WWC Final - JPN vs USA

[amacpher]

I'm not a big fan and I don't think much of the Japanese. If not for Sawa they were deserving losers.

IF you think of the World Cup as a league instead of a cup, then... not really. The USA lost to Sweden, were outplayed by France and had 2 games go to PKs which is really pushing your luck.

Japan beat the defending champs and hosts then convincingly beat the bronze-medal winners.

It was the Americans calling themselves a team of destiny after the semi (presumably because they had just been outplayed but found a way to win and reach the final). Then Japan turned the tables on them and won a game where they were slightly outplayed. Too late to play the card that 'the team with the most chances deserves to win'. Where was that argument after the previous 2 rounds? What happened to the "destiny" argument?

[amacpher]

The choice was between weak shots from distance or hard shots that just miss. As a coach I would say good try on the latter and say nothing on the former.

Japan scored on 33% of their shots, so why is one of the choices "weak shots from distance"??

[terpfan68]

Correction: Japan scored on 14% of their shots. 2 for 14. The 33% was based on shots on goal. By your argument a team that had one shot on goal and scored would be superior to one that had 10 shots and scored 5 times.

Most of their shots were harmless. One of the goals was a defensive error -- Not necessarily poor play on the goal but the ball had been given up by the US earlier that provided the chance. Their last goal was very good.

Ask yourself how many of Japanese shots really had a chance of going in? How many shots did the US take that looked like they were going to go in?

The Japanese deserved the victory because they won the penalty kick contest. It's only an opinion but the American's played a more exciting type of soccer.

[amacpher]

Correction: Japan scored on 14% of their shots. 2 for 14. The 33% was based on shots on goal. By your argument a team that had one shot on goal and scored would be superior to one that had 10 shots and scored 5 times.

I was responding to the comment that implied Japan's shots on target were weak efforts from distance. So 33% is the appropriate figure to reference.

Anyway, obviously stats can't prove which team played better. I do believe the USA played better overall. But what stats can do, IMO, is dispel the notion that one team "dominated".

[kj52]

The Japanese didn't play that much differently in the final than they did against the U.S. in the spring, just got a better result. Whether anyone likes the way they won or not is irrelevant. It would be laughable to think that they would have any chance of going end-to-end against teams like the U.S., Sweden or Germany.

[terpfan68]

Japan played the style they needed to play to have a chance of winning. In this case it worked three times against Germany, Sweden and the US. Remember they lost to England 2 - 0 and only beat New Zealand 2 -1. Neither England nor New Zealand are top teams.

Great teams can adjust their style to fit the situations. Some teams can only play one style. The objective is to win the match. If you can't control the possession then you might have to play to other strengths. A coach either picks the players who can play the game as she wants them to, or adjusts her style to match the players she has. (Of course she can attempt to change the style of play of her players but this doesn't often work because the players got where they were by the way they have been playing since they were 12.)

[Vic]

Women's World Cup final between USA and Japan sets Twitter record

from Football: Women's football | guardian.co.uk by Evan Fanning

• The climax of the final peaked at 7,196 tweets per second

• Brazil v Paraguay in Copa América set new second-place total

The phone-hacking scandal, the Royal Wedding, the death of Osama bin Laden or even a television appearance by Justin Bieber – none of these events or people can compete with the Women's World Cup final. At least not in terms of Twitter use.

The women's final may have made history as Japan defied the odds to defeat the USA and lift the trophy for this first time, but the game in Frankfurt also broke records on Twitter as the most tweeted event in the social networking site's five-year-history.

Twitter confirmed that the dramatic end to the women's final, as Japan equalised with three minutes of extra-time remaining and went on to win on penalties, produced a record 7,196 tweets per second (TPS).

Clearly in the mood, Twitter users then set a new second-place total with 7,166 TPS during the climax to the Copa América quarter-final between Brazil and Paraguay.

The technology website Techcrunch reports Sunday's matches as surpassing the previous record, set on New Years Eve in Japan in 2010, which hit 6,939 TPS at its peak.

The devastating earthquake and tsunami which hit Japan in March peaked at 5,530 TPS while the 2011 Super Bowl between the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers saw 4,064 TPS. Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding in April produced 3,966 TPS at its peak.

Of course, due to Twitter's exponential growth - Techcruch report 600,000 new users signing up daily – more recent events are clearly going to lead to a greater number of tweets, but regardless the Women's World Cup final has its place in social networking history. For now at least.