I agree that the professional women's game has not yet had the benefit of over a hundred years of development so far enjoyed by the men.
Come on,be honest now.. no need to hide behind political correctness.
I agree that the professional women's game has not yet had the benefit of over a hundred years of development so far enjoyed by the men.
No,the development or otherwise is irrelevant-that's not what I'm getting at.
I mean the actual games...they're a bit crap aren't they? The play is slow and the goals are soft,with the goalies themselves being pretty rubbish.
But seeing as it's 2017 we all have to be oh so politically correct and pretend it's really good.
Women are good at and good for several things.Playing football ain't one of 'em.
The major weakness has been the standard of goalkeeping.
I must admit that I don't like watchng women's football but I don't really know why either. Its not necessarily about technique or effort or anything. Its just something intangible that just puts me off. However, my nephew plays in a U-10s football team on a Sunday and they have a young girl playing in their team and she's great to watch. Gives as good as she gets against the boys and her technique has come on leaps and bounds over the past couple of years and she's usually one of the best on the pitch. Wonder whether mixed-teams will ever happen at the highest level??
I think it has everything to do with the fact that women are, on average, slower and less strong than men. Thus, the best women at any sport are better than the majority of men - how many men can run faster than Jamaica's Ms Fraser-Pryce for example? Nobody that sits in the stand at Gresty Road and I suspect nobody on the playing staff. I could quote plenty of other similar examples.
Marta, Steph Houghton and other international women players have tons more ability and athleticism than the vast majority of men, they just don't have the physique to be the same as those men with similar ability, so don't expect them to be. I watched a lot of the Women's World Cup last year and, yes, there were some things that will improve (goalkeeping being the most obvious) but because women can't clobber the ball from back to front Pulis-style means they have to pass and move and use skill to beat their opponents - which would I rather watch? Work it out.
There is one thing the women in that tournament could teach their male counterparts, however. The level of diving, feigning injury and all the stuff that really turn me off was significantly less. The women got up, limped away and got on with the match - something for Suarez, Rashford, Sanchez and co to learn from.
Comparing women's football to men's is, to a large degree, like comparing apples to oranges.
It's different in so many ways.
Yes, the goalkeeping can be suspect at times but the overall skill level is good.
It's like other sports - take hockey!
Again vastly different to the men's game but, for me, one of the highlights of Rio 2016 was the GB women's gold.
A cracking watch!
What gets me is the amount of coverage women's football receives, I'm all for women's sports but the BBC seem to bang on about it in a disproportionate measure when compared to the size of the crowds, league 2 gets much bigger crowds than the women's premier league, football focus, 5 Live etc give women's football far more coverage than league 2, guess its typical of the BBC and their liking of much minotiry events at any cost.
I caught some of the Chelsea-Liverpool womens game the other day and the standard seemed more crap than ever.
Players had acres of space,mistakes were aplenty,the goals were soft and as ever,the goalkeeping was pants.
Women: stick to netball (or ironing).