Monzanator

Some science from Exeter & Bristol. So basically women find the more successful athletes more attractive but it doesn't happen the other way around?

https://scienmag.com/best-male-biathletes-more-attractive/

I can't say for the men but I'm not surprised by the female winner at all

Martina Navratilova actually said the truth, Serena needs to put some matches on instead of vulturing the red carpets and all the non-tennis crap. She turns 38 in two months' time. And it will only get worse from here. She doesn't have the fear factor anymore. Halep was 1-9 in h2h prior to today and whooped her ass top to bottom. Beating Court's GS record is the only thing that keeps Serena in WTA and she's blown another huge chance. And she wasn't even close. I dislike counterpunchers winning GS but it was the lesser evil that Halep won.

After winning the 100m dash Ewa Swoboda announced she won't take part in the WCh in Doha as she wants to focus on the Olympics next year

Lee Seung-Hoon has been banned for 12 months by the Korean federation for assaulting younger teammates between 2011-2016.

Yeah, VAR would have disallowed the goal based on offside anyway. No harm done in the end.

Tunisia makes a GK change for the penalties and guess what? Of course he makes a save

The draw has collapsed in favor of S.Williams and Konta. Good grief, that's downright awful. Svitolina is the highest seed left and she's never been to a GS SF before Serena vs Konta SF is very probable now.

2-0. Game over.

It's funny since she's had a so-so tournament thus far. Way too many punchouts for a world class keeper but that's a common flaw for most women keepers compared to men.

First time in this tournament USA haven't scored a goal inside the opening 15 mins.

Both Dekker & van der Gragt start for Netherlands so Bloodworth will play at left-back?

No surprises for USA, Mewis is back while Horan drops to the bench.

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.

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

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

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

19 minutes ago, JoshMartini007 said:

 

To be fair, BBC and the English media are a bit biased. Pre-tournament I would have given them an outside chance at winning the cup, but their defensive performances against Japan and Norway weren't exactly, World Cup winning performances. "The good offense is a good defense" play can only take you so far.

BBC is horrendously biased in all aspects of the sport. I used to watch athletics there but can't stand that shit anymore. And remember the next European Champs will be held in England so I can almost guarantee you they will roll the gold medal hype like crazy and dismiss Sweden, Netherlands, Germany & France like mere field-fillers.

Just now, JoshMartini007 said:

 

Who said that? England, while good never showed they were the second best team in the tournament. If anything, USA vs France would have been the "true final" (besides, you know, the actual final)

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.

Phil Neville talks utter nonsense. England team got badly exposed against the better teams. The Norway win was a false dawn esp. with the Hegerberg sisters missing. Mark Sampson still owns the best result for England at WWC.

Hedvig Lindahl might have been the best GK at this tournament (spare a thought for the Chile GK who played on a very poor team) and she was on the bench at Chelsea. How about that?

Sweden leads England 2-1 at half-time. They dominated the first 30 mins then England pulled a goal back thru Kirby's solo attack. Ellen White then had a goal ruled out due to handball (correctly).

Everyone who said USA vs England is the premature final needs a reality check.

Raptors rejected a trade for George & Westbrook in exchange for Siakam. Sigh. If that happened Kawhi would have stayed in the North.

Instead Jerry West pulls off the move of free agency. Draft picks are way overrated in the modern NBA. This is a power move Clippers had to make in order to finally trigger a proper battle of Los Angeles.

Next season will be huge. Obvious losers of FA are OKC, Raptors & Celtics.

edit: and the Knicks remain the laughing stock as usual in the last 20 years

Anastasia Pustovoitova will be refreree for vs

Stephanie Frappart in the final vs  

Piotr Lisek 6,01 NR