It was to no one's surprise that the Seattle Sounders were short-handed during this international break. What has made it worse is that injuries have started to pile up as well. All of this played into Saturday's match against the Vancouver Whitecaps, where only five of their usual starting XI featured. This meant that the Sounders had to rely heavily on their youth.
Up stepped 16-year-old Danny Leyva.
Legendary referee Pierluigi Collina, who now serves as the chairman of FIFA’s Referees’ Committee, took center stage at a FIFA media briefing today about officiating and VAR at the 2019 Women’s World Cup, much like he did last summer in Moscow for the men’s tournament.
The Telegraph has reported that Qin Liang, the England vs Cameroon referee, twice ignored VAR advice in order to prevent the Cameroonian team from walking out during the game.
The first instance was Fran Kirby’s penalty appeal, in which Kirby was taken down with a high challenge in the box by a Cameroonian defender.
Japan has reached the end of a semi-successful Women’s World Cup run and finished on a good note. The Netherlands lucked out by receiving a penalty kick to surpass the Japanese in a final score of 2-1. However, the Japanese managed to keep fighting after scoring a cheeky goal before half and unfortunately got the boot in the round of 16.
The USWNT overcame a spirited, physical and tactically disciplined Spain to advance to the quarterfinals of the Women’s World Cup and setup an enthralling match with France, but the manner of the victory was hardly assuring.
The U.S. required two penalties from captain Megan Rapinoe — one in the seventh minute and the next in the 76th — to overcome a defensive error that allowed Jennifer Hermoso to score the first goal against the USWNT of this tournament.
England’s 3-0 defeat of Cameroon in the Women’s World Cup Round of 16 today will live long in the memory for all the wrong reasons. The match threatened to descend into chaos on a number of occasions, and it left the players and managers of both nations fuming, albeit for very different reasons.
Penalty kick rules are changing and goalkeepers at the 2019 Women’s World Cup are getting a reprieve. Kind of.
The International Football Association Board (IFAB), the body that determines the rules for FIFA competitions, announced a change to the way certain penalty kicks are viewed by the VARs.
What just happened?
That’s what we’re trying to process after Argentina’s insane comeback against Scotland on Wednesday in the final Group D match.
Scotland went ahead by three goals in the 69th minute and looked to be cruising to a third-place finish in Group D and a likely spot in the knockout rounds. Then Argentina scored three goals in the final 20 minutes, including a retaken penalty kick in the 94th minute to earn a 3-3 draw.
By holding World Cup host France to a draw today, Nigeria could’ve secured passage to the Round of 16 for the first time since 1999. For close to 80 minutes, that looked like the Super Falcons destiny.
Step forward the VAR.
First, the referee looked at the monitor to review a collision in Nigeria’s box between Ngozi Ebere and Viviane Asseyi. The ref decided it was a penalty and sent Ebere off for her second bookable offense.
Up stepped Wendie Renard for the spot kick. Her initial attempt clipped the outside of the post and went directly behind for a goal kick.
One of the most confusing soccer rules is offside. All of us soccer fans know the difficulty of trying to explain how offside works to first-time watchers. Though it is an important part of the game, it is also one of the most difficult to understand, especially when the goalkeeper comes into play like in the 2010 World Cup opener.