A 2-0 win away to Austria means the planes booked for the World Cup Down Under & Luxembourg ( who aren't as bad as Latvia ) to come midweek , reckon 5/7 - 1 , exhibition styleee !!!
5-0 at HT. World Cup qualifier: England 5-0 Luxembourg - Mead gets fifth Don’t know what England can get out of these sort of games apart from a lot of goals .
Men's qualifiers are a chore to watch, not surprised there was even less interest in the women's qualifiers given the gap between various nations. Ten games, goal difference of +80.
20-0 against Latvia What happened in the first leg against them when they won only 10-0? Did they cancel it after 45 minutes? So, 30-0 against Latvia in both matches plus another two double digits results in it. Only decent opponent was Austria with only a 1-0 win. Or is it a typo and it should be 10-0? btw: Germany yesterday in the WC Qualifiers with an 8-0 away win in Bulgaria. Already meaningless match because we're long qualified but it was remarkable nonetheless because Goalie Almuth Schult from Wolfsburg made her comeback after exactly 1165 days. Her last match was in the quarter finals, June29th, of the 2019 World Cup. At the Euro 2022, she was only #2 behind Merle Frohms who in the meantime is our #1. Now it was time to give her her comeback. Long pause (Shoulder injury, gave birth to twins). Welcome back, Almuth!
I think Women's football is 20-30 years away from being competitive for all teams with last night England & Austria both scoring 10 bring eclipsed by the Swiss scoring 15 . If you look at last night's opposition Luxembourg ( only the 3rd worse team in the Group ) in the mens game 20-30 years ago if you drew them & didn't score 6+ goals in a game that was seen as disappointing , fast forward 20-30 years & ask both of the Irish teams in recent years , they're now competitive just San Marino , Gibraltar etc... to step up .
Coming back to the domestic game, this is very true! The success of the Lionesses and the TV deals in place with Sky and the BBC are NOT being used to promote the WSL, but to promote the 4 big teams! The money for Sky comes from advertisers and realistically, they want to see their product advertised during a Chelsea vs Manchester United game, rather than Leicerster City vs Reading. When the Sky deal first happened, they initially released their first 15 fixtures and 12 of them featured the ‘big’ 4 I started watching women’s football following the good BBC coverage of the Lionesses at the 2015 world cup. At that time, there was no Man U, Arsenal were going through a little slump and the big 2 of Chelsea and Man City were noticeably better but not to the point of teams not competing with them! I support Reading. Since we got promoted to the WSL, Only Man City, Chelsea and Arsenal have had more wins or more points than us (Add in Man U on a pro rata basis, as they haven’t been in the league as long), so we have not been bad at all, but when the Women’s football show started on BBC, it was noticeable that we barely got a mention. If we were playing one of the big sides, we would get highlights, but the punditry would ONLY be about the big side. If we weren’t, we were almost always on lats, showing just the goals and often (in the early days) while the presenters talked over the goals about something else (Upcoming games or the latest in the championship). Since Sky started their coverage, it has all been focussed on the big 4 again. The other clubs are just there to make up the numbers it seems! The money from the Sky deal was supposed to be spread evenly across all clubs. Is it? I’m not saying it isn’t, but I see the top clubs spending big on the best players in the world, while the rest are falling further and further behind! In November 2017, we beat Arsenal away in the FA Cup, before drawing with them a few weeks later in the league. In March 2018, we drew away to Chelsea, then went to City the next week and beat them 2-0, despite having Jo Potter sent off. In March 2019, it took two ludicrously late goals for City to scrape a win, before we beat United in the FA Cup quarter finals a few days later and in February 2020, we drew with United in the league. My point is that it was possible to compete with the big 4 – Not just Reading. I mean all of the rest! Now that the money is there for the big clubs to sign the world stars? To be honest, I go to most games against the big clubs just hoping we get a serious shot on goal at some point! Last season, it was a massive shock when we beat Chelsea 1-0 (Chelsea had 77% possession and 34 shots. It was 1 way traffic). Despite this shock, our record in the 8 games against the big 4 was scored 2, conceded 24. If a team was that far off of the big 4, 5 years ago, they would have been relegated. In fact, we were 8th, just 7 points behind Spurs in 5th (The best of the rest if you like) It's just a matter of time before clubs outside the big 4 find they can’t compete and can’t survive financially unless something is done to promote the whole league and not just 4 teams!
SwissRamble did an interesting thread on the finances in the WSL. Essentially most are running at a sizeable loss but are being propped up by the overall (mens) club - which makes a massive difference at the top 4 you mentioned opposed to Reading in the Championship. Worth a look through if you're interested in the finances of the women's game.
Totally agree. She jumps up and her hand barely gets as high as the crossbar. I wish they wouldn't try to make these goals something they're not. People can see through it and it only damages the women's game imo.
Yeah, that was my thought when seeing it. Second goal was also pretty long range. Good win for Spurs though. Nice to start the season with a win. Manchester City starting the season with a defeat so probably the same top 2 as last season going for the title.
Surprised. Watched the first half and didn't really see Liverpool getting back in to it. You expect Chelsea to win from that position.
City got no chance this season. Sold all best players plus Ellen White retiring, lost 4-3 at Villa and go Chelsea next week where we always lose.
I thought Chelsea had more reasons to argue about Liverpool's equalising penalty than the winning one (which I thought was a clear foul by Buchanan), but either way Liverpool did well to earn the victory.
50,000 tickets sold for the North London "derby" this weekend. I think the North London derby holds the previous record for highest attendance in an English club game too (38,000ish) so it's smashed that this time around. Barely registers as a derby for me. Arsenal have been so clear of Spurs that there's not much of a rivalry there. Spurs go into every game knowing they'll probably lose, such a one-sided fixture. I don't think Spurs have ever won it and I'd be surprised if that changes this weekend. Should be a good occasion nonetheless, it'll be interesting how many more tickets get sold before the game.
