Women's world cup

marksch wrote:

Nope....wouldn't be close. Women would dust the boys.

My 13yo daughter plays center mid on one of the top club teams in the Northeast. Ran a 65 second 400 in middle school track and is not a standout for speed. Her team would dust most high school boys teams. The USWNT? The boys would be crying before halftime.

You are delusional...a bunch of 7th grade girls couldn't match the size, speed and physicality of a HS boys team.

Maybe an apples to oranges comparison, but here goes...when I was a freshman in HS I played basketball and was on the "B" team. One afternoon they sent us over to scrimmage the varsity girls. They were a state-ranked, 20-win team that sent two players to DI schools. We blew their doors off...it wasn't even close. We got every rebound, every loose ball and they couldn't come close to stopping our fast break. These were 17-18 year old girls, btw.

I live in an area with state champion and sometimes nationally ranked girls soccer teams, and I haven't seen one team that could beat their own boys team, let alone a bunch of prepubescent girls doing something like that.

Get real.

I think the deficit in tactical and technical ability might be because the women's game is so much younger than the men's game.

Men have been playing international soccer since the 1800's, whereas women's sports didn't really take off until after title IX (1972) and there wasn't a women's world cup until 1991.

It's kind of like comparing the NBA in the 1970's, to the NBA today.

The other thing is that the USWNT has traditionally played a long ball style of play. For years they had Wambach up top and would just boom long balls and crosses in her direction. It worked pretty well, but she was also a transcendent player who could make that strategy work. As she fades with age we're probably gonna see a switch to more possession based style of play from the US.

As far as USWNT vs. high school age boys, it doesn't surprise me that they lose to the Junior National teams, but they would likely beat the majority of normal high school teams. I saw my high school team play many times, no way they would beat USWNT.

This post is right on. Look at our Women's team. It is pretty much all white women. Leroux and Boxx both have one white parent and one black parent. Look at the Men's team. They are very diverse and probably come pretty close to matching the demographics of the country as a whole.

Also to your point about watching the game to learn tactics. My buddy never played soccer after middle school. Then he got into the 2010 World Cup and watch pretty much every game. I noticed playing a pick up game soon after the World Cup that his field awareness was very good.

Years ago, in the Mia Hamm/Michelle Akers era, the coach would line up games against boys HS teams.

These would be the best in the state, at the end of there HS season, so they are in top shape.

The idea was that the boys are faster and more physical that any women's team they could play.

Team USA would usually, but not always, lose the games.

I was all about the post "how embarassing the USWNT loses to high schoolers" but thinking back to the US track championships this past weekend, it's almost to be expected.

Decent high schoolers (i.e., not elite) could've easily won pretty much every women's event. Heck, three out of four members of my high school 4x800 team could've won the 800, and we weren't even state champs! The very best high school boys would've absolutely smoked the women. The winner of the 1500 would've been more than a full straight ahead!

Men's sports and women's sports are completely different.

Maybe other women's games are different and both teams had an off night, but when a ball comes in on a longer pass and you can't trap the ball without it going 10 yards off your foot, that's a lack of skill. When you can't make a clean, crisp pass, that's a lack of a skill. When you can't dribble your way out of a pressure situation on your own end line, that's a lack of skill. Not making runs into the box is both a skill and a tactic (and coaching).

Anyone who watched the game last night would know you're being vague on these examples. While there may have been an uncontrolled pass and yada yada, they certainly weren't the norm and the level of play last night was incredible. I'm not saying the women's team would beat the U18 boys team, that point was clearly stated in the game last night. Also, it's hard to image someone calling themselves a huge soccer fan then admitting they hadn't watched a USWNT game in ten years. All the Olympic and WC finals not interesting a huge soccer fan seems unpossible. Back to the beach, Homer.

The fact that we are even talking women's soccer on this message board is a sign of progress for the game.

Alex Morgans middle finger wrote:

Curious why guys always feel compelled to compare women's athletics to men's? The conclusion always seems to be the same. Women just don't measure up, do they?

So stop watching women's sports and put an end to your compulsive need to belittle and dismiss their achievements.

I think it's precisely the opposite. Progressive women believe that athletic ability is socially constructed and thus women should be capable of parity with men. Hence the excitement and hype whenever a female tries to do this (The Williams sisters playing Kaarsten Baarsch, Anika Sorenstem playing a men's tournament, etc...). There is a persistently overinflated baseline of female athletic ability that has been socially constructed. Most guys just get involved to reset the baseline to where it really is - roughly equivalent to a talented high school boy.

RossiCheated wrote:

But the more fun question to me is why is there is difference in tactical acumen? I believe it boils down to depth among the highly skilled participants. There are more boys who really dedicate themselves to watching the game, studying the decision-making processes, and applying what they see in high-level soccer to their own games. If a boy makes a terrible decision, there is another capable boy on the bench who will suddenly get his chance to play and the kid who makes mistakes loses his spot or game time. So, they learn very quickly to make fewer mistakes.

It's a tricky issue, and it's one of the reasons why the US is not on the level of teams like Spain and Germany.

You know how the little league world series always has a man-child who developed early and dominates the competition? Soccer isn't too different. At the younger levels it's really easy to play a long-ball game and rely on big strong fast players to win the loose balls, create space with their size and strength, and score. But at the elite levels they'll get destroyed by a good possession team.

So until you have an entire infrastructure in place that is willing to sacrifice short-term success for the sake of developing touch and field vision, the path of least resistance is to develop "bigger, stronger, faster" athletes who play long ball soccer.

The US doesn't have the infrastructure for the women because it also doesn't have it for the men. The more interesting question is why Germany also plays long ball soccer. The answer is politically incorrect, but I suspect that it is because there isn't a large enough talent pool of motivated girls to nurture those skills. Maybe in ten or twenty years, but not today.

Yep, I didn't get into all that in my post about the lack of depth resulting in a lack of consequence for making errors, but I think you nail the something here.

The lack of depth is still a product of society. Consider, how long have the men been playing, how many young boys play, how "seriously" do parents take the game and does that differ whether they have a son or daughter, do we encourage boys to watch the game more than we do the girls, are more games on television that feature men than women (which are watched by boys and not girls), what rewards are available for playing at a very high level ($), do boys play soccer video games more than girls do (which can be a great learning tool), do the best coaches in the world work with the men or the women, and so on.

The physical differences are one thing. The "understanding" of the game and execution of strategies is something else.

I love watching the women and I root on Team USA. But you do see things like giving the ball away in the back third, booting it down field when a better play is to turn and send it thirty yards back to the keeper, playing your teammate into crazy 50-50 situations, sending it long with a 1-0 lead and you're in added time and should be dribbling to the corner flag, and so forth. These are things that would get a boy benched because the next man up won't make that mistake. At most levels the girl stays on the field because the replacement is a huge drop off.

But they'll get their. And as the world catches up and the competition is more fierce, they will all get better or they won't be winning for long.

And I hope they get "there" as well. I need an edit button!

The women's soccer team dusts any boys high school team in the country.

I am thinking in CC our women's world team would beat almost any boys team in the country. I think them versus FM last year might have been close, but I'd still bet on the women.

Alex Morgan's thong wrote:

As a solid club soccer player all the way up through U18 and a starting midfielder for my high school team, I got to wandering as I'm watching the women's World Cup; how would a decent high school boys soccer team do agains the U.S. Women's team? I'm thinking like a top 10 team in the state as far as quality goes. N

Watching these women make terrible decisions with their passing and watching shots with no power that never seem to hit their mark makes me upset that this is what the best in the world have to offer. Pace is slow but the drama is high. I'd say varsity boys team wins 5 or 6 to 0...

That's Amazaing that you are a "solid club soccer player" and actually are a "starting midfielder" for your high school team. As such an accomplished athlete I am surprised that I and most everyone in America HAVE NEVER HEARD OF YOU. It is great that you think your accomplishments are comparable as an athlete to a woman who has 1/7th the amount of testosterone that you have.

I am a man who was a state champion in high school, ran four years at a top tier Division 1 college program, and I would never compare myself to Jenny Simpson, Emma Coburn or any of the amazing female athletes we have representing our country at the upcoming world championships, as they are on a whole other level than what I was on.

We have a top notch women's soccer tradition in this country that is getting ready to play in the world cup final (something the men's team has never done, the closest we ever came was the semis in 1930). Their accomplishments are something that should be celebrated, not denigrated by some teenage mysogynist that is a nobody on the world scene. As for myself, my beautiful wife and my twin daughters who love soccer, we will all be cheering on the USWNT at the cup final on Sunday afternoon.

All the HS boys would think about is how to tackle the women and "score" on the field. As to the soccer match, women's team 3-1, but the boys go home happy.

Concupiscurd wrote:

You do realize that Women's National Team have played boys under 17 select team many times and always get shellacked.

https://twitter.com/Floresjr_/status/194565600402612224

Not even close.

This ^

In any real sport the best women in the world cannot compete against the top HS boys. Not even close.

I do have to admit it gets a bit tiresome though, seeing boys/men post about this topic. If you're a man compete against men. Appreciate the women's game for what it is or ignore it if you wish. But you sound kind of pathetic bringing up comparisons between the athletic abilities of the two sexes.

German Dude wrote:

Germany's womens team have played a under17 boys team of VFB Stuttgart (first tier club in Germany) before. They had to stop the game after the first half because it was basically a massacre.

It's not that it's a different league, it's a different sport.

Who would be on top of the massacre? And proof?

Alex Morgans middle finger wrote:

Curious why guys always feel compelled to compare women's athletics to men's? The conclusion always seems to be the same. Women just don't measure up, do they?

So stop watching women's sports and put an end to your compulsive need to belittle and dismiss their achievements.

This ^ too.

Well said.

Sesamoiditis wrote:

But if you are sports fan and don't watch women's sports the PC police call you sexist.

Actually no. Unless you are counting the PC police that apparently reside inside your head.

BS wrote:

...Also a select team is not the same as a good high school team - they are much better then just about any high school team.

If...then

better...than