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2023 Women's World Cup
- Thread starter Ian4
- Start date
That buttock stomping englishwoman didnt look like she was having much fun?
But yeah i know what you mean: seems a lot of smiles and laughter amongst matildas which is refreshing.
But its easy to smile when your winning.
Don’t get me wrong. Professional level women in any sport really, really want to win. The competitive instinct is there.
But (in terribly gross general terms) it seems to manifest quite differently in women than men. It doesn’t come across quite as much life and death as men treat it. Not just among players, but supporters as well. And my observation is that this phenomenon spreads all the way from elite sport to all relative levels below it. Perhaps the relative weightings of motivational factors for playing are quite different.
As an extension to this, if soccer was traditionally more of a female sport than male (both in participation and support), you can guarantee ultras, firms and football hooligan subcultures wouldn’t really be a thing (similarly, I don’t think we’ll see riots in the streets of Paris and Marseille around tonight’s France vs Morocco clash).
I was going to second guess myself thinking about how highly strung tennis players can be both male and female. But on average, once again, the blokes seem to just be on another level of intensity, treating it as life or death, with the annoying behavioural traits that come with that.
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True, although Tonya Harding’s an extreme and bizarre case. Her abusive upbringing perhaps contributed a fair bit to her behaviour. And the dumb knuckle headed couple of blokes she was surrounded by the other major factor.
read back on my posts on the Matildas thread in the lead up to this tournament. It’s a disgrace that the self-proclaimed sporting capital of the universe doesn’t has a suitable stadium for the final stages of the third biggest sporting event in world sport.
Football Australia CEO James Johnson came out last week and said the MCG will not be part of any future bid for the men’s world cup. And rightly so. Take note Victoria.
As a proud Melburnian, I thought it was embarrassing seeing Dan Andrews post about the crowd at Fed Square on Monday night.
that is 100% wrong.
Van Egmond to the bench. Fowler in the midfield.
And before anyone asks… yes, Kerr must start on Saturday. It’s a world cup quarter final. We have to throw everything at France.
Yeh, how much fun did the tigers (and us fans) have when we were winning?
Female athlete's in general whinge a lot less than their male counterparts. My most favourite Aust sports people are Ash Barty & Sam Kerr. Amazing at their sport yet so humble/grateful/intelligent/kind......I think the last high-ranking male sportsman like that would have been Pat Rafter? Most aussie golfers are in general likeable.
Tim Cahill was very likeable, and the socceroos have never had many tossers on the teams?
Is it the fame, adulation and money that infects the men to such a degree they lose a bit of perspective?
Perhaps when women sports have the same coverage & $$$ they will too lose perspective and become less likeable?
Possibly, or possibly not. The different psychology (again, grossly in broad average terms) of how males and females treat sport and hence, act, I also observe filtering down to every level.
Look at how a lot of blokes carry on at the golf course. Nearly seen as a right of passage. Ridiculous behaviour so common from people who won't ever even win their club championship off a handicap of 12. Just don't see it as commonly in the (admittedly smaller pool of) females who play grass roots golf, nowhere near in fact.
Anecdotally, a colleague who umpires local level footy for both men and women observes quite different atmosphere on the ground as to how men and women act, towards team mates, the opposition, toward the umpire and toward the sport itself. And the supporters he said are more mellow generally. Similar to my golf example.
I think for blokes generally, something about our psychology that it is treated far more life and death. Again, that's not to say women don't really really want to win, or don't have strong competitive instincts. But women's motivations for sport seem to manifest a bit differently. Again, stressing, this is in gross average terms. It is of course, a spectrum.
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Trent Cotchin?
Jack Riewoldt?
Shane Edwards?
Kane Lambert?
Dave Astbury?
Ty Zantuck?
Patrick Dangerfield?
I dont think, at the top level, it is a different attitude towards winning, i think it is cultural- both on and off the pitch. Just as men are more likely to punch on on the field, they are more likely to punch on at the pub.
Likewise on the sidelines- at my local football club, people go to the women's game to enjoy the game and support the players, they go to men's games to have a drink and "get involved" in the game (a bit exaggerated- but true to a point.)
True, although culture and psychological wiring obviously intertwine.
I even see tentative signs of it in the 6/7YO kids I've coached for soccer over the past two years. Mixed team of boys and girls. At this age, the association doesn't keep score. The emphasis is on fun and participation, but also get them used to the concept of getting involved in a physical contest, without worrying about a score line.
You can guess which kids are the ones keeping score and continually discussing it on the field, obsessing over it. Even reminding the opposition what the score is, when they are up (makes me cringe and almost apologetic to the opposition coaches). The ones I have to keep reminding, don't worry about the score? It's the boys. The girls know it, and do have some interest, it's not that they don't care at all. But it's just not as important to them. And I don't think it's socialised in the kids I'm coaching. The parents I have, thankfully are pretty mellow and laid back about it all.
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I agree and as someone who used to play hockey the same thing applies to that game. The slightly slower paced women's game allows spectators to better appreciate whats happening and the skills.
You should be confident. The Colombian crowd was awesome last night- better atmosphere than the Aust/Canada game, but i reckon the class difference between the teams last night and the better teams in the world was evident.
Having said that they beat Germany, and Nigeria took you to penalties so no guarantees.
I snagged a ticket for Saturday, but getting to the semi will be too hard if we get through. I hope Lauren James gets 2 games though
All games are tough. We will have to defend well on Saturday. and the fans just have to bring the noise.
Yeah looking forward to the atmosphere, should be a good one.
Colombia were definitely better than Jamaica and from a game perspective, it will be a much better game vs Colombia than against Jamaica. As we know from the first few seasons of AFLW, its much easier to teach weaker players defensive systems than offensive and you saw that with Jamaica this tournament, less quality so I think they scored 1 goal, but they also only conceded 1 goal. Defensively very good, but weak offensively. Nigeria played a strong defensive game to stifle England and Jamaica would have done the same so the game should be a lot more open against Colombia as they will attack us, but that should hopefully leave more gaps for England to exploit too.
I'm relatively confident as we are also strong defensively (1 goal conceded and that was from the penalty spot) but we need to have more going forward. James I think would have been perfect for this game which is a shame.
