Agreed. 100% although the dithering has been in keeping with the England performance. Can't dwell on the ball as we have done.
If I have understood matters correctly, this is all the fault of Prince William, yes? Gutted there will be no bank holiday when I didn’t watch a single second of the tournament.
Didn’t show up, poor performance. Someone needs to tell Alex Scott & Jill White to forget half of the team are their mates and it’s ok to actually criticise the team
Time for Wiegman to **** off now Taking off Russo at half-time exposed her as a clueless tactician and not as smart as she thinks she is.
You are right, what frustrates myself and others is that it’d be a lot easier to do so if it was covered/reported in the same way. I often get the impression that you’d get vilified for not enjoying the women’s game or criticising it.
Shame . Just didn’t get going . Spain dominated generally then played out time pretty well till the end . Ref wasn’t the best but cannot blame her .
Too many players had poor games. When people in their day to day lives have bad days very few people notice. When athletes do it quite often happens with thousands, in this case millions, watching. That's hard to take and even harder to get over. I thought after about fifteen minutes Bronze and Walsh seemed to be over trying,to impress their club teammates or opposition. Spain were superior in every department and unfortunately it hasn't taken long for the women's game to now be time wasting and falling down like a sack of spuds. That match will haunt many of the team. Aside from Earps and Carter, possibly Greenwood not sure many played well.
Well done Spain. Fully deserved it. Time for the media and pundits to calm down and realise that it's difficult to win tournaments. Seems like more countries have reached and surpassed the previous level set by the USA, as they stand still and everyone else steamrollers passed them. Disappointed. but not surprised, that some of the crappier aspects of "gamespersonship" have creeped in over from the Men's Game along with the often head-scratching level of officiating. The Gridiron-style farce of announcing VAR decisions to the crowd only serves to over-inflate the egos of the officials and gives everything an air of theatre bordering on a Pantomime. So no victory parades, extra Bank Holidays, Damehoods, or commemorative tattoos. At the end of the day, there are far more pressing matters going on in the world and people going on beyond the call of duty to keep things running who deserve more recognition than anyone kicking, throwing, or chucking a ball around.
Yes I have to say I totally agree with @I Blame Bassett. Excellent post and thanks for writing it in words easy to understand too. Nice words too @reg_varney Yes, it’s a game, an enjoyable one and I’ve loved watching the tournament, but that’s all it is, a diversion from our normal lives that sometimes brings great pleasure (as last summer) and sometimes huge disappointment. We were second best today. No complaints. I always felt we got a bit lucky beating them in the Euros last year, and today they got their revenge. They always looked the more likely team to score too, having taken the lead. I know I’m biased as a Russo fan but the two half time changes made us weaker in my opinion.
Seeing you here has just reminded me our cricket lot are playing today. I’d forgotten! No doubt another loss to add to Watford and the Lionesses this weekend!
Every time she was/is on Final Score I switch off. Nothing against what she has achieved, but she is the female equivalent of Michael Owen of punditry. I thought it was a good game, England huffed and puffed but Spain were technically the better side and wanted it more. Great penalty aside, I think the occasion got to the players a bit. Another final appearance so soon after the last one is still a major feat, and they have a lot to be proud of. Maybe Weigman needs to change things up in the squad, but they do have a lot of togetherness. Well done Spain, fully deserved and I am sure the girls will be back stronger next time.
I disagree with one comment. Perhaps England wanted it too much? I've played games where this is the case and you can't find your game/level. Too many afflicted by that in blue today. Spain better technically and moved the ball faster. As some of us commented pre tournament too many important players missing. Williamson, Kirby and Mead. Would it have been different? Who knows. That's the tantalising aspect of sport, its fascination and curse.
Definitely. Farcical how the weaker counties become stronger in this competition and vice versa. Well we finished strongly and almost 300!
I felt for Russo. She had very little service but she didn't look after it well when it came to her. There was a moment when she lost it and Spain then found one of their forwards,the one who spent most of the second half clutching various limbs for half of a Wagner opera. She brought it down instantaneously and off they went. A microcosm of the game. I hate football!
I don’t think she played that badly first half and it was insulting to one of our best players of the tournament to be hooked like that. We looked worse off after the two changes.
Yes, she did ok. No end product really though. Same with James. And I don’t think Hemp played as well second half without her strike partner.
By no means an expert on the womens game but just my thoughts: Spain, although highly annoying in the second half with their antics, were more up for it and dominated the first half. Much better ball retention than the Lionnesses. The ref was a little crap and bottled it, although I'm not entirely sure how much of a difference it would have made. The Spanish should have been down to 10 for the last 15. A number of English players just didn't seem on their game today - Bronze particularly - no effort at all to get back for the goal, and seemed to try being too flash at times. Don't really get the hype around James - Yes, technically she seems to be one of the better players, but doesn't seem to move around a lot - head seems to fall down very easily and she doesn't track back. Perhaps that'll come with experience. Thought Earps, Carter, Hemp and Greenwood were the best players for the lionnesses. Not really sure what Sarina was doing taking Russo off at HT a goal down. I get Daly doing off as she looked like she'd taken a knock.
Get Roy Keane on the panel ! "I'm sick and tired of that woman, I wouldn't let her on the team bus, she would have to get a taxi home" I'm being glib but when the above happens that is when when we have true equality
How will it be viewed of in Spain? A great triumph against some adversity or rather glossed over? I saw this tweet earlier. Remember the same sort of subject came up during the Euros too. https://twitter.com/ArchRose90/stat...io/iframe/twitter.min.html1693191506956288373
