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Olympic Women’s Soccer Post-Game Quotes
By Amanda | August 6, 2008
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Norway 2 - USA 0
Bjarne Berntsen, Norway coach
“We’re very satisfied with the win - and yes, it was a dream start. To beat the current gold medal holders and group favourites 2-0 is a fantastic achievement. It was the first time I’ve beaten the USA as a coach and it was the perfect time to do it. We may have had a bit of luck with the two goals, but we limited the USA to a handful of chances - and that was extremely pleasing for me.”
Pia Sundhage, USA coach
My glass is always half-full. I’m glad it’s the first game and not the last, so we’ll take out the good parts and hopefully do better against Japan and New Zealand. Yes, we did make mistakes, but we created some good chances in the second half and made some tactical changes which I think worked out well. I believe that we can still win a medal because of the work and spirit of our players.
Germany 0 - Brazil 0
Silvia Neid, Germany coach
We played very well in the first half. We kept our shape but just couldn’t convert our chances. The second half was very tight but I’ll settle for the point we got. We need to keep collecting points to reach the quarter-finals.
Jorge Barcellos, Brazil coach
Germany were the stronger side today, although we had more possession. Their game plan didn’t really work which meant we had our chances. My players were nervous and it’s a real shame that we couldn’t make the chances count and win the game.
Cristiane, Brazil forward
It’s a pity that I couldn’t convert my chance in the first half. The cross from Marta was just a bit too high for me and I couldn’t get the ball under control.
China 2 - Sweden 1
Shang Ruihua, China coach
This was a very hard game against a very good Swedish team. They are always very difficult to play against and now, with their professional league in place, they are even tougher. There was a lot of pressure on us to play such a strong team in our first game, but my players showed very good fighting spirit today. And I hope this is just the start of more successes against Canada and Argentina.
Thomas Dennerby, Sweden coach
We were made to pay for a few defensive errors today. You can’t make such simple mistakes at this level of football. We did some good things tonight, but we need to tighten our game up a little bit as we look ahead. We were in control for big portions of the game, but when you make big mistakes at this level, you always get punished. I feel, on the overall, that we are better than China, but that counts for nothing.
Argentina 1 - Canada 2
Candace Chapman, Canada defender and scorer
We had a lot of nerves early on. The first goal really went a long way to calming us down. We just tried to settle the ball and play more to find our rhythm as the game wore on. We’re overall a very strong and physical team. Whoever we play against, that will always be our style of play and we’ll try to use it to our advantage.
Jose Borrello, Argentina coach
The Canadian team was much bigger than us and much stronger physically. We decided that we had to play to our strengths and try to stand up to them with our technique and keep the ball on the ground. In the end it didn’t totally work, but we did fairly well and i am proud of the players. We will need to do the same thing next time out when we play a similarly strong Sweden team.
Korea 1 - Nigeria 0
Joseph Lapido, Nigeria coach
That was our first game. The two remaining games against Germany and Brazil will be difficult but we’ll improve with every match. That was just a temporary setback. We’re bottom of the group at the moment but by no means out of it.
Kim Pong Il, Korea DPR coach
The tournament has just begun. We’ve beaten Nigeria 1-0 and now we’ll start preparing ourselves for the games against Brazil and Germany. We won’t let our country down.
Japan 2 - New Zealand 2
Norio Sasaki, Japan coach
We analysed New Zealand’s style and prepared for the game well, but didn’t perform very well. During half-time, I asked the players to play harder, we did better in the second half and I think we got the result we deserved. Before we scored from the penalty, I thought we dominated the match and once we got it to 2-1, we had the confidence to go on and equalise.
John Herdman, New Zealand coach
It is a measure how far we have come, but a sign of how far we still need to go. It was a tough game for us. Japan played with a good flow and rhythm to their game and we could have easily gone away with less. In all honesty, we’ve performed better in some matches and lost them. We need to find a new mental strength for the games against Norway and the US, because we were a little bit naïve today.
Aya Miyama, Japan midfielder
We learned a lot from this match - I think we have to reconsider our tactics. Despite our thorough preparation for this game, we were very nervous in the early stages. It was though our bodies didn’t react to what our minds were telling them to do. We knew how to deal with New Zealand’s tactics, but that did not show.
Jenny Bindon, New Zealand goalkeeper
I was in the zone today. I’ve trained hard for this moment, but so have the team - and the result was a real team effort. The rest of the girls are a bit disappointed at Japan’s comeback, but to get a draw in a match where we didn’t play very well is a good result. We’re a different team now. We’re the same girls, but we have a different spirit and different aims from three years ago.
Topics: Women's Soccer |
August 7th, 2008 at 12:21 am
This was very handy! Thanks for putting them all in one place to read. Please repeat on the 9th and 12th, and so on… !