Monday, August 31, 2009

matchday 3 round up

finland 0-1 ukraine
ukraine leave the tournament with their heads high as finland made 5 changes to their starting lineup.

holland 2-1 denmark
denmark again failed to convert their chances, and holland in 2 incisive counter-attacks made them pay the price. denmark have been the disappointment of the tournament. could neither attack nor defend.

norway 1-1 france
elodie thomis can't score. the kind of chances she has had throughout the tournament, and no goals. her pace and trickery are key weapons in the french arsenal, but they have to find someone to be on the receiving end of the chances rather than her. france are vulnerable to crosses and are suspect defensively.

germany 1-0 iceland
germany made 6 changes and a sole inka grings goal ensured their 100%record.

sweden 1-1 england
england are very reliant on carney, because they focus on the flanks, and when the other winger is useless, carney has to do everything. the english team is slow, aside from aluko and carney. but they managed to shut out sweden, who scored from a penalty. you could also say sweden shut out england. basically the two teams cancelled each other out, though england looked sharper.

russia 0-2 italy
russia laid siege. italy changed to a 5-3-2 midway through the second half and got 2 goals.

team of the round
gk: picarelli (ita)
dl: thunebro (swe)
dc: white(eng)
dc: koster (ned)
dr: scott (eng)
ml: pekur (ukr)
mc: abily (fra)
mr: carney (eng)
aml: rasmussen (den)
amr: melis (ned)
fc: herlovsen (nor)

and so,
finland-england
france-holland
germany-italy
sweden-norway

i wonder if england were secretly smiling to themselves when they knew italy won their game 2-0, because they were just hurtling towards a date with germany. it is ironic sometimes how finishing third may be better off.

this is what we mean when we say: lose the battle win the war.

of course, if you want to win the tournament, ultimately, you have to beat everyone.

i see england, france, germany and sweden going through.

team of the group phase
gk: hjelmseth(nor)
dl: thunebro(swe)
dc: rohlin (swe)
dr: scott (eng)
dmc: bresonik (ger)
mc: seger (swe)
mc: abily (fra)
amc: kalmari (fin)
aml: van de ven(ned)
amr: carney(eng)
fc: panico(ita)

hjelmseth- a keeper who conceded 5? well if you don't take into account the three late german goals, and the fact that she almost got to bresonik's penalty, and that she made 40 saves in 3 games, she essentially only conceded the abily goal, which was a class goal. necib passed, abily pirouetted, and while falling, tucked the shot in.

scott and thunebro- the england-sweden game was a battle between the two full-backs, facing off one another. both are similar in that they can run and run and run, they can play ball, keep possession and attack.

rohlin is probably the steadiest centre-back in the tournament. hardly put a foot wrong, hardly a skewed clearance.

carney- other than kelly smith's goal, carney was involved in every england goal. won the penalty in the italy game, scored one, created one against russia, faye white headed in her freekick against sweden.

panico- i chose panico, despite the fact that italy's 8 won 2 player of the match awards, because she is the captain, she played alone upfront most of the time, and it is her intelligence and class that bring other teammates into the attack, and why the no8 could score. and she was the one who got the equaliser against england with an acrobatic shot.

you can tell that this is a very objective team selection, because louisa necib, my favourite player in this tournament is not in it.

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