2023 Women's World Cup
40,000 expected at Wembley for our match in 40mins.
England smash the bar, dominating.
England hammer the bar again! It won't go in!
I can't believe the chances we're missing.
HT 0-0. Doing everything right but the woeful finishing. 17 shots, only 3 on target. 80% possession, 0 shots for NI.
At last. 1-0 at '64. All the missed chances and Mead comes off the bench and scores a super goal.
2-0. Some luck, a cross goes over the keeper and under the bar.
3-0, it's Mead again slamming in a cross.
Magnificent Mead! Hat trick putting in a rebound, 4-0!
4-0 FT. The hero:
Just finished watching this match too with the same frustration as you in the first half.
If you are in trouble just bring on an Arsenal player. I wish the same solution would work in the men's game
If you are in trouble just bring on an Arsenal player. I wish the same solution would work in the men's game
The two final Asian Cup spots ended up with the favourites. Myanmar defeated UAE 2-0. The first goal a rather absurd one, after only five minutes. the UAE goalkeeper tries to clear a ball, but only gets it to the head of a Myanmar player just outside the box. From there it seemed like cruise control for Myanmar. Similarly, Chinese Taipei took a safe 2-0 victory against Bahrain to secure their spot.
The draw will be held in AFC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
Pot 1: India, Japan, Australia
Pot 2: China, Thailand, South Korea
Pot 3: Philippines, Vietnam, Iran
Pot 4: Myanmar, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia
The teams will play in 3 groups of 4 with the two top-ranked sides plus two best 3rd places going through.
They are playing for 5 direct World Cup spots and Australia already have a spot as host, so basically the best half of the teams go straight to the World Cup. In addition, there are two spots in the intercontinental playoffs.
Japan should be dead-certain qualifiers and China + South Korea also big favourites to grab two spots. It will be interesting to see how much India has improved. They are coached by Thomas Dennerby, who coached the Swedish NT from 2005-12, including the bronze medal at the 2011 World Cup, and then coached Nigeria from 2018-2019, taking them to the WC 1/8-final in 2019. He then became coach of the India U17 side to get them a good result at home at the 2020 U17 World Cup, but that has unfortunately been cancelled. So in August this year, he instead took over the senior team. At least three of the players from the U17 squad has been moved up to the senior side already. They played six friendlies here in October. Beating UAE 4-1, Bahrain 5-0, Chinese Taipei 1-0 and then a 0-1 loss to Tunisia before going to Sweden where they narrowly lost twice to Swedish League teams (who played mostly those just outside the starting 11). I think they will be good enough to take a World Cup spot come January.
From the remaining 7 sides, I would be very surprised if Iran or Indonesia end up with even a playoff spot. Between the other five sides, I think it could be relatively open, for me perhaps Vietnam slightly favoured for a direct spot.
The draw will be held in AFC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
Pot 1: India, Japan, Australia
Pot 2: China, Thailand, South Korea
Pot 3: Philippines, Vietnam, Iran
Pot 4: Myanmar, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia
The teams will play in 3 groups of 4 with the two top-ranked sides plus two best 3rd places going through.
They are playing for 5 direct World Cup spots and Australia already have a spot as host, so basically the best half of the teams go straight to the World Cup. In addition, there are two spots in the intercontinental playoffs.
Japan should be dead-certain qualifiers and China + South Korea also big favourites to grab two spots. It will be interesting to see how much India has improved. They are coached by Thomas Dennerby, who coached the Swedish NT from 2005-12, including the bronze medal at the 2011 World Cup, and then coached Nigeria from 2018-2019, taking them to the WC 1/8-final in 2019. He then became coach of the India U17 side to get them a good result at home at the 2020 U17 World Cup, but that has unfortunately been cancelled. So in August this year, he instead took over the senior team. At least three of the players from the U17 squad has been moved up to the senior side already. They played six friendlies here in October. Beating UAE 4-1, Bahrain 5-0, Chinese Taipei 1-0 and then a 0-1 loss to Tunisia before going to Sweden where they narrowly lost twice to Swedish League teams (who played mostly those just outside the starting 11). I think they will be good enough to take a World Cup spot come January.
From the remaining 7 sides, I would be very surprised if Iran or Indonesia end up with even a playoff spot. Between the other five sides, I think it could be relatively open, for me perhaps Vietnam slightly favoured for a direct spot.
Last edited by Diouf on Tue Oct 26, 2021 19:38, edited 1 time in total.
It's interesting that 8/9 UEFA groups have delayed the first confrontation between the top two seeds. 7 have delayed it until November, with 4 of those even putting it in the Nov 30 slot, the second Nov match, so they'll have played every other team plus one team twice before they meet. England and Austria are one of the 3 pairs that have it as the first Nov match, so will have played every team once on completion. Only Norway and Belgium have chosen to go at it this month, they meet today. Only Iceland and Netherlands have already gone at it, totally bucking the trend by having it as the second match, and Netherlands faced third seed Czech Republic in the first match. This group will end with the top 2 going at it though.
5 groups will have the second encounter in the final September window, with 3 having it as the final match. Austria and England is the second last match. The other 4 have it in the April window, with 2 having it as the earlier match. Those are Wales / France and Germany / Portugal.
7/9 top seeds have the first encounter at home. The ones that don't are also the ones that are playing earlier somewhere, Netherlands already went to Iceland, and Germany are hosting Portugal on MD7.
5 groups will have the second encounter in the final September window, with 3 having it as the final match. Austria and England is the second last match. The other 4 have it in the April window, with 2 having it as the earlier match. Those are Wales / France and Germany / Portugal.
7/9 top seeds have the first encounter at home. The ones that don't are also the ones that are playing earlier somewhere, Netherlands already went to Iceland, and Germany are hosting Portugal on MD7.
Ghana beat Nigeria 1-0 at home in a game with a red card for both sides. Not enough for the Ghana side who loses 2-1 on aggregate, so the World Cup hopes of the 4th ranked side in Africa is already over. Top ranked Nigeria with another difficult match in round 2 against Ivory Coast, who smashed Niger 20-0 on aggregate.
2nd ranked Cameroun took another narrow victory against the Central African Republic, and will be clear favourites again in their second round encounter against Gambia.
Tunisia beat Egypt 1-0 at home (7-2 agg) to set up an intersting encounter against Equatorial Guinea, the 6th and 7th highest ranked sides.
The Olympic participants Zambia won suprisingly narrow against Malawi 3-2 (4-3 agg) and will face Namibia in the second round. For Namibia, the Sevilla profile Zenatha Coleman scored all five goals in their 5-3 aggregate victory against Tanzania.
Finally Uganda won a slightly surprising aggregate victory against Ethiopia. After a 2-0 win at home, they lost 2-0 away but won on penalties. They will face Kenya in the 2nd round.
2nd ranked Cameroun took another narrow victory against the Central African Republic, and will be clear favourites again in their second round encounter against Gambia.
Tunisia beat Egypt 1-0 at home (7-2 agg) to set up an intersting encounter against Equatorial Guinea, the 6th and 7th highest ranked sides.
The Olympic participants Zambia won suprisingly narrow against Malawi 3-2 (4-3 agg) and will face Namibia in the second round. For Namibia, the Sevilla profile Zenatha Coleman scored all five goals in their 5-3 aggregate victory against Tanzania.
Finally Uganda won a slightly surprising aggregate victory against Ethiopia. After a 2-0 win at home, they lost 2-0 away but won on penalties. They will face Kenya in the 2nd round.
Toone gets this party started at '8 smacking one in the top corner.