Only Eight Teams Remain in Women's World Cup 🏆🌏 

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It’s Tuesday, August 8th. Give us four minutes, we give you everything World Cup.

FAMILY CELEBRATIONS: reactions in the Usme household after Colombia’s captain and all-time leading scorer, Catalina Usme, scored the match-winner to send Las Cafeteras through to the quarter-final.

I. The Final Eight 🏆🌏

This historic tournament, full of joy and rife with intrigue, is speeding by now with incredible pace. Tuesday evening, the final bouts of the Round of 16 settled the remaining eight nations who fight on for the World Cup crown.

Colombia 1 - 0 Jamaica 🇨🇴 🇯🇲

The first of Tuesday’s matches featured the last of CONCACAF’s remaining warriors, as the Reggae Girlz took on Colombia in a valiant final fight. At this point, one might correctly surmise that Melbourne Rectangular Stadium is the gravestone of CONCACAF sojourns. For it was in that same stadium that Canada, the US, and then Jamaica ended their cause.

In the end, Jamaica allowed just one goal on the evening, marking the only goal conceded the entire tournament. Their second World Cup journey was a commendable one, as they overcame obstacles of inequity and underfunding to arrive and progress from the group. In the words of their leader, Manchester City’s Bunny Shaw: “If you believe and you work hard, anything is possible”.

As for Las Cafeteras, history is made once more for a nation set to meet England next in the quarter-final of the World Cup. An incredible crowd of Colombian support showed up in Melbourne to cheer them on, singing for “Linda” throughout, as their 18-year-old cancer survivor and football virtuoso worked magic down under. Their lone goal came from Catalina Usme (America de Cali), their captain and leading scorer, whose calm first touch and precise finish completed the remarkable service from Ana Guzman (Deportivo Pereira). With the win, they head to their first-ever Women’s World Cup Quarter-final.

France 4 - 0 Morocco 🇫🇷 🇲🇦

France closed the door on a heroic Moroccan arrival to the world stage, after the Atlas Lionesses qualified for their first-ever World Cup, the first majority Arab nation to do so, and then proceeded to stun Group H and progress into the knockout round.

France’s quality shone through in Tuesday’s display, with long-time legend of the French game, and their all-time leading scorer, Eugenie Le Sommer (Lyon), as the guiding and standout force among their effort. Le Sommer’s brace of goals complemented those of Kadidiatou Diani (Lyon) and Kenza Dali (Aston Villa) in a match the Matildas will have watched closely, for they meet the French next.

II. How did the USWNT stumble? 🇺🇸

Arsenal’s esteemed Swedish manager, Jonas Eidevall, rejoined the Men in Blazers pod this Tuesday to dissect Sunday’s historic stumble against Sweden at great length.

Encouragingly, Eidevall identified progression in the performance that was perhaps initially unexpected.

The US improved in the buildout in particular, with that heroic double-pivot featuring an Emily Sonnett thrown into the cauldron of competition under the highest stakes, alongside Andi Sullivan performing at her best beneath the weight of mounting pressure. Their positioning, and coordination with centerback pair Julie Ertz and Naomi Girma, was exquisite.

But interestingly, for Eidevall: “the good news stops there”. Arsenal’s skipper of tactical aplomb did not share the frequent sentiment that the USWNT had produced frequent or high-quality chances, naming an inability to get our squad clicking in the final-third as a problem until the very end..

Those eleven saves from Zećira Mušović may not have been so monumental, if you consider that (according to Eidevall) the USA’s “big chances” numbered just a small few.

“I think they had 22 attempts, the US. Maybe they had like 11 shots on target as well. There is maybe only one or two chances that I would categorize as big chances. And not even that. And I think that is a problem.”

Heading into the World Cup, the presumed talent and depth of the USA’s forward line were hardly the main areas of concern. In the end, according to Eidevall, it could have been where we stumbled.

To listen to the full episode with Jonas Eidevall where he talks to Rog about the importance of picking the best team, not the best 11 individuals HERE or visit the Men in Blazers pod feed wherever you get your pods. 🎧

III. News and Notes 📰

1. Equal pay: how the current equal pay deal with US Soccer affects what the USWNT will take home

2. Though Georgia Stanway missed the first, England’s penalties against Nigeria were commendable. What’s the science of their approach? From The Athletic: England’s Shootout Secrets.

3. “From Sydney, to Brissy, to Melby, to Canby, to Adelady and to Perthy!” The Matildas twitter account leans into the USWNT “Melby” faux pas (wherein the USWNT Twitter account posted “Under the lights in Melby” to the incredible chagrin of a city definitely not called “Melby”) as it shares celebratory scenes from across Australia

IV. Parting Shots

“And I’m telling you, after this game, I’m tired of people just saying that African teams are just strong, and they’re just fast, and count us out as being technical or tactical. Like we just pushed England to the very end. And I actually think that we had better chances than them.”

Nigeria defender Ashleigh Plumptre told reporters she’d like a shift in how African teams are talked about, following an incredible tournament for the Super Falcons in Oz.