Wednesday, June 29, 2011

norway 1 equatorial guinea 0

norway were very disappointing in the first half. attacks break down before even reaching the attacking third, passes easily cut out. they didnt put any pressure in midfield and equatorial guinea took quite a few good long shots, testing hjelmseth who was up for it. the norwegians were not in the game, both offensively and defensively. they were too static, not enough movement to create space, and not enough pressure to destroy space. the guineans caused problems with their pace and long shots. once again, hjelmseth was keeping her team in play.

norway started coming into the game in the last 15 minutes of the first half, but were playing too many long high balls into the middle.

norway took off giske for mykjaland at half time and started the second half better. mykjaland added some impetus to the attack though norway were still lacking in terms of creativity.

to be honest, equatorial guinea looked more likely to score, but in the 84th minute, norway cruelly grabbed that redeeming goal, emilie haavi getting on to the end of kaurin's drilled ball across.

norway triumphed 1-0 in the end, but equatorial guinea should have won this game.

it was basically ingrid hjelmseth versus anonman. and where hjelmseth was already stranded, anonma couldnt hit the target.

norway have gotten the 3 points, but not in the emphatic manner i was expecting. i was looking forward to this game, because this should be the game where norway shows if they have the attacking quality that you need to go far.

as it stands, it appears that norway will have problems even in defence, their supposedly strong suit.

they don't seem to have a plan. if you take off madeleine giske at half-time, then her replacement lene mykjaland on 70 minutes for leni laursen kaurin, then i have to wonder if the coach knows her team well.

and before that lisa-marie woods' blog entries seem to hint of massive politicking in the team, though she has since clarified and denied it.

these make me wonder if all is well in the norwegian camp.

equatorial guinea, on the other hand, can hold their heads up.

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