i watched the UEFA U19 women's semi-final between Germany and Norway, and the UEFA U19 men's group stage game between Spain and Hungary.
in both of of these two games, the favourites. Germany and Spain, were sent out of the tournament, the former by penalties, the latter, because their 0-1 defeat, coupled with Germany's 3-0 win over Bulgaria meant they had absolutely no chance of going through to the next round.
in both of these two games, the favourites dominated much of the game, had enough chances to put the game beyond doubt.
in the Germany-Norway game, Germany totally dominated the first half, but only had one goal. in fact, it was very obvious that they were the better team. Julia Simic, Marie Pollmann, Kim Kulig were just a class above. in the second half, Norway took the game to Germany, and the game started to be more open. Norway totally looked like a different team, and you were wondering if maybe they should have taken this approach right from the start, rather than show Germany that respect, or fear. then, Norway got a very, very lucky break from a horrible blunder from the german keeper. their number 10, Elisa Enget took advantage of poor control from the keeper to tap in the equaliser, and for the next part of the game, the Germans looked like the Norwegians, and vice versa.
this is basically my point. morale. in times of crisis, you need someone to come in and provide that inspiration, to lift the team. it was a very simple goal, but if you look at it again, you realise that the moment the backpass was played, Enget had made her run to pressure the keeper. that's why she is a key player. at that moment when they needed someone, she was there.
of course the germans were too good and started to reassert themselves again. but they couldnt finish, and the game went into extra time, then penalties.
which is my next point. the germans missed the first two penalties. the first was very unlucky, because it was really a very good penalty, low and hard to the left, beat the keeper but not the post. the 2nd taker, Wagner, always looked like she wasnt going to score. you can tell from her face and body language. the third taker was Pollmann, who took it well. the 4th taker, Mirlach was a centre-back. she scored as well, but the two misses earlier on proved costly.
so basically, the 5th taker didnt get to take the penalty. who was she? kulig had already been taken out. so my guess was either Simic or the captain Weber. so why was Wagner the one who took that second penalty?
unless you are telling me the captain can't take penalties. i think in a shoot-out, the captain must take a penalty, because he/she isnt the captain for nothing. i know simic can take penalties because she took all of their set-pieces. so i didnt understand why someone not confident was sent to take a penalty.
and now, on to the Spain game. the number 9 Nsue had tears on his face after missing a 1-0n-1, with i think less than 10 minutes remaining. why was he crying? that was his 4th miss of the game. at least 4th. because i can tell you these 4 chances were really very, very good chances. really the kind of it-is-easier-to-score-than-miss chances.
when i saw him crying, i thought if i were the manager, i would be shouting at him to stop crying and get on with the game, because there was still time.
as it was, Hungary held on to win 1-0. of course other players had chances as well, but the most glaring misses belonged to Nsue. no wonder he was distraught.
it affected me alot, because i have seen players cry after games,
but not during games. of course it doesnt reflect mental strength on his part, but at least you know, he cared enough.
you think adebayor will cry when he misses his 10th chance of the game and Arsenal loses 1-0?
you think ronaldo will cry if John Terry hadnt missed that penalty and Chelsea had won the champions' league?
watching these two games have been, in a way, refreshing because these 2 games bring football back to the basics, back to its roots,
without the money.on another note, it is interesting to see how the world has changed simply by looking at the names of the players. i was watching abit of the Germany-Bulgaria game as well. in both the men and women U19 Germany teams, there are quite a few ungerman surnames. that tells you abit about immigration.
to me, they are easily the best attacking team in the j-league. i love the way they move the ball up the field so quickly, the options are always there. that's what make them tick. the midfield has no wingers. for what? in toru araiba, a defender who wears the number 7, that tells you a bit about him, and uchida, they essentially have 2 wingers and 2 full-backs. and motoyama and marquinhos are more than able to drift to the flanks to take over the winger duties as well.