Women's football

[Durhamfootman]

France trying to get back into the game, but not really threatening. USA not doing much really

both sides are going down really easily now, which is disappointing to see. USA have gone down easily twice to win a free kick. Renard of France went down clutching her foot after a challenge from Morgan... replay showed Morgan hadn't touched her. Trying to get players booked/sent off isn't a feature of the women's game normally. I guess the stakes are high, but there's just no excuse for it

Actually, Renard is supposed to be one of the France superstars, but she hasn't fired at all in this WC. Looks really vulnerable to me. Morgan is the USA poster girl, but she doesn't look fully fit to me. Le Sommer has been kept really quiet.

Girl I do like to watch is Diani, but she's been kept pretty quiet
I hope England are watching the game playing.... I'm sure they are

[Durhamfootman]

1-0 HT

[Durhamfootman]

Commentator has repeated that if USA win then GB go to the Olympics

France trying to change that. Stretching the USA defence a bit, but poor in front of goal

[Durhamfootman]

2-0

France have pushed and pushed, made loads of mistakes when on the charge and then got caught on the counter

Rapinoe gets her second

Renard gave that up, she might well have cut that out if she'd kept going

[Durhamfootman]

French crowd like a good boo, btw

I won't miss that in the SF.... although France have weak links all over the park... and the two biggest are their two most celebrated players. England would have beaten them, I reckon

USA doing what they have to, but no more than that. Certainly haven't been in top gear in this tournament

[Durhamfootman]

3-0

easy as you like

Offside

I have no idea why they wait until the goal has been scored before raising the flag

[Durhamfootman]

Renard pulls one back from the free kick 2-1.... first thing she's got right all night

game on

Le Sommer off.... good decision from France... been awful

[Durhamfootman]

USA on the ropes here. France shout for a pen ref says no... it did hit her hand, but her arms were by her side. VAR not involved

France appealing for everything now

extra time in this heat would suit England very nicely, I reckon

[Durhamfootman]

5 mins extra

USA in a good position to try and score....take it into the corner. Not interested in attacking anything

they've been in full defensive mode for much of this half, in truth. Let France right back into the game.

[Durhamfootman]

England -v- USA

but they were pushed all the way by Spain and again all the way by a pretty poor France

is it on?

Ellen White has another golden boot contender because the 2 goals for Rapinoe also puts her on 5, I think.

poor game until the last 10 mins plus time added on.

[Durhamfootman]

Team GB can now have a football team for Tokyo

Scotland players?

you're welcome

[Durhamfootman]

Seemingly it was agreed last October that GB would send a women's team to Tokyo, if England got them to qualification

The Scottish FA said they would not support or promote it, but wouldn't stop players playing in it, and the Welsh FA said they would not align themselves politically with it..... and you can't get more effusive about it than that

At least they aren't trying to stop England trying to win something which, given that perhaps only one Scottish player would deserve to be in the squad, is pretty much all they could contribute to the team anyway

so, Thank you!

[Durhamfootman]

If nothing else, this game might just give the authorities a vision of the future, and give them the opportunity to tighten up on when and where and how VAR is used and the new rules that have seemingly been brought in to support it

It needs to be smarter and it needs to be quicker. Football will look a very different game if it has to include umpteen 5 or 6 minute breaks in each half

I've actually lost track of how many times that game was interrupted

stop/start footie..... it's what the world's crying out for

no VAR interference in the last 3 matches. there have been judgement calls from the referees, penalty shouts turned down and the like, and it hasn't gone upstairs, which it has been doing all tournament.

Part of that might well be that the on field officials have got all the big decisions right and correctly applied the new rules, but I also believe that the VAR bods have been told not to interfere unless it is (as Ginger suggested) a clear case of scoring from an offside position, or something dangerous, or something else factual rather than subjective.

If they have taken this decision, then they've made the right decision in my view

But the refs lately have been very good, and so the system has worked. Are all refs that good? If they were we wouldn't need VAR

For all I've been complaining that VAR has been used too much for things that are subjective rather than objective, I would like to see it being used in cases where a player has clearly taken a dive in the box. Not the marginal ones where there was some sort of minimal contact and they went down like they'd been shot, but for instances like the 2 last night, where the replay clearly and indisputably showed that there was no contact whatsoever from the defender and the attacker was just trying to deceive the ref

Both of those players last night deserved a yellow card and as long as the ref accepts the call from VAR and doesn't stop the game to have a look, there would be no hold up to the game, because the card can been shown at the next natural break in play.

there is an opportunity here to stamp on that sort of thing before it infects the women's game

[Gingerfinch]

Radio 5 are coming down to the girls Football training on Tuesday to interview three of the girls, whose names will be drawn out of a hat. I've put my daughter's name down but fear she may go shy if chosen.

[Durhamfootman]

I hope she enjoys the experience, Ginger

something to remember




Dutch going through at a canter. Been miles better than Italy