Slittino - Rodeln - Luge... is there any sport whose name is so completely different in different languages?
Chiara Beccari replaces Ana Capeta (who, for records, not only scored, but also assisted Amalie Vangsgaard for Juve's 2nd goal ).
I - KNEW - THAT Once again Juventus waste a win, as they did vs Bayern and vs OL. 2-2 at 90'+5', sigh. And it's the final score!
Highlights of the game: Juventus are definitely chokers in this Champions' League, so I don't have much hope that they can win the home match. Of course, Amalie Vangsgaard's shot needed a substantial deflection to go in (seemed strange to me that she had suddenly adjusted her aim ). The handball leading to the PK was half-shoulderball: as we've repeatedly seen in Serie A Femminile's highlights, Italian referees tend not to give this kind of penalties, despite the possible video-assisted appeal by the teams, but we're in Europe... Anyway Juventus need to learn to defend. An observation: Juventus' starting line-up only had two Italian players (Martina Lenzini and Barbara Bonansea). I am not saying it wasn't the correct line-up (later, when two other italian players, Chiara Beccari and Eva Schatzer, were subbed-in, the team allowed Wolfsburg to equalize); I am just noticing that what @dravde was pointing up about Italian teams deploying just a scarce handful of national players is indeed happening. This can allow them to better compete in Europe, but with time it could damage Italy National Team's chances, as it basically already happened with the men's team. Of course, it's a multi-factor problem, but basically men's clubs investing in women's football don't want to wait for the Italian limited players' pool to slowly get wider, so they tend to copy the model of their men's counterparts (although it mostly led to men's NT's failure ).
Yea, if we look at it from a wider picture, it's more than just Juve's italian players going to NWSL. It's a small revolution with italian going abroad in general. Probably the good euros, has something to do with it as well. Here's the deals starting with Caruso one year ago: Caruso from Juve to Bayern Cantore from Juve to Spirit Boattin from Juve to Houston Linari from Roma to London City Di Guglielmo from Roma to Spirit Girelli from Juve to NWSL Of the players on this liest 5 was in the starting-11 against England . Objectively Caruso and Cantore are the biggest losses here, Girelli and Linari is at the tail end of their career. Let's hope it cools down a bit and that a lot of it is a euro effect.
Another match-day of Serie A Femminile has started today. The new coach Paolo Tramezzani led Como to an home-win right away, although it has to be said that clashing vs Sassuolo was of course an easier task than other previous matches. As expected, he tried to tinker a little with the available roster (especially now that Como Women has lost a key-player like Zara Kramžar), but one of today's goals anyway came from usual suspect Nadine Nischler. The other one had been previosuly scored by Aussie Alexandra Chidiac. GK Astrid Gilardi showcased a good performance too: it's important that young Italian Goalkeepers (she's 22) get some growing space. Ternana-Genoa was a veritable relegation-derby (that was played on a quite muddy surface at Ternana's "Moreno Gubbiotti" home-stadium ) and the visitors went ahead quite early with Colombian Elexa Bahr (as it had happend last week, Ternana's defense was far from flawless, including their recently signed veteran GK Katja Schroffenegger). Genoa, though, seemed completely unable to properly defend Corner-Kick's actions: the home team equalized from one of those actions in the 1st Half with Valeria Pirone. Then, in the 2nd Half, they went ahead with an header by tall Center-Back Marika Massimino, once again from CK. A third CK finally led to a PK that was converted by Valeria Pirone, thus scoring a personal brace. A big part of the credit, though, goes to young U-20 starlet Giada Pellegrino Cimò who took two of these CKs and conquered the PK: when she hit the post at 85', everyone felt like she would have deserved to score one of her own. With this win Ternana leave the last-place in the rankings to Genoa: they had one mission and they fullfilled it. The rainy day made a mess of a lot of the Italian pitches of Serie A Femminile, including the one in Fiorenzuola d'Arda where Milan play their home games. Anyway, if Milan only lost by 1-0 and could fight until the last minute of injury-time, they have to thank some Laura Giuliani (one of her saves, the one made by stretching her right leg, looked unreal indeed ), but in the end they succumbed to Madelen Janogy's early goal (who made a nightmare of Angelica Soffia's afternoon). An observation: it seems to me that it's a deliberate choice by most of Serie A Femminile's referees to reject video-supported appeals as a default move: today three PKs where denied in Fiorenzuola, for instance, but at least one of them, despite the slippery surface, could have left some doubt. No doubt about Agnese Bonfantini's handball that led to her late Red-Card instead: when you are on a Yellow-Card, it's quite naive to stop a counterattack in such an awkward way. The scores: Como 2-0 Sassuolo Ternana 3-1 Genoa Milan 0-1 Fiorentina The highlights:
Parma-Inter has been an hard-fought match: the hosts went ahead in the 1st Half with Caterina Ambrosi, but in the 2nd Half Inter equalized with a PK that was converted by Tessa Wullaert (there was quite some choas with the video-assistant, that denied a PK then gave another a few minutes later ) and went ahead right after that with Elisa Polli. At 85', though, Parma scored again with Finnish FW Dana Leskinen (who had been just signed on the 2nd of February! ). In the end, though, Inter found the winner at 90'+3' with Karólína Vilhjálmsdóttir, so their chasing after Roma can go on. Meanwhile, this result makes Ternana's win from yesterday even more important, since they pass Parma and they even reach 10th place. Lazio stop Juventus on a 0-0 draw: the hosts sure had the best chances (including a post hit by Chiara Beccari) but they couldn't break Lazio's solid defense. The news could be that Cristiana Girelli was regularly on the pitch today, despite the insisting rumours about her potential transfer to NWSL. Anyway, Juve retain the 3rd-place at the moment, but Inter have now a three points advantage over them. It could have seemed like Roma was going to take the full 3 points when they went ahead by 2 goals with Frøya Dorsin (the Norwegian FW, at her first goal after a nice triangle-action with Giulia Dragoni, was recently given on loan to Roma by PSG in the winter market) and with captain Manuela Giugliano. Napoli, though, equalized before HT with a brace by Marija Banusic, including a spectacular FK from the edge of the box. In the 2nd Half, Roma pushed more (and hit the post, with Manuela Giugliano again), but they couldn't find any other goal. The advantage over Inter has been now reduced to just three points: Until a few weeks ago it could have looked like Roma had run away with the title already, but now everything seems open. Today's recap: Parma 2-3 Inter Juventus 0-0 Lazio Roma 2-2 Napoli And the highlights (notice that, at the beginning of the match, the players hold Panini brand-new stickers-album in their hands ): These are the new rankings: 1.Roma 33 28-14 2.Inter 30 33-14 3.Juventus 27 20-8 4.Napoli 24 21-17 5.Lazio 23 19-15 6.Fiorentina 21 20-20 7.Como 20 16-16 8.Milan 20 22-21 9.Sassuolo 12 10-20 10.Ternana 10 13-29 11.Parma 9 9-20 12.Genoa 7 13-30 Como are ahead of Milan, since they won the direct clash at the 6th match-day.
Mostly impressed that Roma hasn't let in more games with that shaky defence,, Otherwise exciting season, despite all the leavings, leagues is unpredictable, more even than ever I'd say Btw is Cissoko the most untechnical player in the league? Don't get me wrong, I like her, despite her occasional diciplinary lapses, she's a fighter, but I have never seen such a one legged player
In fact Hawa Cissoko had been questionable already when she was playing in Roma (especially in last season's Champions' League's campaign) and she doesn't look any better now that she plays for Parma. Two weeks ago, she was sent-off for an hand-ball leading to a PK against her team. Yesterday, she was coming back from suspension and she caused another PK for her tackle against Elisa Polli, that was awkward at best, probably actually clumsy and dangerous; then, just a pair minutes after that, she basically prevented her own GK Camelia Ceasar to save a shot by handing the ball to Elisa Polli for Inter's second goal. You really get the feeling that Parma would have taken less goals with any different CB playing at her place.
In 2011 they used the same photo for two North Korean players(Jon Myong Hwa and Kim Kyong Hwa) but it happened also for men's sticker (Austria at World Cup 1974 when Panini included stickers from not qualified teams had wrong names for both stickers).
Hehe, yea all her f' ups needs some serious compensation to be worth it. Perhaps Parma is a level she can do it in though. They probably doesn't have too many alternatives. Should be said Parma got the capable defender Caterina Ambrosi, so at least one good they got. Speaking about Parma, they have plenty of decent players you barely see, like Zamanian, Berta Bou and the former spanish international Marta Cardono. What's up with that? Reminds me a bit of Fiorentina a couple of season ago, who invested in a lot of forwards, but didn't in other areas. Or Juve at the moment who buys zillions of players they don't use, for what? I think Inter and Napoli seems to be the best market operators at the moment. Inter don't buy too much and use the players they buy. In a financialy limited league like Serie A W, the ablity to use resources wisely can be what wins you the league... Lastly it must be adressed , speaking about f' ups, Napoli's talented goalie, did shockingly many errors yesterday. She was next to one post when Giugliano scored her long ranger and she fumbled the ball to Roma when Giugliano did another long range shot which landed on the post. She also seemingly took the ball outside the penalty area, but not sure, anyway the referees let it slide. I guess Napoli's agressive style leaves her exposed in a lot of stressful situation, but I hope she learns to cope with the situations a bit better in the future
Juventus-Wolfsburg going to start in about 10 minutes. After last week's fluke-draw I have 0% hope that Juve can advance. Anyway, starting line-ups: Juventus Women: De Jong; Lenzini, Salvai, Harviken; Bonansea, Wälti, Schatzer, Carbonell; Stølen Godø; Beccari, Capeta. On the bench: Rusek, Kullberg, Rosucci, Girelli, Vangsgaard, Thomas, Calligaris, Krumbiegel, Moretti, Pinto, Brighton, Cambiaghi. Coach: Massimiliano Canzi. Wolfsburg: Johannes; Bjelde, Dijkstra, Kuver, Linder; Minge, Kielland, Peddemors; Huth, Beerensteyn, Endemann. On the bench: Smolarczyk, Tufekovic, Levels, Bussy, Bergsvand, Wedemeier, Zicai, Pujols. Coach: Stephan Lerch. Cristiana Girelli is once again on the bench. At least, at this round at home, there are 5 starting Italian players.
....aaaand Juventus 0-2 Wolfsburg, FT (Cora Zicai scored at 90'+6'). Told you so. Inserting Cristiana Girelli at 67' and Michela Cambiaghi at 83' didn't change things. Juventus are out of the quarter-finals after having been close to advance to them directly from the group stage and after having been ahead by 0-2 in the first leg of this double-header vs Wolfsburg. End of the European campaign for Italy and I guess we can safely say that it was a regress.compared to the previous seasons.
Watching this match, and it was the first time I have seen Juev play, i had the feeling from the start that Juev was simply trying not to lose. They failed. For a match as tight as this was it really seemed that there was little to no chance, baring Devine intervention, that The result would be any different than what it was. Even the chants from the fans seemed half hearted and resigned to the fate of a loss. After the match I asked myself why I bothered to watch and I decided that it was much like watching the proverbial "train wreck" where the disaster unfolds slowly and inevitably but you just can't look away. It is not even that Juev played badly but it is just that they, over and over, managed to screw up a promising attack with some "almost" moment. But they were "creative" in that they managed a unique failure almost every time, including a good looking bicycle strike that hit the crossbar. I hope that Italy continues to develop women's soccer and becomes a major player in Europe but this match pretty much proves that they are not quite there, yet.
Highlights of the game: No actual need to comment on these higlights, except maybe for Ana Capeta's bicycle-kick that crashed on the crossbar: in the end, the Portuguese striker was most probably a good signing, but it wasn't enough.
Was it really a regress though in Europe? I thought Juve stood up well against teams like Lyon and Bayern and so on. The kind of teams that steam rolled them last season. And for Roma it was kinda the same, a flop like the season before in Europe, perhaps a bit worse this season though. All in all I would say some improvements and some regression. That said Juve's attack really isn't very strong this seaon and in the end it showed in Europe as well. I am fairly pessimistic about Serie A Ws future as well, the fact that Juve still plays at Vinovo says it all. We will probably see more departureres to NWSL and so on.. Juve have had problems with the attack all season and if you have problems with scoring against teams like Lazio, Como and Ternana you will surely have problems against Wolfsburg as well. Somehow they've been better in Europe with the scoring, but now their reality catched up with them.. Juve really doesn't have a reliable scorer this season, not even the usual talisman Girelli. That said Juve actually were a bit unlucky this game and had some chances, especially when Capeta bicycled it into the woodwark I wonder if this is not the final season for Canzi at Juve. He's been good in putting in more athleticism to Juve, Juve looked like girls against women,when they faced european top sides last season, this season they could match others much better. But the attack as you mentions upon, isn't there, it lacks patterns and feels stale. Canzi has done a lot of good things , but it feels like he has reached the end. Someone else need to take his stable base and put some creativity into it.