I need a football fix so have been watching a bit of the England v Austria game. I know it's early days but there's definitely been an improvement since the last tournament they played in. Good to see full stadiums as well but a Mexican wave after 20 minutes? Come on Ladies.
Assume a shedload of tickets were given away for free like the 100 last year and then they can say “biggest ever crowd for a xxxx match”
I was wondering if anyone was going to bother starting a thread on this! Shows how much anyone is really bothered by the opening post being over an hour into the actual first match despite the lack of anything transfer related and the only real news on this forum being the home shirt release, Elton John and how the wolves tore apart the village on the final day! Was an ok game. But scrappy. Ok win. I was flipping on to it between breaks in the T20 which was immensely more entertaining and a thrilling ending.
I didn't even know the tournament was on until yesterday. They've not really done a very good job promoting it.
Not the best women's match that I've seen, but it is noticeable how the standard is rising year by year. I think you also have to concede that the opening games of many tournaments do tend to be a bit tepid until the teams get into it. On a side note, although I don't know much about the current England squad, I was a little surprised to see no black players in the starting line-up.
I rarely go on the BBC Sport website and not watched much of the tennis. The tournament has just passed me by.
Having had both my girls go through womens football from age 7 to, in my younger daughters case still going at Uni, there is definitely a lack of black players compared to the boys game. In fact now I think back it's very clearly an issue.
I can say I've not been on the BBC sport website for 5 years or more. Not a place I find particularly useful. If it wasn't for Wimbledon then I don't think I'd know it was on as that's the only BBC I've been watching for weeks.
They did the job. They can play a lot better but they won and didn't concede. I'd rather watch the Lionesses than the men. They accept the decisions, rarely dive and don't have egos equivalent to their pay cheques.
Well anything can pass you by if you don’t pay attention to media. You could be blissfully ignorant of yesterday’s events, for example. (HM replies: what events)?
Red card overturned in the France v Italy game for was basically a karate chop. Can only think they felt sorry for the Italians who were 5-0 down at the time.
England get penalty for a dive not reviewed by VAR apparently ? Then get a second which was disallowed for offside but reviewed by VAR and allowed to stand ?
Yes was a soft one then the 2nd was clearly onside so guess it was just inconsistent as usual. Norway meant to be one of the top teams too - they just looked shell shocked and frankly hopeless.
In the time it took me to drive home England scored three goals and a fourth when I was saying "good evening" to Persephone and Ford. Norway did look distraught as well they might. Most thought the game would be tight!
Compared to some of the qualifiers it was… 16th game tonight under the current coach and they’ve scored just the 93 goals in that time.
The quality is just so dreadfully low I’m not sure how anyone can bear to watch these matches. It’s schoolboy standard if that. There are only one or two teams who are capable of winning it. Just save the copious hours of tv coverage and go straight to the semi finals. I understand if you desperately miss football in the summer this can act as a mini fix but….
Interesting you think this. Mr HH - who himself played football to a high enough standard that he had the opportunity to go professional - would disagree, certainly when it comes to England anyway. He enjoys watching them play more than the men’s team because they still seem to love playing the game, unlike many of the mercenaries wearing the shirt for our “main” team.
personally I enjoy watching England ladies attacking. So much more refreshing then watching the mens team lumber over the halfway line. But the defending and goalkeeping showed by all sides is, quite frankly, embarrassing
I get the view that it's a more genuine love for the game and real emotion on the pitch and less about egos and £200k/week megastars but I'm sorry I just can't watch it for the poor quality. Even watching the highlights on BBC breakfast makes me cringe. I accept that the gulf between top teams and the also rans exacerbate this and that occasionally you see a goal which wouldn't look out in the mens professional game. It might be that the SF and F will be a better watch as at least the standard of the 2 competing teams would be at a similar level. I don't mean this to sound sexist, it's just the standard I don't enjoy and the lack of cometitiveness in many games where the better 2 or 3 sides in the world are playing a minnow. I guess we may see double figures when England play NI or maybe they will be gentle with them .
I think the key to enjoying it is to not compare it with the men’s game. Treat them as two different sports. If only the BBC could do the same - especially on its website.
I think I do that but then sadly it becomes a sport I'm not interested in. I agree with you re the BBC website, and that goes for the cricket too. I've often read half way through an article such as "England appoint new bowling coach" before finding that it doesn't relate to the men's team.
The BBC seems set on going in completely the opposite direction, to the extent that essentially from nowhere and in response to no particular demands to do so, long-standing records set in the men's game are now being mixed in with the women's. So you end up with Ellen White apparently level as England's all time goalscorer with Wayne Rooney. It's difficult enough comparing Rooney's own record in the men's game with previous eras, bearing in mind it involves shed loads of goals in meaningless qualifiers, let alone now across genders too.
....and just to be clear I think its great that more women are playing football and cricket and that it's getting a much higher prominance in the media, it's just that I don't enjoy watching it myself due to the difference in standard.
England are playing India today in the first 50 overs match. This is the BBC website at 9.45. Where do you think the discussion about the game today is ? Likely teams etc ? They really need to think a bit more about structure rather than just jumbling everything on their front page. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket
I don’t think it’s in the least bit sexist to not want to watch this. I don’t watch any non-league football, or in reality barely any football below championship level, that’s purely because I don’t find it entertaining enough to watch more than fleetingly. The same goes for the woman’s game, the standard is just very poor which isn’t very entertaining to me, it’s not because they’re woman, it’s men playing at non-league level and I don’t watch them either.
