Women’s World Cup

Nitefly · June 2019

EricTheWeary said:

What I was going to comment about women’s football is that you have a bigger range of standards; to some extent at club level the best players can excel because the overall standard hasn’t caught up. So I guess I’d see this as evidence of this.

Agreed on range of standards - I can't recall Thailand stringing more than 3 passes together throughout the whole game, whereas USA had real fluency, and seemed to be able to regain possession easily whenever they lost it.

I think also USA players were generally bigger and more physically fit as a team.

EricTheWeary · June 2019

Nitefly said:

EricTheWeary said:

What I was going to comment about women’s football is that you have a bigger range of standards; to some extent at club level the best players can excel because the overall standard hasn’t caught up. So I guess I’d see this as evidence of this.

Agreed on range of standards - I can't recall Thailand stringing more than 3 passes together throughout the whole game, whereas USA had real fluency, and seemed to be able to regain possession easily whenever they lost it.

I think also USA players were generally bigger and more physically fit as a team.

I think if you go back into the history of the men's game you did get those kind of scores/ differences but they've eroded over the decades. Having looked at the Thai wikipedia page this morning that's a national team that's only existed since 2014 so it's very early days for it as a professional sport. Male footballers are effectively spotted as young boys and nurtured through a system so by their late teams they are professional sports people. I doubt if many female footballers will have gone through something similar so we are a generation or two away from a more consistent approach.

Apart from a couple of hilights I didn't see anything of the match itself but looking at a summary online there is also a sense that the scoreline flatters the USA slightly as the majority of the goals were late on and Thailand had effectively crumbled by then.

Heartfeltdawn · June 2019

EricTheWeary said:

having beaten Indonesia 13-0, Timor 8-0, Cambodia 11-0 and Malaysia 8-0 last year.

What I was going to comment about women’s football is that you have a bigger range of standards; to some extent at club level the best players can excel because the overall standard hasn’t caught up. So I guess I’d see this as evidence of this.

Yes and the focus on Ashleigh Barty recently would suggest this in other areas. Barty took time out of tennis to play professional cricket and went from being an amateur who played in the back garden to professional in the Big Bash over 2015-16. Now she's won a Grand Slam tennis event. Within the confines of the modern game, I can't imagine this happening in male sport. A guy isn't going to play tennis, get picked for Surrey to bat in the middle order, and then return to tennis after a few years out and win a Grand Slam.

This is not a criticism of female sport: it's a reflection of how it is right now. As it grows, the sport itself will get better.

EricTheWeary · June 2019

Heartfeltdawn said:

EricTheWeary said:

having beaten Indonesia 13-0, Timor 8-0, Cambodia 11-0 and Malaysia 8-0 last year.

What I was going to comment about women’s football is that you have a bigger range of standards; to some extent at club level the best players can excel because the overall standard hasn’t caught up. So I guess I’d see this as evidence of this.

Yes and the focus on Ashleigh Barty recently would suggest this in other areas. Barty took time out of tennis to play professional cricket and went from being an amateur who played in the back garden to professional in the Big Bash over 2015-16. Now she's won a Grand Slam tennis event. Within the confines of the modern game, I can't imagine this happening in male sport. A guy isn't going to play tennis, get picked for Surrey to bat in the middle order, and then return to tennis after a few years out and win a Grand Slam.

This is not a criticism of female sport: it's a reflection of how it is right now. As it grows, the sport itself will get better.

Absolutely. If there is someone out there now spotting 8 year old girls ( in a non creepy way!) as potential professional footballers that still makes us 10+ years away from a truly professional game. But to do that well you need not only the scouts and the infrastructure but also the buy in from the girls and their families ( and lots of them - the majority of those 8 year olds never actually become professional players) so it may be more like twenty years before we have a consistent game.

Axe_meister · June 2019

Do they swap their football shirts after the game

Neil · June 2019

EricTheWeary said:

Heartfeltdawn said:

EricTheWeary said:

having beaten Indonesia 13-0, Timor 8-0, Cambodia 11-0 and Malaysia 8-0 last year.

What I was going to comment about women’s football is that you have a bigger range of standards; to some extent at club level the best players can excel because the overall standard hasn’t caught up. So I guess I’d see this as evidence of this.

Yes and the focus on Ashleigh Barty recently would suggest this in other areas. Barty took time out of tennis to play professional cricket and went from being an amateur who played in the back garden to professional in the Big Bash over 2015-16. Now she's won a Grand Slam tennis event. Within the confines of the modern game, I can't imagine this happening in male sport. A guy isn't going to play tennis, get picked for Surrey to bat in the middle order, and then return to tennis after a few years out and win a Grand Slam.

This is not a criticism of female sport: it's a reflection of how it is right now. As it grows, the sport itself will get better.

Absolutely. If there is someone out there now spotting 8 year old girls ( in a non creepy way!) as potential professional footballers that still makes us 10+ years away from a truly professional game. But to do that well you need not only the scouts and the infrastructure but also the buy in from the girls and their families ( and lots of them - the majority of those 8 year olds never actually become professional players) so it may be more like twenty years before we have a consistent game.

Until Women's football can fill big stadiums and attract sponsorship that is never going to happen.

I've seen the mostly empty grounds at their club matches in this country. Until Women's football gets to a higher standard there will only be minority interest.

To put it in context, Australia, currently FIFA ranked sixth in the world were beaten 7-0 by a 15 year old boys team....

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/australian-womens-national-team-lose-70-to-team-of-15yearold-boys-a3257266.html

Nitefly · June 2019

Well what happened to Scotland the other night? 3 - 0 up with 15 minutes to play against Argentina, and ended up with a draw!

And now the first game of the last 16 ends up 1 - 1 after extra time and a penalty shoot-out, and Norway beat Australia by 4 - 1. I wonder how many more there will be now that the minnows have gone.

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