SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
Key matches coming up and you have to wonder if the penalty shots will improve as the Women’s World Soccer Cup heads into its second round.
No real surprises in the eight brackets, except for the eight penalty shorts of which only four were made. Some of the attempts were turned away by goaltending heroics, others were clean misses and all four denials had some of the game’s biggest names on the short end.
Let’s start with New Zealand, along with Australia, the host.
Longtime New Zealand striker Ria Percival missed high off the crossbar with a chance to extend the lead in the Football Ferns’ eventual opening-match upset of Norway.
Spain’s all-time leading scorer Jennifer Hermoso’s kick was saved by Costa Rica keeper Daniela Solera.
Canada captain Christian Sinclair’s attempted penalty shot was stopped by Nigeria captain Chamaka Nadozie in an unlikely draw between the world’s sixth-ranked and 39th-ranked teams.
And then there was the two-time defending champions from the United States’ having co-captain and star forward Alex Morgan denied on a strike to the left side of the net by Vietnam tender Thi Kim Thanh that led to jubilation from the Vietnamese.
Said Morgan, who also came up short on her follow-up shot following the miss: “I felt confident,” she said after the 3-0 domination, “stepped up and it wasn’t a good penalty for me, and I know that, but I’m glad the team put three goal aways, and that we’re on to the next one.”
The next one is Wednesday against the Netherlands, the probable toughest opponent in the four-team bracket for the U.S.A. as Netherlands edged Portugal, 1-0, in its first round, and was closer than expected.
A mere 50% conversion rate, if it continued through the 2023 tournament, would be notably low.
Norwegian psychologist Geir Jordet reported a near 80% success rate across 409 chances in top senior international competition in his 2006 research on the penalty kick.
This year’s start could have been even worse. Japan’s Riko Ueki and England’s Georgia Stanway were each turned away on penalty attempts Saturday night, but scored on retakes after match officials tagged Zambia and Haiti with goalkeeper encroachment.
Japan’s 5-0 triumph over Zambia was already decided. For England, the ruling, helped by a video assistant referee, played a major factor in scraping by 1-0 over Haiti.
Specifically VAR officiating being used for the time in the women’s world cup, can introduce some variations in the way games are called and the way players react.
Through a translator, Japan manager Futoshi Ikeda acknowledged post-game that VAR has this kind of impact on their mental balance that her team tries to control and concentrate.
She added that VAR appears to have rulings on penalties having led to more-by-the-book times and this experience will be very useful for the other matches.
Soccer fans on a whole are no doubt perceiving that borderline calls are now more often going in favor of the attackers.
Vietnam’s foul on America’s Trinity Rodman in the 39th minute Saturday was far from malicious, but the light contact clearly caused Rodman to loose her footing inside of the box. She is the 22-year-old daughter of former National Basketball Association star Dennis Rodman and the team’s leading scorer.
“I don’t know if it happened easily or not,” said United States head coach Vlatko Andonovski, “with all the cameras, VAR and all the angles that the referees are reviewing, I’m sure they’re doing the right thing.”
The question is, if it’s a foul in the box, is it a penalty? Going forward, it sure can be questionable, and who knows what is going to happen. If they are fouls in the box, well they should signal the penalties. If they are not, they shouldn’t, it’s as simple as that.
Regardless of whether VAR is changing the frequency or manner in which penalties are awarded, one thing remains: a striker, a keeper and the 12 yards between them.
Netherlands head coach Andries Jonker said that he thinks self-confidence is the main thing, and that if you practice many, many times, and even then, you can’t imitate the stadium atmosphere, and the feeling is that the goal is smaller, the goalkeeper is bigger and the distance is longer.
The games play on while half the penalties are converted, but it is still a most world-wide sport, and the main word remains “Scores” in any language.
It’s early, but the opening round bracket frontrunners are co-leaders United States and Netherlands; Switzerland and New Zealand; Japan and Spain; Denmark and England; Sweden and Italy; Germany and Columbia; and on top of the heap is Australia over Canada and Nigeria, and Brazil over France and Jamaica.
The second round should be more decisive.
