Thetownend.com

Certainly been a lively start for the officials this morning in both games.

Awful lot of VAR in a short space of time. Correct decisions mind. I quite like the ref explaining the decisions bit.

Good game so far.

Kerly Theus looks a quality keeper for Haiti.  All 5'4" of her.

I agree entirely.

Haiti's quick counters caused some alarms and surprised generally.  We dominated but didn't quite fire.  Typical tournament "opening game" and have to be pleased with the win.

There will be some teeth-gnashing in Germany tonight. Good for football generally to see some outsiders get through, I think.

We are going to win it arent we

Great so far, Brazil, Germany and Argentina out  :D

All going a bit wrong for England here, Lauren James has just done a Beckham on Simeone...

No defence, should have been a straight red rather than a rescinded yellow then red.

Not quite sure why they ruled out the penalty, but can't argue with the red card.

How to go from hero to zero in a matter of seconds.

in all honesty looked soft to me, she made the most of the contact.

But I thought it started outside the box anyway

Wonder why these female players aren’t seen flobbing great swathes of gob like the men

It was one of those that was soft but once it was given I was surprised to see it overturned. But it's not stonewall or anything and you'd be furious to have it given against you.

We’ve just dodged a penalty decision too.

Nigeria have been quiet physical, not dirty but very forceful with their contact aspect of the game and out muscled our girls often. Though in the eyes of the ref fairly.

I think they've just been better than us. They are stronger, but they're not just stronger. Bit like Stevenage last season, but not  that shithouse.

agreed Nemo

The great, great, great escape.

Harsh on Nigeria but they made an absolute Swindon of that shootout. Chloe Kelly's in particular absolutely unstoppable.

Nigeria looked absolutely hopeless in front of goal from what I saw.

Well yes.  I was getting very annoyed about the very negative commentators.  Yes we didn't play well.  But we did have a few shots.  And I cant really remember Mary Earps making more than 1 or 2 good saves, whereas the Nigeria keeper made at least 3 damn good saves.

Probably wont win the thing but given the missing players I really don't think they deserve the negativity coming from the media.

 

There's probably a certain demographic that would be absolutely mortified if the England Women's team were to go on and do what the Men's team have seemingly struggled and failed to do for nearly a good 60yrs. Yes, the consistency and quality across the board isn't as good but you can only beat what is in front of you.

Good teams find a way to win - England {W} found a way to win. Sometimes you don't have to be the 'best' team on paper in tournament footy - several of those favourites have already exited. Only really the French, Swedes and the Hosts {along with England} who I would say have a realistic chance of winning it  :pint:

Aus keeper taking their fifth penalty to win the game and missing is quite the moment...

The Aussies v The French. A neutral Englishman’s nightmare

Yesssss

Noooo

This could go all night...

Yesssss

Yeeeesssssssssssss

The Matilda’s will be waltzing tonight. Well done the Aussies.

Jeez, that’s some serious caterwauling from the Colombian women.

Falling all over the place already

I’ve noticed an increasing amount of what I shall term ‘gameswomanship’ creeping into these finals. I don’t like it.

Edit. Equally the standard of the female reffing appears to be lagging behind the professionalism of the women’s game.

Score first against Colombia and you will win, they have their tactics of clogging and hitting on the counter attack (which they have played to very well thus far) but they are very limited

Walsh just gobbed on the pitch.

#gobwatch

Nice use of the word!

Not the sort of thing I’d have expected on here!

Had to look it up! 😂😂😂

David Seaman is that you ?

That’ll do

Matej Kovar is that you?

What a crucial goal that was...

Was about to say, so Colombia will park the bus for the rest of the game and England will go on to break them down with 96% possession in the second half. England win  2-1.

However that dynamic has changed with England equalising in a matter of mins. Poorish positioning for the conceded goal but an 'absolute calamity' by the Colombian keeper for the equaliser. I think going in behind would have kept Colombia playing totally defensive but at one all that changes everything.

I think England still come good and out on top either in 90 or 120 mins. It'll open up in the second half, unless Colombian fancy beating England on penos. Think England will continue the pressure and maybe even win 3-1.

Anyway, who need the finest Colombian stuff when you can have quality Hemp?  :D

I mean that's taking the GKU to the extreme

I have to say, Emma Hayes is one of the best commentators / analysts around...

Get in.

Yep.  Continuing where she left off in the Euros.

Well done Lionesses... What a great team...

I'll take that one. Now onto Swindon  :pint: :pint:

England one up against the Aussies. We'll call this the Ashes decider. Decent strike.

Very good strike. This is the first of the WWC I’ve watched. Hopefully England can see it out. I know they legends lounge was open for the match before the Crewe game, which was a good opportunity for the club to make some money. Was it well attended with people watching?

Great half from England who have controlled the game and kept the Aussie fans relatively quiet...

Forgot this was on. Will try and watch a sneaky bit on iplayer at work.

Missed the first half, will watch the second. Cracking goal

Would have liked to have seen the goal, but the panel were just waffling about how amazing everything it and how amazing womens football is and how everythings amazing. 

Guessing the goal was amazing as well but didn't get to see it.

Just be amazed!

https://twitter.com/101greatgoals/status/1691762676005744887

Pretty good, but no FBT...

Keeper caught out from distance again, but what a goal

Okay, the equaliser was better. Long range goals simply are easier when keepers are 6" shorter on average, but that was a bit of a cracker.

Terrible decision to shoot, she had a mate on the overlap. Decent result though, amazing finish.

Yeah its exactly this as I was saying in the other thread. A lot of them are down to the keepers heights.

Both of these goals were decent irrespective though to be fair.

Lovely stuff.

Against the run of play, and pretty poor defending, but get in. England’s defence seems pretty solid, hopefully they can ride this out

Bang

That was a great goal

Fantastic ball through by Hemp.

Ooooh some dark arts from Chloe Kelly there, bringing the second ball back onto the pitch.

Hahaha Aussies

That was very impressive game management from England there, and three good goals too. Deserved winners

I didnt watch it, I dont really enjoy the ladies game but fair play to them, thats a great result, good luck in the final.

Just wait until you have a chance to watch the English Premier League on Sky!

Utilised my lunch break to watch it on the big screen out on the grassy 'knoll' in Canary Wharf. I was quite surprised to see it absolutely rammed!

Good goal by Sam Kerr who then fluffed her lines to equalise. Awful defending by Australia for Kemp's goal but she is a nuisance. Russo's goal was clinical. I expect England will be favourites against Spain on Sat/Sun?

I don’t either really, but I think you’d have been surprised (as I was) about the quality. It was excellent entertainment too

Legends Lounge showing the final, free entry.

Repeated from my reply on another topic:

I've just been watching the World Cup Semi-final, sat in a Wifi hotspot on a Naturist camp site in Croatia.

Although I was extremely pleased that we won, no limbs or other appendages were waved when England scored. No Semi either...

Proud of that eh? (I would have been too  :D )

I enjoy watching womans football, lots of skill and good entertainment, as shown thoughout this tournament.

Don't you mean 'The Greatest Show on Earth' :puke:::)

......and its live!!!

Why wouldn't it be live Martin?

No. Come to my place and it is POTD. Hospitality places available PM for details.

I'd love to do a sketch on that. Where the circus is like Zippos Circus with Wish versions of all the ermmm ''greats'' and Tyler/Stelling goes '...and it's all pre recorded on Skyyyy!!

I'm in Gran Canaria for the final :D

According to the Mail sport Australia's goal was scored from 25 metres. When did It change from yards🤔

Not really my thing but I’m out in the canaries on holiday at the minute and the watch zone was absolutely full of people and you could hear the cheers from all around the resort when the goals went in. Fair play to them, I’ve always thought the arguments of men Vs women’s football are completely stupid because they’re different things, with different atmospheres who for the most part attract different people. If someone enjoys men’s football and doesn’t enjoy women’s, fair enough, if someone enjoys women’s but not mens, fair enough, if someone enjoys both then fair enough. The good thing is that there’s now options for everyone and if they inspire/attract a different section of people for each one then that’s only good for football in general.

It was coming.

Waste of time me hanging the iron out the window in support this morning wasn’t it.

Switched off already, don't want a second day of football disappointment.

If that's a pen we may as well all give up. Footballers should just shop their arms off.

Definite pen in my opinion...

Best team won on the night.

Final will always be memorable for the most wonderful filmed fuck off though!!

Can criticise women’s football but one thing that can be learned from that - that’s how to see out a game from Spain. Waste time, fake injuries and more importantly don’t just boot it up to the halfway line - break with players going forwards and push England back. We could learn a lot from that as we tend to sit back and try to soak pressure with a defence all 6’1 and below!

I missed that, left the neighbours as soon as the whistle went. What was that about?

But not home

We beat just one top 10 team.  Aus at no. 10.  Love the Lionesses but not the hype.

See, I thought it was a penalty - she moved her body to try and block the run, which pushed her arm out and she handled it as a result.

To be honest, I've been of the opinion they should just go to basketball rules for a long time.  If it hits the hand, it's penalised.  I never remember a time when the ball hit my hand while playing that I didn't immediately think the ref was going to blow-up.  Take the opinion out of the equation.   Yes it may present some harsh decisions, but everyone will know where they stand.

I presume he was refering to the reaction from Earps after she saved the penalty - she was a little excited/aggressive all at once.

It was 100% a pen...

Disagree completely. She is moving her body but her arm doesn't move at all and the ball clips her knuckles. Completely unintentional but fuck knows where they're at with the intentional thing at the moment, its in out shake it all about. Secondly, it effected nothing as she was still clean past her in possession.

Its one of those that gets worse every time you watch it and the more slowed down it is, which is part of why VAR always give them.

The ball barely touched the hand

It did not effect the path of the ball and the attacker came through the tackle with the ball.......

Therefore no penalty

I agree that if that is given every time then defenders might as well stop going fir balls in the air in the box.

But I expected the pen to be given as the ref was the same useless ref who let Australia get away with murder in the semi

The Men's England team visited an orphange yesterday. 'It was difficult to see their little faces with no hope," said Alice, aged 6.

Tickled me that did. Can I get an Edinburgh Fringe Award? I nicked it from somewhere else, but that doesn’t seem to matter 😁

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66578604

"Fans waited in the terminal to greet the team but they left without going through the arrivals area."

Poor. Would have been an easy win for them, even if it is "protocol."

So, "successful" or "bottled it"?
Know which it would be for many if it was the men's team in similar circumstances. This why I don't like the hype

If it was the men the headlines would be

“England team snub fans”

What hype?  Anything they receive is probably a little warranted based on the attendance figure increases in recent years, the fact they reached a World Cup Final and that they won a tournament.  If you don't get hyped for that, what hope is there for anyone?  The difference with the Mens team is they usually get hyped before a ball is kicked in a tournament and then flounder (although they too have been pretty good in recent years to be fair).

The women's game has/had a great chance to show that it holds itself to a higher standard than the men's, which could well convert some floating voters. Sadly all the same diving, cheating etc on show, and that gobby goalkeeper effing and blinding, which has somehow made her a hero to some. Hardly the Corinthian spirit. I find it all rather embarrassing. This arrogant airport stunt again shows them trying to emulate the worst aspect of the men's game. If they put themselves up against that, they will always lose. They should be trying to find points of difference. No cheating, swearing, diving etc. They'd soon bring people over. We have enough spoilt babies in the men's game.

How much hype was there for the England U21’s that won the Euros this year.

The final was the only game shown live on TV, and that on C4 (I think).
Absolutely fuck all coverage in the mainstream media.

I'm in 2 minds whether I agree with what you are saying or completely disagree. Firstly whether the ball barely touches the hand I think is largely irrelevant. I looked up Law 12 about handball and it states -

"touches the ball with their hand/arm when it has made their body unnaturally bigger. A player is considered to have made their body unnaturally bigger when the position of their hand/arm is not a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player’s body movement for that specific situation. By having their hand/arm in such a position, the player takes a risk of their hand/arm being hit by the ball and being penalised"

I think the wording is extremely vague and I think is meant to cover the examples where those defenders deliberately punch the ball away from a corner when the heads go up. I think you could probably make an argument that Ciara Walsh's hand/arm movement was justifiable, in that it appeared to be a natural 'movement'

What I do agree with you is that the minor flick off the hand didn't stop the Spanish player keeping control of the ball and therefore should play on advantage not have happened? Had the ball gone away in a different direction then I can see why a penalty should have been awarded.

Oddly, the entire thing was on over here in the USA.

That is odd, I guess it’s probably cheap sport

I *think* you could watch all the games on Youtube - not sure if that was just the England games or not.

As I think were the women before this one.And I'm informed by people who watched the whole thing that England performed poorly in the first 4/5 games but seemed to be exempt from the same sort of media criticism that the men have  suffered from in recent tournaments especially in the early stages. Just my opinion of course

The TV audience in the UK was 15m I think, which is pretty impressive in the modern age.

If Roger Smart had been playing in the Women's World Cup, his Wembley goal would have been screeched as "SENSATIONAL" "A STUNNER" "A THUNDERBOLT" "WORLD CLASS".

I suspect the fact that they didn't win and it was off the back of a 24 hour flight back didn't help their aspirations to have a positive return...

Considering how much hype they normally manage to drum up surprised this Paddy Power add hasn't ruffled more feathers....

https://twitter.com/Nullen80/status/1693589034323390572

Fuck, that's good!  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

this is not how it should have ended for Spain. Bloody hell, what a mess

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66626410

It's sort of laughable how ridiculous sports administrators seen to be, except that they have a completely unreasonable amount of power and very little accountability.

How can the Spanish FA prove the kiss was consensual - surely the only person who can say that is the player kissed. And she says it wasn’t.

and he says it was.

so what do you do?

not what they are is the only answer I've got

The fact that it was on live TV simplifies things somewhat. It's all getting increasingly farcical now, I mean this is just gold:

"The mother of Spain’s embattled football chief, Luis Rubiales, has reportedly shut herself in a church in southern Spain and declared herself to be on a hunger strike over what she described as the “inhumane and bloodthirsty hunt” of her son."

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/aug/28/spanish-football-chiefs-mother-declares-hunger-strike-in-support-of-him

It would be interesting to know what the reaction would be if it was a woman kissing a male footballer.

Without wanting to defend Rubiales' behaviour, I think the occasion can't be dismissed as a factor here. It was minutes after winning the World Cup and emotions were clearly high. I was watching ITV racing the other day and there was a clip from after the race where the female owner grabbed the jockey's cheeks and planted a kiss on his face. This was later clipped and put on twitter by ITV as a moment of joy by the horse owner.

Obviously if the recipient of the kiss will ultimately decide on the consensual nature but its quite tricky given the nature of the occasion.

I think with a bit of humility and contrition after the initial action, it's a minor story, it's his absolutely batshit response since that has made him look a Grade A tool.

and his behaviour leading up to it

Hasn’t he been a grade A bellend for ages

Well indeed, but that all ends up coming out (or at least, being taken seriously) because of his entirely mad response since. It's a masterclass in how not to handle events.

Oh absolutely. I was merely taking the 'occasion kiss' at face value. He probably should have just said that he got carried away and offered an apology but he's clearly too arrogant.


What was this out of interest? (Genuinely don't know the complete story clearly)

The crotch grabbing was bizarre.

He behaved like he was coked up!

Bit different but Martinez weird behaviour when he won the golden glove award after winning the World Cup just shows that it makes some blokes act like right whoppers!

I mean, a good consensus of male footballers and coaches have been known for not being able to 'keep it in their pants' so it's really nothing new is it?

The sport is rife with dishonourable types but of course for many, it's ok because 'tHeY aRe ArE eErOWs InNiT?'


The Spain coach is a massive bulb but I think they story in isolation is somewhat farcical. I'm sure there's probably plenty in here that have probably {in the moment of seeing a last gasp winner away from home in injury time or a PO Second Leg winner etc} hugged, grabbed, kissed, embraced, danced, exuded some endorphin/dopamine type of passion based rush of emotion {shared at the very same moment} with the nearest person to them in a stadia {whether man/woman/or person identifying as anything they bloody well want to}, when a good thing has happened for the parties concerned. Was it a consensual kiss - well no, of course it wasn't because that is the emotion of the happy moment. If he's guilty of sexual assault then we're likely all guilty/very hypocritical for doing similar or deeply emotionless sociopaths...then again, there's probably a fair chunk of those on here so I better go and hide  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Joy; a feeling of great pleasure and happiness.

Bizarre.

That's the bit that gets me. A "sorry I got caught up in the moment and it won't happen again" and it's a non story.

Non story for me but interesting how this is being reported.

Before every game that Spain played in and even before they kicked a ball there was talks of bad feeling between the players and the Spanish FA blah blah. Thats not being mentioned now...why is that?

'Spain's build-up to the tournament had been dominated by a player revolt, with a number of players wanting head coach Jorge Vilda to be sacked.'

No way he should of kissed her like that and moving forward its best that there is a zero policy to any contact at all before, during and after any games. Medals should be placed on a cushion or tray and handed out.

For me its sort of rubbished the W World Cup, which i quite enjoyed. If this sort of bollocks is the way its going to be, i think i will give Womens Football miss.

Not sure if you're aware, but this is a mixture of 2 stories.

1. Many of the players had fallen out with the team's manager - Vilda - in the build-up to the competition. He had to leave about half of his first XI at home because they refused to play for him. There are lots of news stories about this and it's not forgotten.

2. Rubiales' celebrations after the final whistle.

Wait, there are two different issues and two different people?! Why wouldn't they report on those things in the same articles

Couldn't think of where else to put this, the Spanish player who won the Golden Ball for best player at the world cup and has subsequently gone on to win the Ballon d'Or Féminin (by a country mile) scored her first goal for Spain on the hallowed turf of the County Ground....

England v Austria tonight about 20 minutes from my house, is it wrong I can't be arsed to go?

Not now Leah Williamson isn’t playing, she’s the only fit one.