World Cup appreciation thread - starts Sat June 6th

[YonicScrewdriver]

First England game is vs France and will be on BBC2 on June 9th.

C'mon you lionesses!

(Supporting other nations is also allowed!)

If the women are first, I suspect everyone would arrive late!

It works at grand slams whereyou have an all day ticket for a court but don't know exactly which matches will be on until the day.

Ennuid depends on the nation but in terms of skill they do well. The issue would be the power and the pace of the Men's game. Would love to see how we compare against say a second division side. Skill wise I would expect us to do well but in the terms of the physicality we would struggle especially in the air. Was nice to see us play 90 minutes rather than some cut down version.

I have been to Twickenham to watch the rugby and stayed to watch. The cricket often has been first followed by the men and from what I have seen the ground doesn't start to fill till the match is over half way.

sausage,

I found a few results and I'm pretty shocked tbh. The women's US team lost 2-8 vs the U-17 boys team (team that even qualify for the U-17 world cup next year even though North America is an extremely easy qualifying group). They also lost to other boys' US local teams (SoCal etc) 1-5, 0-5...

forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/uswnt-vs-u-17-usmnt.1939180/

forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/uswnt-vs-so-cal-boys-odp.929075/

How the hell can this be? Not only these are 15-16 yo kids, but they aren't even great in their age group... Many of them won't ever see a pro contract when they grow up, never mind end up playing for Real Madrid. And we're talking about the best female team in the world with fully professional players making tons from sponsorships and endorsements.

Waiting for Germany game!

Ennuid the one thing that needs to be made to clear is the physicality that is in the male game. We have the skills but a male team will be able out jump, on average run faster and push us aside in tackles. Skills wise we are going to be better but physically we will struggle to compete. Remember while the US team is professional they wont have played as much as kids. I would say that every year I would think we would get closer but it will take years for the physical aspect to be eroded.

Two goals and an injury already!

What is going on with the Ivory Coast goalie?

And that is the difference between a strong side and one that has less physicality. German could have probably got more. The earlier game the simple difference in height caused issues.

Can't help but feel the goal should be smaller ... The Ivory Coast keeper is just not big enough. Maybe it will be less of an issue for the better teams though?

Watched bits of last nights game - as the pundits said beforehand (forget which of the women it was), it was always going to be a total mismatch, but unless new countries get involved and start trying to play at a higher level, they're never going to get better. Germany's first goal was one of those moments where you can see where it's going to go before it happens! Right down to the complete lack of marking in the box from Ivory Coast.

Ennuid - you already have a whole thread of your own in which you advance your hypothesis that women should play against men in all sports even though you think women ae a bit crap. Please could you keep your posts over there and not come and crap all over this thread which was started and is being posted on by those of us who actually like women's football. (Invokes imaginary "hide poster" button from now on).

I don't think I will be able to watch the US game tonight, or if I do I will have to pull a sickie on volunteering tomorrow.

Yes the whole issue of including more teams will mean one sided games are going to happen. This happens in sport for both sexes, certainly rugby watch the all blacks versus Japan say. Cricket in the men's world cup was painful to watch in some cases. And yes it will bring more people to the sport including new countries. I love the concept that the Ivory Coast drew a raffle to bring fans to the world cup so they had support. Just a shame there are only 2 reporters from the Ivory Coast covering the tournament. But I guess considering that our game isn't even in the IC FA charter it is a step forward being at the event.

If I am honest this next bit followed a discussion with the boys and some of this is down to them. The key issue and difference with our game is that the marking in the box is so different. There seems to be a lot more space for attacking teams especially German vs IC. The Germans pushed the full backs on so that they play as wing backs thus creating overlaps and more attacking options. This will have to change against stronger teams but the space and time in the box is such that against weaker teams big scores seem very likely. The fluidity of the game is better than the men's mainly because we don't roll all over the floor crying. But in terms of pace and power the top teams are very rarely going to be challenged and that is probably the issue. Teams will play the team in front of them not aim at some goal that bears no relevance to qualifying or winning a world cup.

Kick off 6pm tonight.

Allons-y!

Seb, are you buying the panini stickers?

Thanks Yonic, I'll be watching.

Just seen this on Twitter. It's awful about the artificial turf being used:

thinkprogress.org/sports/2015/06/08/3667111/concerns-mount-artificial-turf-hits-120-degrees-womens-world-cup/

I think the boys might have, I would embarrass them if I collected stickers.

Have to say the Sweden Nigeria match was fantastic but it did highlight the issue with the pitches seeing the number of injuries and niggles players are picking up. I hope the teams over here were watching the Nigerian forwards as they showed pace and skill but lacked mainly in the area of decision making which comes with more experience. Was strange hearing that players in the Nigerian team were already playing abroad so money must be good in other countries.

I am not surprised that the US won, I would have loved to have watched it but I would still be in bed if I did.

You're so right about the artificial turf, Scallops - I remember the initial publicity about this. I don't know quite why the lawsuit was withdrawn, but you can definitely see the difference in the style of play. It's bloody awful stuff to play on.

Oh, our sticker book is for DS. It was totally him who got obsessed with it last year. Honest.

Oh friffing friff.

Disappointed as two french players deserved to be sent off, the leading elbow and the head butt. Still considering the ranking that France have in the world it could have been worse.

Disappointed to see the commentator refer to someone playng under her maiden name as though she will become someone's possession at the end of the tournament. The football matters not a name or marital status.

With you on the Maiden name thing...

Good defending from the French.

We're loving the little catch ups on iplayer, the kids are getting a digestible overview everyday which is nice. Disappointed that even keen football fans at work seem to be only vaguely aware of it.

DD1 went to her first football after school club yesterday and came home demanding football boots, shinpads and knee high socks. I think she enjoyed it . Just wish they had a girl only session so it hadn't taken a year to persuade her she'd enjoy it (she loves playing football with her big boy cousins).

Oh, yay for DD!

I missed the Brazil game, was it good?

Bardsley (I think that's our keeper), had a mare for the goal we conceded against France. She didn't react and barely dived any distance. A shot from that distance she could have taken 1 or 2 steps to her left and saved it or maybe caught it. It was disappointing for her and the team but anyway onward and upwards.
I also noticed she was stuck a bit on the goal line, rather than narrowing the angle, is this because the goals are too big and Bardsley is worried about being chipped when she's off her line.
In general the games have been pretty good. I'm liking brazil, but the goal keeping in the games I've seen is really poor.