Women's World Cup

Back in February we attended an Alpine skiing World Cup event in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Women's Downhill).  So yesterday, we went to Augsburg to watch Sweden take on North Korea in one of the Women's World Cup soccer matches.

Augsburg is just a 40-50 minute train ride from Munich - basically the same as going to the airport!  Quick & easy.  It's smaller than Munich (about 260,000 inhabitants vs 1.3 million) with a likewise smaller stadium.   The Impuls Arena seats 31,000 (vs. 65,000 in Munich's Allianz Arena) and this game drew over 23,000 - a good size crowd for the first round.  First round games of Germany or the U.S. are the most popular and sold out... 

There is a typical pre-game activity for all FIFA World Cup matches:  the teams march out in parallel; each player walks with a child, holding his/her hand.  The players line up, country flags are displayed, and the respective national anthems played. 

 

We were sitting in the third row of the southeast corner of the stadium -- so anything in our end was really close, but action on the far side of the field was not so easy to photograph (even with the big zoom lenses we brought along).  In the first half, Sweden defended the goal in front of us.  We did get one shot of the Swedish keeper with a Sony 3D ad making her look cool, but North Korea for the most part was not too dangerous and the ball didn't spend much time in our zone. 

The first half ended 0-0, and we hoped that Sweden would continue to create action... and that in the 2nd half it would be in front of us.  We were not disappointed!  In the sequence below, the Swede made a dangerous push right in front of the goalie box, but the keeper made the stop. 

A number of corner kicks were right in front of us -- in the photo below the set was handled right, but the header ended up off target (and probably not strong enough anyway).  But Sweden was creating the most chances and you got the feeling they would break through eventually. 

North Korea did keep it interesting with a few scares of their own.  The picture below was one of their best opportunities, but the Swedish goalie made the stop (with the help of some physical play by the defender). 

Still early in the second half, Sweden again went knocking on the door, but the North Korean goalie again closed the door... 

The North Korean style is ball-control, and most corner kicks and free kicks were NOT put into the air -- rather, passed to a neaby player.  (The height differential probably also dictates that style of play.)  In this case, however, we have a clear view to the other end where North Korea did try a set piece.  Not well executed though. 

Around the 60th minute came the game changer.  Sweden came quickly down the right side, right in front of us!  A smart, fast cross came to the striker who trapped it and placed a hard shot past the goalie who could not get back left-to-right in time.  1-0, Sweden. 

  

Yes, the ladies celebrate the same way as the men... 

And that's how it finished too.  In the end, the better team won but it was a fun game to watch.  In general, we've found that watching fussball in person give a much better feeling for the speed and precision of the game -- we prefer it to television.  We're going to see of some of the elimination round games are available!