2016 Rio: Women's Football

[CaroLiza_fan]

Since it is only 9 hours until the Rio Olympics kick off, it is perhaps about time to open a thread about the sport that will get the whole thing started.

FIFA Women's Olympic Football Site:
http://www.fifa.com/womensolympic/

IOC Olympics Football Site:
https://www.rio2016.com/en/football

2016 Olympics Football Match Schedule (Men and Women):
http://resources.fifa.com/mm/docume...io_matchschedulemix_fifa_02052016_neutral.pdf


The women’s football tournament has the potential of being hard to predict.

For every World Cup and Olympics since 2011, the final has been contested between Japan and the USA:

Tournament	Winner	Score	Runner-Up
2011 World Cup	Japan	2 – 2 (3 – 1 penalties)	USA
2012 Olympics	USA	2 – 1	Japan
2015 World Cup	USA	5 – 2	Japan

However, both teams had quite a few significant players retire after the 2015 World Cup. And, perhaps because of this, we have already had our first shock of the tournament:

JAPAN DID NOT QUALIFY!!!!

They finished third in their qualifying tournament, behind Australia and China. And only the top 2 go to Rio.

Normally, the Algarve Cup and the Cyprus Cup are the tournaments that the teams use to build up to a World Cup, Olympics or European Championships. But this year there was a third tournament as well: the inaugural SheBelieves Cup, held in Florida and Tennessee.

This tournament was different in that only four teams were taking part. And it was played like a league rather than like a knockout tournament. So, each team only played 3 matches! The USA won the title by winning all of their matches.

The significance is that the other teams involved in the tournament were the top 3 teams in Europe – Germany, France and England.

Germany won the silver medal at the SheBelieves Cup. However, they have been going through a transitional period for the past couple of seasons. Quite a few of the players we have been used to seeing in the team have either retired (Nadine Angerer, Célia da Mbabi) or had long-term injuries (Nadine Keßler).

The other thing to note is that it was announced before last year’s World Cup that Sylvia Neid would stepping down as coach after the Olympics, and that Steffi Jones would be replacing her. Since then, Steffi has been having a say in things.

The result of all this was that, at the SheBelieves Cup, there were a lot of players selected that were not regulars in the Senior team. Testing them out to see how they got on. Yet, only 3 of these players have made it into the Olympic team. It is also interesting to note that two of these relative newcomers are in their late twenties. The only younger player to come in is the reserve goalkeeper.

France also used the SheBelieves Cup to try out new players. But, their tournament was not as successful. They finished bottom of the table. However, I actually fancy France to be the top European team.

For a start, it wasn’t a straightforward “finishing last”. France were actually level with England on points and goal difference. But, England got the bronze medal because they managed to score against France.

The French national team has traditionally drawn most of it’s players from the top 2 teams in the French league – Olymique Lyonnais and Paris Saint Germain. And this year, both these teams reached the Semi-Finals of this year’s UEFA Champions League. Unfortunately, they ended up playing each other. Lyon won comprehensively (8 – 0!!!), and played German team (and reigning champions) VfL Wolfsburg in the final. And, although it had to go to penalties before they won the title, Lyon actually dominated play.

England are currently the second highest ranked team in Europe, but are not eligible for the Olympics. Because London hosted the 2012 Olympics, the football associations in all of the Home Nations agreed to have a Great Britain team. However, the Men’s team turned out to be an England team with 5 Welsh players, and the Women’s team turned out to be an England team with 2 Scottish players. This did not go down well with the football associations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. So, they refused to agree to it happening again for Rio.

The result is that the remaining European slot went to Sweden. A few years ago, it would have been assumed that Sweden would be the third highest ranked team in Europe. But, they have not been doing well in the past couple of seasons.

Sweden’s problem in Rio could be that they are in the same group as Brazil and China. And only the top 2 in each group are guaranteed a place in the knockout stages. Of the three third placed-teams, only two go through.

Brazil have made it to the Semi-Finals for every Olympics except 2012, and were runners-up in 2004 and 2008. They finished 6[SUP]th[/SUP] in the 2012 Olympics, one place ahead of Sweden. But, at last year’s World Cup, they were the top team eliminated in the Last 16, whereas Sweden were the bottom team eliminated in the Last 16. China didn’t qualify for the 2012 Olympics, but were one place above Brazil in the 2015 World Cup.

Brazil finished second to Canada in the Algarve Cup in March. And being the hosts of these Olympics could provide a boost. Equally, being the host could put too much pressure on them. You just never know!

Canada finished third in the 2012 Olympics. Although they did not reach the Semi-Finals when they hosted the World Cup last year (they were beat by England in the Quarter-Finals), they were still playing well, finishing 6[SUP]th[/SUP] overall.

Another team that were playing well in the World Cup but did not get past the Quarter-Finals (they were beaten by runners-up Japan) was Australia. The Aussies finished the World Cup just one point behind Canada in 7[SUP]th[/SUP] place.

The problem is that Australia and Canada are both in Group F, the same group as Germany. So, one of them will probably have to wait and see how things go in the other groups.

New Zealand are a team that I would normally advise you to keep an eye on. They finished 8[SUP]th[/SUP] in the 2012 Olympics, and 4[SUP]th[/SUP] in the 2016 Algarve Cup. However, they didn’t get past the group stage in the 2015 World Cup, and only finished 19[SUP]th[/SUP] out of the 24 teams.

The main problem for New Zealand, though, is that they are in the same group as the USA and France. And the other teams that I have already mentioned are all much higher than them in the FIFA rankings, and all finished above New Zealand in the 2015 World Cup and/or 2012 Olympics. So, I don’t think they will get the chance to get through to the knockout stages.

The other team in Group G are in the same position. Colombia have the lowest FIFA ranking of all the teams I have mentioned so far, and finished second to last in the last Olympics. But they actually did quite well at last year’s World Cup, finishing 12[SUP]th[/SUP] overall. They have the potential to make it through, but probably won’t.

I haven’t mentioned the two African teams (Zimbabwe and South Africa), because I don’t know anything about either of them. Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria or Cameroon are the countries that normally provide the teams we see at the big global tournaments. But none of them qualified this time.

So, all in all, it could turn out to be a closer tournament than we are used to, and we could have a few surprises along the way.

It all starts in the Olympic Stadium in Rio at 13:00 LOC (16:00 GMT / 17:00 BST) with Sweden v South Africa.

(The men's tournament starts at the same time tomorrow. But, since I won't be watching, somebody else can start a thread about it).

CaroLiza_fan

 

[Winnie_20]

I saw some of the Sweden vs South Africa match. It's not really my thing, but it was the first livestream available, and I wanted to test the livestream with the connectedTVs, Apps, airplay etc. Perfect quality all the way.

Not so great, though, there's this really annoying swooshy sound whenever they show a repeat of what just happened before, like a repeat of a shot at the goal. It starts with the Olympic rings (swoosh), repeat bit of telly, and another swoosh with rings. And after ten minutes it already annoyed me so much, I'm almost tempted to turn off the sound of the program.
I really hope it's confined to the soccer, but I highly doubt it.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

I saw some of the Sweden vs South Africa match. It's not really my thing, but it was the first livestream available, and I wanted to test the livestream with the connectedTVs, Apps, airplay etc. Perfect quality all the way.

Not so great, though, there's this really annoying swooshy sound whenever they show a repeat of what just happened before, like a repeat of a shot at the goal. It starts with the Olympic rings (swoosh), repeat bit of telly, and another swoosh with rings. And after ten minutes it already annoyed me so much, I'm almost tempted to turn off the sound of the program.
I really hope it's confined to the soccer, but I highly doubt it.

Personally, the swooshing noise didn't annoy me. But what did annoy me was the BBC's scheduling.

The BBC have 8 dedicated Olympic channels for their coverage. So, what did we have last night? 1 channel showing football, and 7 channels showing a loop of the BBC's trailer for the Olympics.

Bearing in mind that there were overlaps between some of the matches, this is not acceptable.

Also, the EPG listings for this channel (BBC Olympics 1) did not reflect what was actually shown. The listings said that in between the LIVE coverage of the matches being played in Rio (Sweden v South Africa and Brazil v China), there would be "Rio 2016 Highlights" shown.

What they actually did was to go immediately to São Paulo for LIVE coverage of the Canada v Australia match. But, I missed it because I believed the listings and didn't set the tape for the hour in between the Rio matches.

I won't make that mistake again. I'll set it to tape continuously in future.

But I still don't understand why they were attempting to show all the matches on one channel when there were 7 other channels available that were showing nothing.

Anyway, I managed to get enough of the start of the second match to see the first goal. 20 seconds it took Janine Beckie to score for Canada!

Mind you, that's still no-where near the quickest time it has taken to score a goal in international Women's football. That record is held by a girl that I just happened to go to school with! :agree:

In Northern Ireland's Euro 2017 qualifying match against Georgia in June, Simone Magill scored in just 11 seconds!!!

Here's the video: https://twitter.com/SimoneMagill/status/739787169586413568

Anyway, getting back to the Olympics, and rather than going back to Rio at half-time for the start of the Brazil v China match as I expected, the BBC stayed in São Paulo and showed the rest of the Canada v Australia match. So, we didn't join the match that the EPG listings said was going to be shown until they were at half time!

Why didn't the BBC have 2 channels on the go?! If they had, they could have shown everything LIVE!!!

Anyway, for the Canada v Australia match, I’ve only watched what parts of the first half that I have (the first 4 minutes, and the last 3 minutes). I'll watch the second half, and the Brazil v China match, tomorrow.

Getting back to Sweden v South Africa, and the score line did not tell the story of the match. I was actually really impressed with South Africa, and really disappointed with Sweden.

I had never seen South Africa before, but they really took control of the match. The only thing that stopped them converting that into a comprehensive win was the sheer amount of times the South African forwards were offside when they were passed to. It was ridiculous.

Sweden are not the team they used to be. The players may be largely the same as when they came third in the 2011 World Cup. But they were playing a lot better then. And I put the decline down to Thomas Dennerby leaving as coach.

Don’t get me wrong, Pia Sundhage is a great coach. We saw that when she was coaching the American team, and they were winning everything that was going. But, for some reason, it’s just not working with Sweden.

But for me, it was a mistake for Pia to move back home. Yes, I can understand why she did it. She had nothing left to prove in America – under her tutelage the American team had achieved everything that can be achieved. And let’s face it, it’s not every day the opportunity arises for you to coach your own country’s national team. So, it is something that most people would jump at.

But Pia shouldn’t have jumped. Because what has happened to the Swedish team in the past couple of seasons is really harming how people will see her once she finally retires from the game. And she doesn’t deserve that. Pia Sundhage was a great player and a great coach, and she deserves to be remembered like that.

Hopefully Sweden will improve in their upcoming games. Let’s face it, with Brazil and China in the same group, they need to!

CaroLiza_fan

 

[snowflake]

CaroLiza_fan, I’m amazed at your ability to write these long posts with lot’s of facts and opinions. Keep on

Getting back to Sweden v South Africa, and the score line did not tell the story of the match. I was actually really impressed with South Africa, and really disappointed with Sweden.

I had never seen South Africa before, but they really took control of the match. The only thing that stopped them converting that into a comprehensive win was the sheer amount of times the South African forwards were offside when they were passed to. It was ridiculous.

Sweden are not the team they used to be. The players may be largely the same as when they came third in the 2011 World Cup. But they were playing a lot better then. And I put the decline down to Thomas Dennerby leaving as coach.

Don’t get me wrong, Pia Sundhage is a great coach. We saw that when she was coaching the American team, and they were winning everything that was going. But, for some reason, it’s just not working with Sweden.

But for me, it was a mistake for Pia to move back home. Yes, I can understand why she did it. She had nothing left to prove in America – under her tutelage the American team had achieved everything that can be achieved. And let’s face it, it’s not every day the opportunity arises for you to coach your own country’s national team. So, it is something that most people would jump at.

But Pia shouldn’t have jumped. Because what has happened to the Swedish team in the past couple of seasons is really harming how people will see her once she finally retires from the game. And she doesn’t deserve that. Pia Sundhage was a great player and a great coach, and she deserves to be remembered like that.

Hopefully Sweden will improve in their upcoming games. Let’s face it, with Brazil and China in the same group, they need to!

CaroLiza_fan

I’m also disappointed for Sweden. Don’t agree about them being ’largely the same team’ as in 2011 though. I can count to seven out of twentytwo players who participated then and now(not all of them playing this match). And not so sure of Dennerby being a more perfect coach than Pia.

No injuries for Sweden before the tournament, opposite to worlds last year. Don't know why they can't perform. Maybe we have to wait for the next generation. (Don’t know if something similar has happened to Japan; sad to not see them here). Still I’m not giving up on Sweden. Yes, South Africa were good, but young and inexperienced. What about all the offsides? A lot to do with Sweden playing good defense in my opinion. Sweden’s goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl wasn’t much in sight on the screen. South Africa playing with their heart as an underdog. Sweden uninspiring.

Brazil were great. Many good individual efforts. Fun team to watch with lots of attack. Probably they have had good training conditions before their home olympics. Let’s see how they’ll do in defence against Sweden and South Africa. Barbara didn’t have much to do against China. I’m not sure what to think about China. Their goalkeeper was pretty weak and looked nervous.The whole team looked thin, at least compared to the physical Brazilians. I guess Brazil wins the group and that it will close between the other teams (if not Sweden step up). Hard to tell after initial matches only though.

Didn’t watch the other four matches. Curious to see how France will fair. Gonna watch their next match if it’s at a convenient time.

I think it’s been Pia’s dream for a long time to coach her national team. I can’t really see what she’s done wrong. She’s had to choose between the ’oldies’ and the next promising generation I think. Maybe she should have chosen more younger players earlier to let them develop. I can’t tell. She has had some difficulties gathering the team and in her opinion to little time together with them during her national coaching time. This in conflict with club teams’ coaches and the Swedish federation. A bit different to having the US team who trains almost like a club team over long periods.

Not so great, though, there's this really annoying swooshy sound whenever they show a repeat of what just happened before, like a repeat of a shot at the goal. It starts with the Olympic rings (swoosh), repeat bit of telly, and another swoosh with rings. And after ten minutes it already annoyed me so much, I'm almost tempted to turn off the sound of the program.
I really hope it's confined to the soccer, but I highly doubt it.

The swoosh will probably be used in all disciplines. We just have to get used to it. I’m not that much bothered.

 

[Winnie_20]

The swoosh will probably be used in all disciplines. We just have to get used to it. I’m not that much bothered.

I think what bothers me about it is not just the sound, but also the fact that they seemed to be doing these swooshy repeats *so often*, it felt like I was missing a quart of the soccer match. Most of the time, whatever had happened really was not worth repeating, but it sure would be more interesting to see more of what was going on live.
Now, when there's Diving, okay, I can understand repeating the dives once or twice in between dives. But with the soccer, it felt like overkill.

I must be getting old. I'm spending my time complaining about swooshy sounds and repeats. :noshake:

 

[snowflake]

I must be getting old. I'm spending my time complaining about swooshy sounds and repeats. :noshake:

When you get over that 'feeling old' thing and are really getting old you'll bother less

 

[4everchan]

i got to watch a few of the women's world cup in canada last summer... it was great and made follow the sport more... (i watched canada being robbed in the london olympics too... ugh)..

watch the first game on wednesday... canada winning over australia was quite an achievement... it could make a big different comes play-off rounds.... tomorrow is match 2... go canada

 

[snowflake]

Oh, I just saw: US-France at 22.00 central Eurotime The match to watch I think.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Right, thought I should put down my thoughts on the remaining matches I watched from Wednesday before I start watching last night’s matches.

CaroLiza_fan, I’m amazed at your ability to write these long posts with lot’s of facts and opinions. Keep on

Awww. I’m all embarassed now. : Thank you!!!

I’m also disappointed for Sweden. Don’t agree about them being ’largely the same team’ as in 2011 though. I can count to seven out of eighteen players who participated then and now(not all of them playing this match). And not so sure of Dennerby being a more perfect coach than Pia.

No injuries for Sweden before the tournament, opposite to worlds last year. Don't know why they can't perform. Maybe we have to wait for the next generation. (Don’t know if something similar has happened to Japan; sad to not see them here). Still I’m not giving up on Sweden. Yes, South Africa were good, but young and inexperienced. What about all the offsides? A lot to do with Sweden playing good defense in my opinion. Sweden’s goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl wasn’t much in sight on the screen. South Africa playing with their heart as an underdog. Sweden uninspiring.

Brazil were great. Many good individual efforts. Fun team to watch with lots of attack. Probably they have had good training conditions before their home olympics. Let’s see how they’ll do in defence against Sweden and South Africa. Barbara didn’t have much to do against China. I’m not sure what to think about China. Their goalkeeper was pretty weak and looked nervous.The whole team looked thin, at least compared to the physical Brazilians. I guess Brazil wins the group and that it will close between the other teams (if not Sweden step up). Hard to tell after initial matches only though.

Didn’t watch the other four matches. Curious to see how France will fair. Gonna watch their next match if it’s at a convenient time.

I think it’s been Pia’s dream for a long time to coach her national team. I can’t really see what she’s done wrong. She’s had to choose between the ’oldies’ and the next promising generation I think. Maybe she should have chosen more younger players earlier to let them develop. I can’t tell. She has had some difficulties gathering the team and in her opinion to little time together with them during her national coaching time. This in conflict with club teams’ coaches and the Swedish federation. A bit different to having the US team who trains almost like a club team over long periods.

OK, you caught me. I never bothered looking up squad lists. I was just working on the basis of the “big names” – “Schelin was there; Fischer was there; Jakobsson was there; Seger was there; Lindahl was there…”

I just looked up the squad lists, and it was actually quite enlightening. I thought Asllani and Samuelsson were already in the team then. Plus, I hadn’t noticed that Sara Thunebro wasn’t in the team any more (clicked through to her Wiki page, and found out she retired after the World Cup last year).

I only started watching Women’s football in 2008 (it was the U-17 and U-19 World Cups that got me into it), and I think the first time I saw the Swedish Senior team was at Euro 2009. So I don’t remember Dennerby’s whole tenure as coach. But, in 2011 the Swedish team were the stars of the World Cup for me. And I became a massive fan of them. And perhaps that is why I am so disappointed with how they have been doing since he left.

And, because I first saw them at this time when they were having great success, perhaps I am looking back on Dennerby with rose-tinted glasses.

As I said, Sundhage is a great coach. But, she just doesn’t seem to be getting as much out of the team as Dennerby did. Maybe it is because the star players are getting older and the younger players are not quite there yet. But, she managed pretty well with older star players when she was coaching the American team.

You could be onto something with the clashes between club responsibilities and national team responsibilities, though. I’ve heard of lots of managers of national teams complaining of that problem.

There again, look at the New Zealand team. Their players mostly play on different continents, so they hardly ever get together. Instead, they send videos to their coach to show how they are getting on! At least with Sweden, all the players are in Europe (didn’t realise Schelin had left Lyon and returned to playing in Sweden).

As for the offside thing, yes, a lot of it was down to how good the Swedish girls were at positioning themselves. But, it is also up to South Africans to make sure that they are in a position that they are not going to get called. As you say, it is all down to the difference in experience between the two teams. But, the South Africans will learn a lot through being in this tournament, and I have a feeling we will be seeing them more often.

A thing I have always liked about Women’s football is that you don’t get many dirty tackles. But, over the years, I have found that you do get them from African teams. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the South African team weren’t playing like this.

The same cannot be said for Zimbabwe. The BBC only showed the first half of their match with Germany, but it was enough to see what way they played. That tackle on Simone Laudehr still makes me wince! I was surprised she tried to play on after getting attended to, but I suppose it takes time to organise a substitute (especially that early in the game) and Simone didn’t want the team down to 10 players for too long. I just hope she hasn’t done herself any more harm by going back on for those few minutes.

But that wasn’t the only one. Later on in the half, there was another tackle that I thought was particularly dirty, and you could see the Zimbabwean player smirking as she walked away. Thankfully, there wasn’t any injuries this time.

The BBC only showed the second half of the Brazil v China match. And I thought the Chinese played well. But Brazil were just in a class of their own. If anybody thought home pressure was going to get to them, think again! By far the best performance I saw from the first day (didn’t see the France or USA matches, though).

And how impressive was it to see Formiga playing in her SIXTH Olympics! She may be the oldest player on the pitch, but she was one of the best players on the pitch! And fair play to Marta for giving her the Captain’s armband when she was substituted off.

However, it was a bit worrying seeing quite a few of the Brazilian players coming down with cramp in the last 15 minutes or so of the game.

But, on a superficial note, how cute is the Chinese goalie?! :luv17:

i got to watch a few of the women's world cup in canada last summer... it was great and made follow the sport more... (i watched canada being robbed in the london olympics too... ugh)..

watch the first game on wednesday... canada winning over australia was quite an achievement... it could make a big different comes play-off rounds.... tomorrow is match 2... go canada

As I mentioned already, I missed 40 minutes of the first half through believing the EPG listings, so I don’t have a full picture of the match. I also don’t know why Canada had a player sent off (the highlights at half-time didn’t show it).

But, this was another case of the score line not reflecting the match.

From what I saw, Australia were dominating the match. I suppose you could say that that is hardly surprising considering they had one more player on the pitch for ¾ of the match.

The paradox is that Australia didn’t score, whereas Canada scored twice.

But, when you look at the goals, both of them came about because of bad Australian blunders. The first one was because the Aussies were passing backwards in their own half, and one of the Canadian players made an opportunistic tackle which ultimately paid off. And the second goal was because the Australian goalie ran to near the half-way line to clear the ball, but Christie Sinclair got to it first and scored.

But, just one thing confuses me – why on Earth were Lisa de Vanna and Kyah Simon not on the pitch from the start?! And why were they not brought on until so late in the match?! The outcome of the match could have been a lot different if they had been on the pitch earlier.

For me, the player of the match was the Canadian goalie. I had never seen Stephanie Labbé playing before. Any time I had watched Canada before, Erin MacLeod was in the nets. The only time I had ever seen Stephanie Labbé was in the advert she does for… erm, how shall I put it? …“female products”.

She was absolutely brilliant! Some of the saves she made were unbelievable!

Much as I like Erin, I really hope to see Stephanie a lot more often.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[4everchan]

^^

the game between Canada and Australia was indeed a bit weird... the first goal was due to a mistake of the Australians but you cannot play like this when you are facing Sinclair... one would think they would know better..

the red card was a joke.. like... seriously????

I'd say that Canada was not super dominant but yes, Labbé goaled a great match... MacLeod is injured and that's very unfortunate for Canada but if Stéphanie rises to the occasion, that's great and she did Wednesday...

The referee wasn't stellar... she also gave a penalty kick to Canada for not real reason. maybe she felt she needed to balance out the fact that after just 18 minutes, she had expelled a major defensive asset of Canada's team...

anyways, for some odd reason, the kick was done by a very young player, the one who scored the first goal, and she barely hit it... so the score remained 1-0....

i think australia had 22 shots but i also think that the second goal was bound to happen.... in the last third of the game, australia played more open... hence the mistake.

Canada played a great first half against Zimbabwe today... second half, they didn't look as focused... but a 3-1 win should be good enough...

 

[snowflake]

WOW Marta and her team Brazil-Sweden 5-1

There again, look at the New Zealand team. Their players mostly play on different continents, so they hardly ever get together. Instead, they send videos to their coach to show how they are getting on!
CaroLiza_fan

That’s really tough. By the way, how did New Zeeland qualify? You wrote China and Australia qualified from their group. But from which group did NZ qualify?

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

That’s really tough. By the way, how did New Zeeland qualify? You wrote China and Australia qualified from their group. But from which group did NZ qualify?

New Zealand are still in the Oceania Confederation. It was only Australia that switched the to Asian Confederation.

Australia switched to Asia because they wanted to be playing better quality teams on a regular basis. Which you can understand. You can't really improve if most of the time you are playing against teams at a much lower level. But you can if you are up against the likes of China, Japan and the Koreas.

But, Australia moving was rough on New Zealand, as it meant they were the only top team left in Oceania. So, they now only have lower level teams to play.

On the other hand, it pretty much means New Zealand are guaranteed a place at the World Cup and the Olympics every year, rather than having to fight Australia for the single slot.

Hope this helps make things clearer.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[snowflake]

^Thanks. Googled the Oceania Football Confederation
Impressing that these small nations have football teams. Don't know how many inhibitants they have, but maybe some day a team will be successful like the Iceland men's football team.

Right, thought I should put down my thoughts on the remaining matches I watched from Wednesday before I start watching last night’s matches.

As I said, Sundhage is a great coach. But, she just doesn’t seem to be getting as much out of the team as Dennerby did.
CaroLiza_fan

Are you going to watch all matches? I can't do that, so appreciate your reports.

Fun fact: Dennerby is one of the Swedish scouts in Brazil. I think the Brazil team was on his table. Didn't help much hwell:

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

^Thanks. Googled the Oceania Football Confederation
Impressing that these small nations have football teams. Don't know how many inhibitants they have, but maybe some day a team will be successful like the Iceland men's football team.

Hey, what about my country's Men's football team?! We were only 1 round behind Iceland in getting knocked out, and it was to a team that got to the Quarter-Finals!

But, I agree with the point you are making. It is nice to see small countries giving it a go. And even nicer when they are successful at it against the odds.

Are you going to watch all matches? I can't do that, so appreciate your reports.

I'm trying to watch them all. Well, whatever the BBC shows on the TV anyway.

So far, I've missed the first half of the CAN-AUS match because of the EPG lying to me, and all of the USA-NZL and FRA-COL matches, because my hard drive ran out of space (accidentally set the timer for the HD channels rather than the SD versions).

I'm actually only starting to watch Saturday's matches today, because I was watching motorbike racing on TV yesterday. And I will be going to motorbike races on Thursday and Saturday.

So, given that I am already behind, it is highly probable that I will not get fully caught up until the final, if at all.

But, even though they may come late, I'll try to post my opinions.

Fun fact: Dennerby is one of the Swedish scouts in Brazil. I think the Brazil team was on his table. Didn't help much hwell:

Aha! Thank you! I was wondering what he was doing nowadays. Wikipedia didn't seem to know.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Right, I’ve now watched the first two matches from Saturday and, I have to be honest, I didn’t really enjoy them. And it was all down to the spectators.

Now, I don’t know if it was because we are comparing matches held mid-week with matches held at the weekend. Or if it is because we are comparing matches held before the Opening Ceremony with matches held after it. But, the crowds and atmosphere were completely different.

At Wednesday’s matches, it was noticeable that there were not big crowds at the matches. And, consequently, there wasn’t much atmosphere. But, for the first 2 matches on Saturday, there were bigger crowds. And a lot more atmosphere. But not in a good way.

The spectators left you in no doubt as to which team they were supporting.

In the Zimbabwe v Canada match, they were supporting Zimbabwe. Now, I don’t know if there was a particular reason for this. Is it because Zimbabwe wear the same colours as Brazil? Did Canada have a significant win over Brazil in the past? I don’t know. Whatever the reason, there were quite a few cheers for Zimbabwe and quite a few boos for Canada.

But it was nothing compared to what we got in the USA v France match. Any time the USA were on a run, there would be lots of booing. And then when the French took possession, it would turn to cheers.

But, the biggest boos came any time Hope Solo touched the ball. It was just a solid wall of boos and whistles. I know Hope is a controversial figure, but she did not deserve that. Especially in what was a milestone match for her (200th cap).

Put it like this, if I were an American player (particularly if I was Hope Solo), I would have been scared for my safety when leaving the stadium.

Yet, the paradox is that there were massive cheers when American captain Carli Lloyd scored the only goal of the match. Although, I suspect that may have been because the crowd were frustrated at the lack of scoring and were happy to finally see a goal!

It was a really hard fought match. They were so well matched. And either team deserved to win.

Normally, I would have been supporting France. But, because of all the booing, I felt sorry for the Americans, and wanted them to win.

Getting back to the earlier match, and Zimbabwe were again playing dirty. However, unlike the Germans on Wednesday, the Canadians seemed to be prepared for it (I reckon they been studying the Germany match in the days in between). Because, a lot of the Zimbabwean tackles didn’t succeed.

However, I wasn’t very happy with the referee. She seemed to be letting the Zimbabweans away with more things than the Canadians. And she was not afraid to bring out the yellow card.

I have to be honest, I thought the yellow for the Zimbabwean goalie was very harsh. Yes, she collided with one of the Canadian players in the penalty box, bringing her down. And yes, it was a penalty. But I don’t agree with the card coming out. For goodness sake, Dzingirai was flying through the air at the time. She couldn’t control where she was going to land!

And what on Earth was Kadeisha Buchanan playing at getting herself booked for something silly when she was already on a yellow from the previous match?! Because of not moving to the required distance away from a Zimbabwe free kick, she is now going to miss the final group match.

Or was this a tactical decision? Get the match suspension out of the way now so that she’s not got it hanging over her if they get to the knockout stages.

Janine Beckie and Christie Sinclair each got the ball into the back of the Zimbabwean net twice. Sinclair’s second was correctly disallowed for being offside. However, Beckie’s first should also have been disallowed as it looked like she was offside when Sinclair passed to her for her first shot.

But, it wouldn’t have mattered as Canada still would have won even without that goal.

The Canadians had a different goalie this time. Sabrina d’Angelo. And throughout the match I was thinking “I can’t tell if she’s as good as Labbé, because she hasn’t had a lot to do”. But then, d’Angelo made a right howler 5 minutes from the end. She came out of the box to stop Chirandu’s charge, Chirandu got past her, and she scored.

So, I hope Labbé gets the call against Germany.

On a final note, can I just mention that I got a double heartbreak during the USA v France match. First of all, I found out that Louisa Necib had got married. Then, to pour more salt into the wound, I found out she was retiring after this tournament!

Although, I can’t say I’m surprised she is retiring. I don’t know how France (or Lyon, for that matter) have coped with having both Lousia Necib and Claire Lavogez in their line-up! Louisa is a brilliant footballer, and is incredibly beautiful. And boys does she know it! Claire, well, she is exactly the same!

Louisa will be missed. So, I hope that France can get far so that we have longer to enjoy watching her.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[snowflake]

But, the biggest boos came any time Hope Solo touched the ball. It was just a solid wall of boos and whistles. I know Hope is a controversial figure, but she did not deserve that. Especially in what was a milestone match for her (200th cap).

They were booing and shouting zika zika at Hope when she had the ball. Hope showed a picture of herself packing mosquito repellents, a mosquito hat etc before leaving for Brazil. She later apologized because people in Brazil felt she was showing disrespect for their country. Very childish behavior of the audience in my opinion.

It was a really hard fought match. They were so well matched. And either team deserved to win.

Typical US, though, to score the goal they needed in the end, even if not playing on top the rest of the match

On a final note, can I just mention that I got a double heartbreak during the USA v France match. First of all, I found out that Louisa Necib had got married. Then, to pour more salt into the wound, I found out she was retiring after this tournament!
CaroLiza_fan

LOL Congrats to husband and Louisa Necib Cadamuro-Bentiba!

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

They were booing and shouting zika zika at Hope when she had the ball. Hope showed a picture of herself packing mosquito repellents, a mosquito hat etc before leaving for Brazil. She later apologized because people in Brazil felt she was showing disrespect for their country. Very childish behavior of the audience in my opinion.

Thank you!!! I couldn't make out what it was they were saying at the end!

Mmmm. Hadn't heard the story behind it. But, I'm sure it was just intended as a harmless joke, and she never imagined that anybody would be offended by it.

Speaking of zika, I am still amazed that the Olympics went ahead. As soon as the full scale of it became apparent, I fully expected the Olympics to be moved. OK, so moving an Olympics is a much bigger scale thing than, say, moving 2011 Worlds was. But, it was over a year ago. And it's not like it has never been done before.

But that is a discussion for somewhere else.

I have to be honest, I am getting to the stage that I am getting fed up watching football. There are just too many matches on in too short a space of time. I’m more used to tournaments that are spread over a longer period of time.

As I said, I’m going to be away on Thursday and Saturday. So, I’ll watch what I’ve taped so far, but spread out more than I have been. And then come Monday, decide how to carry on from there.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[4everchan]

omg... canada beat germany for the first time ever.... wow.... i am in shock. quarters will be tough (probably against france) and of course, semis would mean germany would probably be there again... but that puts the USA far away until gold medal match, if, and i stress.... if Canada made it that far.

 

[snowflake]

I’m frustrated with Sweden: 0-0 against China. If they can’t play better than this I’ll cheer for France. I would cheer for Brazil if the Brazilian audience weren’t so annoying.

Haven’t seen Canada, Germany or Australia yet.

Quarter finals:
Friday 12
Brazil-Australia
US-Sweden
China-Germany
Canada-France

 

[rulesoferick]

awesome info thanks everybody!