FIFA Women's World Cup 2015: Canada

Xelebes

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So this is going on.

Today saw the largest attendance of a soccer match in Canadian history: just over 53 000. Next highest attendance was Montreal Impact versus. . . MExico City's team. Somewhere around 48 000 for that one.

Canada won the first match against China. Sloppy play by Canada infuriated by the Chinese walling but managed to break through that in the last 15 minutes when after some substitutions, more disciplined players (like Kyle) got on the field. We'll see if the team can reel in their tempers for the next match.
 

ajaye

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I saw the end of that game, loved the sea of red supporters, and hearing the stadium erupt with that winning goal :) I saw a lot of the second half of NZ v Netherlands - NZ constantly attacking but Netherlands defence brilliant. Looking forward to Aus v USA Tues morning our time.
 

mirandashell

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That penalty was a tad dodgy though. Argument both ways on that one. But she did take it well.

I'd love to watch more of the games but the second game was on at 2 in the morning here!
 

ajaye

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Eww 2am's a tough call. When is England playing?
 

robeiae

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So, what did we learn in the first round of matches?

1) Germany can score but we don't really know if they can defend.
2) Sweden is overrated or Nigeria is underrated (I think the latter).
3) Hope Solo may be a real ass, but she's without a doubt the best keeper in the tournament.
4) Expanding the number of teams mostly just added cannon fodder.
5) Colombia players are mean.
 

dolores haze

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Really enjoyed the US vs. Australia match. My sons and husband joined me to watch. My boys were recruited to be (somewhat reluctant) goalies for their Spring travel teams this year, and they were greatly impressed with Hope Solo. (Must be the daughter of Han and Leia, said the geekier one). They noted that there seemed to be less diving and injury-faking in the women's game, though one thought that might be because they're playing on turf and nobody wants to fall over on that stuff.

Why are they playing on turf?

I rarely watch US soccer, just tuning in 'cos it's the World Cup. Question: is the announcing always this bad?
 

mirandashell

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Do you mean commentating?

Ours is a bit ropey but it's fairly normal. Cos of the time difference I only get to see one game a day. The best one so far was Nigera v Sweden. Although Colombia v Mexico yesterday was pretty good.
 

robeiae

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They noted that there seemed to be less diving and injury-faking in the women's game...
Tell them to watch the Brazil matches.

I rarely watch US soccer, just tuning in 'cos it's the World Cup. Question: is the announcing always this bad?
Yes. It's always woeful. MLS is a little better in the U.S, but not much.

The problem is the networks think name recognition is important. They're wrong, imo. People get annoyed by crappy play by play. Foxsports should have just gone with the BPL broadcast teams, imo.
 

VeryBigBeard

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It's been a lot of fun so far. Bit disappointed to see the poor turnout in Moncton, though I gather there were logistical issues. The Maritimes (where I'm from, BTW) have a mixed history with soccer. We usually don't support even university soccer--it's all football and hockey here--but the one time Canada qualified for the men's world cup they did it by making Mexico play in St. John's.

That penalty was a tad dodgy though. Argument both ways on that one. But she did take it well.

I'd love to watch more of the games but the second game was on at 2 in the morning here!

Elbow someone in the side of the head, it's a foul. It's unfortunate for China and it was a broken play--but there's no reason for the Chinese defender to have her arms out there, let alone add the swing. Nail someone in the head and it's enough of a safety issue that it has to be called. She has to be responsible for her body and the other players, and if it happens to be in the box....

So, what did we learn in the first round of matches?

1) Germany can score but we don't really know if they can defend.
2) Sweden is overrated or Nigeria is underrated (I think the latter).
3) Hope Solo may be a real ass, but she's without a doubt the best keeper in the tournament.
4) Expanding the number of teams mostly just added cannon fodder.
5) Colombia players are mean.

Agree with all these. The thing about the cannon fodder though is that by being here, it brings attention to the women's game in some countries that badly, badly need some attention given to the women's game. There's also prize money, just for playing (it's FIFA). That can go a long way in some of these programs. They'll get better.
 

Xelebes

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Turf refers to astroturf and other facsimiles of real grass. I playing loose with the term "pitch" to imply the perhaps more snootier definition of real grass.
 

VeryBigBeard

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Turf in this context is probably FieldTurf. It's an artificial thingy made up of sand, rubber pellets, and green strands of plastic. It feels a lot more real than astroturf and plays very differently. It doesn't exactly play like real grass, though.

Moncton has turf. It has a grass pitch next door, but that one has had major issues when it rains and doesn't seat as many people. The main problem is that there aren't that many places in Canada where maintaining a good grass surface is possible without a dedicated venue and we just don't have many soccer specific stadia. There's a big controversy at BMO Field in Toronto because the Argos CFL team may move in there and no one's sure what will happen to the grass Toronto FC use. CFL can't use grass regularly without damaging it, and without using the CFL stadia Canada doesn't have anywhere near enough decent-sized venues.

FIFA has a rule that every surface has to be the same, thus turf. It would have been awesome if they had laid grass over the turf but I don't know if that would have held up for a month anyway.
 

mirandashell

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That makes sense really. It's better for every surface to be the same and the players will get used to it. As will the viewers.
 

Xelebes

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Any which way, I don't think Canada is going to go deep in this tournament. Our offense is very anemic outside of Sinclair. We will likely beat our group but not much after that.
 

VeryBigBeard

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A lot of people (not here) keep saying Herdman should put on Jessie Fleming and I agree with them because I like Fleming's game. But when a 17-year-old is what you've got on the bench to try and generate some creativity in midfield, you have a Problem.

It is a bit unfortunate that Canada's had to play two BunkerBall teams in its first two games. It's been hard to watch. I do think they can score when teams have to start opening up a bit come the knockouts. I'm more worried about the defensive miscues on simple passes. If they can eliminate those mistakes they could take the tried-and-tested Greco-Italian route and just not concede anything. They have looked good when space does open on the counter, but China and NZ didn't bother attacking so counters don't really happen.

I hate turf with a raging passion but that's because I have flat feet and when you do a double-header on an overused artificial surface around mid-day it's like running on boiling concrete. When it's new, like these pitches, it's pretty supple and not that different than a really short grass field.
 

VeryBigBeard

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I can think of two major ones:

-Neguel was, I gather, terrible in Mexico - Colombia.
-Domka's AR missed a massive offside in Ivory Coast - Thailand. Domka's a great ref but had an off night and her AR might be done.

Anything else, I'd say there's generous space for debate. I think Sweden should have had a penalty tonight, but there are reasons not to call that. The penalty Canada got against China was spot on. New Zealand probably should have had a penalty against the Dutch, maybe.

The nature of any World Cup is you get a couple newer refs from smaller countries where the leagues they see week in week out aren't anywhere near the same level of intensity. That's a hard adjustment to make. If you know what to look for, you can usually tell in 5-10 minutes when the referee is in over his or her head.

Sometimes, refs just have bad games. Just like players. I can assure you that they feel 100x worse than anyone else as that's happening.

FIFA's assigning can be a bit arcane, but in general, a ref who makes a massive mistake will be sent home.

ETA: By the way, you haven't lived until you've been in a ref meeting arguing about this stuff. It puts AW thread derails to shame.
 
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robeiae

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-Neguel was, I gather, terrible in Mexico - Colombia.
Yes

-Domka's AR missed a massive offside in Ivory Coast - Thailand. Domka's a great ref but had an off night and her AR might be done.
She missed more than one.

There have been other major errors. Some didn't result in a goal or take away a goal, but still impacted the game. And I don't get how the ref in the Aussie-Nigeria game kept the match going with Kerr clutching her face and writhing in agony off the ball. She can't be blamed for missing the elbow, but man, that's a head injury stoppage for sure. She was right there and basically walked over Kerr. Then there's the phantom loss of two minutes of stoppage time in one of the matches yesterday (forget which one).

I know it's not an easy job, but so what? Doing it poorly is still doing it poorly. Just as is the case with the players. Or the announcers.
 

mirandashell

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I am seriously surprised at how Sweden have performed. They are damn close to going out and for a team rated 5th, that's not good.