Women’s World Cup

Brazil have found their game after underperforming in the She believe cup.
This game could go either way. Too many French players not on it. 

Va Va Voom Henry 

In ET France played like the Second Favourites. Will have to play like that to beat USA.  

All 2o outfield players have now taken part in this WC for England. With Telford playing against Argentina, only Mary Earps the 3rd keeper hasn't had minutes.

I was very frustrated watching the England game. What annoys me is that refs can be inept and they get away with it. I think there was a penalty and a sending off that were not debatable and they were not given because they would not have affected the outcome of the game and the ref was scared the Cameroon team would react negatively. Effectively rewarding their behaviour.

I am looking at VAR and it is missing a blatant elbow, a blatant spit and it has proven to be a shambles. I am seeing a shot that looked to be going in hit a Norwegian arm and no penalty given, then watch less clear handballs resulting in pens. I am seeing a player stand in front of a keeper and be deemed not interfering. I have seen the Japan handball against Scotland not even be reviewed. It is chaos and FIFA and the refs have to take responsibility.

Back to the England game, the ref just let the Cameroon team get on with in. No threats of a card, no attempts to get them under control. Why are we not hearing of her sacking? You could argue that the potential leg-breaker happened because the ref allowed it to. Refs have a responsibility for the safety of the players. I'd like to see a ref defender come on here and defend that ref. The fact they just shut up says it all. Something has to be done about the standards of refs and you have to accept that whilst there are good ones, there are too many crap ones - of both sexes - and work out why that is. 

killerandflash said:

redman said:

Very good game of football tonight. Quality far higher
than our game, although that was affected by the opposition and appalling refereeing. Much better advert for women's football. Our team seems to have too many weak links at the moment. We have Bardsley, Bronze, Houghton, Scott and White who are all very dependable and solid. Parris was off today while Bright has been suspect all tournament. Greenwood id a mix of good and too many mistakes while Duggan still not there. As for Kirby, to me she is so overrated, Stanway looks a better bet to me. Lot of work to do but not impossible 

I thought both teams made England look slow and ponderous in attack

Agreed, Beth Mead will take players on, but didn't get on, just as well because she would have been kicked out the tournament. 
I keep hearing Duggan has improved since going to Barcelona ? I thought she had better games for England when at Man City.
Taylor doesn't look as sharp as two years ago despite the poaches goal from Meads pin point cross against Argentina.

Kirby has gone from the most exciting player who took on defenders to being out of synch with her team mates, yet some pundits say she playing well. I don't like Chelsea, but I have watch Kirby have some brilliant games at Kingston, but not this season !

White is in the form of her life in the box, just as well because it covering up our faults.

Parris is so patchy, superb one minute and then giving the ball away the next.

Jill Scott the work horse in Midfield have been fantastic in all 4 games. I think she has played every minute so far ?  Jordan Nobbs is the missing link for me before her ACL she was sublime for Arsenal in Midfield.

Both Walsh and Stanways are so talented but whether this tournament has come a tad early may be answered against Norway.

I wonder if Neville will go for Stanways and Mead to give England some energy and pace in the quarters on Thursday ?

Your call Phil.

soapboxsam said:

killerandflash said:

redman said:

Very good game of football tonight. Quality far higher
than our game, although that was affected by the opposition and appalling refereeing. Much better advert for women's football. Our team seems to have too many weak links at the moment. We have Bardsley, Bronze, Houghton, Scott and White who are all very dependable and solid. Parris was off today while Bright has been suspect all tournament. Greenwood id a mix of good and too many mistakes while Duggan still not there. As for Kirby, to me she is so overrated, Stanway looks a better bet to me. Lot of work to do but not impossible 

I thought both teams made England look slow and ponderous in attack

Agreed, Beth Mead will take players on, but didn't get on, just as well because she would have been kicked out the tournament. 
I keep hearing Duggan has improved since going to Barcelona ? I thought she had better games for England when at Man City.
Taylor doesn't look as sharp as two years ago despite the poaches goal from Meads pin point cross against Argentina.

Kirby has gone from the most exciting player who took on defenders to being out of synch with her team mates, yet some pundits say she playing well. I don't like Chelsea, but I have watch Kirby have some brilliant games at Kingston, but not this season !

White is in the form of her life in the box, just as well because it covering up our faults.

Parris is so patchy, superb one minute and then giving the ball away the next.

Jill Scott the work horse in Midfield have been fantastic in all 4 games. I think she has played every minute so far ?  Jordan Nobbs is the missing link for me before her ACL she was sublime for Arsenal in Midfield.

Both Walsh and Stanways are so talented but whether this tournament has come a tad early may be answered against Norway.

I wonder if Neville will go for Stanways and Mead to give England some energy and pace in the quarters on Thursday ?

Your call Phil.

Agree with your comments, Soapboxsam. We have looked ponderous and lacking consistent incisive passing a lot of the time.
Also, Millie Bright has looked off her game this tournament and only Houghton's covering has got her out of difficult situations.
With regards the game against Cameroon, I only hope we have escaped injuries/knocks as they were very physical and need to be shown how to tackle properly! The ref had a shocker and looked out of her depth, even with VAR to back her up, and I began to wonder if she had left her cards in the changing room! Still, Norway will be a different challenge.

paulie8290 said:

limeygent said:

rina said:

LenGlover said:

Even though it has largely favoured England VAR has ruined this match.

Favoured England? Correct decisions favour no one. There have however been, imo, 3 incorrect decisions- for the elbow, the spitting and the non penalty just now which looked pretty clear cut, all of which favoured Cameroon

It's the time taken to make the decisions by VAR. Players and fans are frustrated before the decision is made.

Two of those decisions were technically correct, yes, but so close that there should be the footballing equivalent of umpires call. The Cameroon offside was marginal and the penalty was one of those where sometimes they're given sometimes they're not. The authorities need to refine exactly how they want to use the technology in my opinion. The referee wasn't great but VAR did nothing to assist her in exerting authority.

Yes, Cameroon reacted badly but the whole thing is incredibly frustrating. 

The shame is that the showpiece of the Women's game is being used as an experiment and to develop a new technology.

Don't see how an offside can be "marginal", they're offside or they're not.

Exactly this.

I said it the other day for a game, its either offside or its not, if a player shots and the whole ball doesnt cross the line you dont then say oh lets give the goal it was very marginal, its the  same with offside a player is either offside or onside

Is VAR actually capable of capturing offside if a player is running? What frame rate are they using?

A foot can easily move 10 centimetres in a hundredth of a second. 

And the ball is in supposedly contact with the foot for around a hundredth of a second when it is kicked.

With these tolerances and such marginal decisions, are we sure they are not replacing one arbitrary close decision with another arbitrary close decision?

I don't really trust VAR for this sort of thing any more than I trust the infallibility of the pope!

England's issue is Millie Bright is physically strong but a poor footballer. Houghton is terrific which compensates to some degree. Bronze is very strong, but Greenwood is suspect defensively.There is a weakness that can be exposed as Bardsley's kicking is below average, but they can avoid certain problem situations and play more to their strengths. I'm sure Neville will be working on that/

MuttleyCAFC said:

I was very frustrated watching the England game. What annoys me is that refs can be inept and they get away with it. I think there was a penalty and a sending off that were not debatable and they were not given because they would not have affected the outcome of the game and the ref was scared the Cameroon team would react negatively. Effectively rewarding their behaviour.

I am looking at VAR and it is missing a blatant elbow, a blatant spit and it has proven to be a shambles. I am seeing a shot that looked to be going in hit a Norwegian arm and no penalty given, then watch less clear handballs resulting in pens. I am seeing a player stand in front of a keeper and be deemed not interfering. I have seen the Japan handball against Scotland not even be reviewed. It is chaos and FIFA and the refs have to take responsibility.

Back to the England game, the ref just let the Cameroon team get on with in. No threats of a card, no attempts to get them under control. Why are we not hearing of her sacking? You could argue that the potential leg-breaker happened because the ref allowed it to. Refs have a responsibility for the safety of the players. I'd like to see a ref defender come on here and defend that ref. The fact they just shut up says it all. Something has to be done about the standards of refs and you have to accept that whilst there are good ones, there are too many crap ones - of both sexes - and work out why that is. 

The referee’s authority not only depends on th professionalism of how they apply the current rules of the game during a match but the professionalism of the teams taking part and their knowledge and understanding of the current rules and acceptance of the authority of the ref. When a team reacts en masse the way the Cameroon team did I don’t see what the ref could do other than issue a series of red cards and thus causing the game to be abandoned. This is a World Cup an it should not be up to a referee to abandon a match. The rules state that when a match deteriates to this extent because of the behaviour of one team it is up to the FIFA officials to get involved. I believe this is what happened yesterday. The primary concern of those officials would have been to complete the match which they managed and no one can argue the right team won the match. They must now act decisively and punish the Cameroon severely and make it clear that behaviour will not be tolerated  in future competitions.

On VAR, I disagree with you entirely. It has again contributed greatly to getting the right decisions. There are still some teething problems in its implementation but overall it has been very effective in removing incorrect decisions at crucial times in big matches.

SuedeAdidas said:

stevexreeve said:

paulie8290 said:

limeygent said:

rina said:

LenGlover said:

Even though it has largely favoured England VAR has ruined this match.

Favoured England? Correct decisions favour no one. There have however been, imo, 3 incorrect decisions- for the elbow, the spitting and the non penalty just now which looked pretty clear cut, all of which favoured Cameroon

It's the time taken to make the decisions by VAR. Players and fans are frustrated before the decision is made.

Two of those decisions were technically correct, yes, but so close that there should be the footballing equivalent of umpires call. The Cameroon offside was marginal and the penalty was one of those where sometimes they're given sometimes they're not. The authorities need to refine exactly how they want to use the technology in my opinion. The referee wasn't great but VAR did nothing to assist her in exerting authority.

Yes, Cameroon reacted badly but the whole thing is incredibly frustrating. 

The shame is that the showpiece of the Women's game is being used as an experiment and to develop a new technology.

Don't see how an offside can be "marginal", they're offside or they're not.

Exactly this.

I said it the other day for a game, its either offside or its not, if a player shots and the whole ball doesnt cross the line you dont then say oh lets give the goal it was very marginal, its the  same with offside a player is either offside or onside

Is VAR actually capable of capturing offside if a player is running? What frame rate are they using?

A foot can easily move 10 centimetres in a hundredth of a second. 

And the ball is in supposedly contact with the foot for around a hundredth of a second when it is kicked.

With these tolerances and such marginal decisions, are we sure they are not replacing one arbitrary close decision with another arbitrary close decision?

I don't really trust VAR for this sort of thing any more than I trust the infallibility of the pope!

Agree - anything other than ball over line Y/N? is still subjective.

As you state above - the frame rate and the frame that they decide to use still needs a fallible human to make the decision....both in terms of where the offending offside toenail may be - as well as the point at which the ball is played.

I hate VAR and I reckon it will be scrapped at some point - or at least modified to make it more game friendly.

Have been having exactly the same argument over these incredibly close calls, unless you scrutinise the point at which the ball is played to the same degree as whether the player is offside I don't see how you can give offside for a toe being beyond the last man/woman. There has to be some degree of tolerance surely.

Didn't it even get scrapped in the NFL after they first brought it in due to excessively delaying the gameplay (which is already fractured due to the nature of the game)?!?