New Women's football thread (inc World Cup) 2023-26

[sussexpob]

Finland made hard work of beating Iceland

As I said about the Norway game, you can't really take anything away from these games moving forward, as this was another game played during the afternoon in a savage record breaking heatwave. I think I read it was 33-34 degrees at kick off, so the poor girls would have been dying in that heat. Not the conditions for a game of high pressing, lots of running off the ball, etc. You are seeing this in America at the Club World Cup too, but global warming and summer tournaments might need to be something we reconsider in the future, especially as the formats require teams to play matches early in the day so every game is on tv.

I get the feeling someone is eventually going to die at one of these tournaments. The Club World Cup especially hasn't resembled football, its football played at 10% pace while people saunter around trying not to pass out, rather than pass for goals.

[Durhamfootman]

I didn't notice any water breaks. I have an idea in my head that water breaks are only introduced at 34 degrees, which is probably set too high

I guess the players can take turns going down with a niggle to get the physio on, which stops the game long enough for everyone to take on water, but they shouldn't have to do that

[Durhamfootman]

wait until the world cup is played in Saudi Arabia

[sussexpob]

I didn't notice any water breaks. I have an idea in my head that water breaks are only introduced at 34 degrees, which is probably set too high

Defo had them in the Norway game, didn't watch the Finland v Iceland one. And they had them at 30 degrees in Miami for the Real Madrid match, but that was played in 85 percent humidity, so maybe they work it out on the heat index? I honestly don't know.

[sussexpob]

wait until the world cup is played in Saudi Arabia

It might actually be safer than some of the conditions we have seen recently in places like Miami. The danger of excessive heat comes mostly from the dew point/humidity of air that accompanies hot weather. In dry, desert conditions with low dew points and no relative humidity, your sweat evaporates instantly, so you body can shed heat quickly - at much lower temperatures with high humidity, your sweat does not evaporate, so you can't shed heat. 45 degrees in a desert would probably be less dangerous than 30-32 in tropical, humid conditions. The real killer heawaves occur at surprisingly low temperatures for this reason. Somewhere like Karachi in Pakistan that gets some of the worst heatwaves in the pre-monsoon season is only low to mid-30s, but when the humidity cranks up those temperatures become deadly.

The Singapore GP in F1 is the best example. Low 30s/high 20s, but 80-100 percent humidity. One driver had to retire from the race because they were close to blacking out last year, and its notorious for being a race that punishes drivers. Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi... not the same.

[Durhamfootman]

oh blimey, I watched the first half of Spain/Portugal..... jeez it was a hard watch. I couldn't bring myself to watch the second half

How such a defensively inept team held England to a draw in the nations league I'll never know

Belgium.... England conquerors.... lost to Italy.

[Durhamfootman]

seemingly Bonmati came on for a few minutes late on, just days after being hospitalised with viral meningitis. I didn't expect to see her until the knock outs. Maybe they were just testing her out a bit with the game safe at half time

[Durhamfootman]

I’m sick of all the bollox being talked about how good England are, how good Walsh is, what a talent James is

This is what I think will happen.

England lose to France tonight and are on the back foot immediately
They’ll go behind to Holland, but fight back and end up with a draw
With France through, England need a big score against wales and Holland to lose
They will beat wales and with France beating Holland, for a while they will be in second place, but….
Either Holland score a late equaliser to knock England out, or Holland do lose, but wales score a late goal to hand second place to the Dutch on goal difference

I can’t quite decide which

But then I am a half empty guy

[sussexpob]

French keeper needs shot for that. Never parry the rebound right in the middle of the goal.... Going to be offside though I think

Couldn't be tighter that... so tight in fact you cannot see it at all without technology.

[sussexpob]

Hang on a second. The VAR offside thing finally appears, and it shows the French ladies hip past the foot off the England player, yet the line is drawn from the outside of the boot (and even then its mms).

You can score with your hip... that should be onside

[sussexpob]

Second goal for France is clown stuff from England. Defender falls over like a prat, then passes the ball to the French lass to score.

[Durhamfootman]

I see Gwynn has been ruled out of the rest of the euros after that injury in the first game.

She missed the World Cup with an ACL injury and now she has to add a medial knee ligament injury to the list

[Gingerfinch]

Second goal for France is clown stuff from England. Defender falls over like a prat, then passes the ball to the French lass to score.

The first one wasn't much better!

[sussexpob]

Second goal for France is clown stuff from England. Defender falls over like a prat, then passes the ball to the French lass to score.

The first one wasn't much better!

Defended badly all game didnt they. Going to have to tighten up a lot if they want to achieve anything this tournament

[sussexpob]

The BBCs coverage of the Norway game was absolutely terrible. Comms seemingly decided Finland deserved to win the game, and then spent all second half laying into how bad Norway were, and how they were being dominated. XG was identical, so don't let reality get in the way of your David v Goliath story.

Particularly offensive was the BBC panel deciding Norway's goals were just lucky and unworthy of being scored. Hansen absolutely r*pes two players at once with a turn and go, she holds the ball up to create space, looks up and sees the keeper off her line, and chips it over her head...A cross apparently. Just lucky.... pfft. The first was similar annihilation of a full back and a dangerous ball in ....

I guess after Jonathan Pearce runs out of facts he googled off Wikipedia 10 minutes before kick-off, he doesnt know anything else about football...shouldnt be surprised.