US only beat Vietnam 3-0? Yikes. I'm calling a quarterfinal shootout loss in devastating fashion. Hopefully a more deserving and also more aesthetically pleasing team such as Australia or France wins this. Those are national teams to actually be proud of.
France was not aesthetically pleasing in that match.
Aussies and kiwis have supported all matches with decent crowds. Two more 40,000 attendances for non-national team matches for the USA and England and 39,000 in Sydney at France match.
We Aussies sure love the big football codes, soccer, AFL and rugby versions, although club soccer not that well attended.
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And women' soccer at that. Better chance I would watch the WNBA and there is zero chance of that
The worst WWC game is infinitely better than that bogus American sport, throwball. They line up, run a play, take a breather, another play, maybe a commercial, then more plays and time for another breather at the end of the 1st quarter. Then on to halftime then to the end of the 3rd quarter, repeat, rinse, and finally, drearily to the end. And those poor lineman. Get them some oxygen masks, they can hardly breathe.
Have they ever done a study of the life expectancy of throwball linemen?
I had several friends, all of whom are huge soccer nuts, who watched the Inter Miami game simply due to Messi.
When I said "But the US Womens National Team is playing at the same time and they're in the World Cup!", almost every text back was"Yeah but it's Vietnam, who cares, esp when Messi is making his debut in America".
Yeah, I watched a little of both and I just wonder if there aren't really 32 "world class" soccer teams in the women's game. I saw the graphic that said the shots were USA 26, Vietnam 0... not shots on goal but shots period, they didn't manage a single one! Maybe they're more competitive against Portugal next time but it just seemed a little absurd.
I am cynical enough to believe that USA was ordered to go easy on Vietnam. A 12 - 0 victory would have shown how weak women's soccer really is....which it is.
NZ is in its 7th World Cup (yes 7) and just won its 1st WC match. So that is a 1 - 19 record.
Can you imagine Vietnam ever qualifying for the real World Cup?
18/23 Phillipine players American born. Talk about mercenary.
Women who are actually born and raised in the Phillipines aren't encouraged to do anything other than become nurses. (I'm of Filipino descent.) They had to go abroad to field any sort of team because they certainly don't have any national infrastructure for the sport.
More broadly, people switching nationalities for national teams now is quite common. Several top players for the US men's team are British. Previously, they tried to use bargain basement Germans who had American miltary fathers. Jamaica has improved since recruiting British players of Jamaican descent. I could go on and on ... And we all see it in T&F too.
National representation is kind of moot really, except the World Cups are such money makers.
Yeah, I watched a little of both and I just wonder if there aren't really 32 "world class" soccer teams in the women's game. I saw the graphic that said the shots were USA 26, Vietnam 0... not shots on goal but shots period, they didn't manage a single one! Maybe they're more competitive against Portugal next time but it just seemed a little absurd.
I am cynical enough to believe that USA was ordered to go easy on Vietnam. A 12 - 0 victory would have shown how weak women's soccer really is....which it is.
NZ is in its 7th World Cup (yes 7) and just won its 1st WC match. So that is a 1 - 19 record.
Can you imagine Vietnam ever qualifying for the real World Cup?
The quality of women's soccer is highly dependent on women's access to sport and equity. Not many nations have it -- England, Sweden, Netherlands being the obvious ones that come to mind. It's why the US has been so good for so long, but now that it's more embraced in Europe the US dominance may wane.
So yeah the competition is a tough watch at times because there's such a gulf between the top teams and these smaller sides. But upsets happen like in any sport. The US look vulnerable because a lot of the team are first-timers. The pressure of a 3-peat may drag on them.
18/23 Phillipine players American born. Talk about mercenary.
Just about all teams have players from other countries on them. I believe that Ireland also has a fair number of Americans and I know of at least one Scottish player and perhaps a player from England (soccer has different federations for England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. There is no UK team). Other countries have Americans as well.
In men's soccer, the USMNT has Mexican born players. Sergino Dest, one of the top players on the USMNT, was born in the Netherlands.
As long as players meet the requirements of being on teams, usually through bloodlines of parents, playing for another country is not a big deal. I would rather see more teams that have good players allowing for better competition rather than just a few teams that have any decent players and a bunch of lopsided games.
The quality of women's soccer is highly dependent on women's access to sport and equity. Not many nations have it -- England, Sweden, Netherlands being the obvious ones that come to mind. It's why the US has been so good for so long, but now that it's more embraced in Europe the US dominance may wane.
So yeah the competition is a tough watch at times because there's such a gulf between the top teams and these smaller sides. But upsets happen like in any sport. The US look vulnerable because a lot of the team are first-timers. The pressure of a 3-peat may drag on them.
Other countries are definitely catching up to the US Women and a few, within 5-10 years, will surpass the US women. Look at some of the US youth teams like the U18s & U20s. They're getting murdered in international competition. A lot of that is due to how messed up the club system in the US is.
There was a recent article on that very subject...
The USWNT team has continued to win. But beneath the surface, cracks are crystalizing. With European powers investing and improving, the vulnerable balance of power in international women’s soccer is shifting.
