USA has to shoot more. They get it into the box and then go for the pass (especially that bizarre back pass?) instead of taking the shot. They had a few fairly wide open looks that they passed on. Take the shot, you never know what will happen – hand ball, lucky rebound, goalie error. You miss all the shots you don’t take. Looks like they’re going for finesse and perfect setups rather than shooting. Take the shot!
Netherlands handle the ball so well! After they got the goal, they took total control of the game for 20 minutes or more.
Nigeria beating Australia makes the final Canada-Australia group match very interesting. Basically it’s a knockout game, with Canada having draw odds and Australia playing at home.
I mean, sort of? They certainly dominated possession… but they barely ever looked threatening. Overall, the USA had like 10 serious chances and scored 1, and the Dutch had like 2.5 serious chances and scored 1. Obviously not a great showing for the US, but I think they were definitely the more threatening team, overall.
Nigeria beating Australia definitely a shock, and well earned from the look of the highlights.
I missed the first goal. I was switching back and forth between the soccer game and corgi racing on ESPNsomething.
So many channels, so little time.
Yes, I think that was their goal, since they were up one. They did a pretty fantastic job of keeping control after their goal.
My power is out for the second time this year, which is shocking for my normal expectations.
I’m missing games like crazy.
Long-time fans of the sport will be happy to know that Wrong Way Loki came back from last year’s embarrassing miscue to take first place this year.
I mean, it was clearly, objectively, not good enough, as the US equalized. Doesn’t do you any good to have 65% possession if the other team gets quality dangerous chances repeatedly during the 35% when they have the ball. I guess what I’m saying is, often times in a close game, possession can show you which team was generally better and generally had more chances. But in this game, that was not the case. The US had a minority of possession but a supermajority of actual threatening attacking sequences.
That’s an excellent point. US had the ball 44% of the time but had 18 shots on goal to 5 for the Dutch.
I’m only a casual fan, but it appeared to me that the US had the ball more in the second half than The Netherlands. The US certainly controlled the action in the second half.
I watched very keenly, there was a time in the first half when the Netherlands were very dominant, but most of the game, when they had the ball they didn’t do much with it.
[Moderating]
@Robot_Arm , if you want to make a thread about corgi racing, you’re more than welcome to. But this is the Women’s World Cup thread. If that doesn’t interest you, why are you in here?
It does interest me somewhat, and I’ve made multiple posts about the World Cup.
Just injecting a bit of levity about the corgi racing. I’ll stop.
Team USA is through to the round of 16 with a win or tie against Portugal, right? Are there other scenarios where they can make it, even if they lose? Netherlands losing to Vietnam or something, and then getting through on goal differential? Or, are they win or draw or go home?
Yes if they lose then they can still go through if Vietnam win (surely the most unlikely scenario of any possible 2 results).
USA and the Netherlands both have 4 points; Portugal has 3.
If I understand things correctly…
You are correct in the fact that Team USA will advance with a win or draw, regardless of the outcome of the Netherlands/Vietnam game. Likewise, the Netherlands will advance with a win or draw, regardless of the outcome of the other game.
If Team USA loses, Portugal will advance. Team USA will advance only if Netherlands loses to Vietnam and Team USA loses by two goals or less. If Team USA loses by 3 goals and Netherlands loses by 1 goal, the goal differential would be 0 for both sides, and I don’t know what the next tiebreaker is.
ETA: these two games are played at the same time.
The next tiebreaker is the number of scored goals, and then I think fairness. Last resort should be drawing lots.
I just saw highlights from the China/Haiti match. China seemed to get some favorable calls toward the end.
I had a power outage for 48 hours and missed a few games, but a finally back into the action again.
France beat Brazil. Was this expected?
It was a very close match, as expected. France won by an inch, but it could’ve gone the other way.
The biggest upset of the tournament so far is definitely Nigeria beating Australia. I was definitely also surprised by how systematically and thoroughly Sweden dismantled Italy.