Bracket Challenge from FIFA ...let's the prediction game begin. My prediction month before WWC... ...I'll make another one day before WWC starts.
I'm gonna go with this one. Hope Italy passes the stage group, it would mean so much for women's football
No one has Italy topping their group. Not surprising for pre-tournament predictions, but all they have to do now is beat Jamaica and get a point off a vulnerable Brazil.
A little late to the party, but it looks like there will be a bracket challenge just for the knockouts for those of us late arrivals after the group stage is over. Maybe I will post it here when it is available next week. Early spoiler: Assuming France and US top, I’m going to put my money on the French for that quarterfinal. Looking forward to finding out how the knockout bracket shapes up.
I thought Americans dominated last season's AUS W-League, The champ. game proved that Sydney vs. Perth Glory - 16 February 2019 - Women Soccerway yet not one of the 18 Americans9who played in the W-League are on the USWNT. Suppose hyperthetically, they were able to make their own NT with a decent coach, than they surely would be ranked higher thatn the #6 Matildas
For me Australia is far away from winning the title. I have to confess that they had a good comeback victory yesterday but they got very lucky when you look at the way they scored. More than anything else their defense is shaky to say the least. Allowed already 4 goals and several other chances for the oppositions. They can outscore 2nd class opponents like Brazil but if they are to meet 1st class sides they will pay for their defensive weaknesses.
Without further comment, I’m assuming here and will act accordingly, but if anyone knows otherwise, that would be great.
OK, here's the link for the knockout challenge (opens tomorrow at 23:30 CET): https://bracketchallenge.fifa.com/en/knockoutstage
Spain upsetting the US, lol. I mean even if you don't like Ellis, nobody's else been the douchiest coach than the Spanish one(with his odd none choices of not picking Vero, Bermudez & the mvp of the Spanish League, Angela Soza. I would of originally picked France, but not picking the monster striker/goal scorer, Katoto, is now even odder since their top scorer been the CB, Renard. I got the feeling also just don't really like their coach, the Deacon. So Ellis might not been a fan favorite, but she gets the best out of her players, whereas the French players don't seem to really care(they didn't even looked excited when the german ref gave them an pk!). But after some rather underwhelming performances, you got the feeling they should have one great game in them; hopefully that's against Brazil, not the US(or at least Ellis is concerned) since you or @flax are the Swedish fans at BS, was wondering any word why Fisher didn't play?(you would think that the hero of the 2011 game would of been a great inspiration). And why wasn't Rolfo a starter?(as Blackstenius is proving 'she ain't no L8' & Jacobsson's speed was nullified by Dunn's tight marking). take it, that Sweden might of not wanted to win, since it sends them now into the easier half of the bracket. But to be honest, the quality this time aorund is not there to survive 1 or 2 games more into the playoffs, thus trying to upset the US might of been a bigger highlight for them I agree with your prediction, I'm just surprised cuz a on paper, both the US & Germany don't look as strong as their 2015 squads, but their the only two teams that so far have not left a goal in. the Nederlands could be a dark horse, but their coach insistance of starting the same eleven game after game will get them exhausted down the stretch. I've been surprised how well the US as done(looking by far the best team, especially this last one where they hit the Swedes hard during the first 10 min. of each half, then paced themselves the rest of the way. But they do have the tougher schedule ahead(than Germany), so we'll see if it does drag them down by the final
Statically speaking (and using the percentages from 538), there is only a 6.4% chance that all 8 "favored" teams advance. As I pointed out in the R16 general thread, though, 4 of the 8 matches are relatively even while the other 4 are much more slanted. There is nearly a 50% chance that all 4 "heavily favored" teams advance (and only about a 14% that all 4 "weakly favored" teams advance) - and even that is heavily skewed toward the UEFA teams facing CAF competition. Which means that the "USA v FRA" match that everyone wants to drool over is only about 60% likely to happen. So picking ESP over USA isn't out to lunch - a bit more than a 1 in 5 chance - but BRA over FRA is essentially just as likely (slightly more, actually).
The consensus from the media seem to be that Fischer and much of the starting back line was saved for the next round. It is not that they didn't want to win (Sweden have by tradition problem with Germany) but Gerhardsson seem to have found it unlikely that we would win and (as most other thinking Swedes) don't see much of a difference in winning or not worth taking big risks for. Not sure why they don't start Rolfö, the issue hasn't been up in our media. PS! Sweden pretty much never trough matches. And it is for moral reasons, but not the ones one would expect, but the few times any Swedish NT (in team sports) tried it it pretty much always end up with our team so demoralized that they lose the next match. So most Swedish NT-coaches do not think on it as an alternative.