FIFA Women's WC France 2019

[better dead than red]

300m people & that’s the best you can do

Give him some leniency. He's an immigrant and "American" isn't even his first language. :)

 

[SebastianBlue]

I agree it's only a matter of time before football is more popular than baseball with boys. I'd argue depending on where you live football is already more popular than ice hockey.

In the Boston area and other New England and upper Midwest states I'm sure hockey is very popular. Where I live, hockey is a niche sport and football is far more popular for boys and girls than hockey. Perhaps it's due to having a very diverse population with many Hispanic, African and European (east and west) immigrants? I don't know. I think that can be part of it but also it's hot here and far less tradition in playing hockey.

Cheers — I was speaking of general popularity across the USA, which will be needed for it to gain the critical velocity of growth to supplant either baseball or hockey properly, but you are correct that in some places where hockey is less popular football has likely already over taken it. Fairly sure football is more popular than hockey in Texas and California, and more popular than baseball in Oregon and Washington, for instance, based on observations and discussions on my travels and a bit of research I have seen as of late.

For it to really kick on, though, it needs to be fourth or third in the list across the country, so to speak, but I think it will eventually get there. If not because of general changes to culture and economic considerations (comparatively american football and hockey are expensive to participate in) which are impacting the popularity of baseball, hockey, and gridiron, then largely due to demographic shifts, which you mentioned, and which are very much happening even here in Boston (I run a 1,000 player strong drop-in football group here which is roughly 90% non-Americans or first generation Americans); and we’re only one of about five in the city, which does not even capture the many actual school, club, and recreational leagues playing (I also coach a U12 team that is half first generation Americans from all over the world).

The future is football.

 

[cleavers]

Only legitimate goals should count.

I agree, but we don't need to be making split hair decisions with technology that isn't good enough, and I firmly believe that only bad decisions should be reviewed, and the benefit of doubt should be with the attacking team.

 

[better dead than red]

I very much enjoyed watching this game. As another poster said, this should have been the final. England has come a long way in a rather short period of time. The women, and their fans, should be proud. This generation of American women are a great team. There's no shame in taking it down to the very end against them.

I'm obviously not an expert or I'd have a different career but, me, a number of women on the American team are technically head and shoulders above what the England team has. For example, Tobin Heath and Rose Lavelle. Give them an opportunity and they will embarrass the opposition as Lavelle did yesterday. Heath apparently takes great pride in her ability to nutmeg just about anyone, any time any place.

From what I've read here in the past the gap in technical ability could come down to coaching at a younger age. Posters have said the youth coaching in England focuses on antiquated football. I'd assume that is the same with girls as with boys. I'd guess many of the coaches are English and that is what they were taught when they we're learning the game, and played that way if they had a career in football.

My daughter plays. She's had coaches that trained and played in Germany, Africa, France and Latin America. Watching her training sessions I see a huge emphasis on ball control, passing, and conditioning. There's been no teaching of kick and chase or punt it forward since the years after she first started.

 

[Eds]

OK, so higher than quite a few premier league teams are achieving on average. It's not that bad and broadly speaking i don't think pass completion in isolation tells us a lot anyway. Would also add that playing in those kind of temperatures can knacker people out pretty quickly and lead to a bit of sloppiness.

USA are meant to be the best international team in the world. Against France their pass completion was only 64.6% so maybe it just shows that they are good at getting the ball forward quickly and finishing their chances rather than keeping hold of the ball. I also suspect that every single premier league club will have a higher completed pass percentage of more than 68%
Edit: Last season crap teams like Huddersfield averaged 75% completion across the season, Burnley 70%, Southampton 74%, Fulham 80%, Newcastle 73% although Cardiff was only 64% so I stand corrected. We managed 89% and Chelsea 88%

 

[Mon Autre]

USA are meant to be the best international team in the world. Against France their pass completion was only 64.6% so maybe it just shows that they are good at getting the ball forward quickly and finishing their chances rather than keeping hold of the ball. I also suspect that every single premier league club will have a higher completed pass percentage of more than 68%
Edit: Last season crap teams like Huddersfield averaged 75% completion across the season, Burnley 70%, Southampton 74%, Fulham 80%, Newcastle 73% although Cardiff was only 64% so I stand corrected. We managed 89% and Chelsea 88%

I don't want to get too bogged down in comparing pass completion stats as like I said, in isolation they don't mean much. It seemed when you initially brought it up you were trying to use it as an example of how poor the women's game is. If they're outdoing even a single team in the premier league then they don't warrant the criticism in my opinion. Whoscored doesn't cover women's football so it's really hard to make comparisons anyway. Comparing USA stats using the two hardest fixtures they're likely to play all year against other teams across a season of playing teams of varying ability isn't that useful.

 

[Eds]

I don't want to get too bogged down in comparing pass completion stats as like I said, in isolation they don't mean much. It seemed when you initially brought it up you were trying to use it as an example of how poor the women's game is. If they're outdoing even a single team in the premier league then they don't warrant the criticism in my opinion. Whoscored doesn't cover women's football so it's really hard to make comparisons anyway. Comparing USA stats using the two hardest fixtures they're likely to play all year against other teams across a season of playing teams of varying ability isn't that useful.

I was just trying to put some context to it, that's all. When the supposed best team in women's football have such a poor pass completion it has to raise questions about the overall quality of the game. Given that I have been involved in women's football at grass roots level for the past 10 years I think I have an idea of the game. The biggest issue is that at grass roots a lot of girls / ladies play because they want a bit of a social occasion on a Sunday and a 'kickabout'. If they won great, if not then they have had a bit of fun running around and kicking a ball. Many of them do not watch any professional football, have a blasé approach to training to try to improve themselves and don't possess a football brain. The fact that this so called great team struggle to do the basic requirement is a worry in my opinion..

 

[Mon Autre]

I was just trying to put some context to it, that's all. When the supposed best team in women's football have such a poor pass completion it has to raise questions about the overall quality of the game. Given that I have been involved in women's football at grass roots level for the past 10 years I think I have an idea of the game. The biggest issue is that at grass roots a lot of girls / ladies play because they want a bit of a social occasion on a Sunday and a 'kickabout'. If they won great, if not then they have had a bit of fun running around and kicking a ball. Many of them do not watch any professional football, have a blasé approach to training to try to improve themselves and don't possess a football brain. The fact that this so called great team struggle to do the basic requirement is a worry in my opinion..

The same could be said about men playing football having a Sunday kickabout. Different organisations and different clubs will have different motives for getting together to play regardless of gender. Surprising somebody who has spent a lot of time around the women's game would have those attitudes to be honest.

 

[Eds]

The same could be said about men playing football having a Sunday kickabout. Different organisations and different clubs will have different motives for getting together to play regardless of gender. Surprising somebody who has spent a lot of time around the women's game would have those attitudes to be honest.

What you fail to grasp is the amount of men playing football v women. If you want a kickabout as a bloke there are plenty of leagues (not as many as there used to be) that will accommodate but that still leaves plenty of competitive leagues. The women's game isn't as big and therefore you have leagues where a couple of teams will be winning 8-0 and more every week and two or three teams being beaten eight nil or more every week. Then there is the travelling as well which means that those that want a kickabout become disheartened with it all and can't be bothered and the better teams don't have a challenge. It's a huge problem that can't be addressed by a half decent World Cup showing. Teams at grassroots need squads of players all of whom are committed and this is very difficult as these sorts of clubs are few and far between. Then at the very top in England you have a salary cap which means all the better players leave etc etc

 

[Mon Autre]

What you fail to grasp is the amount of men playing football v women. If you want a kickabout as a bloke there are plenty of leagues (not as many as there used to be) that will accommodate but that still leaves plenty of competitive leagues. The women's game isn't as big and therefore you have leagues where a couple of teams will be winning 8-0 and more every week and two or three teams being beaten eight nil or more every week. Then there is the travelling as well which means that those that want a kickabout become disheartened with it all and can't be bothered and the better teams don't have a challenge. It's a huge problem that can't be addressed by a half decent World Cup showing. Teams at grassroots need squads of players all of whom are committed and this is very difficult as these sorts of clubs are few and far between. Then at the very top in England you have a salary cap which means all the better players leave etc etc

I'm aware of the salary cap and have discussed it earlier in the thread today. It's time for it to go. Sorry but it was a bit of a red flag when you said women don't possess a footballing brain. I don't know what circles you move in at grassroots but it's obvious that the standard of the game in this country is improving rapidly. I don't know why someone involved with the women's game for the past 10 year would speak negatively about pass completion rates and complain about the standard when there's plenty to optimistic about based on this year's tournament. It goes without saying that the lack of infrastructure and support for the women's game in this country is the reason that the standard isn't as high as the men's, surely nobody needs that pointing out. The women's game is moving in the right direction though and of course a good showing in this world cup will get more people interested and help push things along. We desperately need to retain the best players in the domestic league too though (hence the need for the salary cap to go).