Women's World Cup | Germany | Sunday 26th

Mars Bar

The women's world cup starts on Sunday!

It's being hosted by Germany, who are going for their 3rd successive World Cup.

I'm really looking forward to it!

It's a pity FIFA weren't doing the online sticker thing for this World Cup because the real stickers seem to have gone down a storm.

Panini's football stickers for women's World Cup prove to be a sellout

Kicks off Sunday at 2p.m (Irish Time) with France v Nigeria followed by Canada v Germany.

It's gonna be interesting to see how England and Canada do as well as South Korea and Japan.
Germany are favourites unsurprisingly...

_blank_

pics or gtfo :pac:

Mars Bar

That just doesn't get old for you guys does it?! :P

Pinturicchio

The German team posed for Playboy recently. So google and you shall have pics.

Mars Bar

Haha!

[shamelessplug] I'll be doing articles for this competition for Back Page Football too so you know...please have a look there Saturday or Sunday! [/shamelessplug]

Canada and Germany are a great pair to have on the opening evening too. Morace has Canada playing some neat football I hear.

The_Kew_Tour

I say Ireland will be playing in WC in future in with the young girls doing so well last year.

Mars Bar

I really do hope so but I think we still have a way to go.

They are expanding it to a 24 team competition instead of a 16 team in 2015 so the standard's can improve. We should be putting up a good battle in qualifiers...

Mars Bar

Such a shame that this thread was allowed to go to the second page. Time for a bump me thinks.

http://backpagefootball.com/world-cup/womens-world-cup-preview/

*this bump may contain a shameless plug*

ArmaniJeanss

mars bar wrote: »

I really do hope so but I think we still have a way to go.

They are expanding it to a 24 team competition instead of a 16 team in 2015 so the standard's can improve. We should be putting up a good battle in qualifiers...

Any idea on how the expansion will work - generally at underage level when they've increased the World Cups from 16-24 teams UEFA has got fairly shafted with every confederation getting 1 extra place and UEFA maybe getting an extra half place beyond this.

Would an extra 1.5 places bring Ireland into the mix at the moment (disregarding any hoped for improvement).

Mars Bar

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

Any idea on how the expansion will work - generally at underage level when they've increased the World Cups from 16-24 teams UEFA has got fairly shafted with every confederation getting 1 extra place and UEFA maybe getting an extra half place beyond this.

Would an extra 1.5 places bring Ireland into the mix at the moment (disregarding any hoped for improvement).

I'm not too sure to be honest. I'll have to look into it!

Blobby George

mars bar wrote: »

I'm not too sure to be honest. I'll have to look into it!

In other words, you haven't a fúckin notion. Just wingin it, very much like your blog post as it happens. Pathetic.

oh look, criticial and honest posts being deleted. .

Iago

Blobby George banned from the forum. Any other users attacking posters and not posts will receive the same punishment.

citytillidie

Des wrote: »

pics or gtfo :pac:

http://guyism.com/sports/sexiest-players-of-fifa-womens-world-cup-2011.html

Desire.

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

Would an extra 1.5 places bring Ireland into the mix at the moment (disregarding any hoped for improvement).

Just curious, how do you get an extra 1.5 places?

Is that one automatic place and then one team from UEFA would enter a play-off against a team from another federation?

Pinturicchio

Desire. wrote: »

Just curious, how do you get an extra 1.5 places?

Is that one automatic place and then one team from UEFA would enter a play-off against a team from another federation?

Yes

ArmaniJeanss

Just had a look at the qualifying as I'm ultra nerdy about stuff like that.

Its definitely a tough number for a European team. For the current competition Europe had 5.5 places out of 16. An expansion to 24 would probably mean 7 European places.

For the current campaign you had to win a group, and that just got you into a play off against another group winner with the winners qualifying (the playoff losers went into further playoffs against each other with the winner of this getting the half place, a playoff against the USA).

With absolute powerhouses like Germany, Norway and England in the qualfying draw it would be a massive task for an Irish team.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_FIFA_Women%27s_World_Cup_qualification_(UEFA))

Jax Teller

Nice article mars on Bpf .

Mars Bar

First half of the Nigeria v France match is over.

No real goal scoring opportunities from play but France are dangerous from the corners.
Nigeria are winning the ball in midfield, they are physically strong and are great tacklers.

EDIT: Both teams have actually had one chance that should have been a goal but that must have been when I was making my sandwich (cue the jokes!).

Mars Bar

It finishes 1 0 to France.

France eventually figured that they would have a lot of joy down the right and that's where their goal came from. They should have had a second also come from a low ball from the right.

Bodhisopha

I like the look of the French striker, Delcie i think. Very cute.

Mars Bar

Bodhisopha wrote: »

I like the look of the French striker, Delcie i think. Very cute.

So...let's keep this to the football.

She should have finished the match with two goals and not one.

Mars Bar

So Sinclair for Canada has broken her nose but insists on playing on. You can see that it's broken!

Could do with seeing some of that in the men's game.

Mars Bar

2 1 to Germany.

Canada's goal is the first goal Germany have conceded in a WC campaign since the 2003 final! :eek:

Dozen Wicked Words

Any TV coverage of the tournament? Wonder if the professionalisation of the English womens league will make a difference.

I think generally the quality of womens football is ok, just the goalkeeping is still substandard imho.

Mars Bar

dooferoaks wrote: »

Any TV coverage of the tournament? Wonder if the professionalisation of the English womens league will make a difference.

I think generally the quality of womens football is ok, just the goalkeeping is still substandard imho.

Yeah they are showing it on Eurosport 1 and 2.

Well the shot stopping quality I saw in the two matches today was very good as was the handling. Although the Nigerian keeper was eh...erratic, to say the least. It's decision making that seems to let them down (like McLeod for Germany's first today) as well as the size of the goals.

mike65

Mexico 1 - 1 England

The BBC is showing the England games (maybe others, not sure) on the red button.

donfers

the goalkeepers are always terrible in women's football for some reason

honest question lads and ladies - who do you think would win between the world champions in women's football and a decent men's junior football team like tolka rovers or pike rovers or fairview or tralee dynamos or whoever

MagicMarker

Surprised this isn't even on liveonlinefooty.

mike65

Women keepers are awful as they just won't/don't extend themselves fully, too often the lunge/dive looks rather token, as for quick kick-outs....

Helix

mike65 wrote: »

Women keepers are awful as they just won't/don't extend themselves fully, too often the lunge/dive looks rather token, as for quick kick-outs....

yup, keepers are the reason the female game will always be a complete and utter farce

you literally just have to put the ball more than a yard and a half to either side of them and its a goal

they need to make the nets smaller for women

Mars Bar

donfers wrote: »

the goalkeepers are always terrible in women's football for some reason

honest question lads and ladies - who do you think would win between the world champions in women's football and a decent men's junior football team like tolka rovers or pike rovers or fairview or tralee dynamos or whoever

The Germans would win for definite. Remember, they are professional footballers training day in, day out. They would be far more tactically aware than the teams you have mentioned.

mike65 wrote: »

Women keepers are awful as they just won't/don't extend themselves fully, too often the lunge/dive looks rather token, as for quick kick-outs....

The Nigerian keeper made a very, very impressive save yesterday. It looked like a proper goalkeeper save!

Helix wrote: »

yup, keepers are the reason the female game will always be a complete and utter farce

you literally just have to put the ball more than a yard and a half to either side of them and its a goal

they need to make the nets smaller for women

I think that's a bit strongly worded. It does let the game down a bit but it's not like that problem has been completely ignored. I remember they were having this conversation on Eurosport and the goalkeepers are now getting proper training and are improving. The standard is ten times better than a decade ago.

As for the nets, totally agree with you there.

parker kent

Smaller nets would actually really improve the game. As is seen here, the keepers' mistakes will always be brought up against women's football. There might be an argument for using different balls too (ooh matron).

Skill wise women have improved an awful lot in the last 10 years, but a few small changes would be no harm. I'd view smaller goals as being similar to tennis having 3 set matches for women in grand slams.

I know women have been playing football on and off since the 19th century, but there is no point comparing women's football with men's football. One has the benefit of 150 years of improvements, the other is still growing. Being honest, none of us will ever see a time when a women's team could beat a decent men's team. But women's football will continue to improve and reach a similar stage to that of women's tennis, athletics etc.

If you watch the earliest surviving clips of men playing football, they look pretty laughable compared to modern football. So it is not a simple case of women playing football=crap.

Look at this clip from the 1938 World Cup quarter-final for example (skip to 58 secs):

donfers

mars bar wrote: »

The Germans would win for definite. Remember, they are professional footballers training day in, day out. They would be far more tactically aware than the teams you have mentioned.

I genuinely sincerely doubt that, the Germans no doubt would have some players who were more skillful and better technically than some of the guys on the junior football team, but the guys would be much physically stronger and probably grab a few goals from setpieces....I think the junior team would win (if they were any bit fit) after a promising first 20 minutes/half hour from the German team...i think they'd be simply overpowered, it would be interesting to see it though

parker kent

Does it really matter who would win any hypothetical match? Who cares?

Mars Bar

donfers wrote: »

I genuinely sincerely doubt that, the Germans no doubt would have some players who were more skillful and better technically than some of the guys on the junior football team, but the guys would be much physically stronger and probably grab a few goals from setpieces....I think the junior team would win (if they were any bit fit) after a promising first 20 minutes/half hour from the German team...i think they'd be simply overpowered, it would be interesting to see it though

The women on those teams are surprisingly strong, definitely not as strong as you average man who keeps himself in shape like any decent player on a junior team should be doing.

The goal size would definitely hinder the women's team but it would not surprise me one bit if the woman's team grabbed a draw or a win. They'd simply know how to play football better and that will always win in the grander scheme of things (like the England men's team being physical but useless on the ball compared to the Spanish and it ultimately leads to their demise tournament after tournament).

I have a feeling we won't agree on this one either way as we both have very valid points and we'll probably never find out anyway!

Helix

mars bar wrote: »

They'd simply know how to play football better and that will always win in the grander scheme of things

that's not necessarily true

the standard of womens football may have come on in recent years, but its still fairly woeful. knowing a few tricks and flicks won't help you come up against a team where the average player is 6-8 inches and 3 stone heavier than you.

Mars Bar

Helix wrote: »

that's not necessarily true

the standard of womens football may have come on in recent years, but its still fairly woeful. knowing a few tricks and flicks won't help you come up against a team where the average player is 6-8 inches and 3 stone heavier than you.

I'm not on about tricks and flicks. I'm on about knowing when to hold the ball, when to go to the wings, when to play the right ball through the defence and when to clear the ball away from your goal and not messing with it. They'd be more intelligent than your average junior team.

This is gonna go nowhere, I'll say, "But it's the football that has to go in the net and the WWC winners would know how to put it in the net using the ball intelligently" and you'll say "The women won't get the ball coz the men will hold on to the ball by pure physical force."

England played some good short passing in midfield to hold onto possession that their men's squad would love to be able to do.

donfers

parker kent wrote: »

Does it really matter who would win any hypothetical match? Who cares?

I think "who cares" about 99.99% of the stuff on board particularly the self-righteous fence-sitting mind-numbingly obvious stuff that certain people spout (who i shall not mention) as if it was profound stuff and as if they were some kind of daring virtual Che Guevera revolutionary, you know the type, the one at the dinner party who bangs on about oil being the cause of the Iraq war, how religion is the root of all evil, how we should legalise drugs, how much they hate America, how we should be tolerant of everybody (except the long list of people and causes that are fashionable to hate at that particular moment in time).....oh but i digress, i digress. i just think people who say "who cares" are commiting an inherent hypocrasy and please don't develop the habit of assuming you can police the debate

back on topic - I lived with a german guy a few years back and he told me they were mad for women's football over there and the Prinz lady is supposed to be a superstar over there, also aren't the panini stickers for this world cup selling like hotcakes over there?

you are right mars bar, the only way we would ever find the answer to the question is if the game was ever arranged - i think it would get a lot of attention if it did happen, say the women's world cup winners against a male amateur team, why can't some promoter set it up?

I remember reading that a similarish thing happened about 40 years ago, a middle-aged guy was constantly slating women's tennis on tv and he challenged the then top female player billie-jean king to a game, i think he got hammered though, also the ladies in mixed doubles seem to fare ok so maybe we are underrating the women's games a bit

I remember being pleasantly surprised at the quality of the last world cup which was showed by bbc.....i also remember playing some games of footie with scandinivian ladies in my time and again being pleasantly surprised at the standard (although to be honest i would hold back a bit when going in for a challenge with them)...i always thought our ladies (based on PE classes and my neighbourhood growing up) had zero interest in playing the game but our women's underage team did brilliantly recently so maybe that is changing too

Helix

mars bar wrote: »

I'm not on about tricks and flicks. I'm on about knowing when to hold the ball, when to go to the wings, when to play the right ball through the defence and when to clear the ball away from your goal and not messing with it. They'd be more intelligent than your average junior team.

This is gonna go nowhere, I'll say, "But it's the football that has to go in the net and the WWC winners would know how to put it in the net using the ball intelligently" and you'll say "The women won't get the ball coz the men will hold on to the ball by pure physical force."

England played some good short passing in midfield to hold onto possession that their men's squad would love to be able to do.

its all well and good playing that game against women, but it wouldnt work against men

citytillidie

What a goal from the USA

parker kent

donfers wrote: »

oh but i digress, i digress. i just think people who say "who cares" are commiting an inherent hypocrasy and please don't develop the habit of assuming you can police the debate

I'm not "policing" the debate, there is no need for such a hostile post towards me. I was obviously using it as a way to say that this thread should be for the women's world cup. That is not "policing" the debate, it is pointing out that hypothetical discussions about whether any men's team could beat an international women's team are ridiculous.

I used a much longer, more thought out post earlier in the thread. It got me nowhere. So I used a shorter post in the hope it would change the debate.

Anyway, England's winner against New Zealand was a really well taken goal. Although I think they have a chance of playing Germany in the quarters. I doubt they'll be able for the Germans. Not that different to the men's World Cup :pac:

Charisteas

I'm glad that the TV station broadcasting the Nigeria/Germany match avoided the potentially embarrassing '0 NIG-GER 1' scoreline in the top corner of the screen.

Johner

http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/%E2%80%AAaustralia-denied-the-most-blatant-penalty-ever-the-womens-world-cup-equitorial-guinea%E2%80%AC%E2%80%8F-12192569/

:rolleyes:

Mars Bar

Johner wrote: »

http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/%E2%80%AAaustralia-denied-the-most-blatant-penalty-ever-the-womens-world-cup-equitorial-guinea%E2%80%AC%E2%80%8F-12192569/

:rolleyes:

:eek:

What the fudge?!

Charisteas

Johner wrote: »

http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/%E2%80%AAaustralia-denied-the-most-blatant-penalty-ever-the-womens-world-cup-equitorial-guinea%E2%80%AC%E2%80%8F-12192569/

:rolleyes:

:eek:

The only explanation i can think of is that the lineswoman had (incorrectly) flagged for offside against the Australian striker when the Guinea player picked up the ball

Reganio 2

Charisteas wrote: »

:eek:

The only explanation i can think of is that the lineswoman had (incorrectly) flagged for offside against the Australian striker when the Guinea player picked up the ball

But the keeper restarts by kicking it out of her hands, which means it was no free kick or anything merely play on. That is totally strange, why did she pick it up anyway? I don't get it. Quite shocking in fairness.

Charisteas

Reganio 2 wrote: »

But the keeper restarts by kicking it out of her hands, which means it was no free kick or anything merely play on. That is totally strange, why did she pick it up anyway? I don't get it. Quite shocking in fairness.

Yeah good point, maybe the ref just played advantage? It was a comedy of errors, think the ref can expect to be asked to explain his or her actions by FIFA in the coming days.

Mars Bar

Brazil just scored a stunning goal!

EDIT: It was the CB who scored too. Great technique...

Mars Bar

2 0 to Brazil. A very Hernandez like run to the front post to confuse the defender...

mike65

BBC respond to pressure and will show England v France on BBC2 4.45 pm.

mike65

Not a bad game apart from the passing, some seriously awful short to medium range passing going on from England. The French GK looks like an accident waiting to happen.

The French no 14 down the left side.