The General Football Thread

When sibling rivalry goes wrong...

 

If the penalty awarded to England vs Scotland women is the standard the new rules will create we're going to have a lot of penalties and it will be a **** rule.

 

Should take the "line" out of his name....

 

I was just typing something similar, it will be a real game spoiler.

I never thought I'd feel sorry for a Scottish football team, but almost do.

 

Brace yourself.

 

Definitely a pen. Arm was outstretched - certainly not in the "natural silhouette".

 

Such bullshit this natural silhouette. Can you show me the natural silhouette for a player jumping? I’d love to see it.

 

She wasn't jumping. The ball just struck her outstretched arm.

 

Everyone jumps, runs, walks diffrently etc... So i say bullshit to the new rule. There is no natural way to do it.

 

I wasn’t on about that, I was on about the silhouette bollocks.

 

Is it one of these?...

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Can tell it's Summer, fats having disagreements all over the shop

 

She had her hand outstretched so she could pull it back and use it as a counterweight to extend her leg and block a shot

 

Are these all Lallana?

 

No I’m not.

 

I am still undecided about the quality of Women's football and the BBC coverage. In it's favour, I feel that women's football has now come on in quality that it is watchable as a competitive sport. The technical quality has improved and I feel that the tactical abilities of teams has substantially increased. It is no longer a curiosity and merits the media coverage for it's own worth as a competitive sport. The handball decision clearly devalues all football regardless of whether it is played by men or women. The match was enjoyable to watch but the uncritical nature of the commentary on BBC of the ability of the players and the lack of analysis when things aren't working ultimately grated. I just felt that the commentary cut both England and Scotland a lot if slack tonight when some aspects of the performances were really not that great.

There is so much to celebrate about the women's game yet there seems a wide gulf in ability between certain players and teams in the two games I have watched so far. The first half of this evening's match had England edging towards 70% possession yet I felt England failed to capitalise on this type of dominance. If this was the male squad, I think we would not be unreasonable in suggesting why the game was not wrapped up at half time and Scotland allowed to get in to and even dominate moments in the second half. The game should have been finished by half time were if not for some poor finishing and poor decision making. It is strange experience as a supporter of both an EPL and non-league team as you try to work out how the standard of the women's game matches up with the male counterpart in the UK. Both Bronze and especially Parris look quality players who you would pay good money to watch and there was a moment at the close of the first half where the latter nutmegged her opponent and set up a counter attack own the flank which would have pleased any supporter of Premier League football. However, there are other aspects which seemed to be pretty poor such as the defending for the Scotland goals which was a catalogue of errors. The commentary almost seemed patronising and I would have liked to seen this to have been more even-handed.

It is interesting to try to pitch how good the quality of international Women's football is and, setting aside the strength and stamina issues, I was wondering if this was probably the same kind of quality at say Step 7 or 8 in the men's game. I find it hard to gauge because moments of brilliance seem to be juxtaposed with some very poor football. Just my observation......

 

The good thing about Women's Football is that the game isn't different from the Men's game because of physical biological men/women differences like other sports. Football just isn't like that. It is physical, but talent means more.

This World Cup is only a good thing to raise more awareness and I think within 2-3 years the quality on show will be near or on par with the men's game. There may not be the money in it yet, but I am quite excited for what the future holds in the Woman's game.

To answer the question raised by Ian, I think the standard is about the top MLS teams at the moment, and again I feel the MLS will soon catch up with the European leagues.

 

From what I saw today bro, I disagree. I thought the standard was very low. At times. It wasn’t like watching kids football.

 

I know where you are coming from, but maybe that is because the crowd (being mainly family orientated) sounds like an England School Boys International. Perhaps if they had a few fans trashing the town the night before and singing aggressively in the stadium it would look different

I jest, but there is some truth in that perhaps.