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2023 Women's World Cup
- Thread starter Ian4
- Start date
Geez that pass from Fowler was incredible; as good as you will see anywhere. She is all class. And a brilliant first touch and finish from Foord to top it off. Excellent lead up to the second goal as well; beautiful assist from Van Egmond and clinical finish from Raso.
Great effort Matildas.
Great effort Matildas.
Fowler is only 20 years old. She has the world at her feet.
Was on the phone at the 80 minute mark booking flights to Brisbane
TV ratings last night incredible. Records broken.
Ahem ahem
Was on the phone at the 80 minute mark booking flights to Brisbane
TV ratings last night incredible. Records broken.
Ahem ahem
Girls really peaking at the right time - the midfield which was our weakness looks pretty strong with Gorry, Chidiac and Van Egmond looks pretty good - Fowler playing between the lines to put that last ball through is working great.
Could well beat France next round (or Morocco)
Could well beat France next round (or Morocco)
The Matildas were great yesterday, watched the game on the train heading back to the GC after watching England stumble past Nigeria. Hoping that was the lucky win we needed to keep pushing forward as really Nigeria were the better team.
I really like the way the Matildas are playing, a bit less defensive than England at the moment which is showing on the scoresheet.
Its a really close world cup, I reckon only Japan have pushed through all their games without raising some doubts. There are doubts around every other team, which makes it so close.
I was reading some stats the other day around how successful this world cup has been so far in terms of ticket sales, merchandise sales etc. Absolutely smashing targets.
I really like the way the Matildas are playing, a bit less defensive than England at the moment which is showing on the scoresheet.
Its a really close world cup, I reckon only Japan have pushed through all their games without raising some doubts. There are doubts around every other team, which makes it so close.
I was reading some stats the other day around how successful this world cup has been so far in terms of ticket sales, merchandise sales etc. Absolutely smashing targets.
Chidiac? You mean Cooney-Cross?
She is my new favourite- so composed with the ball. Her and Fowler (and Hunt and Carpenter) should be our nucleus for the next 3 World Cup after this.
Foord played her best game of the tournament- as a team we did real well to give her a lot of space, so even when a defender was near she was usually 1-1.
Good to see Kerr get a run. I expect she will start on the bench again next game, but hopefully play a bit longer (hopefully again coming on when the game is won!)
Australia built it, and they’ve come
Average crowds of more than 30,000 show there is more to this World Cup than the Matildas. Football Australia think they’ve backed a winner.
The challenge will be how to maintain interest when all the Matildas spread back across Europe. Hopefully they can continue to play regular matches in Australia, against quality opposition.
I suspect by the next world cup Fowler will be the name all the kids are talking about.Fowler is only 20 years old. She has the world at her feet.
Was on the phone at the 80 minute mark booking flights to Brisbane
TV ratings last night incredible. Records broken.
Ahem ahem
She is just so clean and confident on both feet, as her confidence grows which we are seeing now she will be something very very special.
Once England went down to 10, Nigeria were on the attack- but they spent the last 20 minutes of regular time, and all the extra time bombing balls into a crowded box. They really needed to try to break down the defence. (Incredibly stupid by James too.)
It was petulant, but just like AFL so much comes from umpiring / refereeing. I was mentioning this at the game, but she was very tightly marked the whole game, was held constantly, had her ankles constantly kicked. I had been expecting her to be subbed off but then she retaliated. It was stupid, but the referee should have protected her from constant fouling through the game.
It was a strange game, the Nigerians had a very good plan for counter attack and they performed it very well, got their defence and midfields lines in play very quickly (they ran really hard both ways) and stifled England but I felt we played into it, constantly playing the ball backwards. I thought we'd shown the blueprint in the final 5-10 mins of the 1st half when we got Walsh on the ball a bit more in attacking areas and she started to open the game up, but then the 2nd half reverted straight back to how the first 30 mins of the 1st half was played. England playing the ball backwards, Nigeria pressuring and then pushing forward quickly.
I thought once we went down to 10, the Nigerians weren't sure what to do, their counter attack gameplan was gone as they were being provided most of the ball and they didn't then know how to break the English defence down.
Probably the poorest tactically I've seen Wiegmann, she's normally very good and tactically astute. I thought she got it all wrong yesterday. With James being marked so tightly, if you are keeping her on, we should have had her playing a selfless game and running patterns into the channels, to open up space in the middle of the pitch for the other mids, but we kept her through the middle the whole time. Either their defensive mid that manned her all game goes with her and as I mentioned opens the midfield up, or she doesn't and then James gets free but we did none of that. Russo was holding the ball up well, and when down to 10 we needed that more than ever, so she subs her off for Kelly, who isn't a back to goal type player, you want her running at defences, so we couldn't hold it up and get forward. I thought she got most of her decisions wrong yesterday, but we lucked out (and I was shocked to see an England penalty shootout win, they don't normally end like that!!).
Regardless, I reckon most of us if we care to admit it, are probably not too disappointed to see the US falter (even if our motivations are quite different to Trump).
Just not a particularly likeable team. And have dominated women's football (soccer) in it's formative stages simply due to first mover advantage. I think as the more recognised football nations (as in, those that feature prominently on the men's scene) continue to catch on and pay their women's ranks more attention, a lot of this early mover advantage will dissipate. So the US will come back to the pack somewhat. Perhaps not as pronounced as their men, as their male athletic talent pool will still have the situation that the best and brightest are attracted to primarily domestic sporting pursuits. All of that probably something Australia will need to be keenly aware of too, with some common themes. As time goes on, I foresee a situation where the men's and women's FIFA rankings correlate relatively closely, with a few differences (such as countries like Iran and the Arab world being far slower to catch on and the likes of Australia, US and Canada perhaps relatively out performing their men a touch due to unique domestic sporting dynamics I mentioned).
On a bit of a tangent, Sam Kerr was a very good junior Aussie rules footy player. Only left the sport to pursue soccer at the age of 13 due to no pathways to youth and seniors existing at the time for females. Had the AFLW and associated pathways existed at the time, sounds perhaps like a sliding door moment in history where soccer and the Matildas never would have been treated to her talent. Similar to how it seems Erin Philips likely would have never been known to basketball if further pathways existed for her to pursue Aussie Rules footy.
By the way, Megan Rapinoe has been widely criticised recently even by people who might otherwise be loosely aligned to her world view. Her social justice performative persona is a bit over the top. Trying to display an overt piousness to the causes she aligns to. Hence, when questioned recently on the issue of transgender people in sport, her response was rather predictable. She supports the principal of trans-women (biological males who have transitioned to, or identify as females) competing in women's football (soccer). Seems a pretty sanctimonious stance. She's had a long and prosperous career, and now essentially infers, subsequent generations of female players should compete against people born biologically male.
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I was told that the World Cup authorities were offered marvel by the AFL and the AFL were told that they wanted it exclusively for 6 weeks and that is why it didn’t happen.
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Regardless, the commentary team (including those from overseas) were quite complementary of AAMI as being a perfectly sized, intimate venue for this tournament. So though fluke of circumstance actually not too bad. Just a shame the inflexible policies of the two organisations couldn't allow for just one or two larger games to be played at the likes of the Docklands.
I guess the World Cup authorities were worried about the surface if afl was played on it, which is probably correct.
You are right AAMI is great and perfect for a crowd to any game except for one that includes the Matildas
FIFA rules dictate a venue needs be empty for 2 weeks before the tournament and 1 week after- so basically 7 weeks (tho you could probably squeeze in a Friday night at the start and a Sunday game at the end.
