Having just caught the goals on the 10 o’clock news I see the other dead cert came in: https://wfcforums.com/index.php?threads/womens-football.55756/ The game is definitely improving though. Only 50% of the goals tonight were horrendous goalkeeping errors.
That was a pretty special 3rd goal. If half of our players tried a back heel like that they would probably be in hospital right now
Come on the Lionesses . Fantastic display. Gareth Southgate watch and learn . That is how you get a group of talented players to express themselves , play positively and not constantly in fear of losing .
Oh dear. The classic “dodgy goalkeepers Saint “ line. The quality of football tonight was excellent , technically and tactically . And in a vast contrast to many of the mens games it was positive and attacking . If you see the goalkeeping as poor then it has to be acknowledged that the goals are regulation size but the keepers are probably 4-6 inches shorter than male keepers . There’s not a lot they can do about that .
Well, evenly matched until the Swedes fell apart after the second goal. I've a feeling that England wouldn't have collapsed after going two down - they seem to have a really strong mentality.
Earps is having an excellent tournament. Her only iffy moment last night was the incident where Sweden hit the bar with a header at 0-0. The 6 yard box was very crowded and she couldn’t get to the ball to clear it as a hulking bloke would. In general, though, apart from being a very good shot stopper she is prepared to come for the ball and get clattered if necessary.
Caught the second half and haven't watched anything up until then, are Sweden just really bad or are England just really good? The Swedish goalkeeper was absolutely shocking which I found surprising considering it was a semi-final. Was nice to watch a game without the dramatics of men's football. Hopefully the final is a bit more entertaining as it felt very one sided last night.
In the first half it was impossible to say which way the game would go. But England's superiority in goalkeeping, finishing and spirit made the second half a lot easier.
The Swedish goalkeeper must have been watching 1970s Scottish goalkeeping clips. She just needed to wrap herself around a post for the Grand Slam.
Surprising to hear early in the commentary that we were in 3rd place in the table at the time as I thought once the league settled down by October it was L*t*n and us all the way to the end. In fact we were 4 points behind Oldham, but with 6 games in hand (those were the days)! Not to worry: we finished 21 points ahead of them in the end.
Not seeing anything to worry about in Germany v France. The Germans have been training at the Klinsmann diving school.
But not in the game that really mattered. Life as a goalkeeper, one minute you're the hero, the next you're the villain.
Went to the Germany-France semi-final last night. A very absorbing game and my impression was that the ball was in play for much more time than almost all men's games I watch. France were very lively in attack and created more, especially in the second half, yet somehow Germany deserved to win despite not doing anything particularly spectacular. First visit to MK Dons too, so another one ticked off the 92. I'd not willingly give them money directly, I'm afraid (still sore over the way they stole Wimbledon). As soulless bowls go it was much better than Derby, Leicester, Southampton etc. Seats much more comfortable and the view from the upper tier was great. But it's a pretty desolate walk from Bletchley train station to the ground and I wonder what it's like with 8,000 people in the ground.
Textbook hockey save there: get Mary padded up. I've taken no. 2 son to two GK schools (outside of what our hockey club offers). Both were mixed (boys and girls) and one of them was very mixed (kids up to, almost, elite club-level adults) but at both boys/men were in the minority. Something I did notice was the size difference between blokes and women (at international level): blokes are very much bigger (and it appears that they're becoming less bulkier) whereas women are smaller. As an example one of the camps was organised by, probably the GOAT keeper Maddie Hinch. I had to run some errands, so I wasn't able to watch the morning session but was told Maddie would be making an appearance after lunch. I turned up for the afternoon session and couldn't see her and mentioned it to one of the other parents. They pointed out Maddie in the centre of a pitch mentoring a group doing "...getting up from prone..." drills. I didn't recognise the tiny, lithe thing (she was wearing a trackie) - I've only ever seen her in full armour. Also when the female teams are lining up for the national anthems - it appears that the GKs are often the shortest members of the squad.
An article in The Times today attributed poor goalkeeping in women's football due to no goalkeeping coaches until recently. Sounds convincing to me, and would explains Earps v her predecessors. But was it the same in other countries?
There definitely were goalkeeping coaches about as both my daughter's teams used them, but they were bl**dy useless. The Times article should read that until very recently there were no decent goalkeeping coaches.
When I had a trial for Watford Ladies in the dark ages the keeper was a formidable looking creature, similar to Brian Blessed, only slightly louder!
Ref is the child catcher from Eric Chitty Bang Bang. White is Gray if you get my drift. Hit the target, dozy bint.
