One match today. GROUP 6 Moldova 0 - 7 Belgium Cayman 45,88, Velde 49, Zeler 65, Biesmans 77, Colesnicenco 80(og), Wullaert 83(p)
Will goal difference vs minions of each group have any kind of relevance in deciding which teams are the best 2nd-placed ones? Or the scores vs last-placed teams are removed? In other words: Belgium are sure to be second in their group now (Italy already qualified and I don't think Portugal can catch them anymore at 2nd place): bludgeoning Moldova or not can change anything for Belgium? Edit: has any player a chance to catch up with Cayman at first-place of top-scorers' rankings of these qualifiers?
Quite possible. Many small teams yet to get pummeled. Top scorer's chart in the UEFA WCQ region: 9 goals - Janice Cayman (Belgium) 6 goals - Sanne Troelsgaard (Denmark) 6 goals - Cristiana Girelli (Italy) 5 goals - Lea Schüller (Germany) 5 goals - Nikita Parris (England) 5 goals - Caroline Hansen (Norway) 5 goals - Tessa Wullaert (Belgium) 5 goals - Sherida Spitse (Netherlands)
Ok, I rule Girelli out of this run, because Italy has just one remaining game to play, and I can't see her scoring a hat-trick or more vs Belgium at their home. Lea Schüller scored 4 of her 5 goals in a single match: for sure a second performance like that would propel her at the top! I find interesting that, with all of the Miedemas, the Van De Sandens, the Martens of this world playing in the team, the Euro Champions' top-scorer in this qualifiers is Sherida Spitse: surely it is because she takes PKs and most FKs, but it's nonetheless noteworthy.
One match also tonight. GROUP 5 Iceland 2 - 0 Slovenia Viggosdottir 54,68 Iceland still one point ahead of Germany after six games.
If Germany doesn't qualify for the World Cup, when 9 Euro teams are going this time, it would be the BIGGEST choke in the history of the sport (men or women).
So basically, Iceland needs to draw or beat Germany again, and beat Czech Republic. If they accomplish both these things, they qualify and force Germany into the playoffs. Both of those September qualifiers are in Iceland, so you can bet the home crowd will be cheering them on.
We finally get highlights from Italia-Portugal. They're quite short, but they're excellent in that 100% of the key-actions of the match are covered!
except a couple of things have changed since Iceland beat Germany last October; Gunnerdottir is on the injury list(she''s a starter for Wolfsburg) Brynjarsdottir got pregnant(she was half their offence). The Czechs have proven to be a formidable opponent, tying Iceland last time they met(and that was with those two I mentioned in that game) Germany in the meantime has switched from the horror of first time coach, Stefi Jones, to an interim one with quite an excellent rep(he took the men's C side NT, all the way to the 2016 Olympic Finals). A few days ago they were quite impressive, despite unfamiliarity with playing on turf & openly mugged in broad daylight, thanks to the one sideness of the ref, they were able to beat Canada, even though starting several 2nd tier players(Ellis only managed a couple of ties when playing in CA)
Group 2 results Poland 2 Scotland 3 ( Poland were 2-0 up until late in the game) Belarus 0 Switzerland 5 1 Switzerland 18 pts 2 Scotland 15 pts Scotland v Switzerland 30 Aug Poland v Switzerland 04 Sep Albania v Scotland 04 Sep
WHOA If Denmark can beat Sweden at home, that would likely force Sweden into the playoffs... (And there's another Sweden-Ukraine match coming up!)
Still games to be played, for sure, but can you imagine a playoff with Germany, Norway, AND Sweden having to go through? That would be fun.
Poland's out of the WWCQ race. Same old, same old...Polish WNT is looking strong during fall and very poor in spring. League season ended barely month ago but domestic players are already out of shape and 2levels below foreign league players which in turn speaks volumes about Ekstraklasa poor level. Without crop of foreign based players PL team is average at best. Pajor and Chojnovski out injuried. Dudek on red card and Kiedrzynek's bench warming since Endler came from CopaAm. Reliable Daleszczyk played it safe today. Reality is tough on her. She can't allow herself beeing injuried now - while in talks with AC Milan about her contract extension from Brescia. (difference is a 1k euro monthly wages back in PL league or 4-5 times as much in Serie A)...
Heck, the fact the Norway and the Netherlands are in the same group meant there was always gonna be some fun in the playoffs! Same with Sweden/Denmark to a degree. Whoever we get between Norway/Netherlands and Sweden/Denmark, we're guaranteed to have 2-4 of the top 8 UEFA nations in the playoffs, with Germany and England as the other two potential participants (if Wales beat Russia today, they'll have a point on England, albeit with one extra game, ahead of hosting England). And goddamn would a England-Germany-Sweden-Netherlands playoff be unbelievable.
Some interesting results around Europe tonight. Tonight's summary: GROUP 1 Bosnia Herzegovina 0 - 2 Kazakhstan Am.Spahic 33(og), Babchuk 74 Wales 3 - 0 Russia K.Green 48,62, Harding 68 GROUP 2 Poland 2 - 3 Scotland Jaszek 6, Howard 66(og) - Little 78, J.Ross 80, Evans 90 Belarus 0 - 5 Switzerland Crnogorcevic 5(p), Dickenmann 18,55, Karachun 34(og), Calligaris 76 GROUP 3 Norway 1 - 0 Republic of Ireland Hansen 25(p) Netherlands 1 - 0 Slovakia Martens 90+2 GROUP 4 Ukraine 1 - 0 Sweden Apanaschenko 41 Denmark 5 - 1 Hungary Nadim 44,45+1, Sørensen 47, Nielsen 57, Harder 90+4 - Jakabfi 24 GROUP 5 Czech Republic 4 - 1 Faroe Islands Svitkova 14, L.Martinkova 52, Vonkova 63, Starova 75 - Simonsen 89 GROUP 6 Romania 1 - 1 Portugal Mihail 34 - Andreia Norton 39 GROUP 7 Serbia 0 - 2 Finland Hyyrynen 17, Kostic 82(og) Israel 0 - 6 Austria Schiechtl 5, Wenninger 19, Billa 49, Puntigam 56(p), Aschauer 69, Feiersinger 88
Switch the Netherlands with Norway. It would be really interesting if we were guaranteed to have 2 of the 3 Euro teams who have been to every WC finally miss out.
Fair enough! I was just more going for "guaranteeing another 3 of the FIFA Top Ten teams miss out". ("Another" because #10 DPK is already out.) The history angle is an interesting one too, of course. =-)
Just looking in to this a little more... SWE and DEN are both at 15pts while UKR is at 10pts, all three with two matches left to play, including the quoted DEN-SWE and SWE-UKR. If URK wins both of their remaining, DEN-SWE is a draw, and DEN loses to CRO, (unlikely but possible, especially that third point,) that puts all three teams on 16pts. Going in to tiebreaks requires looking at just the matches between the three, which at that point would be... DEN - 7pts, GD of exactly +2 UKR - 6pts, GD of at least -3 SWE - 4pts, GD of at most +1 So, in theory, it's mathematically possible that SWE doesn't even make the playoffs still, but it's NOT possible for UKR to win the group (which would be an amazing sprint to the finish if it were still possible). Of course, it's also possible for UKR to make the playoffs if they win both remaining matches and one of SWE/DEN lost both of theirs, (meaning DEN can also drop to third,) but the three-way tie would be glorious. (That said, if UKR do manage to get the second-place spot, I think they're already eliminated based on the records of other second-place teams, but I'd have to look at a ton more possible combinations to be sure.) The third-place team is still alive in groups 5 and 7 as well, but it's a long shot in all three groups, and it's much more obvious in 5 and 7 that the current third-place team can't get a direct qualification spot any more.
Good grief, a World Cup without The Netherlands or England would be a freakin' disaster: are you kidding? You're talking about two of the best national teams in the world. There are a /small/ number of quality national teams in the women's game, so without England and The Netherlands you'd have a bad World Cup--and practically gift the championship to the United States unless Australia or, maybe, France or Canada, could upset them. Not to mention the fact that the Dutch and England play entertaining football. Fans would most certainly not benefit from watching two new teams park the bus. England is only a point down to Wales and has a game in hand, so they should be fine assuming they don't lose to Wales on August 31. Their first match ended 0-0 but England throughly dominated possession. Even another tie would be fine for England as they then would only need a tie in their last game against lowly Kazakhstan. The Dutch have a 4 point lead on Norway and have one more qualifying match to play--against Norway. The Dutch beat Norway 1-0 in the first match and, according to the stats, certainly were the better team. Norway has two matches to play--first Slovakia and The Netherlands. So it's likely that The Netherlands will have a 1 point lead on Norway going into their decisive match, so a tie or win would put the Dutch through. I fear for the legs and feet of the Dutch already as I can see Norway committing a lot of fouls! These high stakes matches really show the importance of corner-kick conversion. When the superior team fails to convert on free kicks against inferior teams that are playing defensively, then you get tight, low or no scoring games despite the superior team dominating possession. England had 80 percent possession in their first match against Wales but could not convert even one of 14(!) corner kicks and the match ended 0-0. Likewise, today The Netherlands thoroughly dominated Slovakia in every way (had 75 percent possession) but could not convert any of their 13 corner kicks and needed a stoppage time goal by Martens to win 1-0. To the training pitch!
Wow, I'd say that we were quietly very close to another big upset: Slovakia stealing two points to Netherlands at their home would have also been huge. Martens saved the day at 90'+2' only! It would have made the run between Netherlands and Norway to top their group a little more interesting to say the least (also shows that no result is guaranteed, if Ukraine-Sweden hadn't been enough to get this into our heads). Also, is it mildy surprising that Far Oer manage to score a goal to Czech Republic (although losing 4-1 anyway)?