Women's World Cup 2027

Garrymanilow said:

Chris_from_Sidcup said:

Garrymanilow said:

Chris_from_Sidcup said:

Garrymanilow said:

I think there is going to be a bit of a dip with our national team as the schedule gets more and more packed. We've got players who have been used to having much lighter schedules playing more and more games as the demands from the money men go up and we've already seen the increase in injuries that's brought upon the players. The women's game still has so much adapting to do in terms of how it recognises the strain on the players' bodies, alters training strategies and timing to suit women rather than copying the men's game exactly as they currently do and helps players adapt to a pretty insane change in focus and match load compared to what they have been used to. Last night the players looked pretty jaded, like a team who knew they would win and didn't have that extra bit of dynamism to push through a weak team and put them to the sword. I don't really blame them.

There's also fewer players making their debut who have come through academies as the search for immediate quality along with higher spending budgets is leading teams to look abroad for talent, The WSL is growing in quality but there's fewer English players breaking through. English teenagers played 846 minutes this season in the WSL compared to Spain giving 1,624 minutes to theirs and Germany 1,750 to theirs. Only 25% of the players in the WSL this season are English whereas it was 44.6% in 21/22. At West Ham English players played on 7% of the available minutes which is ridiculous. We've got a national team full of players who have been around a while who are going to be creaking as the stupid poorly balanced schedule tears their bodies up and fewer and fewer young English players coming through to take their place. You can't even loan to the WSL2 like you used to because teams down there are signing internationals for hundreds of thousands rather than relying on cultivating the next big thing from a big club. Loaning lower than that is often loaning to an amateur club, certainly having your players go up against a much lower standard than you'd like every week. I think we're going to have to go through a period of seeing our national team drift a bit before the authorities make some changes that they should really be thinking about now

How can the schedule be that packed when the WSL season is only 22 games?

Arsenal played in 5 different competitions last season and played 41 games.

The operative word being more. The men's calendar has become ridiculous and we've seen the injuries and fatigue it's caused - just look at the number of star players missing this World Cup - but it's also built up over a long period of time, is better organised and is being experienced by players who have come through a rigorous and punishing academy system preparing them for it. The players in this England team haven't had that same experience and their workload has suddenly increased dramatically. According to FIFPRO the average WSL player will play about 30 games per year but elite ones will play around 55-60 because there isn't a synchronised international calendar; there's absolutely no break built in so for instance Alessia Russo played 57 games in 2025 and some of the scheduling is incredibly dense especially in the autumn when there's multiple cup and CL qualification rounds. Aitana Bonmati played 60 games and then broke her leg in December and talked about how horrible the schedule is and how happy she was to be able to reset physically and mentally. Ewa Pajor played the second most minutes after Bonmati across 58 games and did her knee recently, but luckily avoided a full ACL. 

You've also done the exact thing that I pointed out as an issue before, which is comparing the men's and women's game directly. Men and women are built differently and the failure to recognise the need to alter training patterns and scheduling is being pointed at as one of the reasons we're seeing so many crippling injuries, especially to knees in the women's game. It doesn't matter if Arsenal men play a million games a year, if that's not the correct load for a year of women's football then their game will suffer for it.

Who?

Been trying to think what star players are missing, as all the big name players i can think of are playing.

Could possibly add Neymar although he is in their squad, and Japan are missing Mitoma, but not sure who else is missing a star player? 

Rodrygo, Ekitike, Gnabry, Fermin Lopez, Xavi Simons, Eder Militao, Salisu, Patrick Agyemang and Johnny Cardoso would have been huge for USA, Estevao, Wesley, Mitoma, Tabakovic for Bosnia, Gilmour for Scotland, Ben White might not have made the squad for England but I suspect he would have come in to replace Livramento - another unfortunate absence - at the least. Baumgartner for Austria, Balerdi for Argentina. There's a huge number of players who have broken down at the tail end of the season who would have made their country's World Cup squads

Swindon_Addick said:

9 August:
Cameroon 1 - 0 Nigeria
Malawi 2 - 1 Ghana

17 Cameroon
18 Malawi

The semi-finals of the Cup Of Nations are on the 12th at 2 stadiums in Rabat. The matches to determine the participants in the world cup play-offs are on the 13th at 2 stadiums in Casablanca.

13 August:
Ivory Coast v Ghana
South Africa v Nigeria

After this the World Cup takes a break until October when UEFA qualification resumes.

Swindon_Addick said:

Up ValleyGary said:

So do England get Ukraine in winner qualifies in November? (Considering Ukraine won 3-1 first leg) 

what’s the thinking behind so many playoff teams? Seems excessive 

They want to use the Nations League as the qualifying competition, to reduce the number of double digit scores, but they want to make sure the third tier sides still have a route to qualifying if they suddenly get a golden generation.

They had more direct qualifiers and fewer playoffs in the past, but if I remember right they ended up with a system where a team on the borderline between tiers 1 and 2 would have a better chance of qualifying if they were doing well in tier 2 than if they were last in tier 1, which wasn't really fair. I suspect they'll keep tweaking things until they get something that works better.

England definitely qualify if they beat Ukraine (or Slovakia) in the next round. They're ranked high enough that there's no way they could miss out on direct qualifying if they win the two rounds.