The Slay Ballers 2.0 – FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 – Argentina vs Sweden Match Preview

By -

 Group stage matches are rounding up in the ongoing 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. While many teams are already aware of their elimination and are looking to achieve a form of respectability in their last matches, some others know their fate is in other hands, as they will need to perform solidly in their final group stage matches and hope that the other teams do them a favour. One of such matches is going down at the Waikato Stadium in New Zealand, where Sweden will be facing Argentina in what is sure to be an interesting encounter.

Sweden, who have already secured a spot in the knockout rounds, will be looking to make it three wins out of three and take the top spot in Group G when they face Argentina in Hamilton. Argentina know how good Sweden is, but the need for a win should overshadow whatever fear they have in their minds in playing the third-best team in the world.

After conceding early in the second half against South Africa, Sweden managed to eke out a win at the death, scoring through Fridolina Rolfo in the sixty-fifth minute and Ilestedt powering in a header from a corner just before the full-time whistle. Five-foot ten-inch Ilestedt continued her set-piece scoring form against Italy, scoring two headers in a comfortable five-nil win. Everyone knows how dangerous Sweden can be from set-pieces, as four of their seven goals at the World Cup have been scored from set-pieces, and will be looking to find a way to prevent them from scoring in this manner going forward.

Argentina played to Lady Luck in their first match, only losing to a well-taken Italian header in the eighty-seventh minute. Their second match against South Africa looked to be heading for the same result after conceding twice until goals from Sophia Braun and Romina Nunez in the last twenty minutes earned them a precious point. They will be looking to earn their first World Cup win against Sweden and, hopefully, qualify for the knockout rounds for the first time ever. Even with the good number of shock wins so far in the tournament, not many people will bet on Argentina beating Sweden. Nevertheless, there is always a chance for surprises, so the match will be a good one to watch.

Sweden are surely favorites heading into this fixture, but if Peter Gerhardsson sees a need to rotate his squad to keep his main charges fresh for the knockout rounds, then Argentina might just have a chance at sneaking a win.

See you in the knockout rounds!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

World Radio Day 2021

By -
Image
  The 13th of February every year is World Radio Day – a day set aside by UNESCO to raise public awareness on the importance of radio and to encourage decision-makers to use it to provide access to information, and to improve international cooperation among broadcasters. According to the United Nations, this year’s theme – New world, new radio is a tribute to the resilience of radio as a means of communication and highlights its capacity to adapt to changes in the society. Long before there were televisions, computers, and mobile devices, radios were used to educate people and disseminate all sorts of information. They were here since the 1940s and for generations, they have been a source of hope, strength, inspiration, and entertainment for different classes of people. They have been here during wars, epidemics, natural disasters, socio-economic crises, and so on.  As the oldest, most accessible means of disseminating information to everyone and anyone over long distances, they have b
Read more

International Women’s Day 2023: “DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality”

By -
Image
  It is International women’s day and this year’s focus is on DigitALL: innovation and technology for gender equality. Currently, there exists a wide gender gap in the IT space and the reason is that, for years, women have beloved that technology was just for men. Given our history, this is actually a ridiculous ideology because the first programmer ever was a woman. A mathematician, Ada Lovelace created a programming code in the 1800s, and paved the way for computers today. In the 1900s, Hedy Lamarr, who doubled as an actress and inventor developed the technology that runs our GPS, Bluetooth Wi-Fi, as we know them now. There are a host of other incredible women in history who has been in the IT field yet a gender gap exists and women still think that sciences are solely for men. These limiting beliefs have cost us and have caused women to be excluded from innovations. As a result, many inventions that have been created haven’t been produced with women in mind. For example, when artifi
Read more

The Slay Ballers 2.0 – FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 – Netherlands vs South Africa Match Preview

By -
Image
  Football fans will surely switch on their watching devices to witness who trumps who when the Netherlands meet South Africa in what is billed to be an interesting spectacle at the Sydney Football Stadium on the sixth of August. Both teams have had different stories to get to this juncture of the tournament and will be looking to add more colour and intrigue to their respective stories. While this is the first competitive fixture between both international sides, having meant each other in only friendly matches previously, Netherlands will be looking to translate their superb friendly match H2H record to a competitive match where it is sure to matter more to help them continue their quest for the trophy. Despite this being just their second appearance at the Women’s World Cup, South Africa have shown that they are a force to reckon with on the pitch. All these factors make for an interesting spectacle, where each team will be looking to come out top and advance in the competition. Sou
Read more