Today sees whatever the female equivalent of David verses Goliath would be in EnGerLand facing Cameroon and a true heavyweight clash with hosts France taking on Brasil. A veritable feast of football awaits us. Before we preview those games, we will have a quick look back at yesterday's games and also discuss the issue of who coaches the women's teams.
Sadly, and I say that with no malice towards the Shermans, they brushed aside Nigeria 3-0. The Nigerians gave of their best but it was not enough and their inexperience shone through. The challenge which lead to the Shermans being awarded a penalty was rather nasty although not intentional.
The Shermans do what they are good at
In the other game, Norway went through on penalties against Australia, a sad way to go out for the Maltildas. I predicted Australia to win due to strength of character, and they did not disappoint in that department coming back from a goal down and having a player rather harshly sent off, but in the end it was not to be. Sam Kerr, probably one the best strikers in the game took the first penalty for Australia and tried to outdo Roberto Baggio from the 1994 men's world cup final. People who do not play football find it hard to understand what is so difficult in taking a penalty. See for yourselves.
Hard way to lose
Baggio in 1994 World Cup final, doesn't get worse than that
Of the sixteen teams who made it through to the knock out stages, only six have a woman coach, leaving ten with a man in charge. I am not sure what to think here, it is an interesting point to discuss. If it is a game played by women with women acting as the referees and lines people. why should any of the coaches be men ?
The Americans, arguably the best team in women's football history have had a female coach for the majority of the last twenty years and it has not seemed to harm their performances. Germany, France, Japan, Italy and Holland are the other teams with female coaches.
EnGerLand were coached for a number of years by Hope Powell, but she never achieved the success that was desired, so it was decided to bring in a man. The previous coach, Mark Sampson was fired in 2017 for alleged racist remarks he made in the dressing room about some of his players. He has spent time in rehabilitation with the Kick it Out program designed to get rid of racism in football.
He was replaced by a Phil Neville, a man with no previous managerial experience who played most of his career for a mediocre team from the North West of EnGerLand, whose name I will not write here,so as not to soil the pages of this blog. (aka Red Scum).
To be fair to Neville, the team have performed well under his guidance and he recently led them to victory in the SheBelieves Cup, it will be interesting to see how far they go.
Bottom line is though, I think it is a bit patronizing to appoint someone like Neville as coach. There would never be a woman given the role of coach of a high profile national team, even if she did have tons of experience and success on her resume.
Today we will be able to gauge the progress of EnGerLand as the "Lionesses" or "Three Lionesses" do battle with the indomitable Lionesses of Cameroon. More than pride is at stake here.
Cameroon qualified by beating New Zealand with an injury time winner scored by the excellent Ajara Nchout who plies her trade in Norway at the moment
 |
| Nchout pronounced Nshoot, EnGerLand will be hoping she doesn't have her shooting boots on. |
EnGerLand won all three of their group games without really impressing, they lacked potency up front. They will be looking to Ellen White and the highly impressive and bubbly Nikita Parris to provide the necessary spark and firepower to lead them through to the last eight where they would face Norway.
 |
| EnGerLand hope that Parris can lead them all they way to Paris |
EnGerLand have to be the favourites here, but as we all know, that is when they usually find a way to muck it up.
The late game sees Les Bleus of France take on the female canaries (aka green and yellow) of Brasil. The French given home advantage are one of the contenders to win the whole tournament, but I have not been overly impressed by them to date. I think the weight of expectation is a heavy one to bear and the players are being affected by it. The current club champions of Europe are Lyon, a French team so with their success comes a hunger for the same at the international level. While not the best of the French players, there is no doubt that the "stand out" player on their squad is Wendie Renard who at 1.87M (6ft 2) is head and shoulders above most other players in the tournament.
 |
| The hair makes her seem even taller |
Other players to look out for in the French line up are Henry and Cascarino.
Brasil are an enigma, Brasil is a very chauvinist country and for a country so football mad, the women's version is woefully underfunded and looked down upon by the powers that be. Despite that, the natural talent which seems to flow in Brazil when it comes to playing football has produced some very gifted players, the most famous of them being Marta. She however is now 33 and her fitness is on the wane as it is with her strike partner Cristiane now 34. Brazil is somewhat an aging team and I think the French will have too much for them.
Tomorrow will see Spain against the US of A and Sweden facing Canada.
Until then I wish you Au Revoir and bien joue.
No comments:
Post a Comment