Abybody else watching it? Only watched a bit myself so far. Canada (hosts) beat China with a (dodgy) pen in added on time. I did think it was a pen though. Then last night Germany v Ivory Coast. Most one-sided football match I've ever seen, especially in the first half before the Germans stopped bothering. Step in the right direction though. The Ivory Coast boys are very competitive even if the gals aren't yet. Not taken much interest who's up today yet. Our gals are up tomorrow. An ineresting aside. Two group matches in the same stadium on the same day in quick succession. All artificial pitches? Not seen that before.
Yep, I am. Watching the game tonight which kicks off right about now. I've enjoyed picking out some talented players, I liked Canada's centre back with the red dreadlocks, Buchanan?
Eurosport and BBC 3.. Bit of a slow/one sided start but some big games coming up like England v France and once you get rid of the weak sides the quality and competiveness will improve.
Have to admit, following on from Kelso's offside thread, I was hoping the text in the OP was going to read 'what's your understanding of it?'
I'm watching it on the BBC sport site. Best game I've seen of the tournament so far, Sweden 2-0 up at HT with two cheap goals from a corner. Nigeria look dangerous on the attack though.
And the women are not happy with artificial pitches generally and the newly laid pitch in Vancouver in particular.
Rough first half for the American woman but we pulled it out in the second half. USA v. Sweden should be interesting.
Ha yes! I agree. What a totally naff OP. Just come on line today and was fully expecting to take a right slagging on that one. But posters seem to have taken it reasonably seriously. Thanks guys. Dodged a bullet there. More on that one later.
Looks like I missed the best match yet then. Damn. Our gals are on at 18.00 BST today. On BBC2 I believe.
Norway were really inventive and a joy to watch against Thailand (who were admittedly not much good). Norwegian selection policy seems to be blondes on the pitch, brunettes on the bench, not that that's in any way relevant to us connoisseurs of the beautiful game.
Three minutes remain and we don't look like scoring. Trombonist sounds like George Chisholm after a very bad cold! Unless it's a fog horn?
What do you lot see in it? Is it just a means to get your close season football fix? I'll just say what I think - women's football is dire and quite unlike the men's version. I just can't watch a women's game for any length of time and I've no interest really in their World Cup. I get vaguely annoyed with how the BBC constantly bend over backwards trying to make it equal in standing. For example the way they put articles about both men and women on their Football news pages and sometimes don't tag the women's one accordingly. And the red button just saying 'World Cup'. The fact the UK commercial channels don't go near it says it all really and I suspect if the BBC separated women's football from men on their website it would barely get clicked on. The Watford ladies seem to be several shades of terrible too. Propping up their league I believe and record crowd of just over 1,000. Dislike away :]]
A football fix is one reason. Sure the quality isn't up to men's standard, everyone knows that but it doesn't make it any less entertaining. The England game was pretty dull, as was the opening game of the tournament between Canada and China but you get dull games in football. However, the Sweden/Nigeria fixture was more entertaining than most Premier League games I watched on Sky last season. It's also very refreshing to watch football with little to no play acting/feigning injury.
at it's best it can be good but the same as for our youth, they really need 3/4 sized pitches and slightly smaller balls to make it watchable.
It is truly terrible quality, the one redeeming factor is the comedy value. I have to agree with UEA, the BBC links to stories like "England striker breaks leg" without warning it's about the women is irritating, almost as if it's someone's job to get the traffic up on women's football. I almost wish I had a nunny, cos I'd be the best forward England ever had and could play at the world cup!
It can be difficult to watch if you're expecting a slightly less aggressive/fast mens game because it's so different to be almost a different sport. Being involved in a Watford Ladies youth team I've learned to appreciate the big differences over time so can enjoy it for what it is, and trust me if you gave it a go you'd probably see the light eventually. Unfortunately I'm the same with cricket, I simply don't like it, never have, so have never given it a chance. Rugby as well. When the top teams in this World Cup clash then watch again and see if you enjoy the better standard of players. A point about Watford Ladies, the club give them a token amount of money that the whole club has to run on, and it's a laughable amount considering where we are now. The fact that they managed to survive in the league last year was a miracle considering what they have to run things on.
The BBC have form for this. They did the same when the Ashes in the womens' cricket was happening at the same time as the men's Ashes. Mildly annoying I agree. It has a minority following. Just treat it as such until they generate sufficient following to warrant full equal coverage like the tennis/athletics.
I thought you might comment mate. Your point about it being 'so different as to be almost a different sport' is spot on I think and it would do the women's game a lot of good to market itself as such. I might try and watch a top end game near the end of the tournament just to see. Maybe I've just been haunted by watching Women's FA Cup Finals on telly about 10 years ago when the players were probably mostly part-time. I understand the Watford Ladies get very little investment. But then why should the men's club give them anything? Presumably the best sides are just propped up by their male counterparts?
I worked for the Women's Football team at University and can honestly say the game was a breath of fresh air. Whenever I worked with the men's teams (not so much at my University, more promiment in others) there was abuse of the referees, fighting, diving and there was almost none of this in the Women's teams. No ego and I worked with almost every sports team in the University and the women's football team were by far the most easy to work with. Did some work most recently with Portsmouth Ladies FC and again they were a joy, shame they missed out on promotion to the Super League in a play-off as they were looking to bring me in on a contractual basis if they got the extra budget. The lack of budget for teams is a real shame and the lack of coverage is irritating too. Hopefully going to get down to watch Watford ladies when I move back to Herts.
Yep, that's how it is. The mens clubs are supporting professional ladies football under their name. Without the funding then their game would remain very much amatuer as they simply couldn't sustain themselves on the match day income alone. Some clubs put more money into their Ladies setup so just look at the top of the FA Womens Premier League to see those who put in the most. Girls football is exploding right now, they all seem to want to play from a young age and it's great to see. Local clubs are getting completely overrun with young teams. Boys clubs are receiving grants from the FA for having a ladies setup within their clubs so it's only going to expand. Will it ever be as popular as mens football? No. However, take a look around the Vic next time your over and see how many Women and girls are there watching now. As the great man himself once said, "things they are a changing".
The match last night was woeful. It was the wrong formation (Aluko up front on her own?) and for some reason our ladies couldn't pass and their first touch was awful. Maybe it was nerves, first match and against one of the top 4. I watch quite a bit of the England ladies matches and it certainly wasn't up to it's normal standard I find it more entertaining than the men's team. Don't write them off yet, I would expect the hairdryer treatment and a better performance in the next match.
