Women's Euro 2025 Semi-Finals, Part Two

 Greetings, gentle readers.

What we find is this: if women's football is a chess game where the manager's chief duty is to optimise the team on the pitch with respective to the seemingly ever-prevalent injury woes that plague the entire sport, then it is evident that the two senior practitioners of the art are Sarina Wiegman of England and Christian Wück of Germany.  I might suggest that Pia Sundhage of Switzerland aspires to that level, but fell tragically short for any number of reasons.

The team that seems to be blithely immune to this sort of systemic diagnosis is Spain.  The world champions seem to draw on a deep well of talent and a canny rotational system that keeps players off the physio's bench and eligible for the game day starting XI.  

Cruciate Ligament Victim Lena Oberdorf

Facing the defending world champions in the second semifinal of this year's European championship tournament are perennial challengers Germany.  The Germans have not been anywhere near something resembling lucky in this tournament insofar as injuries are concerned.  In addition to losing all-action team captain Giulia Gwinn in the very first match against Poland, the national team had already been denied the services of Lena Oberdorf for more than a calendar year, both through knee injuries. 

Historically, German national sides have been renowned for their resiliency and versatility.  For both the men's and women's teams, the ability to field competitive teams in the face of adversity has always been a point of pride, with individual players demonstrating talent and fortitude by playing through the pain barrier and in unfamiliar positions on the pitch when required.

Spain v. Germany

In this particular instance, bloody-minded stubbornness and discipline finally ran into the rugged shoals of reality.  In addition to the suspensions of Kathy Hendrich for her ponytail tug against France and Sjoeke Nüsken for her accumulated yellow cards, the Germans found themselves without any defenders on the substitutes' bench through the catalogue of injuries.  In fact, such was the dearth of defenders that Franziska Kett and Elisa Senß were asked to withdraw from their customary midfield roles and play as full-backs rather than wingers.  Perhaps it was a measure of German desperation that Sara Däbritz was finally given her first start of the tournament rather than the more cynical tactic of reserving her services for extra-time or penalty shots.  It was all hands to the proverbial pump for the eight-time European champions, and there was no margin for error.

By way of contrast, the world champion Spanish entered the semifinal at a canter.  They had comfortably clocked the most goals scored of any team in the tournament, and had done so without risking or endangering any personnel along the way.  

For those of you who haven't seen the match, the plot is rather pedestrian.  The smart and elegant

Inconsolable Jule Brand

Spaniards demonstrated a composed possession game, and the clinically-thinly-stretched Germans defended with iron-willed tenacity and full-hearted spirit.  Forwards Jule Brand and Giovanna Hoffmann threw themselves forward at the very hint of a counter-attack, and Klara Bühl swept in from the wings to feed paper-thin forward probes with speculative crosses.

It was all destined to go to penalties.  An impenetrable German defence, an over-elaborate Spanish midfield, and two superstar tournament-stealing goalkeepers in Ana Katrin Berger and Cata Coll.

But it was not to be.  In the dying moments of extra time, Aitana Bonmatí cut down the right flank, reached the ball ahead of the touch line and fired a shot at the opposite corner flag.  Maybe it was a cross.  German keeper Berger certainly thought so, gesticulating with her right arm to indicate how her beleaguered centre-backs ought to deal with the marking in the 18-yard box.

What happened instead was that Bonmatí's right-footed swipe across her own body zipped preternaturally between the hitherto-ridiculously-resolute Berger and her near post and flashed inside the inside of the far post, using an angle hitherto only known to non-Euclidean geometricians and Lovecraftian acolytes.

If Germany had scored a goal at any point during the proceedings, the result would most likely have swerved in the opposite direction, but credit to the Spanish — they did what they needed to do.  They had superior talent, stamina, depth, and patience.  The Germans ran out of all of those quantities in the final analysis.

Spain v. England

When next we meet in Frankenstone, don't come alone.

Until the Final on Sunday, 27 July, I bid you good-day.

Goodnight England, and the colonies.

Cheers,

—mARKUS

Women's Euro 2025 Semi-Finals, Part One

 Greetings, gentle readers.

What we find is this:  of the twenty-three players to represent England at the Women's World Cup two years ago, ten have not returned to defend their European Champions' trophy.  Five retired, four weren't selected by manager Sarina Wiegman, and one (Millie Bright, OBE) removed herself from contention, saying,

"Right now I’m not able to give 100% mentally or physically.  As much as I want to be out there running through brick walls for England and fighting alongside my team-mates, stepping back is the right thing for my health, my future in the game, and most importantly the team."
— Millie Bright

Looking at the twenty-three players in the current England Euro 2025 squad, seven are making their major tournament debut.  Of the returning veterans:

• Alex Greenwood underwent knee surgery for an MCL injury at the end of last year, and was cleared to play immediately prior to the tournament
• Lauren Hemp underwent knee surgery in November of last year and returned to action this April.
• Lauren James withdrew from the national team in October of last year with a calf injury, and was out for club and country this year with a hamstring injury from April until the start of the tournament.
• Beth Mead suffered a ruptured ACL and spent most of 2024 recovering.
• Esme Morgan suffered a fractured lower leg and was sidelined for a year between 2022 and 2023.
• Georgia Stanway ruptured her LCL and underwent surgery in January of this year.
• Ella Toone was ruled out of club and international duty last year with a calf injury
• Keira Walsh injured her knee during the 2023 World Cup, later suffering a similar injury causing her to miss the last three games of this season with her club, including the Subway Cup final against Manchester City.
• Leah Williamson spent nine months of 2023/4 recovering from a ruptured ACL.

"Football is all very well as a game for rough girls, but is hardly suitable for delicate boys."
—Oscar Wilde 

 My assertion here is that the success or failure of a manager at this level of the women's game has less to do with maximizing talent, adopting certain playing formations, or designing training schedules, and more to do with tactically accommodating the injury considerations of one's own team while exploiting the injury woes of opponents. 

England v. Italy

As has been their wont so often throughout this tournament, England began a game looking a little off-colour and surrendering the lead.  To be fair, they came out of the blocks more brightly than they did against France in the group phase or Sweden in the quarter-final, but to be equally fair, neither of those examples sets a particularly high bar.

After a few opening flurries of offensive possession, the English Lionesses were rocked back by an opposition opening goal once more in this tournament.  It turned out to be an uncommon Lucy Bronze misstep in the 33rd minute that presented an uncomfortable mid-height ball to wide-open Italian attacker Barbara Bonansea at the far post.  The experienced right-back Bronze was caught flat-footed as the ball popped passed her – her attempt to clear the ball instead glancing it into acres of unmarked space, populated only by Bonansea.  The Italian still had work to do and needed a juggling touch to orient herself and lash a volley through the despairing Bronze and Hannah Hampton in the English net.

Barbara Bonansea, Cecilia Salvai, and Manuela Giugliano celebrate taking the lead.

The remainder of the first half... the rest of full-time, really... was a slow constriction of England's coils around a sturdy and resolute defence, marshalled as always by the excellent Cecilia Salvai at centre-back.  Italy's midfield, including the energetic Manuela Giugliano, blocked England's progress through the centre of their third, so the English offense generally took the form of long diagonal crosses into the box.  Salvai's (comparable) height meant that England's attackers rarely got a sniff, and the inexhaustible Bronze always seemed to be waiting at the far post to put the ball back into the mix or retain possession.

Lioness Lucy Bronze

As full of running and drive as Bronze was, though, she seemed to ride her luck on at least two occasions when her tackles were full-blooded, possibly reckless, and certainly late.  It might be interesting to speculate on what might have become of England without their rampaging juggernaut.  Not the most talented player on the field, but certainly the most ruggedly athletic and bloody-minded one.  A British Bulldog, if ever there was one.  When she appears for England in the final of this tournament, she will set the record for most England caps at major tournaments.  Whoops.  Spoilers.

After over an hour of persistent but ultimately uninspired pressing by England, the super-secret tactic of substituting the match winners late in the game paid off again for England Manager Sarina Wiegman.  18-year old substitute Michelle Agyemang, only one surname letter away from being involved in a Time Lord's adventures, set the record for the latest equalizer in this tournament in the sixth minute of stoppage time.  The supersub who buried Sweden in the previous round, Chloe Kelly, stepped up to take her typical Karate-Kid, crane-style penalty in extra time.  Italian keeper Laura Giuliani saved the shot, but a surging Kelly slipped the rebound under the keeper's body to score the latest-ever winning goal in the history of the tournament, at 119 minutes.

Imperious Chloe Kelly celebrates her game-winning goal.

And so European champions England are set to defend their title against either world champions Spain, or eight-time European champions Germany.  It seems as though the cream really has risen to the top of this tournament, despite some early contradictory evidence to that prediction.

Back as soon as I've watched the elegant Iberians take on the aristocratic Teutons.

Until then, good night England and the colonies.

Cheers,

—mARKUS 

Women's Euro 2025 Quarter-Finals, Part Two

 Greetings, gentle readers.

What we find is this:  Having yawned their way to a perfect three win, zero loss performance in the group stage, world champions Spain face off against underdog hosts Switzerland in the first of two quarter-finals.  In the last matchup of the elimination round, eight-time Euro champs Germany lock horns with a French team missing World Cup 2023 standout Wendie Renard. The winners of these two matches will face each other in a semi-final to determine who will reach the final and meet the winner of the game between England and Italy.

Those familiar with these scribblings will know that I have been grumpy about the entire tournament thus far because I was hoping to parley my experience watching and analyzing the Women's World Cup in 2023 into a deeper and possibly predictive understanding of the games in this tournament.  Unfortunately, the amount of players who played in the World Cup and are not making return

Giulia Gwinn

appearances for their national teams is significant.  

The player churn that may be due to injury was highlighted early on with German captain Giulia Gwinn being ruled out of the whole tournament after tearing her medial collateral ligament in her first game.  She also missed the last World Cup through injury.

So what we also find is this:  injuries are running rampant throughout the sport and some sort of reforms are needed, whether that be in terms of the playing surfaces, training practices, warm-up and physio procedures, or just plain pacing of playing time.  With the introduction of the new World Club Cup tournament format in the men's game, professional athletes of both genders are being taxed to exhaustion.  Several players have even declared themselves fit, only to have their managers bench or substitute them regardless.  I'm thinking of Daniëlle van de Donk-Carpenter of Holland, Paulina Dudek of Poland, and Kosovare Asllani of Sweden.  

Field Marshal Bühler

And as a lead-up to the next match summary, I will reiterate my utter desolation at seeing the absence of Luana Bühler, Seraina Piubel, and Ramona Bachmann-Baret in the Swiss lineup.  Their perspicacity, agility, and power (respectively) were part of what made the last Women's World Cup so enjoyable for me. Having both Canada and Germany crash out of that competition early made me find other sources of joy, and I found it in the brave Helvetians.

Spain v. Switzerland

World champions Spain were oddsmakers' favourites for this clash, right off the top, home field advantage be damned.  It was a somewhat muted consensus of the ESPN crew as well that the plucky alpine host nation stood little chance against the polished and precise Spaniards.

Versatile and Valorous Lia Wälti

Switzerland was always going to depend on one of the few veterans of the Women's World Cup of two years ago who survived whatever roster cull manager Pia Sundhage had enacted:  Lia Wälti.  Ostensibly a defensive or holding midfielder, she was asked to be everywhere and support each of her teammates in every scenario.  She fell back into a sweeper role behind the back four when her team looked forward to link up some attacking plays, then shielded the same back four when they lost possession.  She moved to the flanks to create two-on-one overloads wherever necessary, overlapped on attack, and on a couple of occasions, demonstrated a Seven Gerrard-esque willingness to bomb forward fifty yards to pounce upon loose balls that drooled out of the Spanish 19-yard box.

It was largely due to the indomitable Wälti that the game was locked as a nil-nil draw at halftime.  Commentators and pundits marvelled at the Swiss defence, and began to wonder if this game might go scorelessly through the distance.  They need not have bothered.

Awesome Alèxia Putellas

Captain Wälti's valiant exploits across the pitch could only stem the tide of Spanish superiority for so long.  Their AA contingent, Aitana Bonmati, Athenea del Castillo, and Alèxia Putellas, were stringing together silky passing triangles and maintaining consistent offensive possession.

In truth, as the second half wore on, it became apparent that this contest was a foxcub facing a dragoness.  The stubborn and brave Swiss were only courting disaster.  When an inevitable crack in the defence let Athenea del Castillo in for a goal, the home crowd grew silent and Swiss heads dropped.  When captain Wälti stopped playing and began pleading for a foul with referee Maria Caputi, the Spaniards gleefully passed around her and Clàudia Pina gleefully struck a high shot into the opposite top corner, across Swiss keeper Livia Peng's body.

That second goal broke the Swiss.  Wälti immediately made a clumsy tackle, earning her a yellow card.  The Spaniards earned and spurned a penalty either side of those two goals, but Peng's heroics could not affect the final score:  2-0 at Wankdorf Stadion, Bern.

Germany v. France

People thought that the England v. Sweden game was filled with the raw and epic chords of blood and thunder, but no one was prepared for the nightmarish chaos unleashed at St. Jakob Park in Basel.  The German crew seemed a bit threadbare.  In fact, if you read THIS ARTICLE, not a single one of the German players that it lists as being influential started the game.

Griedge Mbock

Everyone will tell you that the most telling moment in this match occurred just fifteen minutes in, when German defender Kathrin Hendrich yanked on the pony-tail of French centre-back Griedge Mbock inside the German 18-yard box.  That led to a straight red card and a penalty shot converted by Grace Geyoro.  France up by a goal and a player, all with 75 minutes left to play in normal time.

Germany marshalled their defence, regained their composure, and a sublime glancing header by Sjoeke Nüsken tied the game after just 25 minutes on the clock.

Sublime Sjoeke Nüsken

 The madness that followed was filled with shock and awe.  The match set the record for the most fouls ever recorded in a single game in this competition. Surprisingly, there were only five yellow cards issued by Swedish ref Tess Olofsson.  The all-action Nüsken even took a penalty which might have won the game in normal time, but the trooper missed.  France also had what appeared to be a sure goal clawed off the line by an acrobatic Ann-Katrin Berger.

The game ground on in a brutal war of attrition.  Finally, in extra time, I saw a few familiar faces.  In fact, in a file folder somewhere in my house, I have an autographed photo of the entire German Women's team at the 2014 U-20 World Cup, featuring a then 19-year old Sara Däbritz.  She scored five goals in that tournament and hoisted the trophy as one of the champions.

Substitute Sara Däbritz

Däbritz, Linda Dallmann, and Lea Schüller were all substituted on during extra time in what looked like a rather cynical tactical move to use damaged and battered veterans in the penalty shootout.  In other words, these players were all carrying at least one knock that compromised their fitness and therefore should not play.  On the other hand, they have the experience, skill, confidence, and expertise to kick a penalty shot.

The cynical substitutions paid off.  Ann-Katrin Berger stopped the first and last French shots, while the only German penalty not to score was sadly taken by none other than Sara Däbritz.  Final score: France 1 - 1 Germany (5:6 pen)

This means that the Germans will have to sort out their multiple injuries and suspensions, clear their heads, and prepare to defend and counter-attack against the slick Spanish.  Although lethal in attack, Spain have shown a vulnerability to attacks on the break and, prior to their match with Switzerland, had conceded the same number of goals as the underdogs.  Their high back line has also left them vulnerable to route one long balls, provided that the opposition striker has the pace to break the offside trap and get some separation from the last defender.

And that concludes the wrap-up of the quarter-finals of the 2025 Women's European Championship.  See you on the other side of the semifinals.  

Until then, goodnight England and the colonies.

Cheers,

—mARKUS

The 2025 Quarter-Finals, Part One

 Greetings, gentle readers.

What we find is this: eight teams have muscled their way through the grueling group phase of the tournament, defying debilitating injuries and merciless marathon-lengths of games, with some stoppage times reaching ten minutes.  What we also find is that I have discovered this strange application called "Instagram."  In my previous articles on the Women's World Cup, I tried to include some nice colour photographs.  In this any any forthcoming posts, I will try to include Instagram links so that readers can visit the sites of players and teams for themselves and possibly interact with them.  This is all new to me, so I beg your forgiveness in advance, dear reader, should I neglect to include a particularly salient link.  I reckon that my convention for the moment is to put Instagram links on names within photo captions.

All this being said, on to the four quarter-final matches...

Norway v. Italy

In a match that elicited more groans of disappointment than yelps of joy, Italy edged past Norway thanks to two fine strikes from 35-year old captain and talismanic leader Cristiana Girelli.  

Captain Cristiana Girelli scores a brace

Two Norwegian players of note from my reports of the prior World Cup worked admirably to frustrate and confound the Italians - Guro Reiten and Ada Hegerberg.  The former appeared everywhere along the defensive line and occasionally made a lung-bursting overlapping run forward, while the latter nailed an equalizing goal in the second half despite missing her second penalty shot of the tournament.

In the end, it was Girelli's last-minute header back across her body from Sofia Cantore's startlingly accurate cross that proved the difference between two sides.  Italy looked the more composed and confident side, but the graft and effort of the Norwegians, combined with the scoring threat posed by former Ballon D'Or Féminin winner Hegerberg, almost forced this contest into extra time.

Italy progress to the semi-finals in no small part due to the efforts of Cecilia Salvai in defence and Manuela Giugliano in midfield.  Salvai in particular distinguished herself with her work on set-pieces and quarterbacking ball movement when transitioning from defence to attack in the Italian end.

Versatile centre-back Cecilia Salvai

England v. Sweden

England managed to scrape their way to the semi-finals and face the now-qualified Italians.  The Scandanavians leapt out to an early lead through superstar captain Kosovare Asllani before most spectators had found their seats.  After assisting on the second-minute goal, striker Stina Blackstenius threatened the England net on a couple of plays before scoring Sweden's second on 25 minutes.  England looked slow and clumsy throughout the first half, particularly when compared to the sprightly Blackstenius and Fridolina Rolfö up front for Sweden.  Chants of "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!", "Does Your Mother Know?", and "The Winner Takes It All" echoed around the Stadion Letzigrund in Zürich as signs boasting that "ABBA > The Beatles" waved through the crowd.

Superstar Kosovare Asllani

It was only after 78 minutes that tactics trumped talent.  England's powerful and athletic back line, led by the stalwart Lucy Bronze, had been charging, barging, and lunging at the Swedes for over five-sixths of the match.  Finally, the Swedes could take it no longer.  35-year old Asllani and 31-year old Rolfö limped off in the 78th minute to much applause from the delirious Swedish fans.  They were replaced by the younger Lina Hurtig and Madelen Janogy, but the English were also making a substitution at the same time – Chloe Kelly replaced Lauren Hemp, springing the trap.  

Supersub Chloe Kelly

63 seconds later, as the Swedes frantically tried to reorganize, Kelly pinged a perfect cross to the tireless Bronze, who nodded an excellent header beyond Swedish keeper Jennifer Falk.  Like Girelli's game-winning goal, it was scored at the far post.  Why is this an important and notable thing?  Because I said so.  Because I have always said so.

The Swedes were rocked by another searching Kelly ball that was smashed into the back to the Swedish net by Michelle Agyemang.  No team in the Women's European Championships had ever come back from a two goal deficit to win an elimination game, but England were threatening.

Extra time settled nothing, and the penalty shootout was laughably horrible, with some of the worst kicks ever seen on the world stage.  Kickers contrived to scoop soft, fluffy attempts directly into the arms of grateful keepers as well as miss the frame of the goal in all three ways.  Somehow, after 14 shots, only five had bulged the back of the old onion bag, and England had the better of it, three to two.

The first semi-final matchup had been established:  England v. Italy.

Unfortunately, I appear to run into the limit of my endurance for the moment.  I had no idea that adding all of these photos and links would be so exhausting and time-consuming.  I promise to return with my take on the remaining two quarter-final matches, including the colossal clash between the Germans and the French.

Until then, goodnight England and the colonies.

—mARKUS

Jürgen's Legacies

Greetings, gentle readers. 

As I subject myself to hours of commentary from the American Fox Sports network, I've realized a couple of things. The first is that I've underestimated the cultural impact of Jürgen Klopp's move to Liverpool FC ten years ago. The second is that Ariane Hingst has a top notch sense of humour. 

Watch What You Say 

When Jürgen Klopp made his managerial move to England a decade ago, he was already a media darling. With his brilliant megawatt smile and easy charm, he was always good for providing a quotable quotation or a verbal quip perfect for headlines and clickbait banners. Sports reporters hung on his every word. When he described his footballing philosophy as "Heavy Metal Football" it rattled around the sports journalism circles for years. 

Fox Sports commentators have picked up his phrase of "mentality monsters" and have used it to describe multiple teams both in the Women's Euro 2025 Championship and beyond. But the most telling turn of phrase that he used was one that he employed when he had a German concept in his mind, and was trying desperately to think of an English equivalent. To buy time, he would stall using the phrase "in this moment" or "in these moments." 

John Paul Dellacamera doesn't use the phrase very often because he spends most of his on-air time serving up softball questions to his colour commentators to fill dead air whenever a fullback has blasted the ball 80 yards downfield at a corner flag and it takes the players forty seconds to get a foot on it again. However, every colour commentator has used that phrase extensively when trying to formulate a clever or incisive response to one of JP, Jacqui Oatley, or John Strong's puff questions like, 

"As a player, how would you react to finding yourself three goals down in a group-stage game?" to which the answers invariably sound like this: 

"Well, it's in these moments that you really have to look around and determine..." before the colour person eventually gets around to the point and actually says something interesting. But it's Jürgen Klopp's phrase that has become common parlance for "I'll give you an answer after I think about it for another two seconds."

Goodbye Julie Ertz

The departure of Julie Ertz from the Fox Sports One Women's Euro Championship desk not only deprives viewers of her eerily accurate predictions (she foresaw Spain scoring six against the Belgians), but also of some of the more entertaining banter between guest pundits.  Watching Ari Hingst bristle in mock-umbrage at being called a "frumpy old woman" was positively hysterical.  We can only hope that future guest commentators will enjoy such lively exchanges.

Medical Update

Hope to get my fingers working again soon.  Strength is returning to them, but now it feels as though I need to retrain them in the functional use of a keyboard.  All of the sensations feel foreign and all of the muscles are atrophied and slack.  The electro-stim TENS unit seems to be accomplishing something positive, so hope springs eternal.

Until next time, goodnight England and the colonies.

—mARKUS

Women's Euro 2025 Championships

Greetings, gentle readers. 

Recovering as I am from spinal surgery my typing is still stilted and uncomfortable, but I thought it worth the effort to try and detail my thoughts on the 2025 UEFA European Women's Championship Tournament. For those that know this blog, I spent an awful lot of time and effort following the Womens' World Cup two years ago. Watching this year's edition of the European World Championship ought to be a similar experience, yeah?  No. Two things struck me immediately after I started watching the matches. 

Where is the Talent? 

First, the standard of play was awful. Even among the "elite" teams like world champions Spain or European champions England, the display of technique and skill was virtually nonexistent. Teams like Wales embarrassed themselves with clumsy and naïve charges about the field that often resulted with baffled and groggy players recalling the wet thwacking noise that had sent them tumbling unconscious to the turf. 

Who are these Women? 

Second, I experienced a profound lack of recognition when it came to the lineups. Looking back at my articles from 2023, I wanted to see some of the star performers again, see how they have developed, and hopefully bear witness to an explosion of flair. But they were all gone. It's only been two years. Where has everyone gone?  Surely, 25 year-old women from the World Cup haven't "aged-out" in the short period between then and now.

Three Letters

An answer to why the level of competition seems more like pub league, and why I can't identify more than one or two players from teams that just two years ago competed for the biggest trophy in the sport seems to be locked in three words:  Anterior Cruciate Ligament.  In three letters, the acronym ACL haunts players of this sport like no spectral stalker could ever do.

I have already spoken about this topic at length.  Canadian superhero Kara Lang's struggles with ACL surgeries and recoveries can be seen in an article HERE.  The problem of women suffering this specific type of injury has been examined before Lang's third ACL tear in 2014.  Two things are brought up as the potential causes of injury aggravation - surfaces and training.

AI Musical Interlude

For those of you curious or interested enough, there are a couple of AI-generated tracks which were produced using certain keywords and musical genre directions. 

This song seems to grungily bemoan the effects of astroturf on women's knees:
Iron on the Pitch

and this track tries a more soulful approach:

Artificial Turf Blues

I shall be back soon to try and integrate some of these concepts with my favourite European team — the Swiss.  I am still fuming that Giulia Gwinn of Deutschland is likely out for the rest of the tournament with a twisted left knee, and I hope that there are no other serious injuries as the tournament progresses.

Thank you very much for reading.

Good night England and the colonies.

—mARKUS

2023 WWC - The Road to the Final

 Greetings, gentle readers.

So we've reached the weekend of the Final, and what sort of retrospective can we create from the dozens of disparate narratives woven through the tapestry of this event?  To lead off, I suppose I should say that I've finally been convinced by the English team.  To steal a term from Robert Heinlein, I finally grok their style of play.  At the start of the tournament, I wasn't convinced that they had a style.  They had athleticism, they had a grim professional attitude, and they generally didn't fall into the "ball-watching-at-corner-kicks" category into which so many other teams could be lumped.  But then I noticed the play of Rachel Daly, and suddenly a number of things fell into place.

Inadequately trained or drilled teams tend to stare at the flight of corner kicks as though they had a Fox colour-comet-tail behind them.

Danger From The Deep

The Daly Show

In the semi-final against Australia, I finally noticed the same thing that initially endeared me to the Swiss team:  a player who could make an accurate 50 meter pass to clear the ball from her defensive third, to unlock a defensive offside trap, or to switch play to an open runner in space.  Luana Bühler was that kind of quarterback for Switzerland before she was injured and unable to contribute further to her team's cause.  The player who best executes those technical manoeuvres for England is Rachel Daly, a striker with Aston Villa but a left-back for her country.  Her defensive nous made me wonder why she would ever play in a forward position, since her tackling and positional play complement her vision and distribution in a way reminiscent of Philipp Lahm, the legendary German full-back.

Now that I had discovered England's deep-lying playmaking passmaster, I was able to sort the rest of the team out into the component parts of a successful team machine.

Towers of Power and Lighthouses

Another common element of successful teams at this year's WWC is the commanding centre-back.  In defence, that player coordinates the back line and the offside trap it creates; marshals personnel to outnumber rushing and overlapping attacks; organizes formations and structures to combat set plays; and perhaps most saliently, tends to win headers and effect clearances from dangerous areas.  This "Tower of Power" player acts as an extension of the goalkeeper and acts as a fortress, keeping the ball away from the 19-yard box and the goal line.

When their team has possession of the ball in the opposition half, Towers of Power become Lighthouses.  Because they are generally taller and/or have greater vertical leaps than their teammates, they can act as focus points and targets for crosses, corners, free-kicks, from which they can produce headers on net, hold up the ball and distribute it to available strikers, and nod or flick the ball into spaces with more potential.

Wendie Renard standing tall

The obvious example of this type of player is Wendie Renard of France.  At 6-foot-2, she stands well above most women players, and her skill using her head to control the ball is well recognized.  The England team has Millie Bright.  Although only 5-foot-10, her physicality and presence make her the focus of almost all English set plays, and the core of their defensive line.  A player of this sort to watch in the third-place playoff game would be Sweden's Amanda Ilestedt, who already has four goals in this tournament and is still in contention for the golden boot, despite being a defender.

The Mazy Dribblers

There was an episode of Ted Lasso in which the players discover that all of their passing lanes are closed down by a defensive system focused on interceptions.  The solution is obvious — dribble the ball directly at the defenders that are attempting to anticipate the passes.  There are some players (usually midfielders) who make your heart leap when they receive and turn with the ball. 

Another costly suspension

Sweden's Fridolina Rolfö, Switzerland's Ramona Bachmann, and Holland's Daniëlle van de Donk are tremendous examples of this type of player.  The last of those three was suspended for the game in which the Netherlands was eliminated, and her absence was tangible.  

When the tournament began, I didn't recognize this type of player in the England squad, but by the time that they played Australia in the semi-finals, it became clear to me that Lauren Hemp had assumed that role.  Perhaps it took the suspension of Lauren James after her red card against Nigeria in the round of 16 for Hemp to elevate her game and begin to accelerate into space with the ball.

And the throbbing, stinging pain in my arm and hand has announced that it is time for me to take another break.  I shall endeavour to try and conclude my summarizing remarks on the tournament prior to the third-place playoff game, but no promises can confidently be made.

Until the next time I am fit to type, I bid a good night to England and the colonies.

Cheers.

2023 WWC - The End of the Semi-Finals

 Greetings gentle readers.

And so the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup has finally resolved itself into its final weekend, with Sweden and hosts Australia facing off for the third-place spot on Saturday 19 August while England and Spain will clash in the final showdown on the following day.  Or night, depending on your time zone.

In deference to my dysfunctional digits, I shall attempt to wrap up my observations to this point, cap some of the narratives within the competition, and set up a final conclusion.

Who Prepares Wins

As per previous comments, one of, if not THE critical features of successful teams in this competition is the management and coaching staff.  Sweden's Peter Gerhardsson and England's Sarina Wiegman are notable in the way in which they juggled and rotated their squads in order to deal with injuries.  Australia's Tony Gustavsson spent the entire tournament trying to evaluate how much playing time he could get from superstar strikers Sam Kerr and Mary Fowler, the former suffering from a calf injury and the latter recovering from a concussion suffered before the first game of the tournament.

In addition to managing the medical mishaps of their teams, the coaching staff of teams are responsible for tactical systems and training regimens.  When I first saw Brazil's now legendary Marta play as a precocious young 16-year-old, her team were vanquished at the semi-final stage of the Women's Under-19 World Championship.  As I told my father at the time, one team practiced penalty shots while the other team evidently did not.  Gary Lineker's quotation could apply equally to that tournament as it did when he spoke about England's record in the 1990 World Cup and the 1996 European Championships.

Stuck a Feather in Her Cap and Called it Macaroni

One of the most notable results of the Round of 16 led to much gleeful celebration around the world, particularly in the United States.  When Sweden defeated the United States Women's National Team in a penalty shootout to eliminate the Americans from the competition, there was much rejoicing.  As Lineth Beerensteyn of the Netherlands said,

"From the start of the tournament, they had really big mouths and were already talking about the final. I was thinking you first have to show it on the pitch before you talk [big]," Beerensteyn said. "I'm not being rude in that way, I still have a lot of respect for them, but now they're out of the tournament, and for me, it's a relief, and for them, it's something they will have to take with them in the future."

Many American spectators did not fault arrogance and overweening pride for the failure of the two-time defending champions to retain their title.  In fact, live online comments seemed to indicate that there was a sizable viewership on Fox who were awake at 3 AM EST specifically to hatewatch the USWNT and cheer on the Swedes.  Television ratings and trends are discussed in THIS YouTube video.

In addition to those who despised the team for a series of mediocre and disappointing performances, there were those (like Megyn Kelly) who interpreted the team's actions during the national anthem and press conferences to be non-patriotic and possibly antithetical to the American national identity as a whole.  Players like Megan Rapinoe in particular were pilloried for behaving as social justice activists first and sports players second.  The underwhelming exit of the 2015 and 2019 World Cup winners on penalty kicks seemed to satisfy domestic fans who were tired of seeing their national representatives outworked, out-thought, and humiliated while enduring the accompanying self-righteous pontifications on TikTok, Instagram, and other online social media.

Former USWNT stars such as Carli Lloyd criticized the dethroned team as being disrespectful and entitled, and implied that the failure of the coaching and management staff to address the negative elements of the locker room culture was a primary cause for the earliest ever exit of the team from the Women's World Cup.

To Be Continued

And my failing extremities are causing me to abbreviate this session.  I shall return ere long.  Until then,

Good night England and the colonies.