Euro Pop , last 2 quarter finals

Last night EnGerLand duly dismissed the pesky Norwegians 3-0 and even had a penalty saved. Check out the reaction of a rather famous ex English footballer, who was watching with his daughter, to the splendid goal scored by Lucy Bronze, who, if you read the preview was my choice for the player to watch out for.

I also want to mention two pieces of commentary. the first was as EnGerLand were awarded a free kick, the commentator mused if they could "Bend it like Beckham".

The second was on an EnGerLand break with a Norwegian defender horribly out of position, the commentator stated that she had been caught in "No Woman's land". It made we laugh and cringe at the same time. If you did not see the game, here are the highlights.

Is it coming home ?

On Saturday we have two games after which we will know the identity of the four semi finalists. In the first game, Le Azzurre of Italia (a different shade of Blue to Les Bleus of France) face the impressive, especially physically, ladies in Orange representing the Netherlands. Dutch women are the second tallest in Europe after Latvians (Dutch men are the tallest in Europe). The height of the Dutch women gives them a distinct aerial advantage especially at free kicks and corners.

Tomorrow, however they face a nation who loves to defend. It is in their blood.Italian football is famous for the Catenaccio style of play. The word means door bolt and that is what Italian teams do, they bolt the door shut in front of you. They are also as one would expect from an Italian team, skillful going forward, with the excellent Barbara Bonansea and Valentina Gianciti leading the way. The defense is marshaled by the superb Elena Linari and between the posts they have the agile Laura Giuliani. They will not be able to score against.

Linari, she likes a tackle

Giuliani cat like agility

Interestingly enough there is not much of a professional league in Holland, almost all of the squad play abroad, perhaps success for the women's team may act as a stimulus to the creation of a professional league in the Netherlands. The Dutch will be looking to their talisman, Lieke Elisabeth Petronella Martens to give her full glorious name, who scored twice against Japan to break down the Italian defense.

The Dutch rode their luck against Japan with the woodwork saving them twice and by being awarded a last minute penalty for handball. That will not be enough against Italy.

Below are the the highlights that show how these two teams both beat Asian opposition to reach this stage.

Italy v China

Excellent piece of skill from Martens

Martens will need to be sharp

The last Quarter Final is between Sweden and the Shermans. The Shermans have gone under the radar so far in this tournament and yet, once again, here they are on the verge of another semi final. There is not too much to say here, the Swedes have done well to get this far, but this is their level. It would be a massive shock if they could pull out a victory here.

Whatever happens, let's hope for some good football the blog shall return next week ready for the semi finals

Elite Eight

Due to the necessities of having to deal with real life, I could not do my previews of the Italy V China and Holland V Japan games. Suffice to say that Holland and Italy went through and will play each other on Saturday and we will preview that on Friday.

So, the last eight consists of seven European sides, who are, in no particular order, EnGerLand, Italy, Holland, Sweden, Norway, France and the Shermans alongside the Good old US of A. This reflects on the strength of women's football in Europe and North America and how far behind it is lagging in the rest of the world.

It is also interesting to note that apart from probably Norway and the US of A, one would not be surprised to see the other six nations listed in the quarter finals of the men's world cup either.

The first game sees Norway take on EnGerLand. It is going back a bit in time, but in 1981, Norway's men's team famously beat England and the Norwegian commentators reaction after the game has become an iconic piece of commentary. Some of it is in Norwegian, but the bits in English need no explanation. I apologize for the poor audio quality which is beyond my control, so listen carefully.

Norway celebrate in style

Norway are ranked tenth and EnGerLand fifth in the FIFA rankings, in fact eight of the top thirteen ranked teams made it through to the quarter finals which shows the rankings are unusually accurate.

Norway and EnGerLand reached this stage in very different ways, Norway defeated Australia on penalties after a game where Norway hit the woodwork twice and Australia had a player harshly sent off and a couple of penalty appeals not given after viewing on VAR, one correctly, the other less so.

EnGerLand on the other hand swept aside a Cameroon side who were incensed by the VAR decisions that went against them and threatened to walk off the pitch in the middle of the game. This was so apparent that the referee decided, after advice given to her by the VAR team, not to award EnGerLand a clear penalty, or in a separate incident send off a Cameroonian player for serious foul play for fear that if she did then Cameroon would walk off.

All the controversy has hidden the fact that EnGerLand did not play that well although it was difficult given the circumstances. The above mentioned foul, on the EnGerLand captain, has left her participation against Norway in doubt, in what would be a serious blow to the teams chances.

The highlights from both those games follow even though I posted them in earlier blogs,

Lionesses win the battle of the Pride

Freya tames the Matildas

The Norwegian player to look out for will be  #10 Graham (Caroline Graham Hansen to give her her full name) She plays for Barcelona and is a very creative and skillful player.

Graham, will she drive them crackers

Bronze, she'll be hoping for gold

For EnGerLand, I have gone for Lucy Bronze who is considered one of the best players in the world even though she plays at full back. Look out for her storming runs forward.




The long awaited match up between hosts France and the the US of A is due up on Friday, these two teams were the favourites before the tournament started, so one of them is not going to be able to fulfill that destiny.

The USWNT struggled, somewhat surprisingly given their reputation, to beat Spain 2-1 thanks to two Megan Rapinoe penalties, while Les Bleus saw off the spirited challenge of Brasil  also 2-1 although that went to extra time. This is a really hard one to call. The happiest team after this game will be the Shermans as one of their main contenders for the title will have been eliminated.

I of course would prefer that both teams get struck down by a mysterious bug and thus EnGerLand after having dispatched Norway would automatically qualify for the final.
I will be brave and pick Les Bleus to edge this one which will probably guarantee that it is the USWNT that prevails.

Lloyd awaiting her chance

Players to watch out for. Will the USWNT finally let the prolific Carly Lloyd off the leash?

For France it has to be their match winner and inspiration from the game against Brasil, Amadine Henry.

Can she be King for France

Before I leave you, France is the home of Dior and Chanel and where Lagerfeld based his business. They must all be turning in their graves, looking down on that awful French kit, especially the socks.

As McEnroe used to say, you can not be serious !

One would expect something chic, something with a certain Je ne sais quai, but Polka dots !!

I would like to hear what you think, please feel free to comment. 

See you on Friday for the preview of Shermany V Sweden and Italia V Holland.

Getting used to living with VAR

We have mentioned it already, but both games yesterday were dominated by decisions influenced by VAR (video Assistant Referee) EnGerLand comfortably brushed aside Cameroon 3-0 and will now face Norway in the quarter finals.

Too much VAR

The game however will not be remembered for the three goals but for the numerous incidents which twice saw Cameroon refuse to restart the game as they were so incensed by the decisions. There has been a lot of criticism of the Cameroonian players for losing their heads and it has to be said that their behavior was unacceptable. This challenge in the last minute of the game when it was all over is disgraceful. The referee did not show a red card after the VAR viewing because she was probably scared she would not get off the pitch alive if she did.

How is that not a red card ?

However at least they showed passion, they cared, it was sad to see them crying and the goal they had disallowed was marginal to say the least, but that is the thing with VAR, in the past you could feel hard done by if a referee gave a decision which was later shown to be wrong but without the aid of technology you had to accept it. With VAR, in the main, those wrong decisions have been eliminated and that is a good thing. The problem lies in the grey areas which are open to interpretation by the referee, for possible penalties or red card decisions. Once something is debatable, the side which does not get what they hoped for are going to be upset.

Another issue with VAR is the disruption to the flow of the game, the process takes too long. The instantaneous explosion of joy from fans after the ball hits the back of the net is somewhat dissipated if a goal is awarded after a few minutes waiting around while the referee looks at replays. I also wonder how good is the football knowledge of the people sitting in the VAR room.

In the later game France scraped through against Brasil 2-1 in a game also dominated by VAR.  I do not think the first French goal should have been disallowed, you can decide for yourselves after watching the highlights below

France V Brasil

There was a sense of Deja vu as well in that the French winner was score by Henry in a repeat of the same named player scoring against Brasil in the 2006 men's world cup to also knock them out.  France will now face the winner of today's game between Spain and the US of A.

Henry against Brasil in 2006 (enjoy the skill from Zidane for free)

The US of A aka as the USWNT, I have to digress here, what type of nickname is that. the men's team just to avoid confusion are known as the USMNT. Why do American's lack any imagination, why do they have to have everything dumbed down to the lowest common denominator.

Anyway the US of A are the clear favourites to win the title, they probably have one (they actually have a number of, to be honest) of the best players in the world in Alex Morgan. The best league system in the world is to be found there, but despite all that and this is one of the reasons we love football they don't always win. The American player who has impressed me most so far is Tobin Heath.

She dribbles well

Today, they are up against a Spanish team who exhibit all the traits we expect from Spanish footballers, technically gifted, good on the ball and tactical discipline. Spain rather laboured to a 3-1 win over South Africa, lost 1-0 to the Shermans and played a bore draw against China, not the ideal preparation to face the US of A.

What this Spanish team lack, is the killer touch and against the US of A if you do not take any of the few chances you will create, you will live to regret it. Just ask Thailand who conceded thirteen times against this very professional if somewhat heartless team. The USWNT to win this one and face France in the quarter finals.

In the late game today we will see a battle between two teams who are in the top ten in the FIFA rankings, Sweden aka Blagult (Blue & Yellow) and Canada who do not have another name as they are even more boring than their American neighbours.

On paper, Canada are the favourites, I saw Sweden against the US of A and they didn't impress. This though, may not have been a true reflection of their ability as they rested a number of senior players for that game as they had already qualified and wanted see how good their squad depth is.

Canada in contrast beat the two lesser ranked teams in their group but lost to the Netherlands in the game to decide who would finish first.

The last meeting between these two teams in March of this year does not bode well for tonight as it was decided on penalties after a 0-0 in 120 minutes. I really do not know who to pick here so after tossing a coin, I will plump for Canada to advance.

Who should coach women's teams and the last sixteen continues

Today sees whatever the female equivalent of David verses Goliath would be in EnGerLand facing Cameroon and a true heavyweight clash with hosts France taking on Brasil. A veritable feast of football awaits us. Before we preview those games, we will have a quick look back at yesterday's games and also discuss the issue of who coaches the women's teams.

Sadly, and I say that with no malice towards the Shermans, they brushed aside Nigeria 3-0. The Nigerians gave of their best but it was not enough and their inexperience shone through. The challenge which lead to the Shermans being awarded a penalty was rather nasty although not intentional.

The Shermans do what they are good at

In the other game, Norway went through on penalties against Australia, a sad way to go out for the Maltildas. I predicted Australia to win due to strength of character, and they did not disappoint in that department coming back from a goal down and having a player rather harshly sent off, but in the end it was not to be. Sam Kerr, probably one the best strikers in the game took the first penalty for Australia and tried to outdo Roberto Baggio from the 1994 men's world cup final. People who do not play football find it hard to understand what is so difficult in taking a penalty. See for yourselves.

Hard way to lose

Baggio in 1994 World Cup final, doesn't get worse than that

Of the sixteen teams who made it through to the knock out stages, only six have a woman coach, leaving ten with a man in charge. I am not sure what to think here, it is an interesting point to discuss. If it is a game played by women with women acting as the referees and lines people. why should any of the coaches be men ?

The Americans, arguably the best team in women's football history have had a female coach for the majority of the last twenty years  and it has not seemed to harm their performances. Germany, France, Japan, Italy and Holland are the other teams with female coaches.

EnGerLand were coached for a number of years by Hope Powell, but she never achieved the success that was desired, so it was decided to bring in a man. The previous coach, Mark Sampson was fired in 2017 for alleged racist remarks he made in the dressing room about some of his players. He has spent time in rehabilitation with the Kick it Out program designed to get rid of racism in football.
He was replaced by a Phil Neville, a man with no previous managerial experience who played most of his career for a mediocre team from the North West of EnGerLand, whose name I will not write here,so as not to soil the pages of this blog. (aka Red Scum).

To be fair to Neville, the team have performed well under his guidance and he recently led them to victory in the SheBelieves Cup, it will be interesting to see how far they go.

Bottom line is though, I think it is a bit patronizing to appoint someone like Neville as coach. There would never be a woman given the role of coach of a high profile national team, even if she did have tons of experience and success on her resume.

Today we will be able to gauge the progress of EnGerLand as the "Lionesses" or "Three Lionesses" do battle with the indomitable Lionesses of  Cameroon.  More than pride is at stake here.

Cameroon qualified by beating New Zealand with an injury time winner scored by the excellent Ajara Nchout who plies her trade in Norway at the moment

Nchout pronounced Nshoot, EnGerLand will be hoping she doesn't have her shooting boots on.

Nchout ties the Kiwis in knots

EnGerLand won all three of their group games without really impressing, they lacked potency up front. They will be looking to Ellen White and the highly impressive and bubbly Nikita Parris to provide the necessary spark and firepower to lead them through to the last eight where they would face Norway.

EnGerLand hope that Parris can lead them all they way to Paris

EnGerLand have to be the favourites here, but as we all know, that is when they usually find a way to muck it up.

The late game sees Les Bleus of France take on the female canaries (aka green and yellow) of Brasil. The French given home advantage are one of the contenders to win the whole tournament, but I have not been overly impressed by them to date. I think the weight of expectation is a heavy one to bear and the players are being affected by it. The current club champions of Europe are Lyon, a French team so with their success comes a hunger for the same at the international level. While not the best of the French players, there is no doubt that the "stand out" player on their squad is Wendie Renard who at 1.87M (6ft 2) is head and shoulders above most other players in the tournament.

The hair makes her seem even taller

Other players to look out for in the French line up are Henry and Cascarino.

Brasil are an enigma, Brasil is a very chauvinist country and for a country so football mad, the women's version is woefully underfunded and looked down upon by the powers that be. Despite that, the natural talent which seems to flow in Brazil when it comes to playing football has produced some very gifted players, the most famous of them being Marta. She however is now 33 and her fitness is on the wane as it is with her strike partner Cristiane now 34. Brazil is somewhat an aging team and I think the French will have too much for them.

Tomorrow will see Spain against the US of A and Sweden facing Canada. 

Until then I wish you Au Revoir and bien joue.

Women's Football. It is time to take it seriously

June 7th saw the opening of the Woman's world cup and for the past two weeks I have been toying with writing about it. Of course, as a man, I procrastinated to the point where last night the group stages finished and tomorrow sees the start of the knock out phase of the tournament, but hey, better late than never.

This is actually rather difficult for me to write as regular readers will know, I am not known for being a fan of politically correctness, so I will strive to maintain that approach while tackling the subject with the seriousness it merits.

Women's football does not receive enough coverage, more importantly, most men when hearing about it just laugh and make derisory comments such as " how can women play football?" or "getting women back in the kitchen" or "what they do know of the beautiful game ?".

This probably comes from an insecurity born from a fear of another bastion of masculinity falling prey to equal opportunities, which of course is baseless as we are unlikely to see a men against women or a mixed teams match in the near future.

To a lot of people, when they think about women's football the first thing that probably comes to mind is Bend it like Beckham, the very popular 2002 film that dealt with a girl's dream to get to play at University in the USA.

it's not just men who think women shouldn't play football

It is unfortunate, as by pooh poohing this form of the game, they are missing out on an opportunity to watch some good football during the close season for European leagues and also no World cup or European championship to distract them.

However, there does seem to be some light at the end of the tunnel, the viewing figures in the UK for the England Scotland (women's) game last week was 4 million more than for the England v Holland (men's) game.

So to the tournament itself.  A very quick overview before we get to some match previews. This year, FIFA (the governing body of world football) expanded the tournament to 24 teams which lead to a number of what could be termed as minnows being included for the first time, such as Thailand, S Africa and Jamaica.

There were six groups of four teams, with the top two from each group plus the four best third placed teams going through, leaving us with sixteen teams in the regular knock out format.

I was surprised by how many people not interested in football had heard of the noise generated by  America thrashing the poor Thais 13-0  (thirteen!! ) I felt sorry for Thailand,  the Thai goalkeeper only stood at 5 ft 5 (165 cm). Following are the official dimensions for a goal.

The inner edges of the posts must be 7.32 metres (8 yd) apart, and the lower edge of the crossbar must be 2.44 metres (8 ft) above the ground. 

She did not stand a chance and of course in the interests of equality, the goals have to be the same size that the men play in. A massive debate ensued and as everyone is stepping on tip toes so as not to offend anyone it is very difficult to say anything without being accused of sexism or the like.

Hit the ball in the air = goal ?

One of the other memorable incidents from the first round was this tackle in the S Africa v Spain game The highlights are only two minutes but you can jump to one minute ten seconds to see the incident I am referring to.

Ouch, that's hurts

Tomorrow, as stated above, sees the beginning of the knock out stages with two games being played. First up, we have the Mannschaft der Frauen (Shermany) who of course do not have a nickname because that would be frivolous and amusing, both traits the Shermans are not known for, playing one of the surprise packages of the tournament, Nigeria, (Super Falcons). Nigeria's mens team are known as the super Eagles. This will be followed by a heavyweight clash in the literal sense between Norway (aka the grasshoppers) and Australia (aka Matildas)

Personally, I fell that the Australians should be called the Sheilas rather than the Maltidas. Obviously Matilda is a reference to the famous Australian song Waltzing Matilda, but I believe Matilda refers to a sack of swag, while waltzing refers to travelling on foot, so perhaps they should be called the Waltzers. Hence, that is why Sheilas would be a better name for whilst it is not a particularly positive name at least it conjures up the image of a strong Australian female. I know a number of formidable Australian women who I would not want to anger in a hurry.

This Australian team does not lack for character as they showed in coming back from two goals down to beat Brazil in the group stages. They are ranked number six in the world and in Sam Kerr have one of the leading strikers in women's football who is currently joint top scorer with five goals so far.

Australia stun Brazil

Grasshoppers is a rather misleading team name for Norway, as they are more Viking like than small insects. Norway (12th ranked) hold the record for the most consecutive victories in World cup history with ten on the trot in the 1990's.

Both teams won two and lost one in the group stages so this has the makings of a very good game. I am going to go with the sheilas here, just because they have more firepower.

Between 1955 and 1970, Women's football was banned in the then West Shermany as being "fundamentally foreign to the nature of women" and "that the body and soul would inevitably suffer damage".  Of course in East Shermany this was not so, which is why maybe the team is known as the Mannschaft becomes as we know there was a definite question as to the sexuality of most East Sherman so called female athletes.

It should come as no surprise that the Shermans are ranked number two in the world, they play in a style we have come to expect from Sherman teams, efficiently. However in this tournament they were really stretched by the Chinese and probably should have lost if the Chinese had more self belief that they could beat Shermany, so of course in the end as in men's football it was 1-0 to the Shermans.

Nigeria are an interesting story, Women's football in Africa is very under developed which is a subject we shall come back to another day. It is fantastic for the game in Africa that both they and Cameroon have advanced to the last 16 as they were both probably not expected to do so.

On paper Nigeria do not stand a chance, but as we know football is a funny old game and they have in Asisat Oshoala, a very powerful and skillful striker who now plays for Barcelona in her club career having already played for Liverpool. She has already scored one very good goal and if the Nigerian's can hold their defensive shape they could perhaps catch the Shermans on the break. We can but only hope.

Oshoala, can she swoop as a falcon and catch her prey by surprise ?

So there we have it, I will be back on Sunday to preview EnGerLand v Cameroon and hosts France v Brasil which should be an absolute cracker of a game. We will also look at another issue which has arisen, the use of VAR (video assistant referee for the uninitiated)  in general and on penalty kicks in particular.

As ever please feel free to comment and share with anyone you feel might be interested.