Women's football

[Durhamfootman]

in more down to earth news, Durham wildcats maintained their 100% start to the championship by beating Charlton 2-0 to sit on top of the league with a maximum 9 points and a much better GD than Villa

after sitting out that last round, Durham headed to the capital to play the London City Lionesses and gave them a 6-0 thumping to go back to the top of the table with maximum points

[Durhamfootman]

well... here we go again

England.... utterly dominant in the first half against Brazil, but with nothing to show for a lot of good chances..... concede early in the second half thanks to a goalkeeping error (again! different keeper... same errors), panic like hell until they concede a second chasing the game... end up losing 2-1

Jodie Taylor had 2 balls through on goal plus another good chance..... fluffed her lines.... the sort of chances that Ellen White was putting away every time in the WC...... As soon as she was taken off after 70 odd minutes, her replacement scored a good goal, out of nothing, in a little over 5 minutes.

Phil the Brave must have had plenty of good advice at half time, because they went from total dominance in the first half to second best by a mile in the second... and that was after Brazil took their best player off

Hopeless!

still..... 2 good things.... Jordan Nobbs finally back in an England shirt after injury and Lucy Bronze back in her rightful position

Portugal on Tuesday night

I can hardly wait

[Durhamfootman]

Lionesses were underwhelming yet again, last night. 1-0 win over Portugal, who were a poor side, but that goal only came because of an absolute howler from their keeper.

Coach Courage is mucking about with Bronze in centre mid again, yet when he brought Nobbs on after 65 mins and Bronze went back to RB, England played like a completely different side. Suddenly they went on a spree that saw 4 gilt edged chances (and 3 were almost sitters) fall to Taylor, who yet again spurned every single one of them

hey ho.... at least England fans can feel good about having the bravest and the best manager in world football leading the charge

[Durhamfootman]

nearly 78,000 were at Wembley today for the women's friendly between England and Germany. A world record seemingly.

on the pitch England lost..... again.... this time to a late goal on 90 mins

The good news is that Ellen White is back... making a nuisance of herself in front of goal and putting away a sharp chance in her first England game since the WC.

The bad news was that when she was subbed after 70 mins England were utterly hopeless without her. England missed their 4th consecutive penalty when Nikita Parris missed her 3rd consecutive penalty, which just isn't good enough and is becoming a real problem for the team. Germany took an early lead and probably should have had a player sent off for a studs up tackle that hit Beth Mead just below the knee and then raked down her shin to her ankle, but this is women's football and players have to pull out a knuckle duster and punch someone in the face with it to get a straight red card. Instead she was one of several Germany players to pick up a yellow card for decidedly agricultural tackling.... much of which was on Lucy Bronze

I didn't see the whole game, because I missed the first 20 minutes or so (which by all accounts was pretty dire from England) and I missed the last 10 minutes, but from what I did see, Germany were scared stiff of White; scared stiff of leaving her even an inch of space to run into. Consequently they didn't have enough players forward to really press when England had the ball, and without being put under much pressure England looked better than they have done recently. The minute White was taken off and Taylor put on, the whole German formation moved 10 or 15 yards up field, presumably because they didn't fear being caught out at the back any more, and suddenly England were put under pressure and so started to make all the same old mistakes that they've been making since the WC. When I checked the final score later, It didn't surprise me in the least to find that England had lost.

Thank goodness England have the bestest, bravest manager in the whole world in charge of the team, or they would be in trouble

It was quite remarkable to see the difference that Ellen White made to the performance, because teams have to be so much more defensively minded when she is on the pitch

[Gingerfinch]

Me and the family went. England were terrible in the first 20, in fact I've seen better passing at semi pro level. Maybe Wembley nerves? Thereafter I thought they played well, as did Germany.
1-2 was a fair result, even if we did miss another penalty. Surely Parris has to step down from those duties?
Really enjoyed the game, and the atmosphere was good, though a bit forced. I was asked countless times to give the Lionesses 'one more cheer' which I don't see the point in.

[Durhamfootman]

you seem to go to a few of these things these days, ginger. You have daughters if my memory serves. I do too, but they were never interested in doing anything like that, so it's nice that you get the opportunity to share these events with them. I had to wait until I had a grandson.... although it was worth the wait

[Durhamfootman]

sometimes it's hard to know how much all these matches being friendlies affects the performances of the players and the decision making process of the management, but England seem to have lost a bit of ground on where they've been over the last couple of years

[Durhamfootman]

at some point confidence can become an issue with all these losses. maybe that's the problem with Parris?

[Gingerfinch]

My daughter plays for Aylesbury utd girls U10's. The women's club get cheap tickets for Reading matches, and yesterday's game, so we try and make the most of it.

Neville must be under a bit of pressure to turn it around. It was a friendly and he was always going to bring White off, after her injury, however some of the Football was dire, and the men and coach would have be been heavily criticised for it.

[Durhamfootman]

he actually kept her on 10 mins longer than he said he would, but the way teams go after England when she isn't on the pitch must be of huge concern

[Durhamfootman]

England Lionesses finally get a win. Okay, it was against a rubbish team, it was only by the odd goal and there is no way in any world that England should be conceding 2 goals against the Czech Republic, but the conditions looked shocking, (no crowd for some reason?) and they all count.

[Alviro Patterson]

Makes you wonder whether the equal pay PR stunt is responsible for the Lionesses downward form, placing significant and unnecessary pressure on players...

[Gingerfinch]

Watched an entertaining 3-3 draw between Chelsea and City yesterday. Two of the goals could have been disallowed if they had VAR but for me it was nice watching a game knowing once a team had scored, then that was it...........goal!

[Durhamfootman]

Man City?

or Sunderland 2nd XI?

[Durhamfootman]

I didn't see the lionesses she believes match against the USA the other night. From what I've gathered it was more of a she believes mis-match

England are a team in decline under the auspices of the bravest, bestest manager in women's football, yet the core of the team is pretty much unchanged from what I can see

thank goodness we have him, because every other team in the world would love to have him

well..... according to him anyway