The Random Football Debate Thread

Ah I see… its not the actual (Dortmund/ Wolves/ US women’s)… sides its more like legend’s teams.

Why? It would be a masacre. There is just no comparison between the men’s and women’s game.

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There would be if they played each other!

There wouldn’t though.

A quick google search using Women’s football team loses to U/15 boys and you get the following links on the 1st page.

Plus there were others, but won’t post those links due to them coming from the rag that we don’t name.

I remember when the Aus women’s team lost that game to the NJY, and several coaches in Australia said that that was the closest they could match physically, and if they tried to use older boys then the exercise would become pointless as they would dominate these games too much, for the women to gain any sort of benefit. But even at 15, the boys often end up winning these games due to better technical ability

I was being pedantic about the meaning of ‘no comparison’, you have just shown that there are plenty of comparisons. Beyond my original childish point, it’s interesting to see that that is the level of the women’s game right now, still got a long way to go. In the last WC the US women’s team looked on a different level in their physicality to the rest - I wonder if they could at least get a within a couple of goals of a under 16 side.

I lost 5-0 to my 3 year old in a 1v1 yesterday. Almost like playing adults vs children encourages a lower intensity on the part of the adult.

Also the only named player in the Australian team was the same age as the youth side they were playing against.

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They are 41 years behind to be fair and that is even without the fact that a lot of it has only been taken serious in the last 10 years.

Give them a chance. If truth be told that’s a 70 year head start. Because as the Dick Kerr ladies showed their abilities were more popular at times.

That or Everton was serving up garbage back then.

I will say this it’s better than it was, I remember watching a cup final on the BBC around 2001 and it was so bad I turned it off. It’s watchable now especially the highest level.

I’ve personally experienced it with the US team as well and with boys sides way less competitive than some of the teams cited above. Essentially sides that were nothing more than recreational.

For whatever reason the gap between the men and women is way bigger in football than it is in other sports. I know a world champion female powerlifter. Her competition weight is 76kg/167lbs and what she squats and deadlifts you go from commercial gym to commercial gym looking for the strongest guy there, all of whom will have significant size advantage over her, and fail to find one who could train with her. For women’s sprinters you would need to go down to the regional level at high school to find boys who could hang with the elite women. For whatever reason in football, you can throw a side together of 15 year old boys none of whom have much potential for playing at a higher level and they would be too good.

In most of the world you can point to the relative immaturity of the game for women as a reason, and i’m sure that has a lot to do with it, but my experience of this is in the US where the game is now generations old.

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My experience (I play in a unisex 5 a side league) is that physically the girls tend to be a bit weaker and slower, not a surprise, but technically they’re at least as good and some of them are significantly better than the average male player in the league. There is one girl in particular who can ping it top corner anytime she likes - which became frustrating as she put two past me when I was in goal.

Equally you get a few men who are both physically and technically better, then the final group are those men who are aiming to run at the female players, always move to be marked by female defenders etc. Everyone can see what they’re doing, scared of playing against someone physically equal to them so they got up agaonst a girl that they can push or sprint past a bit easier.

I see more and more youth football is unisex though, I think in 20 years or so the women’s game will develop immensely on the physical side.

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Yup it’s certainly how I’ve seen it, we’ve done some mixed training and to be honest it’s not been an issue at our club.

They’ve got a lot of catching up and that’s only going happen with more resource.

Using golf as an example, the only reason men are better is because they hit it further.
The skill levels of the top women are every bit as good as the top men.

In football, aside from physical strength, there should be no reason why skill levels aren’t similar, but they’re a million miles apart.
It’s awful to watch, not that I’ve seen much, but I’ve seen enough to gauge the awkwardness and lack of finesse on display in the womans game.

I used to take a church mixed gender 7 a side team to the Bishop of Chester’s Under 16s Cup tournamant about 25 years ago. The criteria for team selection was that there had to be at least 2 players from the opposite sex in each team. So you could have 5 Males and 2 Females or vice versa. Or a 4 & 3 ratio. Most teams went with the 5M-2F set up. We did well because we had a secret weapon. We had a young Girl that played for Tranmere Rovers Ladies team. She was a fantastic footballer and hard as nails.
One of the delights of watching the games would be an unsuspecting opposition player running towards her with the ball thinking “This’ll be easy. It’s only a Girl”. Only to see him seconds later on his bum wondering if anybody had managed to get the number of the truck that had just run him over. :nerd_face:

She later went on to Captain the Tranmere Ladies team and is still involved with the girls football there. :nerd_face:

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Pretty much sums up Scottish football mate :wink:

I agree.
But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t sum up womens football

That’s a great story :star_struck::heart_eyes:

Think this is overstated. The level of a female powerlifter, for example, would not place her high enough to survive as a professional on the mens circuit. Being better than randoms at a gym is hardly a high bar for a professional… I’m sure Sam Kerr etc could turn up to a random high school and stand out against the random students there.

We are very dismissive of ‘under 15 boys teams’ because we know very few will make it to a professional level. This is because the level is so high and competition so intense rather than the under 15 boys not being high quality.
Even in a sport like tennis, the likes of the Williams sisters were not a match for a mens player (Karsten Braasch) ranked outside the top 200:

" Venus and Serena Williams had claimed that they could beat any male player ranked outside the world’s top 200, so Braasch, then ranked 203rd, challenged them both. Braasch was described by one journalist as "a man whose training regime centered around a pack of cigarettes and more than a couple of bottles of ice cold [lager](Lager - Wikipedia)“.[61][60] The matches took place on court number 12 in Melbourne Park,[62] after Braasch had finished a round of golf and two shandies. He first took on Serena and after leading 5–0, beat her 6–1. Venus then walked on court and again Braasch was victorious, this time winning 6–2.[60] Braasch said afterwards, “500 and above, no chance.” He added that he had played like someone ranked 600th in order to keep the game “fun”[63] and that the big difference was that men can chase down shots much more easily and put spin on the ball that female players could not handle.(Battle of the Sexes (tennis) - Wikipedia)”

So while womens football will surely improve, I don’t think we should ever expect the womens game will be able to compete with even semi-professional men.

I coached mens and womens amateur, lower league teams.
No elite athletes, all working or students, all with lower league fitness levels.

The very best female player would struggle badly in the mens league.
The difference is that stark.
Both teams had the same opportunities, same training regimes.
If anything, the women were better trainers, less whiny about physical exertions etc.

But on strenght, skill etc the chasm was massive.

I know it’s just one viewpoint, and its anecdotal rather than empirical evidence, but the physical differences play a massive part.

I’ve only really paid attention to international tournaments in women’s football, the improvement in quality in these has been incredible in the last 15 years. However, I wonder if there should be modifications to the set-up to make it better suited to the female physique (similar to the 3 sets in women’s tennis). I often thought that smaller pitches would help do away with the lack of pace and power. Smaller goals as well maybe as I think the goalkeepers tend to struggle.

To be fair, you have mischaracterized what I said. The level of boys football I have seen comprehensively beat the US women’s team is so far below being a journeyman male pro that the comparison is just not part of the conversation. The level of these teams is nothing more than recreational teenage boys with players who practice no more than a couple of times per week, are not particularly good relative to their peers and have no pretense of playing at any higher level. It literally is the equivalent of a school kick around caliber players.

This isn’t a comment on athleticism of women or meant to be demeaning, because my point is that in other sports the gap is far smaller. The level of male athlete you need to find to be competitive with the best women is far higher. I dont know what explains that difference in football. Im sure part of it is down to the relative maturity of the game, but I dont think that’s a complete explanation of it.

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:pray:

https://twitter.com/Dominicmatteo21/status/1656606760021417984?s=20

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