USWNT: Get Lucky.

 #USWNT #FIFAWWC #EqualPay #USANED #USAvNED 

USA: 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup Champions

THE TOURNAMENT REPLAYED – “There will be a before and after the Women’s World Cup 2019,” said FIFA President Gianni Infantino at the closing press conference of the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019™.

The 'during' was certainly eventful, as USA retained the title they won at Canada 2015 and lifted the trophy for a fourth time. Runners-up in only their second appearance in the competition, the Netherlands continue to make history of their own, two years after winning the European title, while Sweden claimed a top-three finish for the fourth time. As for France, they fulfilled their promise to stage the greatest Women’s World Cup of all time.

The champions
Led by their two captains, Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe, USA cruised through the group stage, which they began with a tournament-record 13-0 defeat of Thailand. When tested by world-class opposition in the shape of Spain, France and England in the knockout rounds, the Americans found a way, scoring early in each match and withstanding everything their opponents had to throw at them. And when it came to the final hurdle, the USWNT lived up to their reputation, beating the Netherlands thanks to stellar performances from Rapinoe and breakthrough star Rose Lavelle.

Memorable moments
Oranje make history: While they ended the tournament in tears following their Final defeat, the Dutch will be returning home heroines. Tournament newcomers only four years ago, they are now officially the second best team on the planet.

Tokyo here we come: With France 2019 doubling up as the UEFA qualifying competition for next year’s Women's Olympic Football Tournament, the Dutch also booked a place at Tokyo 2020. They will be joined there by losing semi-finalists Sweden and England. The three European places available at the Olympics have rarely been so hard to claim, with seven of the eight quarter-finalists at France 2019 all hailing from the continent.

Famous firsts: Tournament debutants South Africa, Chile, Scotland and Jamaica all scored their first Women’s World Cup goals, though only La Roja managed to go on and win a match, against Thailand. Spain also earned their maiden world finals victory, while Argentina and Scotland collected first-ever points thanks to their dramatic 3-3 draw.

Individual performers: Mana Iwabuchi (Japan), Caroline Graham Hansen (Norway), Asisat Oshoala (Nigeria), Gabrielle Onguene (Cameroon), Sam Kerr (Australia) and Cristina Girelli (Italy) all excelled on the big stage but were unable to take their teams any further than the Round of 16 or quarter-finals. Picking out individual stars from the four semi-finalists was a tough task, although Lucy Bronze and Ellen White (England), Rose Lavelle and Julie Ertz (USA), Sofia Jakobsson and Caroline Seger (Sweden), and Vivianne Miedema and Jackie Groenen (Netherlands) all played big parts in their teams’ superb campaigns.

French dream unfulfilled: Perhaps the most eagerly awaited match of the tournament, the quarter-final between hosts France and defending champions USA proved to be an engrossing and suspenseful battle that eventually went the way of the world’s top-ranked team. Once their tears of disappointment had dried, however, Les Bleues could take pride from the passion and enthusiasm they had aroused across the country thanks to their fine performances and exemplary spirit.

End of an era?: France 2019 may well prove to be the World Cup swansong for some of the world's finest players. Among the stars perhaps bidding adieu are the Brazilian trio of Marta, Formiga and Cristiane, Canada’s goalscoring legend Christine Sinclair, Norway keeper Ingrid Hjelmseth, and USA idols Carli Lloyd, Megan Rapinoe and Ali Krieger. While the future is in safe hands with the next generation of talents, these star performers are sure to be missed if they do not return to the big stage in 2023.

Participants
Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China PR, England, France, Germany, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Korea Republic, Nigeria, Norway, New Zealand, Netherlands, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, USA

Final standings

USA
The Netherlands
Sweden
England
Host cities
Grenoble, Le Havre, Lyon, Montpellier, Nice, Paris, Reims, Rennes, Valenciennes

Goals scored
146 (average of 2.8 per match)

Awards

adidas Golden Ball: Megan Rapinoe (USA)
adidas Silver Ball: Lucy Bronze (ENG)
adidas Bronze Ball: Rose Lavelle (USA)
adidas Golden Boot: Megan Rapinoe (USA)
adidas Silver Boot: Alex Morgan (USA)
adidas Bronze Boot: Ellen White (ENG)
adidas Golden Glove: Sari van Veenendaal (NED)
FIFA Young Player Award: Giulia Gwinn (GER)
FIFA Fair Play Trophy: France
SEE YOU AT THE FIFA WOMEN’S WORLD CUP IN 2023!

FULL REPLAY - DRAW for FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019™

#FIFAWWC #France2018

United States of America: 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup Champions

A scarcely believable four-goal salvo inside the opening 16 minutes meant there was only ever going to be one winner to the joy of the largely pro-USA 53,341 crowd in Vancouver. 

USA were quickest to the ball from the opening whistle and immediately reaped greater rewards than they could ever have imagined. A low driven Megan Rapinoe corner from the right deceived a flat-footed Japan defence and Lloyd finished first time from near the penalty spot to put a perfect flourish to a training ground move. 

Barely 150 seconds had passed on the stadium clock but, incredibly it was about to get even better for the Stars and Stripes. A low free-kick from Lauren Holiday evaded a swathe of players before the ball found its way, almost magnetically, to Lloyd who applied the finishing touch from close range. USA were 2-0 up inside five minutes and Lloyd had nabbed the two fastest goals in Women’s World Cup Final history. 

Japan were looking uncharacteristically shaky at the back and when central defender Azusa Iwashimizu failed to deal with a Tobin Heath delivery, Holiday latched onto the loose ball to volley home. Only fourteen minutes had elapsed but USA already had one hand on the trophy. 

Just two minutes later the contest was effectively over as Lloyd completed a 13-minute hat-trick with a goal straight from the realms of fantasy. Collecting the ball inside her own half Lloyd advanced before unleashing a high shot from the halfway line over the head of Ayumi Kaihori, whose desperate back-peddling only resulted in finger-tipping the ball onto the inside of the post and into the net. 

Incredibly Lloyd, playing the match of her life, almost immediately scored another, heading just wide and narrowly failing to become the first person to score four in a World Cup Final of either gender. Then it was the turn of Alex Morgan who made a trademark driving run into the box and although she did not make full connection with her shot Kaihori was still forced into a diving save.

However, Japan grabbed a much-needed goal midway through the opening half thanks to inspired finishing from Yuki Ogimi who ended Hope Solo’s run of 540-minute unbeaten run by superbly spinning away from marker Julie Johnston and coolly firing home.

The Nadeshiko momentarily looked like they would pull another goal back three minutes later and only some fine scrambling defening prevented a clear shot on goal with Aya Miyama’s final shot unable to trouble Solo. 

Japan coach Norio Sasaki threw caution to the wind making two substitutes inside 40 minutes. The heroine of the 2011 Final, Homare Sawa, firstly entered the fray soon followed by forward Yuika Sugasawa, in place of central defender Iwashimizu and Nahomi Kawasumi. 

Five minutes after the break Morgan Brian forced Kaihori to push a long-rage effort over the crossbar, but it was Japan who managed to reduce the deficit further as Johnston could only get a glancing header on Miyama’s perfectly-flighted free-kick inadvertently directing the ball past Solo. 

Yet USA restored their three-goal margin almost immediately as Heath netted from close range after Morgan Brian provided the assist after Kaihori was unable to deal with a corner. 

Striker Morgan then looked to get her name on the scoresheet with a sharp turn and shot narrowly wide. While there were to be no further goals, some of the biggest roars of the day were reserved for the late introductions of veterans Abby Wambach and Christie Rampone. 

Live Your Goals Player of the Match: Carli Lloyd (USA) 

From When Saturday Comes...

No media mercy for German women's team

12 July ~ When Nottingham Forest's 42-game unbeaten League run came to an end with a 2-0 defeat at Liverpool in November 1978, Forest manager Brian Clough stood at the Anfield tunnel and applauded the players off the field. In a post-match interview, he was praised by the BBC reporter for his sporting attitude towards the victorious Liverpool side. Clough chastised the reporter for his erroneous assumption. "I wasn't applauding Liverpool," is approximately what I remember him saying. "I was applauding my lads. They just went unbeaten for a year, don't you think they deserve it?" There's no such generous praise for the German's women team in their domestic media after their 12-year unbeaten record in the Women's World Cup came to an end with a quarter-final defeat against Japan at the weekend. There's little or no tribute to the fact that they won the World Cup twice in succession, and that they've been European champions now a total of seven times. You're only as good as your last win in Germany, and its football media has fully exercised its freedom to criticise, just as it relentlessly flails the men's team for anything that approaches an under-par performance. Harsh as the critiques may be, Germany's fervently free press never fails to throw up worthwhile points of discussion, as though to make up for all its past epochs of censorship. With only one gutter rag on the market (Bild), the quality regional papers boast a wide array of football writers who would never expect to be ostracised by a club for, say, asking awkward questions or writing critical columns. That environment of hard, realistic analysis has been reflected in the lack of sentimentality at Germany's unexpected exit. Peter Ahrens of Spiegel Online blamed the German defeat partly on the German FA's relentless hype. "The DFB wanted to have its cake and eat it: it wanted to perfectly market the players and the tournament, and at the same time have the maximum sporting success." But when it came to winning the most important game, "long balls were smacked into the box again and again, gambling on the physical inferiority of the Japanese combined with our superior strength in the air. When that didn't work, a great vacuum opened up: there was no Plan B." Ahrens questioned the wisdom of having extended coach Silvia Neid's contract to 2016 just four days before the start of the tournament. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung retrospectively found that all-pervasive complacency was at the root of Germany's exit. "This World Cup was supposed to lift women's football [in Germany] to new dimensions," wrote Michael Horeni. "The triumph was already scripted into the production, and was constituent to the success of the whole plan. And this plan contained no scenario excluding Germany from the final." Germany's failure, he went on, illustrated how much the norms have shifted in women's football, and that the show had become bigger than the actors who thought they were in the starring roles. Markus Völker in the Tageszeitung expanded on that theme, noting: "There are no more hopeless outsiders, the underdogs are baring their teeth." That, he said, was the new order, and rightly so. "We're watching the best Women's World Cup ever. That is, above all, football. At last! Because football is also about not knowing how the game will end. Women's football has become more unpredictable." Claudio Catuogno echoed that in the Süddeutsche Zeitung: "That the world champions are not Germany every time shows how competitive women's football has become. All disappointment aside, it's proof of a new quality." But before we get too touchy-feely, here was Oliver Fritsch at Zeit Online with the knives out for Neid. The coach had the team available for three months of preparation, something men's coach Joachim Löw "can only dream of. Such a long time in the barracks demands clever leadership. Yet Neid is seen as over-strict, mistrustful, and cultivating a climate of control, even of fear. Creativity has to fight its way out. Did any single player show any further development at this World Cup?" It's sometimes hard to read the German sports press without thinking they're a bunch of hyper-critical whiners who just don't know how lucky they are. All those World Cups and European championships, for both women's and men teams, and they're still never happy. But the kind of heavily introspective, forward-looking, free-thinking football writing rarely attained by most British papers, with the notable exception of the Guardian, is crucial to a vibrant and constructive discourse about the nation's biggest sport, and nothing but beneficial to the game. It's only one factor behind Germany's ongoing success at the top level, but any fondness for dwelling on past triumphs will always be usurped by the desire for continued progress. As legendary German coach Sepp Herberger's deceptively simplistic truism famously stated: "After the game is before the game." Ian Plenderleith

Hello, Canadian fart-sniffers.

As if things weren’t bad enough for Canadian soccer, seeing that the women’s national team, a.k.a. “Big Red”, give up a late goal to Australia and see them knocked out of the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the salt was rubbed in the already gaping wounds of those who followed the round ball up in the Great White North.

That bunch of fart-sniffers, also known as the Canadian Soccer Association, decided to give CONCACAF, and Canadian associated football aficionados in general, the middle finger by rejecting an offer to host the CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying tournament.

To which BoBA responds simply with, “What is this faggotry!?”

From the London Free Press:

CHENGDU, CHINA -- The battleground is supposed to be 28,269 seat Chengdu Sports Stadium in the middle of downtown in this Sichuan Province capital city of seven million people.

It's where Canada plays Australia tomorrow in the go on or home game in Group C of the Women's World Cup.

But it was a practice field behind a bowling alley here yesterday where the shots were being fired as the Canadian players expressed disappointment and coach Even Pellerud and manager Les Meszaros escalated their outrage at the Canadian Soccer Association here yesterday.

That's where the spit hit the fan with the revelation on Sunday that the CSA turned down a CONCACAF request to play host to the Olympic qualifying tournament.

Angus Barrett of St. John's, the head of delegation, executive member of the association and director at large, was confronted by media members here to explain the decision.

He said the CSA, an organization currently without a president, a CEO or an executive director, "couldn't afford the $300,000 to $400,000 it would cost" to play host to the six-team tournament in Canada despite the advantage it would give Canada in getting to next summer's Beijing Olympic Games. The event is now likely to be held in Haiti.

"Haiti can afford it but Canada can't?" said Meszaros. "How do you explain that to the Canadian public?"

You can't. Especially after Pellerud, who is on the final year of his contract, was inspired to reveal more of the dirty details.

"We're talking about pocket money. We could easily get all that money back in ticket sales if we put up the money," he said of the event next March.

Do the math. It's chump change.

Pellerud said he'd even arranged a local organizing committee to play host to the event in Victoria.

"I told the association they could take the money out of our team budget. That was my offer to them. We believed there would be no problem at all recovering it. The CSA simply didn't want to make the effort to do it. It's a very big disappointment to me and the whole team."

Kara Lang, a member of the Canadian team which finished in the final four of the Women's World Cup four years ago but then lost the get-to-the-Olympics game against Mexico in the qualifying tournament in Costa Rica, said it was "extremely disappointing" to the team.

"It really would have put us at an advantage. It would have made it a lot easier."

"It's disappointing for sure," said veteran Andrea Neil. "I don't know if there are reasons for it that we don't understand."

Barrett said: "The CSA decided it would cost us too much to host. Next year is going to be a very expensive year with World Cup qualifying games for the men's team and the women's team preparations for the Olympic qualifying. There are huge demands for national teams next year."

He said despite setting a record attendance of 1,192,161 in playing host to the recent FIFA U-20 World Cup, the association managed to lose money. Five years ago, the association played host to the FIFA U-19 Women's World Championships centred in Edmonton and made enough money to cover costs and pay FIFA host seeding money back.

Barrett didn't dispute the advantage it would give Canada to qualify at home.

"I agree. There's no doubt about it," he said. "I don't blame Even one bit. He wants the best for his players."

And the CSA doesn't? Where there's a will, there's a way.

Pellerud showed the will and the way.

The Canadian Soccer Association has clearly lost their way. The organization has become a national disgrace.

No question, this group of fart-sniffers has no respect for the game itself, and one must ask of their qualification to make these types of faggotrical decision-making. I, for one, am disgusted, and laugh at their faces in smite, as Haiti, a once war-torn country where Jean Bertrand Aristide ran amok like Baron Samedi on a Sunday morning, will pick up the pieces and do the right thing for once.

“They who give the middle finger to an excellent opportunity must be shot, and left to rot in the street.” -Anonymous