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OT: 2023 Women's World Cup

Cruel game. Right after Kerr misses a golden opportunity to tie, England scores on a counterattack. Great goal by Russo, but I have to say, less than impressive defending again by the Aussies. England wins 3-1 and will face Spain in the final.
 
An analysis of prospective candidates to replace Vlatko at USWNT. I assume Vlatko will be out, but nothing announced yet.

Tony Gustavsson​

Makes the most sense. Zero chance England cosch is gonna leave. She’s about to win a WC
 
Here's my total WAG...

Netherlands - Japan
France - Colombia (since England will be without James)

France over Netherlands for the WC. My biggest hope is that none of these games ends in PKs.
Spain-England final.
 
Spain I get but anybody who didn’t have England in their final is nuts
The only reason I didn't was knowing that James was out for two matches - thought maybe that would have a bigger impact, given that she's coming into her own as one of the best players in the world and given her dominant performance in the group stage (3 goals/3 assists).
 
Spain looks the best right now and both teams could have scored in addition to the Spain goal. 1-0 Spain so far.
 
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Haven’t seen Spain play before but they remind me of when their mens team was really good…..lots of possession and good passing.

Their pressing kind of reminds me of college basketball pressing and giving England trouble with it. I don’t watch much soccer but don’t recall seeing many teams be as aggressive as that.
 
It’s interesting that England seemed to mostly be attacking down their right side which is the same side that Spain was able to score on with the nice overlapping run by the left back. Looks like some halftime changes have been made. Here we go.
 
This will be a lousy way for this game to be put out of reach. Such a harmless handball
 
This will be a lousy way for this game to be put out of reach. Such a harmless handball
Letter of the law, it's a PK, but I kind of agree with you that it was harmless. Huge save by Earps!! On replay, it really looked like Earps stepped forward before her dive, so they could've ruled a re-kick.
 
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Her hand was too wide from her body and kind of looked like she reached for the ball too. I think it was a legit call. The gamesmanship by the English player might have helped on that bad shot haha.
 
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Letter of the law, it's a PK, but I kind of agree with you that it was harmless. Huge save by Earps!! On replay, it really looked like Earps stepped forward before her dive, so they could've ruled a re-kick.
Her back foot was still behind the line. I think she timed it perfectly
 
Spain not doing much of a good job killing time aside from these fouls. Reminds me of some college football teams that use tempo but when it comes to killing time they have a hard time taking the foot off the gas.
 
The better team won. England giving the ball away left and right in the last 15 minutes or so.
Completely agree. I really thought England would have been stronger. Spain will be a big challenge for the USA for years to come
 
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Congrats to Spain. They deserved it. For the first time ever watching the women’s game, I felt like I was watching their men’s team. The world has caught up so the US better get this next hire right and play as a team.
 
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Her hand was too wide from her body and kind of looked like she reached for the ball too. I think it was a legit call. The gamesmanship by the English player might have helped on that bad shot haha.
I don't think she reached out for the ball though. Looked to me like she was trying to hook the player from getting by. Either way it was a PK handball.

Also the English GK 100% left the line before the ball was struck.

Spain deserved the win. Was a very entertaining game.
 
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