2019 Women’s World Cup Last Sixteen: Day 4 Netherlands vs Japan: The knockout stage of the last 16 came to an end yesterday in dramatic fashion with a last-gasp penalty by the Netherlands sending Japan crashing out of the tournament. The European Champions, the Netherlands, were joined by Italy, playing in the the game yesterday and France and Sweden from the day before.2019 Day 4 Last-16 Match Reviews
Japan will feel incredibly hard done by after they put in a great performance only to come up agonizingly short. They lost 2-1 to the Netherlands, who snatched victory with a 90th-minute penalty, Martens converting to bag a brace. The penalty was cruel but in most cases, even without VAR, it would be given, with the snapshot striking an unfortunate Kumagai’s arm – she was close and trying to drop her arm behind her back, but it did stop the shot.
In the other game from yesterday, Italy looked comfortable as they scored twice to beat China. A penalty area scramble led to the opener, but that came after some good pressure from the Italians. Giacinti dispatched the deflected ball to make it 1-0. Just before or just after half time are often said to be great times to score and Galli added Italy’s second 5 minutes after the restart and China couldn’t find a way back into the game from that point.
On Monday, Sweden beat Canada 1-0 and the USA found a way past a stubborn Spain side 2-1. So, seven European teams through to the quarter finals and the USA.
2019 Women’s World Cup Language: Carve Open
The Japan versus Netherlands game was full of quality, and everyone loves it when a combination of accurate passes opens up a defence. We can describe this as carving open the defence, or in a passive sentence as be carved open. One such moment stood out in this last 16 fixture – Japan’s equaliser. The move started when Sugasawa laid the ball off to Mana Iwabuchi, who shielded the ball cleverly while turning round one central defender, giving her space to slip a beautiful short ball to Hasegawa, who lifted the ball over the goalkeeper. They carved the Dutch defense open. Here is an example from Bleacherreport.com: “Japan have enjoyed plenty of possession at the World Cup but have struggled to carve teams open despite the presence of quality, technical players such as Hina Sugita and Emi Nakajima in the team.”
2019 Women’s World Cup Predictions
There’s been some jostling at the top of the predictions table. But jlacey is still top with 55 followed by Aki on 54. These two have opened up a lead of six points over third, which is Paul. Learn English Through Football is on 46 with Jon and Nina on 45. Eight more games to go and that means 24 points, so still all to play for.
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Next Matches
You have to be a registered user and logged in to play in this pool.Current Ranking
| 1. | zicanda | 10 |
| 2. | HP Sauce | 9 |
| 3. | Learn English through Football | 8 |
| 4. | Tokyo Red | 6 |
| 5. | Liliy | 3 |
| 6. | Mightytoft | 3 |
| 7. | Fugesi | 1 |
| 8. | Sue | 1 |
| 9. | niall | 0 |
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