Saturday & Sunday, August 5 & 6, 2023

[Dave]

Here is a reprocessed version of a macro I took in September of 2018...

   

Well, here are my World Cup predictions:

In the first round of the knockout phase
- Spain to beat Switzerland
- Netherlands to beat South Africa
- Japan to beat Norway
- Sweden to beat USA
- Australia to beat Denmark
- France to beat Morocco
- England to beat Nigeria
- Colombia to beat Jamaica

This gives these matches in the next round:
- Spain vs Netherlands, with Spain winning
- Japan vs Sweden, a huge match; Sweden is the logical choice to win, but I pick Japan
- Australia vs France, with France winning
- England vs Colombia with England winning

As Champions, I have these as possibilities, with most likely to win it at the top:
- England
- Sweden
- Spain
- France

BUT: don't write off Japan; they are playing very well: undefeated, led group play in goals scored with 11, tied for 1st in goals allowed with ZERO. They are agile, and show great hustle on both offense and defense; their defense is organized and disciplined. One difficulty might be their physical size - almost every other team is taller and stronger. But in the Japanese games I watched, this wasn't as problem; the smaller Japanese players weren't intimidated and their speed and agility resulted more often than not in more takeaways, more defensive stops, and control of more contested balls than their opponents.

[Man From Ironbark]

Spain did win 5 to Switzerland 1.

[Dave]

So I see. I wasn't sure how Spain would react after being routed by Japan, but they responded well. Congrats to Spain.

And Japan vs Norway just started. I expect Japan to win easily.

[Man From Ironbark]

Japan score, 3-1.
Japan and Spain have both put their hands up as World Cup contenders with impressive wins in their round of 16 clashes.
Sam Kerr says she will play for Australia in the match against Denmark.
USA play Sweden 7pm tonight.

Own goals top of the charts
At this Women's World Cup, it's sadly been a regular occurrence.

There were two more added to the list yesterday. First up was Spain's Laia Codina, who opted for an extremely heavy back pass from the centre circle.

[Dave]

Netherlands defeated South Africa 2-0. Congratulations to both teams. RSA had a fine World Cup. They are a talented team and I enjoyed the exciting way they play and their sheer joy of playing. Netherlands advances to face Spain, but they (Netherlands) will be without a key starter do to yellow card accumulation. Still, I think they will present quite a challenge to Spain.

A little less than 3-1/2 hours until USA faces Sweden. I think the USA offense will have its best game but I suspect Sweden will win.

Dipping again into my archives (June 2018), I found and reprocessed this one. The thing I like most about it is how the colors seem to work quite well together - I've always liked grays and yellow together and here the grays range from a slightly bluish-gray to one with a hint of yellow.

   

[Luv2shoot]

Good morning Dave and Peter.

I am sure that Dave is sleeping right now after watching the US vs. SWEDEN game. I struggled sleeping last night and I started to check on the game at 5:13 am. I watched it for a while then turned it off but continued to check on the score about every 15 minutes or so. My ALEXA KEPT REPORTING THE SCORE  TO BE ZERO  to ZERO. Then I must have fallen asleep and when I asked for an update, the score had changed to “4 to 4”!

There was no way that I could turn the game on now. The stress level would have been to much for me to handle. Typically I never watch the final moments of important close scoring games, I leave the room, start cleaning the house or doing something to keep me calm.

Well, I just woke up and saw the headlines. Like Alex Morgan said, it feels like a bad dream . Now I will spend some time reading the story and watching the highlights. It sounds like the US FINALLY BROUGHT THEIR “A” game. I hope it was a good match and well reffed game. I also look forward to your reactions, guys. 

Dave, you delivered two expertly photographed images. I see them bothe as candidates for magazine entries, a flower magazine and photography magazine respectively. Both a great quality close-ups.  I guess it is just not me who has not been taking photos lately and having to dig deep into their archives to find something  to share.

It is about time I get out of bed and go look for something that I can add to this weekend thread.
See you both a bit later.
Lorell

[Luv2shoot]

SHHHHH, Dave is sleeping.

Okay, it is SLIDERS SUNDAY in FLICKR-ville.  So, that enough of a reason to totally max out a manipulation on one of my images from the archives. 

Here it is:

[Man From Ironbark]

Dave did deliver beautiful images. I forgot to include words of praise yesterday. I'm sure the first is of the inside of a Hibiscus flower?

So the USA isn't going to dominate this years World Cup. I am sure that will be a shock to many. I'll have to say this however and that is that the USA would have won if Sweden didn't have such a fantastic goalie.
Remember this name: Zećira Mušović.
It was easily the goalkeeping performance of the tournament, with Mušović simply impenetrable. All in all, she pulled off 11 saves, a single-game record at the Women's World Cup. But it was the quality of saves that was most impressive, not the quantity.

After a match like that, it would have been cruel for Sweden to lose on penalties with Mušović in goal.

It is so cruel, the penalty shoot-out situation.

Oh and before I forget. Lorell; That's a beautiful manipulation of the monarch butterfly.

[Luv2shoot]

Thanks, Peter.
I enjoyed reading your sports editorial. The Americans are licking their wounds. It will just take time to get over the loss.

[Man From Ironbark]

Yes Lorell.
At any time our team could be beaten. Thus dashing our hopes as well.
Our own Princess Mary of Denmark has said that she will barrack for Australia unless they are playing Denmark.
She will likely be barracking for Denmark tonight.