Those who were expecting some thrilling action in the women semifinals at the FISU University World Cup of Football in Jinjiang (CHN) must have been disappointed. Both matches were quickly and brutally folded by the eventual Chinese and Brazilians winners – and upcoming finalists.
The main disillusion came for the University of Bordeaux who played and enthralling football during the group stage and had obviously an off day. But they were also facing the most impressive team of the preliminaries in terms of efficiency and rapidity (24 goals scored in three matches). The French team rarely gave the impression to be able to develop their fluid and elaborated style and their defence looked fragile on each of the Chinese counters. Bordeaux’s goalkeeper Clara Lamarque who had been in great shape in the tournament so far seemed hesitant and probably could have done better on a couple of the five Chinese goals.
The first one came after 20 minutes from a nice curled shot by Wang. The second one followed shortly after at the end of a rapid counterattack concluded by Zhou, whose shot looked stoppable. With Bordeaux having to attack relentlessly to keep some hopes, Beijing found even more space to launch their counters. In the stoppage time of the first half, Lamarque could not block Zhou’s header who chipped the ball in on the rebound. It was game over and the second half was only pleasant for the 2650 Chinese fans (above picture) present at the Quanzhou Vocational and Technical University, who saw two more goals by their team.
On paper, the other semifinal was less open, with Paulista University the clear favourite over the University of Sydney. And the paper was right. After six minutes, the general impression was that it would be a one-sided affair. A header by Mayara Souza, the tall Brazilian defender (above picture) had given the Paulistas a quick lead and an early blow to the Australians’ morale. She was going to repeat the exact same feat just before the half time with the difference that three additional goals – a header by Emelli Pereira and two powerful shots by Joyce Amara – had been scored by her team in the meantime and clearly established who was the boss. The second half was a long Paulista monologue and the nice shot from Ribeiro just added a coda to the samba.
Semifinals:
Beijing Normal University (CHN)- University of Bordeaux (FRA) 5-0 (3-0)
T. Wang (19’, 1-0), Zhou (35’, 2-0, 45’+2, 3-0), X. Wang (58’, 4-0), Liu (73’, 5-0)
Paulista University (BRA)-University of Sydney (AUS) 6-0 (5-0)
Souza (6’, 1-0), Amara (27’, 2-0), Pereira (31’, 3-0), Amara (37’, 4-0), Souza (45’, 5-0), Ribeiro (52’, 6-0)
Finals:
Gold: Beijing Normal University (CHN)- Paulista University (BRA)
Bronze: University of Bordeaux (FRA)-University of Sydney (AUS)
Watch live on FISU.tv
Written by Olivier van Bogaert
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