Women's World Cup 2019

#21
No one really gets a break in the knockout round, but it seems strange that the winner of groups E and F has to play a 2nd place team, the other winners get 3rd place teams. It must be the draw, as you would think that FIFA would seed the highest ranked team to play one of those 3rd placers, but the group round is basically a tune up for the USWMT. It looks likely that the US team will play France in the quarters, and the winner of that may get England or Brazil or Japan in the semis.

The loser of the SWE-USA game gets Canada or Netherlands, then probably Germany. That is harder than Spain, then France.
 
#23
Some context for today's match (US / Sweden) at 3:00 PM ET. From Fox Sports...

USWNT looks for revenge against Sweden

The United States women's national team returns to the field against Sweden on Thursday (3 p.m. ET, FOX) in their final World Cup group stage match.

The USWNT have steamrolled the opposition to date — in two games, they’ve scored 16 goals and allowed none. Both Sweden and the United States have won their first two games and already are through to the knockout stage. Team USA can clinch the top spot in the group with a win or a draw.

The Swedes will be the USWNT’s toughest test so far. There's also animosity between the two squads because of a controversial game at the 2016 Rio Olympics, where the Swedes beat the reigning World Cup champs in the quarterfinals on penalty kicks. This game will provide insight into how the Americans will fare against the tournament’s top teams.

And we're not without some controversy. From FTW:

The idea of Video Assistant Referee (VAR) is great. When it comes to the most competitive and high-stakes moments in soccer, FIFA should use the available technology to correct missed calls.

As simple as that sounds, FIFA has found a way to monumentally screw that up. And because of that, Scotland's run at the Women's World Cup is done in the group stages.

During Wednesday's Group D match against Argentina, Scotland went up by three goals before Argentina came storming back within a goal. Argentina had a chance to tie the match with a penalty in stoppage time, but a clutch save from Scotland goalkeeper Lee Alexander appeared to put an end to that scare.

Then, VAR stepped in and ruined it all.

After a VAR review, it was determined that Alexander came off her line early by maybe six inches. She was given a yellow card, and Argentina's Florencia Bonsegundo had another shot at the penalty.

This time, she converted to draw level at 3-3.

That score would hold, which put Scotland from a potential advancing third-place position to last place in the group (and eliminated).

This particular application of VAR has been THE controversy of the Women's World Cup. The rule was applied with little notice, giving goalkeepers who have trained a certain way their entire lives no time to adjust. It takes thousands of reps for muscle memory to take effect under pressure, so it was unfair of FIFA to expect an adjustment to happen for this World Cup.

France beat Nigeria this week by the same dumb ruling.

Plus, it goes against the very spirit of VAR. The system should be used to fix obvious, game-changing errors. If you have to slow down a replay and zoom in to see that a goalkeeper left her line by a few inches, that's using technology to hurt the game - not help it.

Baseball deals with the same issue when it comes to players leaving the bag while tagged for a millisecond. Is it a correct call by the rule? I guess, technically. Is it dumb and the wrong use of replay? YES.
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No doubt, the second one raises all kinds of questions. - ilan
 
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#26
VAR is killing the goal keepers on the penalties. As long as the shooter in on frame, it should be automatic.

NED lucked on out the VAR review on the ref's penalty call, putting the spot outside the box.
 
#37
For sure, the quality of the UEFA teams is higher. Brazil, China and Japan have stepped back a little. Italy was the only group winner to lose a game, and that was to Brazil.

My prediction for the final 4... USA-ENG, GER-NED
 
#38
Germany wins easily, but the second game went to penalties. Norway wins over the Matildas, who had to play most of the extra time one down and only made 1 penalty kick. Sam Kerr did not have a good game, including a pure miss during her penalty kick, leaves the tournament tied with Alex Morgan for the Golden Boot.

Norway will be good match with England, if they win their match.
 
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