SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
Well, here we are in the first edition of 32 teams that brought the Round of 16 knockout field in the Women’s World Soccer Cup.
It covers the greatest strengths and weaknesses and the fatal flews.
There is excitement within the underdogs that slipped in out of the first round. There are stars on board, some knockouts and some looking utterly spectacular, like Columbia, England, France, Japan and Sweden, except that all have to put up with the winter-like cold and driving rains that can change things.
One of the favorites no doubt has been the four-time champion United States, except there’s concern for a nation that was rather disappointing in getting through Group E. Yes, the red, white and blue did make the next round, but as the runner-up to the Netherlands, and now both head from New Zealand to Australia for late morning games this weekend.
Thus, the U.S.A. gets to take the pitch in Melbourne Sunday against Group G winner Sweden, while the Netherlands are in in Sydney on Saturday to play surprising second place South Africa, which made it ahead of Italy. The Swedes won it rather handily with nine points, but the big stunner was South Africa edging out Italy for the second spot.
Both matches are scheduled for 5 a.m. You can decide to catch it on the Fox channel, you can avoid it. A nap might be a good answer, it’s choice, not a must.
Sweden had a tough time Wednesday against fourth place Argentina. It rested players in the 2-0 win that was scoreless at halftime. The Americans, in turn, came off a scoreless game versus third place Portugal. It knocked the Portuguese out, while last place Vietnam failed to score in its initial World Cup appearance.
But the doubting Thomas’ aren’t exactly counting the United States out. Current polls have it still ranked at the top of the heap, but not so for Germany in Group H. It lost 2-1 to surprising Columbia, which grabbed the top spot with six points and left the Germans with second place just ahead of Morocco, which had earlier defeated Germany, 1-0.
Co-host New Zealand, with Australia the other, did not advance. Switzerland tallied five points to claim Group A and Norway edged New Zealand to take the runner-up position. So the Swiss meet up with Spain, which took second in Group D behind high scoring Japan, which tallied nine points and turned in 11 points, and will take on Columbia.
As for the Aussies with the big turnout, unlike New Zealand, it did get to the next round by winning Group B with six points, and Nigeria pieced together five points to also move on. Thus, Australia gets to face Jamaica, the Group F surprise that was the runner-up behind France.
The fancy French came up with seven points, two more than Jamaica, which held off high-ranking disappointed Brazil Wednesday, 2-0, to advance against fired-up Columbia.
With it being one of the leading scoring teams, fast moving Japan has to be among the best on the list. If the U.S. can get past Sweden, it will make the list, if not pencil in the Swedes. Can’t forget experienced England, which claimed No. 1 in Group D with nine points, three better than second place Denmark.
The Netherlands? Well, it did manage the 1-1 deadlock with the United States, but barely won over Portugal, 1-0, and then shellacked winless Vietnam, 7-0. The Americans have got to find the net, have got to feature some better defense against Sweden, have got to put together better ideas and execution.
The U.S. can’t just show up and expect big things. It may have the talent that has been expected, but nothing is a given. Talk is talk, but the Americans must produce if they want a third straight championship and fifth overall. What’s gone wrong thus far, they will have to figure it out or exit earlier than was forecast.
It’s kind of guaranteed that the United States will have support in the stands, and if so, could benefit from it. Catching it on the tubes is a different story, sure it would be nice, but won’t bring cheers.
Predictions here are difficult. As of now, only Australia has home pitch as well as coinciding with the time difference.
