Like TRULY awful
The number of Spanish chances that went bouncing across the England goalmouth, you just knew it wasnāt gonna be that day.
I was trying to place that. Ministry of silly penalties.
Essentially the England players all had their shots on target. Thatās the bare minimum you can hope for. Force a save. Even the tamest hit shot will have a 50% chance of going in.
Anyway, Chloe Kelly as player of the match for me. She really made a difference.
Decent tournament and totally undeserved winners. There were at least two teams better than England, but somehow they found a way to win it.
Full marks for determination, grit and all that stuff, but really, it was a bit of a travesty.
The good thing about Womenās football is that thereās always an element of unpredictability about it as even the best teams can miss sitters and concede comedy goals.
That makes it refreshingly human in my opinion and Iāll go on watching it despite the frustration.
Thatās true of all football, and itās all the better for it.
You donāt win tournaments just because you deserve it, you are the ābetterā team on paper, you have more attempts on goal, successful passes or possession. You win them by beating the opponents put in front of you, scoring more goals than them, and thatās what England did. By that quite crucial measure, they did deserve it.
Yes, but the Menās game is slicker and more professional, and thereās less chance of an upset. The more that teams and players are highly trained and tactically disciplined, the less chance of them making mistakes.
Of course I love watching Liverpool in full flow. A well-oiled machine, efficient and devastating. We all enjoy that. But the womenās game is, at the moment, more random, more spontaneous and, as such, is enjoyable in a different way. One is not better than the other. Bach is great, but so are The Clash.
There is an element of that in all international football, in that you donāt usually have the best players possible, only those who qualify through nationality, and the players are often not used to playing together.
There will always be elements of the womenās game that will differ from the menās, for example it will always be easier to lob the ball over the keeper and there are far fewer towering centre backs. The will set up different tactically as a result.
There are also fewer professional players. You donāt have to go that far down the league to see some skew wiff defending. Try watching Tranmere or Marine and you will appreciate that not every team is a near faultless, well oiled machine.
I did feel that the overall quality of the games was a bit down on the last Euros. Partly this is because some of the more notable teams ,England and Germany amongst them, were in a state of transition. I did notice an improvement in both of them as the tournament progressed.
Didnāt see any of the tournament beyond someone showing a video of the penalty shootout against Sweden (they were not overly complimentary with their commentary) but for what itās worth Iām all in favour of those in the press calling for a bank holiday to celebrate the Lionesses victory.
I wonāt get the day off but we really need to schedule a power down for some electrical work to be done on the building so it would be really convenient if everyone was off site for a long weekend
Well done to the Lionesses. They were technically inferior to Spain, but in the end, their fighting spirit came through. Well done, really well done!
As for the tournament, itās an unmitigated success. Overall record attendance, superb atmospheres in the stadiums, but also in the hosting cities before and after the games, no bad behaviour at all, no incident, no stupid FA president acting stupidā¦
All in all a really good occasion. Switzerland as a whole enjoyed hosting this competition and all these fans! More women and children in and around the stadiums: good idea!
The best way to enjoy womenās football is not to compare it to menās.
its a different game. Just like womenās boxing etc - its still brutal but not as much as the menās or its like saying I wont watch womenās 100m sprint final cos it wont be as fast as menās.
Iāve taken my daughter to loads of womenās games (she used to play for a team that got free tickets to West Ham Women) and weāve seen the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal, City, Villa and of course LFC.
We also went to the Cup Final - Arsenal 3-1 Chelsea - about 2 years ago.
Its a totally different experience much more pleasant and great for the family. Mixed fans in the seats. No men pissed with hate in them shouting abuse at other fans. You donāt get bell ends on social either goading other teams (yes Arsenal men fans Iām talking to you twats)
Off the pitch - Everything about the womenās game I like is everything I hate in the menās. A lot of men use football to just shout hate and abuse at people they dont know after having as many pints as they can between 12pm and 3pm.
Men had over 100 years head start on womenās football so of course it has the bigger following and bigger everything.
Womenās football wont ever be as big as the menās or as powerful etc so donāt watch it and comapure but its still great to enjoy.
Great tournament, was able to find time to watch all the nearly all the knock out matches and really enjoyed them.
Agree the menās game is more professional, disagree to an significant extent that thereās less chance of an upset. There might be more individual mistakes but the lesser teams will still make more mistakes meaning the better teams still tend to win. You still have one of the higher ranked / better teams winning the tournaments / leagues across club and country.
There is also a lot more to a football result than mistakes made. Tactics, form, team cohesion and balance, manager, luck. So that means across all football you get upsets, like Plymouth beating Liverpool and Greece winning the Euros in 2004.
England didnāt spawn their way to the Euro championship and it was in no way a travesty that they won. They werenāt technically the best team, but they went toe-to-toe with every opponent and tried to win each match. Calling it a travesty is a disservice to the team.
All right. Keep yer knickers on.
Well done England.
Very well played.
Jammy sods.
England won because they came up against two teams that are even worse at penalties than them. Hardly Englandās fault.
Tournament in Switzerland was great, the passion displayed was again fantastic, though I would agree with RedWhippet that it seemed like a slight step back in terms of overall quality compared to the last big tournaments - canāt quite put my finger on it though, just an impression.
I think itās just that teams are in transition. England have a few players that have stepped down since the last major competition and Germany had the likes of Alexandra Popp retiring.
I did think that Spain would win the whole thing. Certainly, I thought they were the technically better team last night, but the England players do seem to have a certain resilience about them. Whether that is a mental thing because they have been there before, or just simply because their fitness levels are higher, I donāt know.
I thought Spain looked better in extra time, so Iām not sure it was fitness. Tbh, I donāt think thereās actually that massive a difference in overall quality between the top 5 teams in Europe ( Iād include Sweden in that), itās just different styles and different strengths/weaknesses.
Spain created a lot of chances and half chances, but Englandās defending got better as the game went on, especially their defence near their goal. A lot of Spanish chances went across the goalmouth without a single Spanish player being near enough to finish it off. The Spanish shots were either weak enough for Hampton to gather or were taken under pressure from English defenders. And the Spaniards donāt have a no 9 like Russo or Ageymang. Theyāre more enamoured with dribbling past their opponents and not about being in the right spot to finish off a move.
England midfield were almost always a step slower than the Spanish and that meant there were a lot of pressure on the England goal. After equalising, England recognised that if they maintain shape in and around the box and donāt lose their marks (like they did for the solitary Spanish goal) they should be okay.
S. American women final has to rank as the most ridiculous game of football I ever seen. And I didnāt even see the whole game