2019 Women's World Cup

[Hal...]

I don't know how many people have an interest in the women's WC and will follow this thread but I thought I'd start one, anyway, just in case.

First up: France vs. Korea, 3pm Eastern, 8pm GMT.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

Noon my time. Gotta take a long lunch break.

[adap2it]

I don't know how many people have an interest in the women's WC and will follow this thread but I thought I'd start one, anyway, just in case.

First up: France vs. Korea, 3pm Eastern, 8pm GMT.

I'm interested...it's more like old fashioned football.

[thedunno]

I'll be watching the matches of the Dutch national side; one of the outsiders for the title I think.

[moecurlythanu]

Which network is carrying the games, or is it split up between several?

[Hobo Chang Ba]

Go Finland! (If they qualified)

[Hal...]

Which network is carrying the games, or is it split up between several?

Fox & FS1 (Fox Sports). Also available to stream, if you subscribe to cable.

And if you missed a match, replays are available on Fox's website: WWC Replays

[moecurlythanu]

^ Thanks, Hal!

[Hal...]

^ You're welcome.

BTW, folks, there are three matches tomorrow (all times Eastern; GMT: add 5 hrs):
Germany vs China - 9am; this might be a good one. (FS1)
Spain vs South Africa - 12pm; (Fox)
Norway vs Nigeria - 3pm; (Fox)

The full TV schedule for the US: WWC Schedule

For those of you outside the US, I was looking for the site where I found a PDF of the schedule and ran across something even better. It's the schedule that shows broadcast channels and times for your country: FIFA schedule. Just above the schedule and to the right is a drop down menu if you need to change countries for some reason.

[chalkpie]

I'm in.

[Hal...]

If anyone's interested, here is the top 10 in FIFA's world rankings, as of March 29:

1 USA
2 Germany
3 England
4 France
5 Canada
6 Australia
7 Japan
8 Netherlands
9 Sweden
10 Brazil

[thedunno]

I would rank the USA and France as the big favorites for the title. Not too sure about Germany and England.

Japan is also a team to watch out for.

[doh]

France dominated yesterday. There were some beautiful goals.

[Hal...]

Here are 11-20, excluding those who didn't qualify:

12 Norway
13 Spain
14 (South) Korea
15 Italy
16 China
19 New Zealand
20 Scotland

Yeah, France played well, but then they should have. A lot of those Asian teams don't have great offenses. Their strengths are defense and ball control. Just look at Japan in the '11 World Cup. Japan was surgical against Germany. And the US couldn't defeat them in the final. But back to this WC, I thought France looked a touch weak given that I also thought Korea didn't play very well.

As expected, China's defense was impressive, which is what I think kept Germany from scoring more. But I still expected more from Germany.

And after watching Spain & South Africa, I think Spain is underrated. They did have trouble in the final third but SA, like similar teams who aren't that great but are difficult to defeat, like Jamaica, has a really good defense. They kept the center of the field compact. And, yeah, Spain did score two goals on penalty kicks, but given SA's defensive play, Spain still managed to have a big advantage with possession. I thought they looked really impressive.

As for England, I'm looking forward to tomorrow's match against Scotland. England has some impactful players (Lucy Bronze, Steph Houghton, Jill Scott, and Karen Carney) and they're supposed to be a better team than they were in previous WCs. The SheBelieves Cup is a small invitational tournament of the top teams in the world. The first three years the teams that competed were US, Germany, England, and France. This year Japan and Brazil replaced Germany and France. The results of the first two years, England finished third. Last year, they were runners up. This year, they won. I think this may be England's best chance to win the WC in many years... and I say that because the US hasn't looked as dominant in years past and their defense has been a little porous. Also, Hope Solo is gone and Carli Lloyd isn't starting.

From the matches I've seen in the last 5-6 years, Japan hasn't looked as strong as they used to. Altho, full disclosure, I have missed a lot of int'l friendlies the past 2 years or so.

And from reports I've heard, the Netherlands is supposed to be strong this year.

[thedunno]

And from reports I've heard, the Netherlands is supposed to be strong this year.

They should be as the current European champions. Especially the attack is world class with Lieke Martens (fifa world player of the year 2017), Shanice van der Sanden (Championsleague winner with Lyon) and Vivianne Miedema (Fa player of the year 2018/19). And then we still have the striker of Bayern Munich, Lyneth Beeresteyn, on the bench.

Unfortunately our midfield and defence are not of the same quality so I do not consider us the be a favorite. We are a dangerous outsider.

[Hal...]

Australia vs Italy. Wow, what a match. The score tied at 1-1, the last 15-20 minutes (including 5 minutes of stoppage time) was some of the most entertaining, high energy soccer I've seen in a long time. In the end, Bonasea, who scored earlier in the 56th minute, scored again in the 95th minute(!!) for Italy's 2-1 victory. I was pulling for Australia - who I think actually played better for most of the game - but I can't begrudge Italy's win. Congratulazioni Italia.

[Hal...]

Good day for the WC today:

New Zealand vs Netherlands (9am). #19 vs #9. Should be a good one.
Chile vs Sweden (12pm). #34 vs #9. Should be an easy one for Sweden.
United States vs Thailand (3pm). Betting on Thailand (#34) is the definition of insanity. Mostly what I'm hoping for is a big goal differential. Anything less than 3 or 4 is a disappointment.

[Hal...]

BTW, does anyone know what the song in this commercial is?

https://d3npuic909260z.cloudfront.ne...7/oZNw_360.mp4

I think it sounds like an early Who song... but not quite.

[Hal...]

As I thought, the New Zealand - Netherlands match was good. But I would say that the Dutch didn't win it so much as the Kiwis lost it. It became obvious in the last 20 or so minutes that the Kiwis started playing not to win but to not lose. There were way too many clearances, once the Kiwis got possession, instead of advancing the ball up field to put them into a position to try to score. And when the Dutch did score - in the 92nd minute, I'll add - there were hardly any Kiwis covering the Dutch in the box. It was as if the Kiwis suddenly forgot how to defend, which they'd been doing beautifully up until that point.

It was a disappointing finish to me.

[dropforge]

Did Japan beat Brazil?

When's the USA game?

[Hal...]

Japan and Brazil aren't in the same group so they wouldn't even play until the Round of 16, possibly.

USA vs Thailand in 25 minutes, 3pm EDT.

[thedunno]

I did not see the Netherlands - new zeeland game because i had to work.

Happy the Dutch won though.

[Hal...]

I did not see the Netherlands - new zeeland game because i had to work.

I think that's been the match of the tournament, so far. NZ held the Netherlands scoreless through 91 minutes.

Happy the Dutch won though.

I figured you would be. lol

[Hal...]

BTW, I'd like to point out that Jill Ellis, the US coach, is not starting Carli Lloyd. She's using her as a "super sub."

I don't know what she's thinking. But then, if anyone who watched the 2011 WC recalls, she couldn't figure out her starting lineup for about 3 matches. She had Lloyd playing as a midfielder. Once she put Lloyd up as a forward, the Cup was ours.

Someone tweeted this:

Attachment 13114

The person also said, "hopefully the team can win it all inspite of Jill."

I couldn't agree more.


Edit: Shit, I forgot my reason for posting... it was just reported that Alex Morgan hasn't scored in the last 3 matches. I also know from what I heard during their last match that Lloyd had scored 5x in the previous three matches.

[NogbadTheBad]

Good win for England against the auld enemy the other day. Scotland looked quite good and we got the benefit of a dodgy VAR penalty.