The Women's Rolling Football Thread season 2023-24

[DuncinToffee]

Calling all football fans to discuss all things related to the beautiful game

Let us know who you support

I meant Russo's first goal (Mead had a shot and then Zinsberger spilled it), so I got confused.

This is good.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68400945

A win's a win! Arsenal's title hopes alive - just.

Kathrine Kuhl with another assist. You're welcome. (But commiserations on the loss, duncintoffee.)

And to be released on International Women's Day..

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-68422607

About an unofficial England women's team competing at an unofficial world championships in Mexico in 1971.

I'm looking forward to watching that, but I hope it soon makes it to mainstream TV, where it will get a much wider audience - which is kind of the point of making films like this. To tell the world about it.

I couldn't watch our game against Man City but have seen the goals. First one was a gift to them, Bennison's was a beauty

Wtf is going on with the draw for the Women's Euros?
UEFA just can't stop tinkering can they?
Imagine if they did this with the Men's competition?

No idea what is going on with those leagues, the have managed to make it complicated and there seems to be no let of with the amount of matches to play

Got this from the BBC website

The 51 teams hoping to qualify for next year's tournament in Switzerland have been split into three leagues - A, B and C.
Which teams enter which league was determined by the results of the 2023-24 Nations League campaign. Leagues A and B consist of 16 teams, while League C has 19 teams.
In each league, the teams have been split up into four seeding pots.
In Leagues A and B, four groups will be drawn consisting of a team from each pot.
League C has five groups, with only three teams in one of them.
The top two sides from each League A group will automatically qualify for Euro 2025. The remaining eight spots will be decided via play-offs involving the best-ranked sides not to automatically qualify.
The top three teams in each League B group will also make the play-offs. If Switzerland finish in the top three of their group, then the best ranked fourth-place team from League B will qualify for the play-offs.
From League C, the five group winners and three best-ranked runners-up will reach the play-offs.
The qualifiers, taking place between April and July, will see each team play six games, facing the other teams in their group home and away.

The format for the play-offs seems even more complicated.

Quite frankly, I don't understand any of that and I'm too tired! 😃

I will say that we (England) have got by far the hardest path to qualification. Basically 3 of the top five or six teams are in one group! I don't care about official rankings, clearly England, Sweden, France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands are all potential winners and a cut above all the other teams. It's ridiculous. England have improved since 2022, though and midfield is no longer a comparatively weak area - Clinton and James alone have seen to that.

Just seen this in the comments below the BBC article about the draw. The format does seem to have a sensible rationale and a way of helping smaller teams improve and grow interest in the game at home.

The idea is that the crappier teams get to play each other to find the best of the worst teams. Then they get to go head to head with the worst of the best teams in the play offs. If the traditional model is used with the worst teams put into leagues with the best, then the best ones progress and the worst teams never get anything close to an even sided match.

As far as I can tell England can lose every match and will still go through to the playoffs
( unless I've really got the wrong end of the stick...)

Yes, I think that's right. The worst of the best teams go up against the best of the lower ranked teams in the playoffs. It's extra matches 😠but at least it means being in the group of death isn't necessarily fatal.

I wondered why Ilestedt hadn't been playing.

Congratulations to her, but we are really going to miss her.

Match delayed because Arsenal were wearing white socks

Surely Chelsea had other socks available to their players-would have been sporting (and quicker) for them to just change?

The players looked ridiculous. And actually does it matter if they both wear white socks? Who decided that?

Although socks aside that was pretty poor. Bet Jonas is packing his bags as we speak...

Don't know why he didn't start Russo.

Hopefully we will get revenge in the Conti cup final.

James is getting better and better. But still a dirty player. Poor Mead.

Very dirty player and seems to be indulged and not punished.
Not a fan (not that she will be bothered) but how long until she breaks someone's leg?

Hiya MustTry and MrsMitford
I haven't seen the match yet. I was out yesterday evening and after Chelsea's second goal, I turned off app notifications! Have seen the score since.
I will watch in bite sizes over the next few days. Or I may just pretend it didn't happen...

Yes, I am going to pretend it didn't happen too.

I blame the socks. They got them from the Chelsea shop so they must have put a curse on them.

🤣😭😤

Watched it in one go with the sound down.
We were bafflingly awful.
New coach at the end of the season, please, Claire Wheatley and Edu.

And as for Lauren James... Niamh Charles started it with a spiteful push on Beth on the sidelines after the whistle had blown, but what LJ did is gobsmacking. If those particular flip up seats had been empty, Mead could have sustained a head or facial injury. And not even a yellow card from Rebecca Welch. I agree that LJ is being indulged and I see Friday's behaviour as escalation. At the World Cup with the stamp and foot-wiping on the prone Nigerian player and last season when she stamped on Lia Wälti, it seemed to be anger because they were getting the better of her. This time it looked like pure nastiness. I also think it is part of the Chelsea culture. I have said before I will not miss Emma Hayes as a manager (definitely will miss her speaking up for women's football) and this is the reason why.

Apologies to any Chelsea fans, I may just be bitter, but I had to vent. Basically, cocooned as LJ has been in the Chelsea bunker, she has learned nothing. She's been assured that criticism is just down to racism, or envy, or sexism. I'm sure there has been plenty of all three but there is a serious personality problem there. Ultimately it will hurt her, too.

Apologies to any Chelsea fans, I may just be bitter, but I had to vent. Basically, cocooned as LJ has been in the Chelsea bunker, she has learned nothing. She's been assured that criticism is just down to racism, or envy, or sexism. I'm sure there has been plenty of all three but there is a serious personality problem there. Ultimately it will hurt her, too

well said @BellaAmorosa -I don't think all of this indulgence is helping her at all and she is getting worse IMHO and unchecked it will just keep getting worse-now it is ingrained, habitual behaviour versus a frustrated reaction in the moment.

Dare I say I wonder if the kid gloves worn by refs/media/pundits alike would come off if a male player behaved this way?

That's a point I hadn't really considered. Beckham was vilified back in the day for a fairly perfunctory kick in response to provocation, wasn't he? (Not excusing him, just saying LJ's behaviour is worse.) I think you are right - media commentators are overcompensating for the online trollery, some of which is just abuse of one kind or another, because they want to support women's football.