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Edmonton for soccer (national team) has had a good history of supporting even exhibition games like Brazil vs Canada as pre-1994 World Cup preparation in 1994 where the game was a 1-1 draw in front of just under 52K - the same number I think they expect this game.

Canada wins it's opener 1-0 on a late goal by Christine Sinclair (who else ?)

Canada vs. New Zealand suspended after 5 minutes because of very bad and inclement weather in Edmonton.

Time to have an enclosed or retractable roof in Commonwealth Stadium too?

not impressed with our girls so far. I don't see them getting a medal at all.

Well done Canadian ladies in advancing after a 1-0 win over Switzerland.

Just three more wins.

KnowItAll wrote:not impressed with our girls so far. I don't see them getting a medal at all.

Looks like a stacked draw in their favour, having to face Switzerland in the first knock out and now England in the quarter finals. Not that either team is poor, but neither is any better than Canada. But Canada's O has not built any fluid attacks for the most part, getting some chances mostly off of one or two passes from a quick turnover. Even the defense looks vulnerable other than Buchanan who is by far and away the best defender of this tournament. The defense passing is a mistake waiting to happen, way too many pass backs without a firm pass.

If you watch Sinclair handle the ball on her passes, she finds the lane and applies the touch necessary for her teammates to run onto. Still not enough talent around her to feed her enough ball in open area and that is the big problem for her not being on the ledger more this tourney.

England likes to hit the long ball and Canada's left side is vulnerable to the speed that they possess, they had better figure out how to stack that side a little better in order to go to the semi's.

Sloppy play hurt Canada vs England as neither of the two goals conceded were A type goals by England. Lack of an attack with Tancredi missing inside the box with a mountain of space to pot a sure goal exposed Canada's limited offensive ability. At least this tournament should bring Herdman to the conclusion that it is time to change the guard on many of the 3rd place returnees to this years World Cup. I am not sure how long Sinclair has either, but the heir apparent hasn't stepped into view just yet.

Some great points here Rammer.

Too bad to see easily Sinclair's best game of the tournament wasted. Tancredi was a pitbull in London 3 years ago and really complimented Sinclair up front. But she is now a shadow of her former self, having taken 2 years off to get her chiropractic degree at the age of 34. I guess Herdman didn't have any other options but younger legs with speed would have been a better fit for Sinclair who is also slowing down at 32.

Herdman also showed tremendous loyalty to Sesselman who was coming off ACL surgery. He let be known he wanted his team to play a ball possession Barcelona FC type game. That starts with having very confident centre backs who can make right decisions with their breakout passes, typically under pressure. It was a lot for Sesselman to take on and she struggled throughout.

As you said, that was an exceptional draw Canada failed to take advantage of. To have the top 3 teams in the World — Germany, USA and an extremely good French team on the other side of the draw was very fortunate. The final might have very well been that Germany/France quarter-final. How the 2nd and 3rd ranked teams end up meeting at that stage is crazy. Japan is far superior technically to England and should return to the final.

I have felt throughout the tournament that Sesselman was the weakest link. But at least she made at least two lists of top 10 beautiful women in soccer


http://sporteology.com/top-10-hottest-f ... e-world/7/


edit: having made my comment about LS, I do not blame her for the loss and I think those who publically are doing so should be crucified.

Where is Sinclair and the rest of her teammates voices of support? Why do she have to go online and defend herself?

KnowItAll wrote:I have felt throughout the tournament that Sesselman was the weakest link. But at least she made at least two lists of top 10 beautiful women in soccer


http://sporteology.com/top-10-hottest-f ... e-world/7/


edit: having made my comment about LS, I do not blame her for the loss and I think those who publically are doing so should be crucified.

Where is Sinclair and the rest of her teammates voices of support? Why do she have to go online and defend herself?

First off Sesselman shouldn't engage with the criticism against her, it only fans the embers. I posted that our D was vulnerable to weak passes that would cost them, while Sesselman was the main component of that comment, I don't blame her given the history that she has. Herdman is at fault here, not having someone in place to allow Sesselman to gain the confidence after her injury putting her in that position to fail. On behalf of Sesselman, she played a very good game after the slip, and is the point that she now has to build from. Stay off of social media forums, it will only continue to haunt her with the responses she will receive.

I didn't see the entire game nor have I followed the team in recent years but I know the game well and I don't agree with how Canada's men (in recent years) play internationally - both from a player selection perspective and tactics.

The best soccer teams at the national level do three things well:

1. They never lose sight of the essence of soccer - passing and ball control. Learning that phrase from Canada's greatest mens' coach - Tony Waiters. He should be running Canadian soccer instead of what he's doing now. The best teams don't "chase the game" which is tiring.
2. They bring the ball up through the midfield - it's not one short pass and rocket it into the attacking third.
3. They can score and be creative to get the ball in the net.

The few glimpses of the game were far too much of the theory of soccer adhered to by too many Canadian coaches. That is, studies showed that teams that get the ball into the attacking third of the field score more often. This leads to coaches saying just get it up there no matter if you give it away. That is rubbish as it ends up you chasing the game.

It is women's soccer but I didn't like the way the players weren't moving into space. It just seemed that it was too much 1-2 at the back and then rocket it upfield.

I teach and preach and analyze how many passes led to goals so my teams understand that it just takes 5-6 passes to score so they didn't panic. I get players understanding what Vic Rapp used to say re the long pass. Three things can happen and two of them are bad so think before doing that.

The only time a long ball should be played (and I teach this exact set of reads to my GK when he gets the ball):

1. Look up to see if the Striker(s) are in man cover 1 v 1. If yes punt to the open spaces quickly.
2. If that is not on, then look to throw to the wide backs or even a wide MF but that one like football comes with more risk.
3. If all covered and no option - punt and try to make it a ball that drops down in front of our striker so he can move back to the ball with the defender behind him and get a header flicked on.

The finalists have now been set - USA vs. Japan in a rematch from the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup final. Which team will you root for and which team do you think will win?

Robbie wrote:The finalists have now been set - USA vs. Japan in a rematch from the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup final. Which team will you root for and which team do you think will win?

USA winning will be good for US soccer - men and women.

Toppy Vann wrote:

Robbie wrote:The finalists have now been set - USA vs. Japan in a rematch from the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup final. Which team will you root for and which team do you think will win?

USA winning will be good for US soccer - men and women.

bahh, it is never good when the usa wins anything.

So, who attended the final game along with me?

Congratulations to the USA for a well-deserved win and no doubt they were the much better team - jumping to a 2-0 lead after 5 minutes and a 4-0 lead after 16 minutes with a final score of 5-2 - unlike a shootout win in which it could have gone either way.

The number of American fans in the stadium vastly outnumbered the Japanese fans by about 90% to 10%.

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