Women's Football FIFA World Cup 2019

[heywoodu 15,178]

1 hour ago, Monzanator said:

 

BBC said that and all their damn pundits. They really thought they are the best team in the world pending the USA result. Not to mention the Sweden vs Netherlands SF was totally ignored on the large scale and they were convinced England is better than either of these two teams. Just because England has more money invested in their league it doesn't mean they're entitled to such a home bias tbh. Actually it could work against them on the long run, they will pick out the Bundesliga & French league but it could hurt the English players. English teams could dominate the UCL but the global championships? This was their best chance tbh and they've failed.

To be fair, that match was just absolutely awful. Half the balls seemed like someone dropped it in a pinball machine and there was a 50/50 chance it'd end up on Dutch or Swedish feet after 20 seconds. Completely random most of the time, that was just painful to watch.

 

Not to say I disagree about your BBC opinion by the way  Their athletics coverage, ugh.

[Monzanator 4,531]

31 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

To be fair, that match was just absolutely awful. Half the balls seemed like someone dropped it in a pinball machine and there was a 50/50 chance it'd end up on Dutch or Swedish feet after 20 seconds. Completely random most of the time, that was just painful to watch.

 

Not to say I disagree about your BBC opinion by the way  Their athletics coverage, ugh.

 

Several factors contributed to this game being a snoozer IMO. Dutch played their QF at 3pm as the only semi-finalist so that probably drained them out more than any other team that played in the afternoon plus - and this is my biggest knock against them before the final - they play with the same squad for like over two years now. Everyone knows who will be in the starting line-up and there's zero chance they will sneak up on anyone. The only changes were in the group stage at CB & LB but those are minimal. Beerensteyn got a rare start but completely underperformed and she's a van de Sanden clone anyway, she doesn't change the team tactics at all. As for Sweden, they made more changes over this tournament but this is an aging team that plays physical football. Game six and it had to hurt them too. I mean Fisher, Seger, Lindahl seem like they're playing forever and likewise Lindahl though she's a GK. Jakobsson & Asslani are 30 years old too, they have literally no youth influence in that line-up. All the youngsters came off the bench. That was destined to run out of steam at some point.

 

As for the final, Rapinoe (if she recovers from that hamstring) & Heath will run riot over van Lunteren & van Dongen who have committed some errors in defense that went largely unpunished so far. Meanwhile Dutch wingers will have to do something vs O'Hara & Dunn. It's been a Dutch weak spot so far and if they hope for Miedema to elbow her way around the US CBs think again because Ertz & Horan could dominate the midfield and cut Miedema off completely. And then it will be a one-way traffic.

 

Of course US can still gift the Dutch a chance in Rachel Buehler fashion from 2011

[heywoodu 15,178]

Well, a relatively easy USA win is to be expected anyway, anything else - let alone the Dutch actually winning - would surprise me. That's good, it can't be really disappointing, it can only be really cool or kinda neutral  

[Monzanator 4,531]

If USA score inside the opening 15 mins again it could get ugly fast

[heywoodu 15,178]

Just now, Monzanator said:

If USA score inside the opening 15 mins again it could get ugly fast

I'd still have hope to avoid a Thailand slaughter  

[Belle 977]

"I'm happy we lost the bronze medal game". Comments like this was made by the english players after the game against Sweden. Sorry but England have the worst attitude I have ever seen in sports. Sorry I have no respect at all for England. What a bunch of losers. So happy Sweden beat them. 

[Monzanator 4,531]

Yeah, that was pretty stupid. Show me a sportsperson who wants to finish 4th instead of 3rd?  Just a bunch of sorry-ass losers.

[NearPup 3,083]

21 minutes ago, Monzanator said:

Yeah, that was pretty stupid. Show me a sportsperson who wants to finish 4th instead of 3rd?  Just a bunch of sorry-ass losers.

There are so many ways to spin this as a positive without sounding like an a-hole, too. Like "of course we are disappointed that we lost, but we are extremely pleased that our top four finish allowed us to qualify for the Olympics, which was our main objective beside winning the World Cup".

[Monzanator 4,531]

25 minutes ago, NearPup said:

There are so many ways to spin this as a positive without sounding like an a-hole, too. Like "of course we are disappointed that we lost, but we are extremely pleased that our top four finish allowed us to qualify for the Olympics, which was our main objective beside winning the World Cup".

 

This is all arrogance. Like Neville saying English league is the best in the world but it counts for little since only one team per nation plays in the UCL there unlike the men. And Chelsea lost 2-3 on agg. vs Lyon in the semis but this is like the old European Cup, the real action begins with the quarterfinals.The more international stars join the domestic league the more the English NT will actually be hampered IMO. It's no coincidence Arsenal dominated the league (18 wins, 2 losses IIRC) with 4 Dutch players in the regular starting line-up (van Veenendal, Bloodworth, van de Donk and ofc Miedema). Only Beth Mead & Jordan Nobbs (injured) are regulars in the NT. Ellen White has joined Man City from the next season but she's 30yo already so might fizzle out like Jodie Taylor sooner than you know it.

[Dunadan 1,103]

5 hours ago, Monzanator said:

only one team per nation plays in the UCL there unlike the men

 

2 teams per nation can play in the UCL.