It came home. Great game. Not just for women's football but for football itself. Got to feel for the German girls, terrible to get so close. I think England deserved it in the end. Germany just couldn't keep possession in extra time.
England went into the tournament as one of the favored, nobody had Germany on the horizon. It was a large blow to Germany that Alex Popp could not play, she is the leader of the team and a true striker. All that does now not matter. England won and I always like those Cinderella stories, the home team brought it home. I was impressed how tough all of them played, they will be blue and green all over. It was great advertisement for women football. The German team had record breaking TV audiences, 87000 in Wembly. The German team will get a great home coming tomorrow in Frankfurt, very well deserved.
Kane scores from the penalty spot to become England's all time highest scorer with 54 goals. England 2 Italy 0.
Nervey finish for 10 man England. 2-1 final score and the first time we've beaten Italy on their own turf since 1961.
Could not watch had to plow snow. We have had over 15 feet of snow since the beginning of the year, plus 80mm rain. Its a fricking mess.
I did watch. Congrats. We haven't been good. Our first half was a disaster. We did do better in second half but you deserved the win.
That's twice in the last 25 years that we've beaten you. Not much to crow about to be honest. 2nd half was very close but it was good to see England so confident early on. Ukraine next...
Germany had a friendly against Peru. Flick left most of his stars at home and used young players who show promise He wants to broaden his base. His argument they need opportunity to show their stuff. Germany had 2 goals by Fuelkrug in the first half and then the the substitution started and as usually the game went flat and became unorganized and boring. Bigest story is Bayern in Germany, they dismissed their trainer Nagelsman and replaced him with Tuchel. For me it was coming, despite the 2 wins against PSG. Inconsistency was Nagelsman's problem. I think the decision was correct. Nagelsman's system and strategies did fail to make the max use of the fantastic team he had at hand. Tuchel is a wild card, brilliant trainer, but a rather difficult person to deal with.
Good first half against Ukraine, England 2 -0 up at halftime. Another goal from Kane and a beauty from Saka.
Italy 2-0 Malta full time. Both goals were from assists by AC Milan man Sandro Tonali (I'm a big fan; my Milan jersey has his name and number). Italy had a great first half and should have scored 5 goals; missed a sitter, and the very incompetent ref failed to call two flagrant PKs for Italy, which baffled the narrators (he didn't even ask for VAR assistance; the ball didn't stop so they couldn't intervene). Therefore, we missed the opportunity of winning 5-0 and getting some (maybe needed) goal differential. Second half, very anemic for Italy; we administered the result, seemingly with no big desire to score more; I'm not happy about that.
Now that we lost to you, I'm actually rooting for you to win all games (well, except the second leg against Italy), to suppress Italy's competition for second place in the group. After the trauma of not qualifying for the World Cup, I won't mind at all if we qualify for the Euro in second place. All that I want, is to secure our spot. So, go England!
How I hate that, if a team just administrates a result. Since Jan 31. I am retired, sold my company and I must say, I enjoy it. The relentless pressure is gone. I did not know how much pressure 24/7/365 was on me. I slept for 24h straight the next day. Next adventure moving to Europe.
Because of the animals which I plan to take with me, I plan Germany, I have a brother to help me, buy a house with a large garden and then buy a small RV and have a look at Spain and Portugal. If I find a place I like in one of those countries, move again. But Germany is the easiest start for me in Europe. Have a lot to learn after 40 years away. But first this endless winter has to stop.
A wild day today. Germany : Belgium. The first 30 minutes Belgium demolish Germany, 0:2 after 15 minutes and it should have been 0:4. It looked as if that would be a catastrophic defeat.. Germany was not able to get a handle on those super fast players. Flick made some drastic changes, Wirtz out, Goreska got banged up and Can and Nmecha in. That changed the game. Can was able to stabilize the defense and mid field. and Nmecha brought some ideas into the offensive mid field. Excellent showing for his first international. Germany got into the game and before half time a corner produced a penalty. Fuellkrug and Lukaku were both going for a header and Fuellkrug, was able to head towards the goal but hit the raised hand of L. He took the penalty. 6 goals in 6 games for Germany, rather good. Second half was 75% Germany and Belgium was forced to defend with everybody they had. Then the usual laps in Germany's defense and it was 1:3. Flick had nothing to loose and he had said he wanted to give his new young players a chance to show what they are made of and took all his substitutions. They put up a show. I liked it very much. Belgium wanted that win and the defenders threw everything into it and the German young guns wanted to draw even or even win. Gnabry had 2 good chances one rolled of the post and the second one hit the net. 2:3 final. A lose, but a good lose, 30 min catastrophe, just horrible, but the rest of the game, not bad, at all. It was the attitude, fight to the last minute and the young guns showed rather well. Belgium like Germany is rebuilding. Lots of new guys and all of them wanted to show their stuff. That was not a ordinary friendly. Fun game Spain lost to Scotland. Scotland?????????????????????????? France barely managed a win against, Ireland. Ireland?????????????????????????
Good for Scotland. It's about time they qualified for a major championship. A draw for Wales against Croatia away is a good result too.
That was it for Hansi Flick. After Saturdays 1:4 loss against Japan at home, Flick got fired. It was a strange game, at times it looked as if the team played against Flick and lost intentionally. Bright news Germany won for the First Time the basketball World Championship, beat Serbia in the Final.