Friday, April 16, 2010

Day 3 Recap

YG Brazil vs. YG Germany- YG Brazil 4-1.

YB Scotland vs. YB Ukraine- YB Scotland 5-3. Scotland still looks like the best youth team.

France vs. Italy- France 5-2. To no one's surprise, France dominated early, ending the first half up 5-0. However, in the second half, France seemed to really slow down and let Italy back in the game. Italy scored twice and really put the pressure on France. Italy put on a much better performance than they did against Austria. France will have to do better when they play the better teams in their pool.

Norway vs. Scotland- Norway 4-3. In another exciting game, Norway held off Scotland to take it. Norway seemed to be in control of the entire game, but then Scotland would suddenly surge and answer every Norway goal with a goal of their own. It made for an exciting game, but Norway definitely deserved the win. I'll remind you that you can visit Norway's blog, and link is on the sidebar. Scotland played much better than they did against El Salvador. They could be the team that upsets one of the better team's chances of getting out of the group.

Botswana vs. Chile- Botswana 3-0. In the tournament's first upset, Botswana dominated Chile. Botswana was great in this game, swarming Chile and hustling to every ball, getting 3 goals to show for it. Botswana looked great, and Chile might have just seen their playoff chances take a nosedive. Chile couldn't get anything going against the fast Botswana team, and if Botswana plays like that for the rest of the tourney, they'll be a real challenge for any team. Botswana gets their win EVER, and they deserved it.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Like you said Scotland, clearly had a better game (and more so the second half of that game). If they didn't have as rough of a first half as they did, it might have been a completely different game. Solid win for Norway though. The ES/Norway game could be very interesting. Also appearently Scotland only had 2 practices in a high school gym prior to the friendlies last Sunday. With only 3 returning players, they are still finding their chemistry. I could see them getting better and better each game and suprising the rest of the teams they play. Certainly not the walk over they were predicted to be. This pool will get exciting!

That Botswana game was great to watch! Botswana took the momentum and made sure they kept it. A couple beautiful goals and towards the end every single save Botswana's GK made seemed to pump them up even more. Congrats on your first win!

Joe said...

Sweet!!!

Unknown said...

Team Botswana was GREAT last night...the Ultimate goal is to land the biggest upset of them all on Sunday!...its a much better team and hungrier than ever...but a win against ROI will definitely seal the deal for Botswana in the playoffs, or even a tie may increase their chances...

Now that Chile's road to the playoffs is getting harder, do we still believe the prediction made before the tourney started are going to unfold that way?...I see Botswana playing a much bigger role in contending for the playoffs than it was predicted..I maybe wrong tho!...

Joe said...

David, I don't think you are wrong...I myself predicted before tournament that Botswana may finish 1st or 2nd. It will be sweet if they can pull off an upset against ROI. But I still like ROI though just because they play good soccer. I just don't want them to win again...We'll see.

Anonymous said...

are you on acid David? do you think botswana has a chance against ROI? just because of one win in the last 4 yrs doesnt mean they are contenders give your head a shake, and chile is one of the worse teams i have seen in yrs.

† Kier said...

I would just like to congratulate Team Botswana for their awesome performance last night! It was definitely a very exciting game to watch, the people who were not there last night missed out BIG time.

Anonymous said...

I find it hard to believe Chile played Mens Div 1 this winter and still don't play as a team. Botswana played a very good game they used speed to make Chile look very lackluster. Good job Botswana

Anonymous said...

Ukraine is seriously the worst team in this tournament! Laos all the way!!!