The Women's World Cup

[Flyingkiwi]

The Women's World Cup starts tomorrow and it's likely that there will be saturation coverage of the thing as the Chinese Women's team is a fairly competitive unit. In fact; women's football in Asia seems to be fairly strong as Japan are the current champions (China's best, so far, is a 2nd place finish) and they will be strong again; as will the traditional powerhouses USA and Germany. I read somewhere (Probably in the Guardian) that there are 1 or 2 RFC representatives in the current England squad to boot. I'm expecting a reasonable showing from the Kiwi girls (Knock-out stage at least and, hopefully, they will beat the Chinese)

Ah well... It'll give me something to watch in the morning

Group A
Canada (Hosts)
China
Netherlands
New Zealand
Harder to pick than a broken nose. Canada are the hosts (Which will give them an edge), China are traditionally strong, NZ have been winning fairly frequently against all opposition. The Dutch are big.

Group B
Germany
Ivory Coast
Norway
Thailand
Germany will walk away with this group. Norway SHOULD come second. Don't know much about the Ivory Coast team. Thailand will be lucky to score.

Group C
Cameroon
Ecuador
Japan
Switzerland
Japan should walk this one. I'd pick Switzerland for 2nd but don't know much about any African teams (Except for the fact that Women's football in Africa seems to be, generally, very weak)

Group D
Australia
U.S.A
Nigeria
Sweden
The USA should go through top here. Aussie or Sweden for 2nd.

Group E
Brazil
Costa Rica
Korea (RoK)
Spain
The group of death. Any of this lot could easily make it through to the knock-out stage.

Group F
Colombia
England
France
Mexico
I'm going to go for England to win with France second... But fully expect the England team to let me down. It's traditional

So... Who are you going for??

P.S.

The Under 20's World Cup is also on (In NZ). Nz have already been eliminated (P3W1D1L1), England didn't qualify (Surprise, surprise), neither did China or Aussie ( ) and Argentina are also, just about, out so it doesn't really matter anymore. I'd not be surprised to see the Germans take it home (There could, very well, be 3 World Cups for some Kraut to polish by the end of the month).

[sandman]

Surprised RoyalBlue didn't start a thread on this.

[TBM]

There is already a thread on it in the World Cup section

viewtopic.php?f=20&t=127419

[Flyingkiwi]

The game this morning (Canada Vs China) was quite entertaining. Canada deserved to win but were lucky to scrape it with a 92nd minute penalty (I've seen worse penalty decisions but doubt it would have been awarded AGAINST the hosts).

Holland also edged NZ 1 - 0. I was surprised that CCTV didn't show the game given that it's China's group (They showed a repeat of Barcelona Vs Juventus instead) but from reading the stats, NZ look to have been unlucky (They have an English coach, I discovered today, by the name of Tom Readings so perhaps that explains the change of recent form).

It seems that NZ may NOT be out of the Under 20 World Cup (Yet). I've just noticed that there are only 6 groups which indicates that several 3rd placed teams are going to get through to the round of 16 (This also means that the Argies are, probably, still in with a shout but we can't have everything, can we?)

If someone wants to merge this thread with TBM's, t'is fine with me.

[Kitsondinho]

Norway 3-0 up on Thailand inside 35 mins. Suspect that won't be the last of them either. However, the fact the tournament is being played on artificial pitches is an absolute joke! This game is already a mis-match and the pitch is making it worse!

[Froomes]

I have a pretty deep seated dislike of the women's game, not because it's women playing football, but because every time I've been drawn in by people saying "give it a go with an open mind" I've been incredibly let down. The major gripe I have with women's football is the goalkeeping, to say it's piss poor would be a massive understatement!

But I thought as its a World Cup I'd give it another go, a clean slate if you will, the first game Canada vs China quickly reminded me why I dislike like it! It was of no better standard than Sunday league football. I did however catch the Norway vs Thailand game, I was pleasantly surprised! Thought Norway looked very good I suspect that was due, in part, to Thailand being the female equivalent of San Marino? Nonetheless I was impressed by Norway.

Currently watching ze Germans, they're supposed to be pretty decent so I'm hoping my opinion of women's football will continue to be changed!



EDIT.
Ze Germans are already winning, 5 mins gone. It's early days but this could get embarrassing for the Ivory Coast

[Royal Rother]

Thailand didn't look good but with the very last seconds of the game played some Barcelona type stuff around the edge of the penalty area to fashion a chance which was hit fairly tamely. Shame as that could have been goal of the tournament.

Agreed Norway looked good, as did Germany (lots).

[Sutekh]

Ze Germans are already winning, 5 mins gone. It's early days but this could get embarrassing for the Ivory Coast

10-0 to Germany in the end.

[Froomes]

Ze Germans are already winning, 5 mins gone. It's early days but this could get embarrassing for the Ivory Coast

10-0 to Germany in the end.

Only managed to stick it out until half time, was 5-0 at that point, it should have realistically been at least 10-0 at the break. Some of the finishing was woeful which, given the result, feels pretty weird to say!

What I have taken from the games I've seen so far is that the build up play is of a pretty reasonable standard (I've been pleasantly surprised) but the goalkeeping, finishing and shooting from distance have all been very poor indeed.

[Kitsondinho]

England 1-0 at H/T v France after giving the ball away and conceding......Played well apart from that but really need to move the bus and attempt an attack.

[No Fixed Abode]

Good to see the women being like the men's team. Ok - but always failing on the big occasion.

[Flyingkiwi]

Just watched the Chinese beat the Dutch with a late (91st minute) goal. Probably a fair result in the end although both sides had their chances. So far in this group the Canucks beat the Chinks (1-0), the Dutch beat the Kiwis (1-0) and the Chinks beat the Dutch (1-0). Canada Vs NZ later today. What chance the Kiwis closing the group right up?? (They're fucked if they don't)

Got to say that, overall, the quality of football hasn't been too bad. The defending hasn't been much to write home about and the goalkeeping has been a bit hit and miss but the quality of the centre field play has been pretty good (The Chinese today were passing the ball around very nicely) and there have been a number of shots from distance that have been more than decent efforts.

[Nameless]

Having watched bits of a few games I've been very disappointed.
Low general skill levels, little real team play, passing pretty inaccurate, shooting weak and speculative. After the Ireland game the bar had been set pretty low in terms of matching the men's efforts but for me there has been nothing to make me want to watch more. Which is a shame as I had been expecting to see the women's game developing into a serious sport. In other sports the women's game is worth watching in it's own right , football is not there yet based on what I have seen to date.
The commentary has also been uniformly abysmal.

[Platypuss]

Germany-Norway was actually pretty OK - second half especially which was quite competitive.

Goalkeeping is still though - there is obviously no such thing a a routine save in women's football, at even the highest levels. As a result we also get the "spectacle" of 10 people crowding around the goalie at nearly every corner.

[From Despair To Where?]

Goalkeeping is still though - there is obviously no such thing a a routine save in women's football, at even the highest levels. As a result we also get the "spectacle" of 10 people crowding around the goalie at nearly every corner.

Hope Solo has looked a pretty decent keeper to be fair but the rest do have the look of the last kid to be picked.

[Green]

Surprised RoyalBlue didn't start a thread on this.

You're gonna have to spell that one out for me.

Ladies man, is he

[Nameless]

His feelings for women's football are at the extreme opposite end of the spectrum to his feelings for most things RFC

[tmesis]

His feelings for women's football are at the extreme opposite end of the spectrum to his feelings for most things RFC

Tell him it was John Madejski's idea to set up the women's team at Reading, and his mind would just implode.

[Kitsondinho]

The crap artificial pitches really aren't helping. The games are being played at a much slower pace than in Germany 4 years ago. Nigeria v Australia should be interesting tonight, especially as both teams played so well in their opening game.

Big game for England tomorrow. Simply can't lose and unlike the France game, we'll start as heavy favourites. Mexico have it in them to beat us, which would be a real shame because we have certainly improved over the last 12-18 months.

[Royal Rother]

England are really poor.

Kirby seems to be the only one with any awareness of where other players are on the pitch - both her team mates and the opposition.

Decent athletes but very limited so far.

Eluko had a great shot but is completely unaware of anyone else.

Frustrating, and as Kes said after the 1st game, quite reminiscent of the men's team.