I've been looking forward to this, suckered by the BBC hyping up the tournament and bigging up Englands chances...... Its dreadful. This'll sound very patronising but its almost as if they need to reduce the pitch size by 5-10%. The lack of pace and power just makes everything fall short. Considering the money being poured into it I was expecting a kind of League Two standard but its more like schoolboy under 14's Flak jacket on......
I really wanted to like it but it's like Formula E, it just doesn't work. I was discussing this today with a friend who used to manage Lowestoft Town in the ECL days. He reckoned the standard is that of a good pub side.
I watched Sweden 3-3 Nigeria last night. Real mixed bag - Nigeria scored two pretty decent goals but the standard of both defending and especially goal keeping was appalling. I honestly couldn't see either team competing against a conference side. Interesting point earlier in the thread about shortening the pitch and maybe they could consider making the goals smaller until someone discovers a woman keeper who is even vaguely competent. I honestly don't see top level women's football competing with the men's game as it is just not great viewing. I accept that women are not going to have the strength or speed of the men but there is no reason they don't seem to have the skill on the ball or often even basically the ability to pass accurately. Have just watched England lose to France in a game almost as dull as the men v the ROI last week. Don't think I shall watch any more until the semi's.
I think you need to realise it is still quite new and has plenty of room to develop. Look at the mens game in the eighties in this country, kick and rush, long ball and it had been around for 50 years and fully professional. Ivory Coast had played 1 game this year before playing Germany. The players havent been trained fully since they were 12 like the men.
The sport definitely needs time to develop as Women simply haven't been encouraged to play football until fairly recently. I do actually think they should reduce the size of the goals for Women's matches. Often the keepers look absolutely tiny in them. I wonder if there is any science that'll back this spurious claim up, but are women naturally less coordinated with their feet?
The problem with changing the pitch dimensions or goals is the impact on the grassroots game. Women's football already struggles for purchase, it'll be even harder if clubs need different pitch markings, goal posts, etc. Part of the problem is that it should be a cycle of "sport is interesting, sport gets TV coverage, sport gets popular/richer, sport gets better", which is the way most men's sports have developed. Now granted women's sports have had a harder time developing for other reasons, but it does seem that in the rush for the women's game to catch up with the men's, the money and exposure has come before the "product" justifies it. I'm curious if women's futsal is any better to watch. I don't think the technique is too bad in the very elite players, but putting them in a game where its emphasised might make it better viewing.
I was under the impression that clubs in the pro leagues did take their female players from an early age and develop them. I heard an interview with one of the man city players who said that they had the same training facilities as the men's first team. I think the analogy about the 1980's is fair regarding the African nations as they clearly have raw talent but very little resource has Ben ploughed into them. The problem all womens team sports have is that they are second rate when compared to the men's equivalent and so most people who are interested in sport will want to watch the best quality they can. Why do millions watch pl football but relatively few watch conference football? I think that the elite women can.and do shine through in individual sports but even then they are pretty few and far between.
I have not seen Women's football for a good few years but I doubt it has improved that much since. Every goalie I saw flapped at anything that looked a half decent shot. Defenders couldn't clear the ball to even the half way line. Shooting from more than 12 yards was dreadful and a whole lot more All in all, bloody awful to watch....................so I am right with you.
Clearly you never played on a pitch in the 80's! You were lucky if you could heft a goal kick to the edge of the box!!
In the states "soccer" is seen as a girls sport similar to how lacrosse is here. They do play from an early age and can get scholarships to university to play. The drive behind improving women's sport in general will be an increase in audience which probably needs to be driven by women wanting to watch women's football. Ultimately professional sport is about having an audience, it's entertainment and needs to have people wanting to watch it. Currently an unsustainably large amount of money goes into women's sport in an attempt to drive the quality so it can drive an audience. The real problem with equality is you have to accept that if people won't be willing to pay to watch you play football then you can't be a professional footballer. Where the equality in the male side of the sport paying. I would happily watch a women tennis match or any number of Olympic events, Nicola Adams particularly impressed me in 2012. Ultimately it's about people wanting to pay to see you play and currently women's football doesn't have that, I would guess that it will be driven in the states as lots if young girls play there that's the audience they should be looking yo capture going forwards. It's gonna be a long hard road.
I watched the Germany-Norway game last night. Bereft of quality, despite what the commentators tried to talk up, for the entire game. The exception of the Norway free kick equaliser, which was beautifully taken.
