Womens World Cup Soccer - Anyone?

[Laz]

Did anyone else watch or care? The England Ladies did quite well I thought. Mostly Arsenal players, which makes sense .

Of course, the USA played badly during the first round, and their coach messed up, and the ref messed up, and it's all a mess

[Sash]

Saw a bit of it one night when Harv was waiting for some superbike stuff to come on and England where playing pretty well. They got clobbered by the USA though. It's a shame really that they don't get even half the coverage male football gets.

[teflon]

The American goalie that got dropped was pretty sexy, Hope Solo I think was her George Lucas-esque name. But most of the goalies seemed to be scared of the ball, it was ridiculous. How can you expect to win any games when your keeper adopts the foetal position any time the ball gets near smudging their make-up or bruising their boob?

I think the Arsenal ladies were unbeaten all last season, winning the league and girls champions league type thing.

Does anyone know if the German girls were checked for adam's apples?

[-Honchy-]

I watched a couple of the games, but the quality of goalkeepers embarassed even me, a Spurs fan...

[Detomah]

I saw all the England, USA, Germany and Brazil games and most of the others aswell, as I had no net for most of the competition due to moving and what I saw I thoroughly enjoyed, it's played in a much friendlier fashion than the mens game and the players have respect for the referee which is unheard of in the mens game.

I thought England did ok considering virtually the entire team for the likes of USA and Germany are full time players and the majority of England players all have alternate full time jobs outside of football. Brazil against USA was an amazing spectacle from a neutral point of view and by far my favourite of the tournament.

Perhaps now Brazil have done good, the womens game will start getting a lot more international media attention. Although from what I understand the womens game is already much bigger than the mens game in the USA, isn't it?

[Laz]

Originally Posted by Detomah

Perhaps now Brazil have done good, the womens game will start getting a lot more international media attention. Although from what I understand the womens game is already much bigger than the mens game in the USA, isn't it?

It's amazing that Brazil can field a teram at all, given that they have no local league. Marta and the others all play in Europe.

The USA Women get lots of press, but no one buys the tickets to the games. One big problem is while the Hispanics love mens soccer, in general, they don't think women should play. We see that in the youth leagues here. I don't know the set up for the new league (2009), but I hope they'll align with the MLS and play double-headers.

How does the womens league do in England? They are associated with the big clubs, but does anyone care?

[Detomah]

Originally Posted by Laz

How does the womens league do in England? They are associated with the big clubs, but does anyone care?

About the only womens games that get any kind of TV coverage over here are FA Cup games and internationals, the womens league is in real trouble at the moment, Charlton who were about the only team that could challange Arsenal in their time folded recently and there are talks of a couple more teams folding due to lack of interest and funding. The FA seriously needs to intervene and pump some cash into womens football over here instead of throwing every penny of the billions they do at the mens game. Sunderland have a womans team, but they seem to have vanished from the womens league over here, i'm not quite sure whats going on with them, whether they were relegated out of the league or if they've dissapeared completely (I should go find out really), I know the main club pulled subsidising them and stopped them training at the same ground as the men and that they were having to pay their own way to get to games and pay for their own kit and the likes though and from what i've read, that is a similar thing to most other womens teams over here, a long way off from the US lining up a full pro womens league in the next couple of years, instead ours is going backwards. The one womens team over here that are doing well are Arsenal and Arsenal alone, but they really are in a completely different class to the rest of the league and most of the England team come direct from the Arsenal squad.

[-Honchy-]

Noone cares about womens football except the women who play, their familys and their clubs.

[Detomah]

Originally Posted by -Honchy-

Noone cares about womens football except the women who play, their familys and their clubs.

That's not completely, true I am none of the above and enjoy womens football. It is fairly accurate for the most part though.

It would be watched a lot more if they did as the men do and exchange shirts on the field at the end of games.

[Laz]

Originally Posted by Detomah

It would be watched a lot more if they did as the men do and exchange shirts on the field at the end of games.

Actually, I think they often do...

Here in the US, there is growing grass-roots activity. There is the W-league, which is our regional 2nd division, similar to the mens A-league. Plus there are more adult womens teams playing for fun. I've observed and reffed a couple of these games, and they are pretty good.

The problem is that the men will go see Beckham and Cristiano because they're excellent athletes, and the women will go see them cuz they're "hot". Men won't go see women play * because they aren't as strong (in basketball, it's because they play "below the rim"), and women don't go to see women play because... well I don't know.

* Doesn't apply to tennis or figure skating for some reason