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Post 26 Jun 2011, 11:48 am

73,000 at the Berlin stadium for the opening game today. Has this event gotten any kind of coverage in the US, or UK? Or elsewhere.
Is it on television in the states or elsewhere?
Is anybody here following the tourney?
In Canada every game is on one for the sports channels live and the Cnadian group games, the quarters semis and final are on the basic BC network...
I'm watching em all.(Well I'm taping em all)
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Post 27 Jun 2011, 5:32 am

The ladies were very popular in the last couple world cups, surprisingly popular in fact. But this tourney, I had no idea it had even started.
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Post 27 Jun 2011, 6:54 am

and the sports site I use (almost every day) is CBS Sportsline, they have up to the minute scoring updates of all the Major sports, Baseball, College Football, NFL, College basketball, NBA, Golf, Nascar, Tennis and NHL, During the Olympics they also have a tab for that as well
They even have "Other" sports, I clicked on that and find Horse Racing, Boxing and even Mixed Martial Arts and Bowling. They have freaking BOWLING listed but not the women's World Cup!?
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Post 27 Jun 2011, 7:13 am

I believe all the games are being showed on Television here but it is on sports only channels like Fox Soccer Channel, ESPN and Comcast Sports Network
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Post 27 Jun 2011, 2:33 pm

The problem with the WWC is that there's really only four good teams in the tournament


Actually there's Germany, and there's everybody else. On Sunday, Our Canadian girls (whoa re ranked 6th) did something no one did in 2007, scored a goal on Germany. Germany had 6 shut outs in 2007....
And Canada could have tied the game in the 86th minute . A central defender alone at the 6 yard box couldn't control a lofted pass and one touched over.They were also lucky not to have shipped 4 granted, but thats the nature of the game.
If you do get a chance to watch a German game, do...they are briliant.
I suppose there will be a little more noise if the US makes some progress?
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Post 28 Jun 2011, 8:21 am

How's the standard of goalkeeping been in this tournament ? As I recall it was shockingly bad last time round, which made it hard to take the games seriously.
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Post 28 Jun 2011, 11:40 am

How's the standard of goalkeeping been in this tournament ? As I recall it was shockingly bad last time round, which made it hard to take the games seriously.

A few years ago the gold medal game in Canadian university socer was played between teams that both had as their keepers girls who'd played keeper for me. One for 6 years. One for two. I always find it strange that the national teams often seem to pick undersized players for the position.
Remember the little French man who played for Man U? Its kinds like that. Most are a little undersized versus the typical male keeper. Its a substantial difference.
What that means is that many are more susceptible to high crosses, and corners are more of a challenge. But then the average field player is smaller too.
The biggest differences are that the game is a little slower than the top mens (and I don't include MLS in that). Some of the players, from the lesser nations, have a little bit less touch (And i don't include the MLS). Creative players are a little less abundant, but then undisciplined players aren't found on the field either.
and they are a lot tougher than the men.
And i mean this seriously. You don't see the rolling around and carting off the filed for the slightest touch. I've yet to see a dive in the 4 games I've seen this year so far (although I skimmed one at high speed).
You'll see players with serious injuries just play through. Christine Sinclair had her nose very badly broken with 30 minutes to play against Germany. She was escorted off to check for blood. The doctor said, "You can't go on again". She ignored him and went back immediatly, playing with a zig zag where her nose once was... . Scored .
The game is honest.
If for that reason only its often more interesting. I refuse to watch Italian mens league anymore simply because of the histrionics.
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Post 28 Jun 2011, 11:47 am

However you seem to be suggesting that the USA women will struggle in group play. Progress?

They aren't an absolute lock to get through. North Korea and Sweden could both upset them. Columbia will be one of the two worst in the tourney.
I think that they are potentially vulnerable to almost any opponent that they meet in the quarter, and semis but have a pretty good chance of being finalists. They are ranked #1 but really are number 2. And right down to #7 France they might face a team that could upset them.
Remember they lost to Mexico in the Concacaaf playdowns.... I watched Mexico (22) versus England and they aren't terrific. So if the US has an off day or the opponents play a little bit up, then they might fall out earlier than the finals.
And they can't touch Germany.
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Post 28 Jun 2011, 2:35 pm

It wasn't just a size thing. All of the keepers I saw in the last women's WC were susceptible to panicky flapping, came out to punch too much when they should have been trying to catch the ball, let in too many long shots and generally weren't very good. I'll admit though that I don't watch very much women's football so I may have gotten a wrong impression.
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Post 28 Jun 2011, 7:16 pm

I didn't say they couldn't beat france. I said France might beat them. Big difference. The rest of the world is improving on the top teams... And France isn't bad.
I just watched the North Korea US game. After the first half I would have continued what I said. NK may actually have edged the US in play.
The second half, no contest. And I've changed my mind.
The US will go on to beat Sweden (who couldn't finish against a very weak Columbian team, and by that I mean weak physically. Technically they were okay) and then hammer Columbia... and play the 2nd place team in Group D.
Australia, Norway or Brazil... I tend to agree with you regarding Brazil. I saw them play Canada live without Marta last year.
I may change my mind about the US as the play progresses. I still pick them for semis, and not the finals...but we'll see. But against NK their coach Pia? had them change tactics at the half and finally take advantage of their enormous size advantage. Why this wasn't an original tactic is beyond me. But once they changed tactics the NK were in trouble constantly and their counters were limited to one shot off the cross bar that SOLO had covered if it was lower. (She is very good)
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Post 30 Jun 2011, 11:53 am

Wambach is from my hometown (Rochester, NY)
Marta plays for the local women's pro team
Christine Sinclair also plays for us
(all women mentioned above)
This is women's soccer heaven up here and still few seem to notice.
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Post 05 Jul 2011, 11:50 am

Looking at the World Rankings, Germany and USA are almost level (with the USA ahead slightly) and then you have Brazil, Japan, Sweden and Canada a bit behind them. France, NK, Norway and England are not far behind. The rankings may lie, but I don't get the impression that any one nation is miles ahead of the rest. Germany have home advantage, but they had that in 2006 for the men's WC and it did them no good.

But, looking at the games, Canada have flopped and Japan lost to England today. France look pretty good (but we'll see how good when they meet the Germans later tonight). I think this year is pretty open, really. Most of the games are going to form, but there's enough doubt there.

The English game is not where it could be. The FA promised about 10 years ago to have a fully professional league. Fulham were the first team to be all-professional, in anticipation of this, but it didn't really happen, and a lot of our best players go out to the States to earn a crust. There is even talk that if England do perform well, that the coach - Hope Powell - might become a manager in the men's game, which would be great for her and the reputation of female coaches, but I think there isn't a real replacement.

Plus, we seem to have adopted the same failings as the male team - over-expectation and not enough reliance on basic skills.
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Post 06 Jul 2011, 4:35 pm

To be honest, I think the only real change should be to make the goals slightly smaller, to give keepers about an even say.
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Post 07 Jul 2011, 6:25 am

To be honest, I think the only real change should be to make the goals slightly smaller, to give keepers about an even say

A decade ago or so...maybe longer ...there was a real debate about increasing scoring in football. One of the things mentioned was increasing the size of goals. I think if that occurred it would put male goal keepers in the same position as women are in the current goals.
By the way, the idea of changeing goal sizes was put down when the extent of the renovation required was analyzed.Something like 1,000,000 goal posts in Germany alone. I liked Klinsmans solution: Lets only allow midgets to play goal. That should lead to goals....
I'd guess the average woman keeper is 6 inches less than the height of the average male keeper. And I'd put that down (90%) to the way they look in goal Ruff.
But I think that there are more goals scored in the womens game as a result...
The need for a fully professional league was the reason the Canadian coach says she couldn't put a winner on the field... She took all but 4 players (those 4 who stayed with their WPSL teams) to a camp in Italy for 3 months prior to the cup... Disastrous results. Only the players who stayed with their teams were up to the tempo required.
I didn;t see much since I witnessed the disaster against France, but I'd pick France and germany to advance. Also Sweden and Brazil but that might go to penalty kicks. Brazil has a problem at the back, playing with 3 and one of them a sweeper. If the US can stretch the field they might pour goals in, but the Brazilians counter vrey quickly and have some real magic in front of goal. Whoever goes out of those two, will be better than at least one of the semi finalists...
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Post 14 Jul 2011, 7:16 pm

I'm a bit surprised to see so little "action" in this thread of late. After the US beat Brazil in one of the best games I have ever seen (men OR women) followed by a pretty wild game vs France to meet Japan for the finals.

I did say this was not covered in a huge way over here in the States but after that Brazil game, one word ...WOW
They are being followed much closer now, this could very well be because I live in Abby's hometown and she is the talk of the town here. The team that won 10ish years ago was wonderful but tit was "expected" while this team is playing out of their minds and is so much more fun to watch!