2023 World Cup Soccer: anyone watching?

The Aussies win it all.

England vs Spain. You know who I’m going for. The England v Australia was quite the track meet. Don’t know that I have seen a women’s game played that wide open before. It was entertaining.

The Kerr blast from ~25 yards out was a classy goal.

Very popular in Europe, and by latinos in America.

I watch the World Cup like I do the WNBA.

Never.

Aussies fell short to the better team (England). Great effort to get last four. I hope England wins final.

Real shame Aust knocked out. Final should be good though, and third place match.

to answer the OP, last night’s semi had over 11 million viewers just in Aust (population 25 million) does that answer your question???

Will be interesting to watch. They last met in the 2022 Euros. Spain lost 1-2. England made the most of their opportunities. Spain out shot them 17:9 and controlled possession (as they are known to do). I said almost a year ago that Spain would win it all, and I will stand by that prediction. They play the game beautifully.

From what I have seen, I think English are the better team. But as we know, you can still lose being the better team.

I expect the next few WC for women to be tougher as more countries embrace female participation and the huge prizemoney ( $US4,290,000 team,. $2US70,000 per player, $US10,500,000 total). (US110 million total for all placings)

England is more physical. Spain is more technical. It should be a good match. Salma has proven to be the wildcard that has pushed them over the top. She has elite speed and good size. She has scored a number of goals in spite of being obstructed a lot.

Spain plays more a more tika taka possession style, just like their men do, and sometimes lack width in the midfield. That is my preferred style of soccer to watch but sometimes it can be exploited down the flanks by fast outside back and wingers and England has that.

I was hoping for a Spain vs Australia matchup in the final and the two players that are arguably the best in the world, Sam Kerr of Australia and Alexia Putellas of Spain, facing each other. With Kerr now in the EPL at Chelsea & Putellas at Liga Spanish side Barcelona, they don't face each other in the club season.

I say Putellas makes the difference in the finals with Spain prevailing, 1-0 England misses losing Ellen White to retirement and can't find the back of the net.

You're boring. Would you like some little violins playing for your insufferable ass?

Kosovare Asllani, a Swedish midfielder, was being interviewed by an American journalist after Sweden defeated the US. The journalist started bagging on the US women. Asllani wasn't having it and replied with "How can you ask me this? Don’t talk sh!t about the American team. You can’t say this." 👏

There you have it - a Swedish athlete that respects the USA more than you do.

Asllani then went on to bag on Donald Trump and some others that turned the team’s demise into anti-woke drivel. She defended team’s off-field campaign to boost pay for female players and them advocating for LGBTQ rights. She said those actions will long outlive the team's disappointing showing at the World Cup.

There you have it - a Swedish athlete that respects the USA more than a former president does.

Viva Espana

England played with very little cohesion compared to Spain.

England has better individual players, and they could rarely work together.

I pretty much watched all the world cup games...I have been watching the Women's World Cup since the mid 80's.

Spain was one of the most fun teams to watch. They were like "energizer bunnies" all over the field and fighting every ball. I disagree that England had better players. Individually Spain had the more skilled players. They were better passers and ball handlers.

There was some attention to Salma Paralluelo because she was also T&F athlet for years ParticipatIng with 15 at 2019 European Indoor Championships over 400m. Also she is the national U18 record holder for 400m hurdles with 57,43s. First at last year summer she decide for soccer only after signing contract for FC Barcelona.

They are well coached, even if they may or like him. The US players generally didn’t like Ellis and Gustavsson. So when the woke GM selected Andonovski, who a lot of the players liked. Meanwhile, 15 players walked out on Vilda trying to get him fired because his practices were too hard and because of who he selected for the team. Spain won the World Cup, Australia reached its first semifinal and the U.S. got knocked out at the start of the knock out rounds. Spain plays the game beautifully. They pass well, they move well and they defend well. A team playing together usually beats a team with a couple better athletes trying to play one v one.

I will give due credit to the English goalie. She had an amazing game in the loss.