Alan Cawley is loving it
Sheâs a bit of a ham, fell over the line with a ball in her hands earlier and her centre back roaring at her. Lauren Hemp has been very good. Russo didnât do much but twas a killer finish.
England deserve to concede an equaliser here.
They do but I donât think Colombia have it in them
The girl Walsh in midfield isnât as good or dominant as youâd read.
They need 2 of that Linda Caicedo girl.
That is fucking inexplicable
Womenâs football there for ya. Gets past two challenges, space in front of her, and she just leathers it about 30 yards high and wide from miles out instead of seeking to work an opening.
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Their best player right in front of her free on the edge of the 18 yard box.
Its maddening to watch
Great to see our Lionesses into the World Cup semi final.
She appears to be a right stones
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Carlow?
The impression I get is that womenâs football is still very much at a stage of development where a moderate enough team can go far if the quality of their fitness and their decision making is good, because the overall standard of decision making in womenâs football is poor. Youâll very often see players go for panicky shots from way out which they havenât a prayer of getting on target never mind scoring.
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The Athletic have yer man Michael Cox aka @ZonalMarking as their main womenâs football correspondent for the last while & he covers it with the same kind of depth he put into those tactical pieces that launched him into public consciousness a decade ago. Obviously this is completely unnecessary but his take is that the US were dominant previously because their players had far better physical attributes. They had fitter, more athletic & powerful players but the gap has closed & theyâve been overtaken as those advantages were neutralised & other countries were more tactically advanced.
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If you look at the list of countries who have made finals itâs nearly all rich liberal democracies like the US, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Holland and Japan. Rich liberal democracies will create more of a climate for womenâs team sports to thrive.
Brazil and, weirdly, China are the only other countries to reach finals.
England, Australia, Spain and Sweden are the last four this time. You have two English speaking liberal democracies there, a southern European liberal democracy, and England.
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The US lost because they were too woke pal.
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The US lost because they persisted with Alex Morgan whose legs are gone and when she gassed replaced her with a 38 year old. Mallory Swanson was a huge loss.
In general in Ireland miles more middle class girls play sport than working class I would imagine. I wonder whatâs the make up of the Irish womens team.
In kind of unrelated news there was a book a few years ago how England menâs team lose at soccer as they only really pick from the working classes and cut out half their electorate so to speak. I wouldnât say this is as much of a problem in ireland but might be still a bit of an issue.
The rugby bastards have cost England and Ireland a few World Cups.