China had already lost a 1-0 game to Germany, and South Africa had lost a 3-1 game to Spain.
It was a gorgeous night in Paris - after two days of on and off again rain, it was clear and warm (fortunately, since I had a pile of laundry drying and had only shorts left to wear). The game got off to a somewhat slow start -- neither team looked particularly strong. The ball changed feet a lot. Although the teams felt quite well matched, the ball spent a lot of time in the South African end.
In fact, it wasn't until the end of the half that the 0-0 stalemate was broken by a spectacular sliding plunge by China star Li Ying in the 40th minute. The South African sweeper (Janine Van Wyk) had been doing a fantastic job clearing balls from the box -- she is super fast and an awesome defender and appeared to be an effective captain. The goal cam with Van Wyk on the ball, but Li slding in to poke it into the goal -- stunning and beautiful.
South Africa came out strong in the second half. They demonstrated terrific ball possession and an ability to move the ball around, dominating the first half of the second half. Their speedy strikers, Ode Fulutilu and Thembi Kgatlana, got the crowd excited a number of times, but they were unable to convert. And then in the last five to ten minutes, China seemed to up their game to an entirely new level zipping the ball back and forth up and down the field, placing passes at teammates' feet -- it looked like a whole new game.
End result: China 1, South Africa 0.
Next up for me: USA v Chile in Paris! (Sunday)
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| Gratuitous Selfie |
In other games:
Wednesday:
- Nigeria 2, South Korea 0
- Germany 1, Spain 0
- France 2, Norway 1
Thursday:
- Australia 3, Brazil 2 (upset -- worth the read!)
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