2023 World Cup General Match Thread

[Unnamed Trialist]

Just now, kacbru said:

What was the issue that led to the handful of players not playing? 

Ufff!

Sorry, too complicated on my phone. At the half I'll try to summarize.

Edited August 5, 2023 by Unnamed Trialist

[kacbru]

What composure by Bonmati 

[Unnamed Trialist]

Just now, kacbru said:

What composure by Bonmati 

She's an absolute angel, but imagine when Putellas is on form, Bonmatí is just the sidekick.

[BearcatSA]

There'll be more goals.

[Unnamed Trialist]

Just now, BearcatSA said:

There'll be more goals.

You think?

[BearcatSA]

3 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

You think?

Yep 😉

[BearcatSA]

Well, off to sleep.  I can watch the pvr of the other match in the morning.  Night night.

[kacbru]

It must be pretty rare for a keeper to get their first international cap in the knockout round of the World Cup. 

[Unnamed Trialist]

6 hours ago, kacbru said:

What was the issue that led to the handful of players not playing? 

It's a fair question, and there has been a lot of misinterpretation.

After the Euros, where Spain fell to eventual winner England, and if you saw the quarter final game was at their level, there seemed to be discontent amongst the core players. 

In early autumn it got out that fifteen players had sent a private email asking for changes at the Federation. Without saying they wanted coach Vilda out, they implied they could not reach their potential under the current circumstances. And that they did not feel they could represent the country if there were not changes. Making themselves unavailable.

The Federation leaked this, it included the core of Barça players, some at Atlético, not many from Real Madrid. But not Golden Ball Alexia Putellas, since she was on a long-term injury and was not part of the Euro group in the end.

Then the Federation made a statement that criticized the attitude and the idea of making oneself "ineligible " for selection. In Spain there is a rather strict sporting law saying if you are called into a national team you must go, if you refuse you risk being administratively ruled out of future callups.

The most polemical part was where the Federation said any player who wanted back in had to apologize publicly, suggesting there had to be an open confession of sorts to gain redemption. This was seen as being heavy handed.

Many observers internationally took this as if Vilda had been abusing the players, or there were insinuations that there could have even been something worse, it was a bit of a witch hunt against the guy. When there is no evidence of anything. He is a guy whose dad was in the Federation and he only has pedigree as the women's coach, has not done anything else. A Federation bureaucrat of sorts.

The Federation's perspective, and mine as well, is that no player can dictate how a Federation is run or who they sign as coach. Which seemed to be what they wanted to do. 

Previously, in June 2021, many of the same Barça players had indeed forced out the coach that took us to our first Champions League, Lluís Cortés, it seemed a repetition of an overreaching attitude, wanting to pull all the strings.

Meanwhile, Spain beat the US in the fall (edit: without the 15… with a B team…effectively deepening the squad) and got results that put them into 6th spot in rankings, relegating Canada to Pot 2, the rest is our ignominious history. 

This really festered until just before the roster announcement. The players that seemed to want to stay out of the picture are Mapi León, the keeper Paños (though some are not sure about this), perhaps Patri Guijarro, the MVP of the Champions Final, then striker Claudia Piña, all Barça players. All with the quality to be called into a 23-25 woman roster.

For me, even though Vilda does a good job, this lack of feeling with the squad should mean the Federation makes a move for another coach, and let his time with the Spanish nats be up.

Edited August 5, 2023 by Unnamed Trialist

[kacbru]

Thanks, really appreciate that. 

[kacbru]

7 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

For me, even though Vilda does a good job, this lack of feeling with the squad should mean the Federation makes a move for another coach, and let his time with the Spanish nats be up

Could be hard to move on from the coach if they keep playing like this, rather than how they played against Japan. Japan were good, but Spain did not look great that game. 

[Gian-Luca]

Based on the highlights, the Norwegians were done in by self-inflicted wounds. As for Spain vs Switzerland, that was the sort of result I was expecting as I didn’t think the Swiss were very good even before this match - they looked particularly guileless in the highlights 

[BearcatSA]

5 hours ago, Gian-Luca said:

Based on the highlights, the Norwegians were done in by self-inflicted wounds. As for Spain vs Switzerland, that was the sort of result I was expecting as I didn’t think the Swiss were very good even before this match - they looked particularly guileless in the highlights 

Norway is like watching Canada.  They have bigger time athletes than the Swiss but little different in the overall technical abilities, bar one or two individually talented/world class level players.  They "out-athlete" teams, especially with an aerial threat.  You could see Japan looking vulnerable in the final 15+ minutes as their energy levels dropped and that is something other future opponents probably note as well, but their instinctive individual skills, decsion making and execution were a level above Norway.

 

[Unnamed Trialist]

Netherlands are miles ahead of South Africa, I'm not surprised. It's a close game, with a keeper blunder, but SA just boot the ball randomly half the time. They lack pretty well everything, except the odd player. Perfectly justified win for the Dutch, who for me are solid in all lines and have both conditioning and technical skill. 

A reasonable candidate for semis.

[BearcatSA]

9 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Netherlands are miles ahead of South Africa, I'm not surprised. It's a close game, with a keeper blunder, but SA just boot the ball randomly half the time. They lack pretty well everything, except the odd player. Perfectly justified win for the Dutch, who for me are solid in all lines and have both conditioning and technical skill. 

A reasonable candidate for semis.

I'm not that big on the Dutch.   Though they were a clear class above South Africa, they didn't look good in the second half vs the US.  They strike me as a finesse frontrunner and not a grind it out, find a way to win against top class opponents kind of side in this tournament.  Their keeper made some key first half saves to preserve that one goal lead and hide some back line vulnerabilities.

Their road ends in the QFs because they won't get by Spain.

[kacbru]

RSA are rather unidimensional, but Kgatlana can make something exciting out of nothing.  Too bad she doesn't have the finesse for the final touch, otherwise she could have had a couple of goals completely against the run of play in the first half alone.

[BearcatSA]

USA-Sweden is up next.  The Americans are under the gun and having to circle-the-wagons in the face of fierce home criticism, while the Swedes need to show that they have the bottle for the big occasion (didn't show it in the Olympic final two years ago and at other times).

I think the US will do enough to find a way to win this match up.

[Unnamed Trialist]

4 hours ago, BearcatSA said:

I'm not that big on the Dutch.   Though they were a clear class above South Africa, they didn't look good in the second half vs the US.  They strike me as a finesse frontrunner and not a grind it out, find a way to win against top class opponents kind of side in this tournament.  Their keeper made some key first half saves to preserve that one goal lead and hide some back line vulnerabilities.

Their road ends in the QFs because they won't get by Spain.

As a Spain fan, I am rightly worried about the Dutch. Spain, as I have been saying, is missing key pieces, has a few wrong ones on the field, it is not at its best. It is a team that can be exploited. So while I think there is a slight edge, it is still a fairly even match.

[kacbru]

Go Sweden! 

[Colonel Green]

Sweden looking distinctly second-best thus far.

[Colonel Green]

Well, second-best everywhere except in net.

[narduch]

Heading to pks

[Colonel Green]

Musovic has been keeping Sweden in this all game, so it's a bit harsh that it's probably going to be all on her to win this now.

[Colonel Green]

There'll be a lot of angst on the American side over this, and obviously the program does have things to think about, but they were clearly the better team in this game, Sweden got bailed out by Musovic. It happens.

[Gian-Luca]

On the other hand, if they had won the group as favourites they wouldn’t have faced Sweden in the round of 16 in the first place, so there will be lots of finger pointing about that. I can’t imagine the coach makes it to the Olympics