OMG!!! now that's a shock, South Africa beat Italy to get into the last 16. I was not expecting that considering the gulf in quality difference between the two teams. They will now face the Dutch who are blitzing through this world cup. The Dutch have been free scoring against the weaker teams and lets face it South Africa is one of the weaker teams regardless of their results in this world cup. USA face a very very tough game against Sweden. I thing Sweden will win that one. England face a tricky game against Nigeria, England should win that one. I think Australia, Japan and Spain will win their games as well. But the beauty of this world cup has shown us that even teams who we think will win do not. The last 16 is when one expects the stronger top teams to shine but as we have seen with the men's world cup, that does always happen.
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The 2022-2023 Football Thread
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Sad for Brazil, Pia their Swedish team leader, and Marta's last WC possibly - but what a great player!
Saudi Arabia have just scooped up Columbus' best player - Lucas Zelarayan. So not even MLS is safe from this many-tentacled monster.
With Zelarayan past 30, this is not a straight poaching. Columbus were unlikely to keep him past next season, when his contract was set to expire. Lucas knew that, so when a big payout came calling he took it. Mind you, he is going to one of the teams NOT owned by the Saudi PIF, but he's still going to get a big pay raise.
With Zelarayan past 30, this is not a straight poaching. Columbus were unlikely to keep him past next season, when his contract was set to expire. Lucas knew that, so when a big payout came calling he took it. Mind you, he is going to one of the teams NOT owned by the Saudi PIF, but he's still going to get a big pay raise.
Still possibly most the recognizable name in the history of women's football. A true 'legend' in a sport where the term is badly overused.
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Gigi Buffon retires age 45
Gvardiol on his way to City for £77m
Dembele looks set for PSG after a disastrous period at Barca. Failing to get to double digits in any season throughout his tenure
Gabriel Jesus out for a few weeks with a knee niggle
Gvardiol on his way to City for £77m
Dembele looks set for PSG after a disastrous period at Barca. Failing to get to double digits in any season throughout his tenure
Gabriel Jesus out for a few weeks with a knee niggle
West Ham linked with lots of players but signed no one. In fact the only PL club to have made no signings.
Hope we get some players in to fill the gapping hole left by Rice.
Hope we get some players in to fill the gapping hole left by Rice.
wow oh wow, Women's 2nd best team in the world Germany are out of the world cup!!!. The first time they have been knocked out in the group stage. The exact same thing happened to the men in 2018. Just as happened with the men, I am sure there will now be questions asked of the women's team as to why they failed to proceed to the last 16. We saw what happened to the men's team. I wonder if the same will happen to the women's team.
What makes the group more incredible is that this is Morocco's first time in the world cup and they got hammered by Germany 6-0 in their first game and yet 2 times world cup winners and recent European championship finalists Germany go out and world cup debutants Morocco go through to the last 16. Fairy tale dreams for Morocco
What makes the group more incredible is that this is Morocco's first time in the world cup and they got hammered by Germany 6-0 in their first game and yet 2 times world cup winners and recent European championship finalists Germany go out and world cup debutants Morocco go through to the last 16. Fairy tale dreams for Morocco
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wow oh wow, Women's 2nd best team in the world Germany are out of the world cup!!!. The first time they have been knocked out in the group stage. The exact same thing happened to the men in 2018. Just as happened with the men, I am sure there will now be questions asked of the women's team as to why they failed to proceed to the last 16. We saw what happened to the men's team. I wonder if the same will happen to the women's team.
What makes the group more incredible is that this is Morocco's first time in the world cup and they got hammered by Germany 6-0 in their first game and yet 2 times world cup winners and recent European championship finalists Germany go out and world cup debutants Morocco go through to the last 16. Fairy tale dreams for Morocco
Historical! Worst ever for Germany!… and shocking!
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This tournament has seen some of the biggest teams underperform. Brazil and Germany both out in the group stages? It sounds mad. I still greatly fear for USA against Sweden.
France v Morocco will be a real cultural grudge match.
France v Morocco will be a real cultural grudge match.
A dart board with a picture of a French legionnaire in the Moroccan players camp with the manager going 'win it for your ancestors'
In the past as with the men's team, you could almost guarantee that the Germans would get through to the quarter finals or above. The men crashed in 2018 and now the women in 2023. Very very poor performance by the women's team.
No more revenue from the team's sponsors, they will not be happy.
I was thinking on this as I had a bike cycle tour here with some errands to do.
Women's football have evolved and have gone from strong power player and towards lighter very technical players. Germany have always been a massive power playing team. Can have something to do with it?
No I do not think so because lighter and more technical should mean the player is faster on their feet and have more skill to get past players and the skill to avoid tackles and challenges but we did not see that with this German team. The team did very well to get to the European Championship final (beaten by England) and ever since that game the women's team has faltered.
I would say the single biggest factor is that a lot more nations are investing in their women's teams and closing the quality gap. USA became a dominant force partly because there is a deep talent pool of female soccer players at the youth level, but primarily because the US was one of the first national federations to actually take the women's national team seriously. It was (and is) still a pale shadow of the men's game in terms of money, yet it was much better funded than pretty much any other nation for many years. And as a result they won.
Germany has a fairly robust women's football program but the rest of the world is rapidly catching up with the big fish. Big nations can no longer win easily playing at 75%. 10 years ago this Germany team would probably have played badly and still won their group or finished a comfortable second. Things have changed, for the better in terms of competition.
The women's game is a place where a nation that is unlikely to win a men's World Cup in the near (or foreseeable) can still challenge for a world title. And that is exciting.
I agree in part with the idea that quality of women's football has been increasing year in year out but that is why there is a FIFA ranking system so people can see how good a team is based on their performances and thus based on the recent performances of the teams in the same group as Germany, there is no way Germany should have not proceeded to the last 16 (on paper of course).
Now I could be wrong here but to me the World Cup is totally different to the rest of international games because of one thing, television coverage. Every game is televised which means fans who are never able to see their team play can do so with the World Cup. Even those that do not have televisions they can go to a public place that does and cheer on their team. Knowing that more of your country men and women are able to watch them play can have a positive boosting effect on the player because they want to give their people back home something to be proud about thus they put more of an effort it than they would do for a non televised game. Don't get me wrong, teams give their all at every game they play but there is something different, something special when fans get to see their team live on television. It's difficult for me to put the right words on it but I think you get the idea of what I am trying to say. And that is why in my opinion we see teams go that extra mile to win a game when they know it's being televised.
Two games in question for me which show this is the USA v Portugal and South Korea v Germany. At any other time USA (on paper) should have blown Portugal out the water but Portugal gave them one hell of a game, same with South Korea. Germany (on paper) should have blown them out the water but South Korea gave them one hell of a game and that was because both games were being televised. Which is why we see minnows of the game put in outstanding performances during a World Cup. I bet once the World Cup is over, it will be 'back to normal' again with the top 10 teams dominating all the others because games will not be televised.
While this WC got more coverage (preseason helped and of course having a team there) nobody watched the games in part because of the timing. Not impossible hours but football for breakfast is a not a tradition here.
I can tell you what decisively improved feminine football competitiveness in Portugal.
Some years ago Sporting CP (usually called Sporting Lisbon abroad despite how much the fans hate it ) had a president that came up with a (clever) strategy to increase focus in less represented and therefore cheaper sports to basically increase wins. One of those was women football.
Soon after others went along not wanting to be left behind and because anything football (beach, indoors, you name it) has some popularity in Portugal. Particularly Benfica which currently dominates the women league.
Portugal of course has plenty of expertise in football and some investment gave almost instant results.
Unfortunately there isn't that much financial backing or mass interest and all clubs are reducing budgets (the original purpose killed itself, cheap wins). The best Benfica player just exited for Arsenal.
I hope that we won't fall to the previous level and am somewhat confident that won't happen because some base development was carried out and that tends to stick but it isn't guaranteed that there is a sustainable league with enough professional players to feed National teams.
I can tell you what decisively improved feminine football competitiveness in Portugal.
Some years ago Sporting CP (usually called Sporting Lisbon abroad despite how much the fans hate it
) had a president that came up with a (clever) strategy to increase focus in less represented and therefore cheaper sports to basically increase wins. One of those was women football.Soon after others went along not wanting to be left behind and because anything football (beach, indoors, you name it) has some popularity in Portugal. Particularly Benfica which currently dominates the women league.
Portugal of course has plenty of expertise in football and some investment gave almost instant results.
Unfortunately there isn't that much financial backing or mass interest and all clubs are reducing budgets (the original purpose killed itself, cheap wins). The best Benfica player just exited for Arsenal.
I hope that we won't fall to the previous level and am somewhat confident that won't happen because some base development was carried out and that tends to stick but it isn't guaranteed that there is a sustainable league with enough professional players to feed National teams.
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Yes, but we all know that FIFA rankings are only a tough measure - made even less accurate by the rapid development of many teams in recent years. So big upsets based on FIFA rankings are more likely.
Games played (playing different teams) since start of 2022 prior to World cup
Germany : 16
South Korea: 12
Games won
Germany: 11
South Korea: 8
Games lost
Germany : 4
South Korea : 2
Games drawn
Germany : 1
South Korea : 2
The above are games played by both teams since the start of 2022 prior to the world cup and as you can see by the number of games each team has played and the amount won, loss and drawn you can see how evenly both teams match up with one another even though FIFA rankings has Germany at 2 and South Korea at 25. Given the above is approx. 1 and a half years of games, it's clear to see that percentage wise, South Korea is evenly matched with Germany which would explain why the world group game went the way it did, an evenly matched game but yet when you look at the rankings, one being at 2 and the other 25, the ranking would have use believing Germany should easily beat South Korea BUT when you look at what games took place over the year and a half, the skill of both teams are very closely matched.
I therefore think you are right Lord Blackadder in that given how quickly teams have improved over the year, the FIFA rankings is not a good reflection of how good a team actually is.
Germany : 16
South Korea: 12
Games won
Germany: 11
South Korea: 8
Games lost
Germany : 4
South Korea : 2
Games drawn
Germany : 1
South Korea : 2
The above are games played by both teams since the start of 2022 prior to the world cup and as you can see by the number of games each team has played and the amount won, loss and drawn you can see how evenly both teams match up with one another even though FIFA rankings has Germany at 2 and South Korea at 25. Given the above is approx. 1 and a half years of games, it's clear to see that percentage wise, South Korea is evenly matched with Germany which would explain why the world group game went the way it did, an evenly matched game but yet when you look at the rankings, one being at 2 and the other 25, the ranking would have use believing Germany should easily beat South Korea BUT when you look at what games took place over the year and a half, the skill of both teams are very closely matched.
I therefore think you are right Lord Blackadder in that given how quickly teams have improved over the year, the FIFA rankings is not a good reflection of how good a team actually is.
Not gonna argue with you guys, different opinions are welcome in my world. Especially as there are several reasons for Women's Football evolution, and actually all kind of evolution for that matter.
![1691158650503.jpeg]( "1691158650503.jpeg")
Leaner and taller players evolution goes for mens Football too:
www.port.ac.uk
Media attention one big reason for the rising attention and popularity for women's football as well, and yes that is about financial preferences, of course.
Leaner and taller players evolution goes for mens Football too:
Elite footballers leaner taller faster than decades ago
New research has found the body shape of footballers has become taller, lighter and faster compared to players from the past five decades. Read more today.
Evolution of Women's football (Soccer) in recent years
Evolution of Women's Football in recent years. Beginnings, History and turning point from Amateurism to Stars. You will love it.
www.ertheo.com
It's really a shame the British football authorities repressed the women's game for so long — for over a century! Yeeeesh.
oh dear lord the thought of teams having 11 players that look like Peter Crouch (lean, tall and light), shudders to think about it lolNot gonna argue with you guys, different opinions are welcome in my world. Especially as there are several reasons for Women's Football evolution, and actually all kind of evolution for that matter.
View attachment 2241407
Leaner and taller players evolution goes for mens Football too:
Media attention one big reason for the rising attention and popularity for women's football as well, and yes that is about financial preferences, of course.Elite footballers leaner taller faster than decades ago
New research has found the body shape of footballers has become taller, lighter and faster compared to players from the past five decades. Read more today.
Evolution of Women's football (Soccer) in recent years
Evolution of Women's Football in recent years. Beginnings, History and turning point from Amateurism to Stars. You will love it.www.ertheo.com
Top of the league. Running away with the Championship already.
Over 70% possession. 900+ passes completed.
Let’s go!