The Soccer Thread (Newcastle takeover. For real, this time.)

I feel really bad for France.

That was a tough way to lose, but it wasn't surprising. The German m̶a̶c̶h̶i̶n̶e̶s̶ women looked laser-focused, and that last girl for France looked indecisive and and overwhelmed, like she wanted it to be anyone but her in that moment. I called the miss before it happened. It was an awful PK, but Germany's keeper did a good job of reading the hesitance and staying home. I think Germany is going to take the confidence from this and bring the cup home now.

As an aside, I love PKs. I loved them as a keeper, and I love watching them now. It doesn't get much better competitively than a one-on-one moment for it all.

Jara's employer, German Bundesliga club Mainz 05, basically said he can fuck right off after that incident. Don't want him anymore. Soon as an offer comes in, he'll be on his way.

The WWC match just now was very disappointing from a German's perspective. Undoubtedly the French have a fantastic squad and I absolutely expected them to be a tough opponent, but our girls basically didn't show up for the first half and only very slowly began resisting in the second. Extra time and the shootout were decent, though.

Oh look. The US starts in a 4-4-2.

How original.

EDIT: Although I will admit they look much better without towing Wambach as an anchor up front. Amazing what you can do with some interchange on the ground.

This lineup already looks infinitely more dangerous (in a good way). China is being aggressive, almost frenetic. Their front line seems to be focused on trying to pounce on a U.S. mistake, which, after the last slopfest, isn't a bad plan. The U.S. looks sharper today so far, though.

This line up is the best they've come out with all tournament.

Great performance by the U.S. They looked the part today. The scoreline isn't that impressive, but the game wasn't really close. The U.S. was in complete control. Johnston gets the game ball. She was dominant. Honorable mention to Rodriguez for her effort as well. Also, credit to China for making it as far as they did. They were a bit overmatched today, but that's a scrappy team. They could make a run in the next World Cup if they can get a bit more physical. I'm feeling more optimistic for Tuesday's meeting with Germany, but the U.S. has to be better with their finishes. One goal probably won't cut it. The real WWC starts on Tuesday.

How was that not a red card for Canada, she was in on goal.

Never been this nervous to watch England. Come on Lionesses.

Woo! Into the semi finals. Why can't the men's team play with that much passion. Putting those overly paid players to shame. Entertaining game if a little to nervy at times.

Japan going to be a tough game though.

The money in the men's game dilutes any incentive for young players to knuckle down. You can barely develop at a young age and still wind up with a good annual salary within a week. I mean, look at Jack Grealish. A hot prospect who's spent his entire summer so far face down and on the piss. Meanwhile Raheem Sterling thinks he's worth £40m.

Japan will beat us comfortably, I reckon. We give away too many chances.

A few hours from USA/Germany now. Obviously the game of the tourney, and perhaps the de facto final as the winner is probably a heavy favorite to win it all. I'm curious to see what Ellis does with the lineup. They looked so much better against China, but it will be hard to keep Rapinoe on the bench. Individually, Rapinoe is one of our best, and is more active than just about anyone out there. However, it seems like everyone kind of stands around and watches her when she's in, for reasons I don't entirely understand. I think Morgan Brian deserves to replace Holiday. Carli Lloyd looked so much more capable playing with her, and needs to add that on the offensive end to offset her propensity for bad giveaways. Rodriguez needs to start up front, no question. I don't want to see Wambach unless we get to a point late where we're desperately lobbing it into the box looking for an equalizer.

Ultimately, I don't see the U.S. winning this. My prediction is 2-1 Germany. I'd love to be wrong, but we've gotten away with some sloppiness and haven't made much of our goal-scoring chances. That's not going to get it done today. We need to get more shots on target and keep Lloyd on the attack so she's not pressured defensively. Johnston can't keep bailing her out on turnovers every time like she did against China. I fear Germany is going to capitalize early on a mistake, which will probably cause U.S. frustration, a bunch of individuals trying to press too hard to get it back, and lacking teamwork which will undo us. If that doesn't happen and USWNT can get to half all square (or better), it's a different game and advantage swings to the U.S. Enough on the guesswork, though. We'll see the real thing shortly. Go 'Merica.

Man, why does the Copa America and the WWC game have to be on at the same time. Bastards.

@shindig: I mostly agree with you. Brian is definitely a better option than Holiday, primarily because she's willing to play a number 6 role. The problem the US had earlier in the tournament was that they were playing both Holiday and Lloyd and they only wanted to go forward. We ended up with two number 8s (despite Ellis somehow thinking we were playing with two 6s), which caused a cascade effect of problems - there was no defensive midfield help for the defense, and when the defense won the ball back, they didn't have many options in the middle of the park, which led to the US getting locked up on the flanks.

I really think the strategy needs to be putting as much speed on the field as we can, since that's how France caused Germany problems. However, maximizing our team speed might mean moving away from the 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3. I'd really like to see a 4-2-3-1, but I know Brian had said in an interview that the team hadn't practiced like that, so that's probably wishful thinking. I also don't know that Jill Ellis is flexible enough to move away from the 4-4-2. Hopefully, we can at least shift to the diamond 4-4-2 that worked better against China than the flat 4-4-2 that got played earlier on. I'm also worried that Wambach is going to start, since Ellis has been banging on all week about matching Germany's size. That seems like entirely the wrong approach to me, but I'm probably not the person to ask. I've hated the Ellis hire ever since it was made, so I'm definitely biased towards disagreeing with just about anything she does.

Not that I really think it matters as I believe this US team just isn't talented enough to beat Germany. The tournament for the US has followed a distressingly similar pattern to Brazil's World Cup last year - a lot of really subpar performances where they managed to just squeak by a lot of inferior teams followed by playing Germany. I'm just hoping it doesn't end in quite the same level of blowout.

That first half was some great soccer. I said I'd be happy with 0-0 at half, and I pretty much am, but we have got to finish. Same old story. We've had about five legitimate chances to score. Morgan is making great runs, but has to put them away. Rapinoe is doing brilliant work on the edge, but getting panicky when she gets around goal. In fairness, ̶C̶a̶i̶t̶l̶y̶n̶ ̶J̶e̶n̶n̶e̶r̶ Angerer is playing lights out. Maier, though, is getting dominated by Rapinoe and is nearing red card territory. Popp arguably deserved a card near the end of the half as well. Germany looks frustrated. Now we just have to put one or two away to get them really out of sorts.

Man, USA should be up like 3-0 right now. That was a pretty intense first half.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!

Glad the US is up, but that foul was easily a yard and a half outside the box. Free kick, yes. Penalty, not a chance.

Weird game so far. It's like 1/3 really good soccer, 1/3 really bad soccer, and 1/3 Thunderdome.

Yeah, definitely a fortunate few minutes for the U.S. Johnston could have gotten a red, Germany missing a PK, and getting the PK call on the other end. I'll take it. We've been outplaying Germany and deserve to be leading.

Amazing goal.

THAT's a goal. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

That was a legit goal.

What a goal!

I'll be rooting for England tomorrow. But a rematch with Japan would be kinda nice, to get some revenge for 2011.

Well, that was surprising in the best way possible. Here I was thinking the US was about to get blown out of the water. Great win. Really glad they got that great goal so there's no lingering stink about the PK foul being outside the box.

I guess it's now on to see who we play. I'm like 99% certain that it'll be a rematch with Japan, but based on how I crapped the bed with this prediction, maybe England've got a better chance than I think. Japan is without a doubt the better team, but the good news for England is that Japan isn't really structured to blow teams out. They're perfectly content to win 1-0 or 2-1, so England is unlikely to be totally out of it at any point. The bad news for England is that with the way Japan possesses the ball, 1-0 can kind of feel like a blowout.

Well, that was neat.

That was the most exciting WWC game I've ever seen. The first half was back-and-forth, with the teams basically trading counterattacks. Germany ran out of steam shortly after the missed PK, and had no answers. Oddly enough, Jill Ellis (who's been mostly awful) outcoached Sylvia Neid, something I didn't think had a remote chance of happening. That's more a product of Neid having no answers than Ellis doing anything overly special, but still. I don't know how Neid kept Maier in there. She was getting repeatedly embarrassed out there, which was partially a product of Rapinoe running circles around her, and partially due to her just not being mentally with it. That she stayed in for the second half (and finished the game) was insanity to me. And the one sub Neid did make was to throw a visibly hobbled Marozsan out there out of desperation. On our side, Ellis pulled Rapinoe at the right time. Rapinoe ran herself into the ground in that first half and wore out several opponents in the process, but was clearly exhausted in the second half. She was still one of the players of the match. Carli Lloyd managed to stay on the attack as I'd hoped and got all the glory.

I was glad to see the game not be decided by penalties. Germany's got a bit of a gripe on the Johnston foul, but Maier was borderline red card in the first half as well. As for our PK, it should have been a free kick instead upon review, but it was close in real-time. The harshness of the foul may have been the deciding factor there. Ultimately, the U.S. didn't win because of calls, though. They won because they played better, and were rewarded with a well-earned result. I was glad to see Johnston not be the goat as well. She's been terrific overall. I'm still not sure Wambach needs to be out there. To her credit, she made a great decision to pull back and be patient to set the second goal in motion. There was one ball played up a bit earlier, though, that any of our other forwards would have gotten to and had a one-on-one, but Wambach simply couldn't catch up to. That's a big deal. And Morgan, damn she still creates, but just doesn't have the final touch back yet. She should have had two goals, and maybe two assists on top of that. She needs to either be less selfish or be more effective on her own shots. Right now, I'd prefer her passing instead of shooting. Hard to find complaints in her effort or the team's today, though. Great, great win.

That copa america semi was a joke. Argentina hopefully do the same to stinky chile.

O'hara's goal looked almost exactly like Mix's from the Netherlands match. Great game, looking forward to the finals this Sunday.

who do people have for the next semifinal game: Japan or England?

Japan. Unless we decide to abandon defence and just outscore them.

I never thought I would be rooting for Argentina, but here we are.

Go, Messi, go...

I'm not a Japan fan, but that was 100% a dive. No PK. Also the one before that was an iffy call.

Edit: watching the reply there was a foul, but I still feel like the player went down too easy.

This game is pretty bad.

England's still in it. Looking much more frisky than I thought they would.

May I also take this opportunity to point out what garbage the officiating in this tournament has been? The last game and a half has been shocking. The Japan penalty was the second one called in the semifinals where the foul wasn't in the box. And the England penalty looked like a clear dive.

Also, I'm not certain that the initial Japan penalty kick was even valid, since I thought it looked like the player stopped her forward motion entirely at one point. She can stutter-step, but not stop entirely. I might have made her retake the kick.

Well. . .

huh . . .

That's like . . .

Jeez.

oooh no. oh my god

what a horrible way to end a game

To anyone wondering, the game's tiebreaker was an own goal in the 92nd minute. You just saw the girl crumble after the whistle blew.

That's a shitty way to lose.

Oh man. I feel so bad for that English player. That is the worst way to lose a game.

Well, that really sucks for England and those women. They did amazing to that point. They were doing really well in the second half. I was hoping they would pull it out.

But now we get a rematch of the last word cup final. Here is to hoping the outcome is reversed this time.

Feel really bad for England. They were the better team in that game, and were a cool story in the tournament. As an American, I feel pretty confident about the team's chances against Japan. They've looked pretty pretty mediocre lately.

That was the most exciting Own Goal I have ever seen. Seriously, just...wow. An amazing fucking golazo except for the part where she scored on her own goalie.

Well, at least MURICA can get its revenge on the Nadeshiko.

I just realized that England now has to play Germany in the third place game. I hope they bounce back mentally from that and come out and play as hard in that game. I would hate to see it end up with Germany dominating the whole match for an easy win.

Had to eat 4th dinner, so I've only seen the last 10 minutes or so, but I'm really pulling for England.

That was a bad penalty by the German player to take since the England player was never going to get to that ball. Definitely a foul, and one that she didn't need to take. I'll admit that I'm kind of sick of penalties, though. There's been waaaay too many of them in this tournament.

EDIT: Angerer better cool her jets before she gets even Angererer. I'm surprised the official didn't card her for all that back talk.

EDIT 2: That's cool. I'm really glad England won. First time they've beaten Germany too. This will do ladies soccer wonders in Britain. Also, I'm sick of Germany.

Chile won their first major trophy after a comfortable penalty shootout against Argentina. Also, England's penalty looked softer than summer ice cream but the women's game seems to give them. 21 attempts to beat Germany put to rest.

Other stuff:

• Radamel Falcao switches a loan spell at Man Utd for a loan spell at Chelsea
• Lukas Podolski has moved to Galatasaray for £1.8m
• Demba Ba has gone to China. What an agent he must have.
• Leicester (for reals this time) part company with Nigel Pearson. An unworkable relationship was cited. When you get pissy about your son being rightly sacked for partaking in a racist orgy, don't expect to come in on Monday. Plus... the ... other stuff.
• Man City and Paris Saint-Germain got fined again for failing to comply with Financial Fair Play regulations. City responded by signing Scott Delph to sit on the bench.

Japan going for the old "let's not defend at all and let's especially not cover the obvious key player on corner kicks" approach.

This match is off to a grand start...

Edit: Spoke too soon, apparently there was a lot more room for the play to get even worse. Jesus Christ this is awful.

Oh. My. God. Amazing.

Dude, what is happening??

I think the Japanese players are hung over.

Well, maybe they finally woke up and will make this a game.

At least it's probably not going to be worse than the Germany vs Ivory Coast match from earlier in the tournament.