Unfortunately I missed all day 6's games due to needing to get some jobs done around the house. But here are the results from that day:
Nigeria 2 - 0 South Korea
Germany 1 - 0 Spain
France - 2 - 1 Norway
I also missed out on China's 1-0 win over South Africa yesterday after seeing the result I can't help but wonder is it all over for South Africa?
One game I didn't miss though was Australia vs Brazil, it was bound to be a good game and it definitely didn't disappoint. Australia really needed to win this game after their disappointing loss to Italy, the only way in my eyes they could do this was if the backline really stepped up and performed as expected, I really didn't want to see them crashing out of the tournament so soon. Raso started on the bench but the big news was Marta being back for Brazil, surely what Australia didn't want to see. Polkinghorne missed out on the game due to an injury which saw Catley step into the back line and honestly I think it made a difference.
One thing that really let Australia down especially in the first half was the quality of their crosses, at times they weren't even beating the first woman which is poor for their players standards. However, young Ellie Carpenter was playing absolutely fantastically her runs at the Brazilians showed just how confident she is in her own ability and her overlapping play was fantastic gaining Australia vital yards and helping creating space for those around her. She really is a player to keep your eyes on in the future. In fact she put in a brilliant ball in the 12th minute and Australia were unlucky not to get anything from it. She also always seemed to be there to win the ball back for her team too.
Formiga is out of Brazil's next game thanks to her picking up another yellow card, which wasn't necessary at all. It was right in front of the referee and honestly the Australian player had nowhere to go anyway due to the positioning of the referee. She was subbed off at half time so if we want to see her again we have to hope Brazil get into the knockout stages.
One thing I really don't understand is why at times during the game Kerr was playing so wide, she is an ariel threat and just a threat in front of goal in general, so why have her right out by the wing instead of near the box where she can get herself in better positions, to make the most out of her you need her in the middle of the field definitely not out wide.
In the 19th minute it looked like Australia has won themselves a penalty. It looked like the Australian was tripped whilst pulled back slightly when she got into the box, this all came about after Australia really put pressure on Brazil's back line and won the ball back in a dangerous position. However the decision went to VAR (of course) and it was eventually pulled back for a Brazil free kick due to a handball in the build up. Granted this was possibly a good decision but how far back do we go to see if anything else effected play? Plus the VAR decision took far too long to come to a conclusion which meant players were just stood around waiting it takes away the momentum of the game.
Brazil were next for a penalty shout and honestly it looked like there could have been a handball in the build up to this one but VAR stuck with the ref's original decision and gave the penalty, which to be honest the Australian did have a handful of the Australians shirt to bring her down, it was soft but it was a penalty. Of course it was Marta who stepped up to take this and easily converted it to put Brazil 1-0 up.
I honestly think play was sloppy from both sides throughout the game and neither side actually looked at their best. Cristiane then added to the score in the 38th minute to send Brazil into a 2-0 lead. The goal had a soft build up as the Australian defence should have done a whole lot better. But it a great ball and nutmeg from Tamires through to Debinha who put in a great cross that lead to Cristiane adding to her goal tally with a pretty good header.
At 2-0 you would have thought Brazil held a great lead but that all changed when Foord came sliding in to get a goal back for Australia making it 2-1 just before half time. It was a nice ball in that she managed to get on the end of, she really was right place right time to anticipate just where the ball was going to land.
It was in the 58th Minute when Australia struck again this time what looked like it could have been a ball in from Logarzo found its way to the back of the net, honestly I think the ball was intended for Kerr but went one better and sailed into the goal. It seemed to knock Brazil back a bit as they had now lost their 2 goal lead.
It was the 66th minute when things really changed a ball in from the Aussies that Monica tried clearing but actually ended up putting the ball in the back of her own net, this of course got sent to VAR due to a possible offside from Kerr but the goal stood and Australia took the lead. I think this was the correct decision as when Monica went to play the ball it looked as though Kerr had already run passed her and out of the way so she couldn't interfere meaning Monica didn't need to actually play the ball. As controversial as it is I really do think the officials made the correct decision even after how long it took for the VAR decision to come through.
Australia really seemed to step up their game in the second half, they were definitely better than when they played Italy and I think the result really reflects that. Even though Australia had some very good game management when they took the lead at times it did go back to like the first half and went end to end at times, which created a great game to watch for the fans. I really think the 5 minutes added time was just added to make up for all that lost to VAR which they really need to speed up as you can't have 5 mins after every game just due to slow decisions.
The group now has Brazil, Italy and Australia all on 3 points at the moment with Italy to play today. This could really be a close group and is all going to go down to the last game. I am just glad Australia still have a chance.
If I had to pick I would give Carpenter the woman of the match due to her performance she was really brilliant in her role and stood up against some of the greatest in the world. She put is a solid performance for the full 90 in my opinion and at her age you can only expect her to get better and better.
See you soon
Lucy
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