Semi Finals Preview : FIFA u17 Women's World Cup

Japan, Favorites for the Cup

Tomorrow night in Costa Rica awaits more drama and heartbreak as the Fifa u17 Women's World Cup draws closer and closer to a conclusion. Two teams will be knocked out and will have to fight for third place position while the other two would advance into a position good enough to clinch one of the most prestigious prizes in women's youth football (or soccer.)

First of all, all eyes will be on Venezuela/Japan, as two of the most dominant forces in the competition face off and if you've watched either side play, you know this promises to be a cracker.

Then there's an European battle between Spain and Italy. Italy caused an upset in their last game against Ghana and that provides an interesting spectacle as they face (my personal dark horse pick) Spain. 

Let's lay the teams on paper shall we? A little analysis of the four teams.

Free Scoring Venezuela

Venezuela have produced great showpieces, especially their two very exciting forwards, Deyna Castellanos and Gabriela Garcia have 9, NINE, goals between them. Castellanos always in great positions and Garcia a power house of creativity, not forgetting her amazing goal against Canada in the quarters. 

However their midfield would have to work extra hard to get the ball from possessive Japan and upfield to their two potent strikers.

Composed Japan

Japan, 'the little Nadeshiko' as they known, are the favorites to win this tournament but this could be a little test of their defense as we already know the capability of their midfield and attack. Known for keeping the ball and determining the momentum of the game it's no surprise they haven't conceded a goal yet in this tournament. That's right, they have scored 17 goals in 4 games conceding none and against a team so free scoring like Venezuela I doubt they will change the game plan, probably try to keep the ball away from their opponents and prevent them from enjoying the game too much.

Yui Hasegawa is the teams' leading scorer with 4 goals.

Resilient Italy

Italy's goalkeeper has put in some amazing performances, Nicole Peressotti has won Italian hearts with her saves and was also Player of the Match in addition to upsetting Ghana. Italy's legendary male goalkeeper, Gianluigi Buffon, is even a fan as he took to twitter to congratulate and wish the young 'Azzuris' luck. Italy are a powerful team and their performances are a showpiece of teamwork and amazing work rate.

Closing down Spain often would be key to qualifying from this round to the final for Italy and they need to do exactly just that. Gloria Marinelli and Annamaria Serturini both have 2 goals so they are most likely to get the goal or goals Italy need and number 10, Manuela Giugliano is indeed a playmaker.
Technical Spain
Spain had no problems whatsoever moving into this stage, proving too strong for Nigeria in the quarterfinals they are favorites for me to win this round and move to the finals. They have potent goal scorers in Nahikari García and Pilar Garrote, the pair have 7 goals between them, García with 4. While number 9, Patri Guijarro finally found her goal scoring boots for the tournament in the previous game, netting twice to sail the Spaniards to the semis.
Watch out for Laura Dominguez, she has incredible touches on the ball, good vision and bits of silky skills, she was brilliant in the last game. The technical ability of Spain is really great and could be enough to see off the Italians but they should really expect a fight.

With the breakdown of all teams remaining who do you think is ready for the final?
There's always an upset though.

These are my thoughts.
Give your feedback anyway you can.
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Thank You.
- Sam.