Women's football

[Gingerfinch]

Cheers Footman

I didn't see the Dutch-Italy game, but thought Italy may have won that, from what I had seen of them.

Holland could be playing their bitter rivals next!

[mikesiva]

Keep encouraging her Gingerfinch. I find that lots of men like to put down women's sports in this country.

My daughter won a number of trophies with her girls football team in Barnet borough competitions and she still has those trophies today. They did wonders for her self esteem.

Sweden leading Germany 2-1. Upset on the cards?

[Gingerfinch]

Will do, Mike.

Another wrong prediction for me.

On that note, I predict a USA vs Holland final.

[Durhamfootman]

well... there you go. Congrats to Sweden, they got their tactics absolutely right.

In the first half, I was thinking that Germany looked as though they were comfortably the best team in the QF's, but they got mugged in the first half for the equaliser, and once they'd conceded the second after the break, they sort of disintegrated.

Sweden deserve a lot of credit for that. I have a feeling that they'd never beaten Germany in a WC finals before... something like 5 attempts. They just let the German's come on and come on and then hit them on the counter. The first goal was really well taken, because even though the ball had come over the top to her, the striker still had loads to do.

I have no doubt the German fans will be cheesed off because the second goal came after a foul on the half way line where play was allowed to carry on (rightly imo, she went down like a sack of spuds and she'd already done that a couple of times before) and then they had a stonewall pen ruled out because their player was fractionally offside before the goalie felled her. But, rules is rules, and the officials got the big calls right again so VAR couldn't come riding to Germany's rescue.

Really good officiating throughout the QF's. Get that right and VAR can't turn games on their head

[Durhamfootman]

That was probably the best game of the QF's, btw

sad to see both Germany and France bowing out of the tournament

[Durhamfootman]

England have nothing to lose now.

They've got their SF slot and so will be there to the end of the tourno regardless

They're not expected to beat the mighty USA

and they've qualified for the Tokyo Olympics which the European heavyweights France (ranked 2 in the world) and Germany (current olympic champs) can't do. Even the USA haven't qualified yet

They can afford to put their feet up between now and Tuesday having had an easier QF physically than the USA did, having played better than the USA did, in less heat than the USA did, and with an extra day off to recover.........

and the small matter of having the best striker in the tournament (assuming that Rapinoe is a midfielder)

Just go out and enjoy the game England.... what will be will be........ all is good, regardless of the result. The USA will be under more pressure to perform than England, I feel

[sussexpob]

Just go out and enjoy the game England.... what will be will be........ all is good, regardless of the result

Obviously the media in England need to sell the success of the national team as some Cinderella miracle for political and sporting reasons, get the sport on a high for future exploitation and what not, but in the cold hard light of day, if England lose to the USA can they really have any legitimate claim of having achieved anything of substance from this tournament?

England should not be losing to any side other than the USA. They have the only fully professional league outside of America, they have by far the biggest recently investment into womens football outside the USA, they play with the best facilities that they share with Premier League sides (something that America doesnt have)....... fitness, diet, coaching, facilities, avenues to improve as players.... any metric, they have a massive advantage. As an example, today Real Madrid, the biggest club in the world, finally decided to put a womans team together for next year...... so in Spain none of the big hitter really care. England beat a big football nation in Argentina, but Argentinian women are playing in pub football conditions. The Japanese womens game has significantly declined since the European nations started to pump more relative funds around. No one can really compete with England's current position, apart from the USA.

To get anything serious out of this tournament, they need to beat the USA. All their other opponents should rightfully have been dispatched with ease. So we can say they beat Norway, World Cup/Euro Cup and Olympic Champions..... but how many of those were achieved in the modern day when European powerhouses gave even a passing interest? Zero. Norwegian football is such a shambles they cant even get their best players to turn up and bother to play.

So we can sell it as a success story, but really they have so far played a par round for the massive capacity the team has over others. If they get beat by USA, youd have to say the whole tournament has been a failure.

[Durhamfootman]

that's a pessimistic view, SP

[Durhamfootman]

If England should not be losing to anyone other than the US, then if they do lose to the US tomorrow, the tournament will have been a success, surely?

[Durhamfootman]

or at least, not a failure

[Gingerfinch]

Well my daughter has been chosen to be interviewed for radio 5 tonight. I presuming it's live? Given only 2 were picked out of the hat, as Ellen White's niece is being interviewed, and she was of course always going to be one of the three, she got lucky!

[Durhamfootman]

good luck

[sussexpob]

England look like they are going to get absolutely battered....1-0 and it's all USA

[sussexpob]

Go one girls ..back in 1-1

[sussexpob]

England growing into this nicely