Women's Soccer (Football) Thread Soccer • Page 19

Just been to the women's FA Cup final between Man City and Birmingham City. Man City won 4-1. Very one sided first half with Bronze, Christiansen and Lloyd scoring for Man City. Second half was more even with both sides getting 1 each. Birmingham never really looked capable of getting anything from the game though.

It was a record crowd for women's football in England of over 35,200. Very encouraging to see the profile of the women's game being raised. The Man City squad is largely made up of England players, so they should be well gelled for the European championships in the summer.

 

Those attendance numbers are awesome. Lucy Bronze is just a machine, it's insane how much she does for Man City and the NT.

And yeah they definitely look like they will have a great chance at the tournament, they just need to be able to get their offense going.

 

Also, it's official. Mallory Pugh decided to enter the NWSL and will be joining the Washington Spirit after they claimed her through the allocated player distribution process. She also signed a long term deal with Nike.

It'll be interesting to see what she can do for them, she's probably going to have some pressure to perform right away but Washington isn't going to be a team she can just drag to success. It'll probably take some time before she can really make an impact.

 

I'm surprised she didn't join somewhere in Europe

 

I'm not because the only reason she would have gone is for the possibility of a higher salary but the only places that could probably provide that were the French league and the the FAWSL in England but those leagues don't really have much parity in terms of competition, whereas the NWSL is the most competitive league in the world in terms of women's soccer. That combined with the newly signed USWNT CBA and likely some incentives from Nike to play domestically was probably enough to keep her here. I honestly think she might be making upwards of 500k per year while simultaneously playing in the best environment possible for her.

Don't get me wrong, the European leagues are way different in style compared to NWSL and would be a great experience for anyone but at this point in her career it's probably best to stay in the US, plus she has plenty of time to get experience overseas in the future.

 

WOW a starting XI that is actually good. I can't believe Ellis finally benched Carli, it's about time.

 

I can't find it on Fox. Tf is wrong with my tv.

edit: found it

 

Ooof that Norwegian was gushing

 

That was not a great game for them at all. Glad Press got a goal though. I honestly don't get why Ellis doesn't play her more so every goal helps.

 

Damn, Tobin's going on three months of being out with a back injury and it sounds like it'll be a little while longer still. Last week the Portland Thorns were optimistic about her getting minutes this weekend but it sounds like they really hit the brakes on her rehab. Selfishly I just really want to see her play again but at least they're not rushing it. I'm sure it's incredibly frustrating for her as well.

What a bummer it must be to go from having the best year of your career to being out half of the next season with a nagging injury.

 

Sam Kerr has a legitimate argument for being the best player in the world and she probably hasn't even hit her peak yet. Tonight she became the NWSL's all-time leading scorer by getting a hat-trick in 13 minutes to win the game for Sky Blue FC. It's insane that she's only 23. If Australia can get the rest of their shit figured out, they have a chance to be a serious contender in the next few years with a lot of their best players being just as young as Kerr (e.g. Steph Catley, Alanna Kennedy, Caitlin Foord, Emily van Egmond, etc.) and the majority of the rest being well under 30.

They're wanting to host the 2023 World Cup and I honestly think they'll have a great chance at taking the whole thing if they continue in this trajectory.

 

I'm ready for the tourney of nations.

 

The Women's Euros is starting today and all of the matches will be streamed on WatchESPN and the final will be on ESPNU. Here's a list of all the group stage games if you're interested. There are a lot of really exciting young players on these teams that I'm excited to get a chance to watch and it should definitely be entertaining tournament.

 

Did Germany really not qualify? Whaaaaat

 

They did, I guess that list only has two of the groups lol. I'll try to find a better one.

 

Ok ignore that first list this is the actual full group stage schedule

 

The Netherlands just went up 1-0 on Norway with a fantastic cross from Lieke Martens headed in by Shanice Van de Sanden, the home crowded exploded when it went in.

 

Was surprised by how little Norway offered in their game. Thought they would have won that match.

Can't wait for England to get started on Wednesday vs Scotland. I think we'll go far in this tournament.

 

Terrific performance from Sweden to get a 0-0 draw vs Germany. Fischer was immense at the heart of the Swedish defence.

Russia beat Italy 2-1. The Russian keeper pulled off a world class save in second half stoppage time to secure the win.

 

I'm waiting for Bouhaddi to pull a Bouhaddi and give up a goal to Iceland.

This has been a great game though, Iceland has been so sound definitively. Also I've loved seeing Portland Thorns teammates, Amandine Henry and Dagný Brynjarsdóttir go at it lol.

Edit: Damn Harpa Þorsteinsdóttir just had a baby 4 month ago and is already playing in a major tournament. Women are strong as hell.

 

Damn what heartbreaker of PK for Iceland. I don't disagree with the call but it definitely sucks considering ref missed one in their favor at the end of the first half.

 

The Iceland one in the first looked like a penalty in real time but the replays showed there was no contact from the defender. A very good call from the ref.

I was a bit gutted for Iceland, but whilst it's entertaining to see them frustrate the big guns I don't think it will make for a good games against the other two in the group. I do wish they'd shown a bit more attacking intent.

Very excited for England to get kicked off tomorrow evening.

 

I don't know, even though Georges may not have gotten her foot, Friðriksdóttir had her beat and Georges had a high forearm on her from behind and was definitely pushing some. I think a PK there wouldn't have been a bad call.

It could be recency bias on my part though lol, there have been a lot of PKs in the NWSL so far this season and many of them have been weak calls.

 

On another note, how has the USWNT ToN roster not been released yet? All three of the other teams have and they leave for camp in 5 days.

 

Good lord, England absolutely dismantled Scotland today.

They were my favorites heading into the tournament but I was not expecting a 6-0 game right off the bat for them.