors by Icelandic law. For the coach to get drunk and behave like this in front of his players is beyond my comprehension. He had to go. I am afraid that worse is yet to come and there might be some reshuffling in the team in the coming days or weeks. This also explains a lot about the last two games. Iceland looked poor in the first half against Slovakia like their heart wasn´t in it and in the second match against Hungary you could tell that the morale wasn't high. Hauksson replaced Jensen, the top scorer in 60th minute when Iceland desperately needed goals (thankfully Berglind Þorvaldsdóttir provided one) and in a interview after the match Glódís Viggósdóttir looked like she was about to cry and those where not happy tears. Maybe i am reading to much into this but this was the feeling I got after watching those two dreadful games. The next coach will have 18 months to clean up this mess. Hopefully KSÍ will get the appointment right this time around. Sorry for the rant but I could have written a whole lot more.
There was a similar story with Shelley Kerr and Scotland after the World Cup. https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/shelley-kerr-reduces-world-cup-18944087
Update 12.ESP 1919 13.ITA 1877 19.SUI 1808 20.AUT 1796 23.RUS 1706 24.UKR 1702 25.FIN 1701 27.CZE 1689 29.POL 1672 30.POR 1666 49.NIR 1466
Final week of matches - the biggest one in group E is a game to win 1st place, Finland v Portugal on Friday. Finland could lose 1st place and still qualify regardless, if they win in Cyprus on Tuesday. In the same city in Cyprus, Lacarna, another stadium will be hosting Scotland's 'home' game v Portugal because of a travel ban between the countries. Kickoff times (GMT): Poland travel to Spain for their return game, having drawn 0-0 in the original one. After losing to the Czech Republic, the Poles can only stay in the competition if they win in Madrid. In the qualifying race for runners-up, Italy will know what scoreline they need against Israel, as their game is last (pending more postponements). Finland v Portugal will be at risk of a weather postponement if it's colder than -15°C by Uefa's rules. The Portugal side have arrived in Helsinki in such un-Algarve conditions; the Portuguese squad list is in their press pack. The current forecast is -8°C for Friday evening. In the Finnish squad, defender Emma Koivisto recently moved from Sweden to sign in England at Brighton, where teammate Nora Heroum also plays. When Finland played in Portugal in 2019 it ended 1-1. (FPF.pt)
That's good for Italy: they are bad enough at doing this kind of calculations when everything's open. At least they will know they have one job and what that job exactly is: if they won't make it, they won't have anyone to blame but themselves.