WOMEN'S FOOTBALL
Surprise winners, shock losers in 32-team World Cup group stage
After Jamaica clinched a spot in the last 16 of the Women’s World Cup at the expense of soccer giants Brazil on Wednesday, one reporter suggested it made the Reggae Girlz the “Cinderella team” of the tournament.
Jamaica coach Lorne Donaldson, who rolled around the Melbourne pitch in celebration of the scoreless draw that secured their passage to the knockout rounds for the first time, was not certain how suitable the analogy was.
“Cinderella wears a pretty dress, so I don’t know,” he laughed.
“We’re going to take it one game at a time. If we can wear a pretty dress, we’ll put it on.”
There were plenty of other fairytales in the first two weeks of the tournament with Morocco, South Africa, Norway and co-hosts Australia the big group-stage winners.
The losers? Germany, Brazil, Canada, the other co-hosts New Zealand, and China.
Morocco were expected to make an early exit as the 72nd-ranked team, but bounced back from a 6-0 defeat in their opener to become the lowest ranked side ever to make the knockout round with their 1-0 win over Colombia in Perth.
They still needed South Korea to prevent a Germany win in Thursday’s other group match and had a few nervous moments while waiting for the final whistle in Brisbane.
“We were praying, waiting for the result to come out of the Germany and Korea game,” said midfielder Anissa Lahmari. “It was a draw and afterwards it was a complete explosion of joy.”
The stunning upsets sent twice German champions packing in their first exit from the group stage in nine editions of the World Cup.
Jamaican joy on Wednesday also meant despair for Brazil, who exited from the group stage for the first time since 1995, following Canada’s premature exit at the hands of co-hosts Australia on Monday.
That left the tournament without two of the game’s greatest players with Brazil striker Marta and Canada’s talisman captain Christine Sinclair, who both bowed out of their sixth World Cups in the worst possible way.
SHOT IN THE ARM
Australia’s chances were on a razor’s edge before they crushed Canada 4-0 without needing injured forward Sam Kerr, their leading scorer. Their advancement was a huge shot in the arm for the tournament after the loss of New Zealand.
Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson said in a post-match interview that he cried “tears of joy” after the match.
Their courageous win made Canada the first reigning Olympic champions to get knocked out in the group stage and the image of shell-shocked keeper Kailen Sheridan in tears before the final whistle captured Canada’s collective heartache.
Revived Norway were a big group stage winner, brushing off a turbulent two weeks to squeeze into the knockout rounds on goal difference over New Zealand.
Winger Caroline Graham Hansen had apologised earlier in the tournament for an angry outburst in a TV interview after coach Hege Riise dropped her to the bench.
Norway’s advancement sealed New Zealand’s fate, despite the Football Ferns having edged the Norwegians 1-0 for their first win at a World Cup at the tournament’s opening match.
The game itself was a big winner in the island nation of five million people, with 42,958 fans squeezing into Auckland’s historic Eden Park for Portugal versus the U.S., the largest crowd for a soccer match in New Zealand.
Defending champions the United States did not lose a game in the group stage but scraping through to the knockout rounds in second place with a nervy 0-0 draw against debutants Portugal was hardly a “win” for a team used to dominating.
South Africa are not used to dominating outside their own continent and the nation erupted in celebration after the Banyana Banyana knocked out Italy, quarter-finalists four years ago, to progress with their first ever World Cup win.
“You have lifted our spirits and made us immensely proud,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on the messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter. “Bring the cup home!”
China’s Steel Roses, once titans of women’s soccer with silver medals from the 1996 Olympics and 1999 World Cup, were shock losers in the group stage, bowing out in a 6-1 thumping by England.
Shui Qingxia, who coached the team to the Asian title last year, vowed China would regain its status after clearly falling behind the likes of England.
“We can see there’s a huge gap between us and the European teams,” Shui said.
“We are not going to see this gap and do nothing, but rather we will do things like transition and balance and physicality.”
-Reuters
WOMEN'S FOOTBALL
What a goal-laden day for Nigeria; Falconets also win with wide margin!
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Nigeria Super Falconets gave Nigerians additional joy after their 4-0 defeat of Venezuela in Cali, Colombia in their last group match. Their victory followed up with an earlier 3-0 win by the Super Eagles in their opening Group D match with Benin Republic in Uyo.
The Falconets’ win means they have qualified for the Round of 16 where they are most likely going to face Japan when the group games are completed on Sunday.
Both Nigeria and Germany tied on six points, but Germany have one goal better than Nigeria on goal difference.
The Super Falcons made early hays when Amina Bello put Nigeria ahead after 16 minutes. Chiamaka Okwuchukwu doubled the lead in the 28th minute before Flourish Sebastine put in the third five minutes into the added time of the first half. Joy Igbokwe put in the back breaker four minutes into the added time of the second hald.
WOMEN'S FOOTBALL
Okwuchukwu shines despite Nigeria’s defeat to Germany in U-20 Women’s World Cup
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Nigeria’s U-20 Women’s World Cup campaign suffered a setback as they fell to a 3-1 defeat against a clinical German side in Bogota, Colombia on Wednesday night.
The result secures Germany’s place in the knockout stages, while leaving the Falconets with work to do in their final group match.
In an end-to-end encounter, both sides created numerous chances, but it was Germany who struck first. Cora Zicai’s pinpoint cross found Alara Sehitler, who nodded home in the 17th minute to give the Europeans the lead.
Nigeria’s star performer, Chiamaka Okwuchukwu, had earlier come close to opening the scoring with a magnificent solo run, only to be denied by German goalkeeper Rebecca Adamczyk.
Okwuchukwu’s persistence paid off early in the second half when she capitalized on a defensive mix-up to draw Nigeria level, celebrating with Cristiano Ronaldo’s famous ‘siuuu’ celebration.
However, Germany’s quality shone through as they regained the lead through Sofie Zdebel, again assisted by the impressive Zicai.
Despite Okwuchukwu having another goal ruled out for offside, Germany sealed the win in stoppage time with Sarah Ernst’s powerful header.
The defeat leaves Nigeria on three points from two matches, with their final group game against Venezuela in Cali now crucial to their hopes of progressing.
WOMEN'S FOOTBALL
Points of Note in Falconets’ loss to Germany
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Germany beat Nigeria’s Falconets 3-1 in their second group game of the FIFA U-20 World Cup. With Germany’s win, the Europeans have made it to the last 16 stage, even with a game to spare.
The coach of Germany, Kathrin Peter acknowledged the efforts of the Nigerian team , saying: “It was a really tough match today.
“That was expected, but we actually had big problems in defence. They had a few chances where we had the necessary luck, we have to admit that.
“But in the second half we were really good and asserted our dominance and I think we deserved to win in the end.”
Here are some major points:
- Germany beat Nigeria 2-0 in the final match 14 years ago in Germany.
- Germany have now won their last four FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup meetings with Nigeria. Alex Popp inspired a 2-0 victory in the 2010 final, Lena Petermann settled the decider in extra-time four year later, and Stefanie Sanders was the solitary scorer in Group D in 2018.
- This was just Nigeria’s third loss in their past 24 group matches at the tournament.
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