Here is my occasional report of Women's international football
While the matches I have seen (3 with Germany, against Japan, Denmark and Norway - group A and 3 with Sweden against China, Sweden, Iceland - group B.), the tournament has been a bit disappointing, i.e. nothing you would be sorry to have missed it. Maybe with the exception of Sweden vs USA.
Group A:
If I would use the word boring, I would assign that to group A. Results were very close. The commentators said that women teams have now more caught up with one another.
I had the impression
Japan was just bored themselves and unwilling to invest something not showing their pacing style and superb saveness with passes, they showed in the great world cup finale 2011 against USA. OK, they played against Germany that is attack oriented - I do not know, if it is because there are so many new, young players and so much exchanges during matches and the coach is testing recently - but, if Japan can win against USA, the world no.1, I would not expect the match to be centered in the mid-field and looking slow. Japan being one of the rare teams not trying out new players and having almost the team they had during the last two years. It ended in 2:1 (Germany winning).
Denmark, not a real competition for Germany normally managed a 0:0. I already said earlier that this was a slower, boring match (with some badly shot passes by Germany and less of an impression of sovereignty.
Norway, with a new old coach. A coach that had won the Euro Cup title with Norway in 1995 and after that trained Canada and Trinidad & Tobago, although I do not understand why they (commentators) are always making these relations to a different time. Especially in women's football, where from the two years I do watch it now, I have the impression, that they are still on their way of an evolution, though maybe faster (20 years) compared to men's football.
Norway was a complete "test-team" for the coach it seemed, it was two different teams that were used for two of the matches. But efficiently enough, while always a team that gets in the k.o.-phases of big tournaments, you won't expect them to be there in the end - but, tada!, they played 2:0!!! against Japan, a 0:0 against Denmark, which better describes both teams and a 0:2 against Germany. They did good defense jobs, while looking sometimes insecure, but gaining confidence in the second half. It was the (if this can be said) most interesting match of group A. Giving Germany's players the chance to show more technique (or should I say "to show off") and showing better passing than in the other two matches, which was not very effective given the number of chances.
Group winner: Germany (7 points, with low engagement or profession or lack of experience players)
2nd: Norway (4 points, 2 worse than Mexico - group C - and 1 worse than Sweden, but they had the better goal-to-goal relation)
Group B:
Let me recall, if I remember right...
China vs Sweden, was an equal game, with china looking unexpectedly good. result 1:1, will maybe be interesting to see how China looks in future tournaments, though I find their style not really attractive/entertaining, looks more like "socialist state gymnastics" (forgive me). Sweden making their goal from a corner. Thunebro (outer left wing defender) cicking the ball about 5m to another player, getting it back, dancing fourth and back, turning around and shooting from a distance of perhaps 18-20m from the goal (about 45° from the left end line). China lost 0:5 against USA, won 1:0 against Iceland.
Iceland vs Sweden
shooting gallery for Sweden, but Iceland's goalkeeper did a good job minimising the loss to "only" 6 goals for Sweden. Iceland got a lucky goal near the end. 1:6 ending result. It is interesting to add that Iceland lost 3:0 against the USA "B"-team.
USA vs Sweden
as I said the most attractive match (though still not as nice as the olympia or world cup matches). USA with Wambach getting back from an injury which was why she was not used in the other two matches. US goal keeper Hope Solo is in pause for 4 month because of an injured hand. The new goal keeper did a good job though, while you would like to admit that of course the whole team added to that impression, getting in Sweden's way.
Sweden also had its second goalkeeper, who replaced the goal keeper Lindahl, who I found to be playing to risky (going before the 16m line a lot and making a lot of the Olympia goals of other teams possible, though one could have seen that in the world cup, too). That said, I wonder if running before the 16m line is a "special feature"
of Swedish goal keepers. She did it far less and even was successful doing this against China, she was back in the box just about the right time to catch it, when it got fired back directly.
The one swedish goal was a long ball from near the center circle from a follow up shot of the US goalkeepers defending action in the 4th minute. (The Swedish coach, who was the former US coach, was shaking her head in the last 10minutes, smiling, because both teams created a lot of chances)
The match went fourth and back to both sides. The US made their goal of a standard per head by Alex Morgan.
The US now has the former Coach of the Australian team. I do not know, if this is a disadvantage, but it might be an advantage that the swedish coach had trained the US for so long until recently (half a year).
Sweden by the way had to win this to get to the finale and lost it. The US needed a draw. end result 1:1
Finale: USA vs Germany (since the Swedish encounter was faster and given the two friendlies against Germany, I hope for a fast match here).
3rd place: Sweden vs Norway. (a bit of a surprise)
--> both matches Wednesday.
Group C (Mexico -covered in Group A comparison-wise, Hungary, Wales and Portugal):
couldn't see one match.
Sorry for that long post!
