5IVE: World Cup, Day 9
Missed opportunities for South Africa, Denmark and Haiti. England loses a key player and VAR comes to the fore...
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Missed opportunities for both Argentina and South Africa
In what appears to be a fairy open Group G, but of Argentina and South Africa will rue not taking more from this game.
For Argentina, they struggled to build on a really positive performance against Italy, but with Sweden still to play, a point is unlikely to give them much of a chance of progression to the second round unless they can shock the side ranked third in the world.
For South Africa, they have a more winnable final match given Italy looked underwhelming yet again in their opening match, but given they were 2-0 with 15 minutes to go and failed to convert into what would have been a crucial three points, they too will be disappointed with how things played out.
If Italy don't get anything from Sweden tomorrow, it does at least give Desiree Ellis's side a chance of progression if they can beat Italy, and they showed enough quality against both Sweden and then again against Argentina to believe they can.
Thembi Kgatlana was excellent, scoring one and assisting another as Banyana Banyana raced into a 2-0 lead, but you have to credit Argentina who came charging back late on.
Both sides had chances where it could have been more or less for either, but you can't help both will walk away feeling a bit short changed.
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Kgatlana emphasises progress debutant nations are making
At the last World Cup in 2019 when South Africa made its debut, only six of their players were plying their trade abroad. Two were in the Lithuanian league, while two others were in China, their goalscorers today Motlhalo and Kgatlana, two of the nation's standout players.
The lack of top quality international experience and development was evident on the pitch, and this tournament has shown the progress many of these nations are making, and how the added attention the quality of player they are developing is helping the national teams.
South Africa is a prime example. Seven of the players in the current squad play abroad, but in more competitive leagues. Kgatlana is now starring in the NWSL, while Motlhalo has just become a champion with Glasgow City and plays in the Champions League.
Others, such as captain Refiloe Jane play in Italy, while experienced Noko Matlou plays in Spain. Kgatlana's experience and quality in particular shone against Argentina, with a goal and an assist for the forward.
In terms of possession, she didn't misplace a single pass during the game. Often they were backwards, but she was smart in her play to keep South Africa on the ball and for large parts well on top of the opposition.
As mentioned above, they will rue this is a missed opportunity, but they have shown enough quality to believe they can go and beat Italy and qualify for the next round, and hopefully with an eye on hosting the 2027 tournament, this is just the beginning.
Sarina Wiegman finally twists
For the first time since becoming England head coach, Sarina Wiegman made changes to her starting eleven in a major tournament. Match-winner Lauren James came in, as did Rachel Daly, but the WSL Golden Boot winner returned to her left-back role which she played at Euro 2022.
It also meant Alex Greenwood went to centre-back to help with England’s build-up play, which did have a positive effect, particularly in the early exchanges.
It started well, and as ever Wiegman looked a genius when after just six minutes the two players combined for what looked to be an early marker on a Lionesses performance with a bit more verve.
That verve soon disappeared though and like against Haiti, England never really built on a quick opening. The huge blow of seeing Keira Walsh go off injured took the sting out of things even more, but England never really tested Lene Christensen in Denmark's goal.
Rikke Madsen, Janni Thomsen and Pernille Harder all went close in the first half, while Kathrine Kuhl didn't get anough power on her effort after getting into a good position in the second half.
England again looked frustrated in attack. Alessia Russo was barely in the game, Chloe Kelly was quiet, as was Toone, while James showed glimpses she couldn't recreate the early spark.
But England have been dealt the biggest of blows
Firstly, the main thing is on all of this is the physical health of Keira Walsh, as it looks like England may have lost yet another key player to a serious knee injury, even if that is yet to be confirmed.
Because the signs are now so familiar, even if Walsh herself almost gave lip readers a running commentary of what was unfolding as she went down clutching her knee part way through the first half.
England have lost Leah Williamson and Beth Mead to ACL injuries and the fear is now they have lost their midfielder, one of the best in the world and the most expensive player on the planet.
The midfield is always where the Lionesses have lacked depth the most and there was always a fear of what would happen if Walsh suffered a long-term injury.
The cruel irony is her natural replacement would have been Williamson herself, who is also unavailable. Laura Coombs came in and did an able job playing higher up as Stanway dropped into Walsh's role, but none quite offer England what Walsh does.
The good news for Wiegman is she has six points from six and England are almost through the group stage. China may offer a chance to experiment in that role, ahead of what will be a tough run of knockout games if they want to win this tournament.
If Walsh is out, it just got even tougher.
VAR has its first blips
The end of Haiti vs China was pretty chaotic. Up to that point, it had been an enjoyable game as Haiti went for it as they do, while China were more measured in their approach, particularly after going down to 10 players less than half an hour into the game.
Things livened up further when both brought on their star players at half-time in Melchie Dumornay and Wang Shuang respectively. Dumornay, as ever, had an imopact and should have scored if not for a combination of a poor finish and a good save, but Wang Shuang had the decisive blow when she calmly converted from the penalty spot.
Penalties, or the lack of them, became the theme of the final 15 minutes as VAR showed its first chinks in the armour of the tournament where generally it has helped make the right decisions for on-pitch referees.
In my opinion, China was denied a stonewall penalty to go 2-0 up and I can only assume it was decided the foul must have been fractionally outside the box. If not, I have no idea why it wasn't a penalty.
On Haiti's three appeals, I thought the one which was given and overturned was beyond soft and Marta Huerta did the right thing in overturning her own decision.
The second was certainly the most convincing appeal, but it did feel like Dumornay somewhat threw herself to the ground and backed into the defender, who did admittedly miss the ball completely. As for the third, I didn't feel it was a penalty.
Tantalisingly, the results do mean all four teams can qualify from this group, meaning England vs China and Denmark vs Haiti both have something riding on them.
Disappointed they didn’t get Stanway to pick up a tactical yellow towards the end, even without her and Walsh England *should* be able to get a point against China.
Surely they can’t risk playing her in that game now?