England Brush Aside Norway, But The Odds Are Against A Win Versus Canada

Norway got beaten in Canada by an England team that found spirit and determination just when they needed it, but will that drive survive a quarter-final against the hosts?

For all the wonders of our life here on planet Earth there are, alas, quite a few ingredients that are, for want of a better term, just a little lamentable of existence. To counter-balance all the laughing children, fields full of flowers and sunny days there is poverty, war, hunger and the US Republican party. Indeed the list of these massive dead flies in the soup of our daily lives is quite unending, but there some that transcend even the yin-yang balance of humanity.

Norway Swept Aside

• England beat Norway 2-1
• Lucy Bronze scores zinger
• Meet hosts Canada in 1/4s

These horrors are like sucking chest wounds in the psyche of us as people, so terrible, so scaring that they fester even when out of sight, ready at any second to reappear and bring despondent misery in the midst of our pleasure and enjoyment at but a moment’s notice. Notable examples include street mimes, any adherent of the Hari Krishna movement and the tax authorities, however there is one that ranks above all these if you hail from the nation of England.

If you’re English there is a circumstance so dire, so ghastly, so disgustingly full with connotations of abject unhappiness that it almost (but not quite) defies even momentary thought, the sheer visceral emotions of fear and loathing that it throws up almost paralyzing in intensity, the suffering it inflicts so dire even hell hath not its equal. I am, of course, talking about penalty shootouts in the latter stages of international football tournaments.

Just this week England’s women’s team reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Canada, disappointing all those that like to bet on sport in Norway whilst doing so, and instantly threw up the sort of headlines that do nothing but remind all England football fans of so many dashed hopes, so many dismal final whistles, so many horrifically embarrassing misses. Of course those shootouts were all in the men’s game, but alas the association is enough.

The Ghost Of Penalty Shootouts

You can trace this history of penalty dismay back over two decades to the 1990 World Cup in Italy when Bobby Robson’s side were let down by Stuart Pierce’s shot being saved and Chris Waddle attempting to put his into orbit. It was at Euro 96 that it momentarily seemed we’d just been unlucky, with the England team actually winning a penalty shootout against Spain in the quarter-finals, but that proved a cruel trick, setting us up for a semi-final penalty shootout defeat to, you guessed it, the Germans.

Two years later at the 1998 World Cup in France England didn’t even wait for the later stages of the competition but instead decided to completely fluff a penalty shootout against the Argentinians in the group stage and book themselves an early ferry-ride home. In Euro 2004 it was hosts Portugal’s turn, and with David Beckham skying the first and David Seaman being unable to save the shot of the opposing goal keeper, out went England once again.

Portugal then rubbed England’s nose in it some two years later at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, where it was Frank Lampard who failed to find the net, as did Gerrard and Carragher, and the famed Cristiano Ronaldo who scored the winning penalty that once again sent England home from a quarter-final. In Euro 2012 England did once again reach the quarter-finals and, up against Italy, the goal lacking normal time led to yet another penalty shootout and, as is traditional, England lost.

This dismal record haunts English football like a bad case of herpes and the further we progress in any competition the more likely we are to see this phantom of frustration make an appearance once again, ready to dash our hopes and ruin our chances. Of course the women are a completely different team, playing in completely different competitions but England fans still won’t be gambling news coverage of any shootout in the knockout stages will be of positive ilk.

Bronze Blasts Ball By Hjelmseth

England’s women entered the quarter-finals at the expense of the far more favored Norwegian team that were amongst the first to qualify for the knockout stages of the World Cup in Canada, and whilst the first half of their match in Ottawa wasn’t much to write home about, although there was plenty of gritty determination on show. In the four previous meetings in major tournaments the results have always come out in Norway’s ladies’ favor, a fact probably mentioned in both dressing rooms at half time.

In the fifty-fourth minute Norway struck, with Solveig Gulbrandsen flicking a neat goal past English goalie Karen Bardsley, and it appeared that perhaps this would provide momentum that would see any Norwegian gambling laws of statistics were once again on their side, but they were to be disappointed as Steph Houghton squarely headed in a deserved equalizer from a corner sixty one minutes into the game. With the scores level and time ticking down, the game got more frenetic.

Building down the right England then stretched the Norwegian defense out of shape, and with the ball sensibly tapped into her path a couple of metres outside the penalty area Lucy Bronze blasted a glorious long range shot that left the Norwegian keeper sprawling and the crowd on their feet. England then clung on to their lead and finished up in the quarter finals with a match in Vancouver against hosts Canada on June 27th beckoning.

England’s Women’s record in quarter-finals is frankly no better than the men’s, and they go into this one with ComeOn! Sportsbook giving them just 3.30 against the home side’s 2.25, perhaps reflecting that in their last three World Cup appearances England have lost out and been sent home in that very same round of the competition. Canada’s 1-0 victory over Switzerland wasn’t the most convincing ever seen, and given England’s exuberance there’s just a chance 2015 will see England’s women reach a Semi-final on July 1st in Edmonton.