|
Post by donut on Aug 16, 2023 17:21:47 GMT -5
Spain v. England should be a good final. One traditional European power will get their first Women's World Cup title. Edit: since apparently some have poor critical thinking skills, I'm talking about traditional European powers on the men's side. lol
|
|
|
Post by Mocha on Aug 16, 2023 19:16:37 GMT -5
That first goal from Toone in the Aussie-England match was a beaut. Her reaction was one of the best, even she was surprised she scored.
|
|
|
Post by Mocha on Aug 16, 2023 19:19:16 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by donut on Aug 16, 2023 21:30:07 GMT -5
Yeah, 0% chance that wasn’t happening. Single biggest reason for our World Cup performance.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2023 21:53:12 GMT -5
They should hire a female coach.
|
|
|
Post by Mocha on Aug 16, 2023 22:01:39 GMT -5
They should hire a female coach. Three of the four semifinalists at this year’s World Cup were coached by men.
|
|
|
Post by zarsta on Aug 17, 2023 0:28:04 GMT -5
That first goal from Toone in the Aussie-England match was a beaut. Her reaction was one of the best, even she was surprised she scored. She hit that one so sweetly. Saw this post match quote from her: “It fell straight to me in the box and I just thought ‘why not just smack it?’ Honestly, that’s the best shot I’ve hit in my life.”
|
|
|
Post by bbg95 on Aug 17, 2023 16:45:44 GMT -5
Spain v. England should be a good final. One traditional European power will get their first Women's World Cup title. Edit: since apparently some have poor critical thinking skills, I'm talking about traditional European powers on the men's side. lol
Look, if you say something that pointless, I'll point it out. It's less about being "defensive" than having a low tolerance for asinine comments. Edit: I don't want to waste much more of my time on this, but just to address another comment, I never claimed to be an expert on soccer. So I wouldn't have that much to say about, say, in-match tactics. But you don't need to be an expert on soccer to see the very obvious correlation between traditional European powers on the men's side and the rising European powers on the women's side (obviously, the reason for the improvement is that the federations that neglected their women's programs for so long are now taking them seriously). You don't even need to have a degree in journalism like I do. You just need basic research and critical thinking skills. Anyway, I'm not going to bother responding to disingenuous and/or obtuse comments on this going forward.
|
|
|
Post by donut on Aug 17, 2023 17:04:35 GMT -5
I'd say the dumb comment is easily the one that suggested Spain was a traditional European power in women's soccer. But as merv pointed out, your posts speak for themselves regarding your lack of knowledge here, and your defensive doubling down confirms it, so any labeling is a bit redundant. Anyways, back to the final: I'm really interested to see what England does with James and Toone. Plus, of course, what Spain does with Putellas. Hopefully this game is as thrilling as the last time these two teams met:
|
|
|
Post by bbg95 on Aug 18, 2023 18:59:21 GMT -5
I mean, I think England has a brighter future than the US in women's soccer, and they also have lower expectations, at least for now. As far as I know, the England team didn't make a commercial implying that they were basically a lock to win this World Cup the way that the USWNT did. If you take the US job, you're probably going to get fired if you don't win the World Cup. Wiegman is already a legend in England for winning Euro 2022. So after seeing a fair amount of hysteria on the part of the American soccer media about Sarina Wiegman potentially leaving England to take over the USWNT, it was refreshing to see this article from Henry Bushnell that pointed out all the reasons that's unlikely to happen. Oh, and Bushnell also reported that during the last coaching search in 2019, the US approached Wiegman about their opening, and she wasn't interested. As near as I can tell, this is what the US could potentially offer Wiegman: -Coach the team that has the most success historically -Possibly more money than she currently makes -Live in the US if that's what she wants to do Here's what England can offer: -Stay where she's already comfortable and under contract through 2025 -Better talent pool and development system -Better support from the federation -Less meddling from the federation and others (e.g. sponsors applying pressure to include washed-up players on the roster) -Ability to keep her family in the Netherlands, which is an hour or so by plane from England--anywhere in the US is much farther away -Infinitely better overall soccer culture (it's in seventh place in the US, and that's unlikely to change anytime soon) -Probably as much money or more than what the US or anyone else will offer, since the FA is far wealthier than the USSF -Lower expectations, at least for now Honestly, even the historic success of the USWNT seems like a downside to me. This isn't college sports where that kind of success can be a real boon for recruiting. All it really does at this point is just increase expectations for you to win the World Cup to not be seen as a failure. Don't get me wrong. I think the USWNT will be attractive for a lot of coaches. Tony Gustavvson, for example, was a USWNT assistant under Jill Ellis. And while I think England is a better job than the USWNT, I don't think that's true of Australia. The US is likely still a top five job, along with a handful in Europe. But I have yet to hear a good argument for why Wiegman would be interested. Another thing I've seen people point out is that she played college soccer at North Carolina. Which is true...for one season, and then she went back to the Netherlands where she has spent the rest of her life. Honestly, this speculation (to be fair, I'm not sure what the USSF itself is thinking) reminds me of UCLA basketball thinking they could just pluck John Calipari from Kentucky.
|
|
|
Post by donut on Aug 18, 2023 19:18:29 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by zarsta on Aug 18, 2023 23:37:04 GMT -5
I know there were a few headlines about "poor" ticket sales in NZ and the 20,000 free tickets that were given away the week before the tournament started. New Zealanders are notoriously last minute with this sort of stuff, but really got behind it once it all kicked off. Final attendance figures here were 708,743 - according to this the target was 500k. At Eden Park, 12% of ticket sales were to Americans - though not too surprising given the two group stage matches they had as well as the assumed semi final. Also, for anyone interested, that second linked article also has a few comments on getting the stadiums up to FIFA standards - Eden Park is not often used for soccer (and the massive flooding event at the end of Jan - see photo in article - didn't make that job any easier).
|
|
|
Post by mervinswerved on Aug 18, 2023 23:48:24 GMT -5
I know there were a few headlines about "poor" ticket sales in NZ and the 20,000 free tickets that were given away the week before the tournament started. New Zealanders are notoriously last minute with this sort of stuff, but really got behind it once it all kicked off. Final attendance figures here were 708,743 - according to this the target was 500k. At Eden Park, 12% of ticket sales were to Americans - though not too surprising given the two group stage matches they had as well as the assumed semi final. Also, for anyone interested, that second linked article also has a few comments on getting the stadiums up to FIFA standards - Eden Park is not often used for soccer (and the massive flooding event at the end of Jan - see photo in article - didn't make that job any easier). I'm happy Kiwis showed up. Broadly, my experience at Eden Park was all the families were locals, which was cool.
|
|
|
Post by zarsta on Aug 19, 2023 2:59:42 GMT -5
Third place match between Sweden and Australia about to kick off. Both teams have gone with the same starting lineup from the semis. Alanna Kennedy once again unavailable for the Matildas - now noted as delayed concussion symptoms (from the France match) rather than 'illness'.
|
|
|
Post by zarsta on Aug 19, 2023 4:08:34 GMT -5
Sweden up 1-0 at the half on a PK (converted by Rolfo), after Hunt clipped Blackstenius. Bit of a rough ending to the half as Asllani and Gorry had a shoving match, and then finished with a massive collision between Foord and Asllani - big swelling above Foord's eye and blood near Asllani's ear.
|
|