U 20 Women's World Cup

[canadianfoot]

No. Being down one man for 83 minutes is not worth anywhere near 5 goals, counting the team taking the foot off the gas at half. It is worth, maybe, two.

True it is definitely not worth that many goals. And yes there is a Big difference in Norway and Argentina women's soccer. I am not too sure what to think of it......

[mtlfan]

........ Criticizing girls at that age is cruel. So let's see what went right...............

And last, Janna Ridchardson. Yes, Janna Ridchardson who is blamed by some others. Yes she missed at least four good scoring opportunities but like I use to say, at least she was able to create those opportunities while others haven't. .................. !

I think it was Leon and company who created the chance while Jenna blew them. She tried a toe punt on one chance WTF.......And I agree Sawicki taking the day off was unacceptable.........

[lovetoplay]

I think it was Leon and company who created the chance while Jenna blew them. She tried a toe punt on one chance WTF.......And I agree Sawicki taking the day off was unacceptable.........

I'm not sure that it's fair to blame any one player for that loss. Unfortunately I was only able to watch the second half...(thank you baseball) ...but it seems to me that it was a team loss. The team was not moving the ball with the same efficiency as in the previous game. No doubt there was stronger pressure from the Norwegians and better tactics to break up the flow in midfield.

But what I saw in the second half,I would attribute more to lack of physical and/or mental stamina and hesitation on the one touch and lack of creative movement up the field. The team was lacking that crisp, decisive one touch attack that we saw with the weaker opponent. Was it tactics, fitness, belief in themselves? Not convinced it was skill level as I think most of the players have it in them to win these games. But the team just didn't come together mentally, physically and tactically.

[The Ref]

Two somewhat surprising results this morning. Korea Republic ousted Brazil from classifying to quarter finals. Score was 2-0 for Korea. Then, old fox Leonardo Cuellar got his Mexican girls to oust much improved New Zealand who were still undefeated. Whooping score of 4-0. Now if we can beat Korea DPR tomorrow, I will be even more happy.

[Mango]

Tough result for Canada. I thought they battled very hard. There are some solid footballers coming through the ranks: Wu, Richardson, Leon and Sawicki especially. Depending on the turnover, I'm sure we'll see a number of them again in 2015.

[Forgedias]

Well it was disappointing to see Canada get knocked out. Especially since they took the early lead and then lost it. I feel especially sorry for Rachel Melhado, I wouldn't fault her completely for that penalty, its a team game and Canada was having a very difficult time building up from the midfield.

There are players though that did shine for Canada.

Sabrina D'Angelo. She tried her best to keep Canada in all the games, Made a penalty kick save in the Norway game, had a beautiful tip save in the Argentina game, had several good saves in the Korea game. A crossing shot that she dived to grab before a Korean player could get a foot on it and of course the 1v1 save where she charged out and made herself as large as possible and blocked the shot. She didn't allow any weak goals. She was Canada's best player on the pitch, which should always be the case. She will be a future senior national team player whether it be in 1 or 2 years, but I really think she will have to be the starting keeper for Canada for the next World Cup and Olympics. She already is the best keeper for Canada.

Shelina Zadorsky. A future centerback for Canada. She really stood out and shined defensively, made critical interceptions on crossing shots and showed a ton of football smarts on the pitch. Could play the ball at her feet, which is important for any possession play, by building from the back to the midfield. Also has very good pace to her, made some very quick runs up and down the pitch. For a centerback this was eye openning. I very much liked what I saw with her.

Jaclyn Sawicki. Despite the fact that she only played the first game, she showed a heady football IQ on the pitch. Was able to challenge 50/50 balls well and had the intelligence to look up and make correct passes to connect to her forwards or to an outside back. For her small size, she was a terrier on the pitch, hounding players for the ball. I liked her style quite alot.

Jenna Richardson. There may be some who would disagree with me on this, but Jenna will be a future national senior team player. Her pace alone is a special gift, she can play direct or play with the ball on her feet. Watching her play for Oregon State, she was the playmaker to Chelsea Buckland. Both play on the same club, Chelsea scores alot of the goals, but Jenna does quite a bit of the distribution. She may have disappeared in the Korea game, but so did all the forwards. Korea simply controlled possession and the midfield for Canada couldn't retain it and provide effective service to the forwards. Jenna has the speed that the Canadian squad can use, park her with Sinclair and she can be used very much like Alex Morgan, run under balls sent her way and provide service to the box.

Overall I did like watching Canada play, I think they could of done much better in this World Cup, but as fate would have it, it was not destined to be. But this U20 squad has some very intriguing players that could be key contributers to the senior side.

[Mango]

I can't believe I forgot about D'Angelo. Yes, I agree. She's going to have a great future on the senior side. Her decision making is really good and I find she rarely gets flustered. A great showing from her and I, too, believe she's the future starter for Canada.

[Lord Bob]

I agree that Wu and D'Angelo caught my eye in a good way. I'll give a smaller but still pleased nod to Zadorsky as well.

The game was a real disappointment. We knew the North Koreans would be strong, obviously, but how on Earth did Canada manage to come out far weaker in the second half every single game this tournament?! What the hell is going wrong that our opponents could make adjustments and we just sat there and got knocked out?

[The Ref]

I hope that John Herdman got something out of this failure to advance courtesy of coach Olivieri. There are some good players out there, I like Ezurike, Wu, Melhado and D'Angelo among others. There is no reason for the girls playing so poorly when it is clear they can perform much better. Once again it stems from poorly chosen coaches by the CSA. Let Herdman select a new coach, after all if he is going to chose some players out of this U20 group, he might as well ensure they will continue to get a decent technical direction.

[lovetoplay]

I have to agree with the previous posters that Canada has some good talent and skill on that squad and no doubt a few of them will make the move up to the senior squad. They had a very strong opponent, obviously more in tune with each other, although not unbeatable in my opinion.

I don't want to be too harsh but I would say that what ultimately killed them in this game is the simple things, the lack of anticipation/movement into passes coming their way, and decisive one touch on the ball. Getting caught watching the ball and staying on the ground after getting beaten. Time and time again the Koreans were there first, even on our goal kicks. Fitness, desire? There seemed to be too much energy conservation for a do or die game.

[Free kick]

I was only able to catch about 15 minutes of today's game, most of the game vs Norway, and almost all of the game vs Arg. There is enough talent on this team. Overall, from what i saw, cant be too disapointed and that game versus Norway could have gone either way. This collection of players seems somewhat comfortable playing the modern game, so i was encouraged. Quite honnestly, they we unfortunate to end up in the group that they did and not the one where Mexico ended up in.

[Lord Bob]

I was only able to catch about 15 minutes of today's game, most of the game vs Norway, and almost all of the game vs Arg. There is enough talent on this team. Overall, from what i saw, cant be too disapointed and that game versus Norway could have gone either way. This collection of players seems somewhat comfortable playing the modern game, so i was encouraged. Quite honnestly, they we unfortunate to end up in the group that they did and not the one where Mexico ended up in.

While it was a tough group, Canada ought to be able to beat Norway reliably and hang with North Korea.

[ThruBall]

The game that hurt was Norway. North Korea was always going to be a stretch for this team given NK's record in this tournament; past and present. Getting out of this group was never a sure thing. Where in match history, at this age, has Canada shown they are a lock to win over Norway?

I have visited the NT center in Ontario numerous times over the past 5 years. Quite a few of the current U20 players have trained there under BR. In my view, these players executed flawlessly in today’s game with respect to the training they have received. Fitness might be an issue for some players, however chasing the game for ball possession taxes teams; hence the need to keep the ball - first touch, vision, movement off the ball, passing accuracy, transition, etc...... Without these basic skills amongst a team, it’s easy to accuse individuals of "ball watching".

Putting our “best” together for longer periods of time isn’t a recipe for success! Better practices, better coaches will yield better results. LTPD is long overdue and won’t yield at the junior level for another 5 years if implemented correctly today.

[Mango]

Curious, has Herdman said anything about the U20 team in the last week? I know he was headed to Japan after the Argentina game. I'm curious as to what he's looking for or if he had any thoughts.

[mtlfan]

Semi Finals

USA 2 Nigeria 0 Fulltime

Germany 3 Japan 0 Fulltime

http://liveboxtv.com/?page=mOmRnaKYmKiamOmRnaeZoKaZl9vY1t8=

Germany scored early and often (1' 13' 19') and that was it.

http://www.fifa.com/u20womensworldcup/index.html

[Mango]

Germany has yet to even let in a goal. Impressive!

[Jon Que]

Canada had no chance of doing well in this tournament. You put a bunch of players together 2 weeks before qualifying and hope for the best. That was the CSA plan. Surprise, surprise they do qualify but then what do they do? Have another 2 week camp and then off to Japan. It's a total joke. You are not going to compete against the top nations like Germany, USA and Japan where they actually take these things seriously. Not only do they have a much larger pool of skilled players to choose from but they actually practice as a team and become a team. This group of players needed a couple of months together (or at least more camps) with meaningful games so that goalies, defense, midfield and forwards become a cohesive unit and actually form a bond where they can overcome deficiencies. The preperation of the big teams is paying off again as they advance as usual. It's too bad because this is probably the most talented team we've had in a long time. Hopefully in 2014 they put a lot more preperation into U20's so that we could put our best team forward on home soil.

[CoachRich]

^

Japan has way, way less players with their female reg at about 80K. The USA OTOH has 45x the number of reg female players as Japan. IMO, it's what you do with the players before you get them in the NT pool that counts. In Canada we fail to prepare our players in the game prior to the NT.

[The Ref]

^

Japan has way, way less players with their female reg at about 80K. The USA OTOH has 45x the number of reg female players as Japan. IMO, it's what you do with the players before you get them in the NT pool that counts. In Canada we fail to prepare our players in the game prior to the NT.

Very true. Don't know how many girls play in Nigeria, but they have lots of teams. It is pretty hard to compete with Nigerian girls of the caliber of Sunday, Oparanozie and Ordega. Our girls have heart but one can't compare them to those mentioned. Perhaps our GK DiAngelo was better than theirs.