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Cpat92 On May 16, 2021
It's all or nothing





Lauderhill, Florida
#1New Post! Jun 07, 2019 @ 18:00:18
It's the First Day of the Women's World Cup. Best of luck to the US team. Hope they make it all the way this year. Who are you rooting for?


Jennifer1984 On July 20, 2022
Returner and proud





Penzance, United Kingdom
#2New Post! Jul 05, 2019 @ 16:42:07
England will be playing for the bronze medal tomorrow against Sweden, having fallen at the semi final hurdle again.

The match against USA was very winnable. England could have won that game. USA weren't anything special, in fact both the USA goals were scored because the English centre backs were caught ball watching instead of marking their opponents properly.

Having said that, the USA players were much fitter and played the pressing game well. England helped in this by insisting on playing from the back when it was obvious that USA were going to put them under pressure.

Manager Phil Neville wants his defence to play the ball out from the back, which is great if the opposition retreat back to defence in their own half every time they lose the ball, but USA didn't. They stayed up and pressed the English defenders. Time after time we lost possession too close to our own goal. Not only was that dangerous from a defensive point of view but it also meant we couldn't build up attacking situations.

Neville showed a lack of tactical nous by not changing the system. The match was crying out for England to change the tactics but Neville wouldn't have it. Either that or he didn't know what to do.

Steph Houghton missed a late penalty which would have brought the scores level and it later emerged that when everybody was expecting Ellen White to take the kick, she didn't want to do it. Not very professional. When you're the top scorer in the tournament and your team needs you to step up to the plate, falling back on "nerves" isn't really an option. It's time to do a job for the team. The big players rise to the occasion.

Four years ago England lost in the semi final but beat Germany in the play off to take the bronze medal. That was considered an achievement back then. Now, third place will be deemed - and is - a failure.

Not surprisingly, male manager Phil Neville is unlikely to suffer losing his job for not getting England at least to the final....... which is what the FA said they appointed him to do and he repeatedly said his record would stand or fall by.

Neville's tenure as manager has been a lot of big talk and promises. The team had as good as qualified for the world cup when he replaced the disgraced Mark Sampson, sacked for racist insults to a former player and his history as a sexual predator at Bristol Academy* being made public,

Neville has also benefited from inheriting a rich crop of players in - he said pre tournament - peak form. And yet when the big match came along it was "Same Old England."

Hope Powell was the manager who took England from a shambolic, almost non-existent backwater of women's football and put in place the building blocks.... and the majority of the team that Neville now enjoys selecting.... for success. She didn't chase personal fame or recognition. Instead she built the international team from the ground up, especially in creating the youth development structure that produced Steph Houghton, Lucy Bronze, Jill Scott, Fran Kirby, Karen Bardsley and other players who are in the team now because of the work she did but was never able to enjoy the fruits of.

She fell after her last world cup because at that time the young players weren't yet ready. She went to that world cup with an ageing team that carried an agitator in the dressing room and an embittered enemy (the agitator's husband) at the FA, undermining all her efforts. Powell paid the penalty for not going deep into that tournament with her job after he put the knife into her after the world cup.

When her achievements in putting in place the organisation, structure, coaching and young player development systems were pointed out, it was said "Anybody could do the job she did with the money she was given."

Well, Phil Neville has been given five times the amount of funding that Hope Powell had. He's benefited from the young players she developed, now matured. Those players now have central contracts that have made them full time professionals, not the amateurs that Powell had to choose from...... housewives playing in their spare time against the world's best.

Neville has had every support both on and off the field. He had the pick of the best. And yet he has failed. Failed in his stated aim and failed in the target the FA set him.

If England fail to beat Sweden tomorrow we will actually have gone backwards since the last world cup.

Will he pay for that failure with his job...? I doubt it.






* The FA knew of Sampson's history via a report on his activities with young girls at Bristol Academy, and yet they appointed him anyway and kept the report secret and in a locked file until it came to light during the Eni Aluko scandal.

Aluko was the player Sampson dropped from the team after racially insulting her. Unfortunately for him, he forgot that she was a law graduate and knew how to prosecute.
Cpat92 On May 16, 2021
It's all or nothing





Lauderhill, Florida
#3New Post! Jul 05, 2019 @ 17:48:46
@Jennifer1984 Said

England will be playing for the bronze medal tomorrow against Sweden, having fallen at the semi final hurdle again.

The match against USA was very winnable. England could have won that game. USA weren't anything special, in fact both the USA goals were scored because the English centre backs were caught ball watching instead of marking their opponents properly.

Having said that, the USA players were much fitter and played the pressing game well. England helped in this by insisting on playing from the back when it was obvious that USA were going to put them under pressure.

Manager Phil Neville wants his defence to play the ball out from the back, which is great if the opposition retreat back to defence in their own half every time they lose the ball, but USA didn't. They stayed up and pressed the English defenders. Time after time we lost possession too close to our own goal. Not only was that dangerous from a defensive point of view but it also meant we couldn't build up attacking situations.

Neville showed a lack of tactical nous by not changing the system. The match was crying out for England to change the tactics but Neville wouldn't have it. Either that or he didn't know what to do.

Steph Houghton missed a late penalty which would have brought the scores level and it later emerged that when everybody was expecting Ellen White to take the kick, she didn't want to do it. Not very professional. When you're the top scorer in the tournament and your team needs you to step up to the plate, falling back on "nerves" isn't really an option. It's time to do a job for the team. The big players rise to the occasion.

Four years ago England lost in the semi final but beat Germany in the play off to take the bronze medal. That was considered an achievement back then. Now, third place will be deemed - and is - a failure.

Not surprisingly, male manager Phil Neville is unlikely to suffer losing his job for not getting England at least to the final....... which is what the FA said they appointed him to do and he repeatedly said his record would stand or fall by.

Neville's tenure as manager has been a lot of big talk and promises. The team had as good as qualified for the world cup when he replaced the disgraced Mark Sampson, sacked for racist insults to a former player and his history as a sexual predator at Bristol Academy* being made public,

Neville has also benefited from inheriting a rich crop of players in - he said pre tournament - peak form. And yet when the big match came along it was "Same Old England."

Hope Powell was the manager who took England from a shambolic, almost non-existent backwater of women's football and put in place the building blocks.... and the majority of the team that Neville now enjoys selecting.... for success. She didn't chase personal fame or recognition. Instead she built the international team from the ground up, especially in creating the youth development structure that produced Steph Houghton, Lucy Bronze, Jill Scott, Fran Kirby, Karen Bardsley and other players who are in the team now because of the work she did but was never able to enjoy the fruits of.

She fell after her last world cup because at that time the young players weren't yet ready. She went to that world cup with an ageing team that carried an agitator in the dressing room and an embittered enemy (the agitator's husband) at the FA, undermining all her efforts. Powell paid the penalty for not going deep into that tournament with her job after he put the knife into her after the world cup.

When her achievements in putting in place the organisation, structure, coaching and young player development systems were pointed out, it was said "Anybody could do the job she did with the money she was given."

Well, Phil Neville has been given five times the amount of funding that Hope Powell had. He's benefited from the young players she developed, now matured. Those players now have central contracts that have made them full time professionals, not the amateurs that Powell had to choose from...... housewives playing in their spare time against the world's best.

Neville has had every support both on and off the field. He had the pick of the best. And yet he has failed. Failed in his stated aim and failed in the target the FA set him.

If England fail to beat Sweden tomorrow we will actually have gone backwards since the last world cup.

Will he pay for that failure with his job...? I doubt it.






* The FA knew of Sampson's history via a report on his activities with young girls at Bristol Academy, and yet they appointed him anyway and kept the report secret and in a locked file until it came to light during the Eni Aluko scandal.

Aluko was the player Sampson dropped from the team after racially insulting her. Unfortunately for him, he forgot that she was a law graduate and knew how to prosecute.


Best of luck to England.
Jennifer1984 On July 20, 2022
Returner and proud





Penzance, United Kingdom
#4New Post! Jul 05, 2019 @ 18:12:37
Thanks for that, Pat. I hope all is good with you now, by the way.

The world cup final will be played on Sunday. USA stand a very good chance of winning. They're very fit, very athletic and they play a high tempo game that relies on putting the opposition under constant pressure. It was too much for England to handle.

I always say the same thing..... the best team on the day should win.

So.... bring it on. USA vs Holland.

Don't underestimate the Dutch. They are the current European Champions and are a very resilient bunch.

And you'll certainly be able to spot their fans in the crowd......




They like orange.
mrmhead On about 23 hours ago




NE, Ohio
#5New Post! Jul 06, 2019 @ 17:58:39
I guess England didn't have enough gays on their side ...
Jennifer1984 On July 20, 2022
Returner and proud





Penzance, United Kingdom
#6New Post! Jul 06, 2019 @ 18:16:01
@mrmhead Said

I guess England didn't have enough gays on their side ...



No, but ours are cuter.


Beth Mead (In a relationship with Dutch player Daniƫlle van de Donk), Jodie Taylor (Married to New Zealand player Emma Kete). , Karen Bardsley, Lucy Staniforth and Rachel Daly (Dating fellow Houston Dash player Kristie Mewis)
Jennifer1984 On July 20, 2022
Returner and proud





Penzance, United Kingdom
#7New Post! Jul 07, 2019 @ 08:12:48
You won't often find me posting anything written in the Daily Mail, but on this occasion there is a question that needs to be put to this particular forum:

Is the US Women's football team arrogant..?

Is The American Women's Team Guilty Of Arrogance..?

There is no disguising the fact that they are a very good team and are in the final on merit, but apart from Megan Rapinoe's using of the tournament to promote diversity issues, the Americans have won few friends in the last three weeks, as if they care. As long as they win it seems, nothing else matters.

And win tonight they had better do, because if they lose they will depart on their journey home with a level of derisive taunting ringing in their ears that nobody has heard since John Cleese told King Arthur that his mother was a hamster and his father smelled of elderberries.

Every non-American at the match today will be a Holland fan and the US would do well not to underestimate the Dutch. The current European Champions are not in the final by accident.

I'm sure the American's English head coach is aware of that. She was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire (where I went to university) and is still very heavily English accented in her manner of speech. You might have beaten England, but you needed an English coach to mastermind the victory. Still, it makes a change from winning with a Swedish coach.

Megan Rapinhoe has got the balance right in her press interviews but the rest of the team have given the impression of being smug, superior, self satisfied and looking down their noses at every opponent. From the excessive celebrating of their first match - or should that be mis-match - against Thailand, to the tea-sipping insult by Morgan after scoring her goal against England and Fox News's snidey, mocking parody of the card holding scene in Love Actually the inference has been clear throughout. "We are superior to you. You are inferior and we are going to make sure you know it."

Checking out the hotel the England players were staying in before the Semi Final with a view to them (the US team) using it as their base for the final may have been good "Mind Games" but it was viewed here as insulting, dismissive and smug. They were saying "We'll have your rooms because you won't be needing them."

This does the US team, the competition and women's football no credit.

The women's game has a fine reputation for inclusiveness, respect and humility on and off the field. We admire the team that wins and they in return expected to show their appreciation for the efforts of their opponents. Players leave the field as friends. In the last few games though, the handshakes and hugs being given to American players are beginning to look perfunctory and forced. That's not a good sign.

The French players weren't happy with some of the American gloating at them after the Quarter Final and this achieved something that being allies in two world wars, the Entente Cordiale, Concorde and the Channel Tunnel have failed to ever achieve:

It made French fans support England. In the semi final every French man and woman was an England supporter. it didn't do us any good, but the fact that it happened at all should be an indicator of how the reputation of America is being compromised by their players behaviour.

Over here we get the impression that Americans don't give a s*** about what anybody thinks of them as long as they win.

Certainly it's a good thing to have a winning mentality and there is no doubt that the US team is fit, well coached, highly motivated and very skillful. We admire those qualities and aspire to raising ourselves to that standard so we can challenge better in the future.

But the sneering smug superiority this team is starting to show ill behoves what is, in footballing terms, a very good team.

USA may very well leave Europe with a trophy and winners medals, but they won't be leaving many friends behind if they continue to behave in the manner that they do right now.

This is the picture that we over here have gained over the last three weeks. How do you guys over there see it...?
mrmhead On about 23 hours ago




NE, Ohio
#8New Post! Jul 07, 2019 @ 13:33:00

In an earlier post you indicate that Neville didn't coach well.
And a player didn't score on a penalty shot.

Then you turn around and say it took an "English" coach to put the Americans on top.

Oh well.

And as for arrogance - that's the way we do it here in the states. Watch more American football and you'll see some arrogance.

Really? That tea-sipping thing was so offensive?
mrmhead On about 23 hours ago




NE, Ohio
#9New Post! Jul 07, 2019 @ 14:08:42
Oh -and if a 13-0 victory is so offensive and embarrassing, maybe they should have a mercy rule, like they do in kiddie softball.
Leon On December 21, 2023




San Diego, California
#10New Post! Jul 07, 2019 @ 14:11:38
Prejudice and discrimination has had a deep, debilitating, sometimes brutal, history in our nation towards minorities and LGBT folk. This is why Muhammad Ali happened, and why a lot of individuals will take the uniquely presented opportunity to express themselves overtly on the sports stage.

It certainly is foreign to the preeminent politesse in sports and culture across the pond.
Jennifer1984 On July 20, 2022
Returner and proud





Penzance, United Kingdom
#11New Post! Jul 07, 2019 @ 15:57:45
Holland 0 USA 0 Half time

The Dutch dealt well with the US early powerplay. Their goalkeeper had to make a string of very good saves midway through the half though as US tried to turn their possession superiority into something on the scoreboard. Morgan fired in a powerful shot that the keeper saved low to her left and another effort from a corner came back off the post into the goalkeeper's arms. A shot from the edge of the penalty area was batted away and an American goal seemed certain to come sooner or later.

But the Dutch have been organised, disciplined and defensively solid. They could even have scored themselves at the end of the half as they broke through the US midfield several times to set up chances of their own.

The American girls don't look happy going off for the interval. The Dutch are clearly not reading the script. USA should be winning but they aren't. The Dutch are the happier of the two teams with the scoreline but I expect US to come out for the second half fired up. The early part of the second half to be one way traffic.

But US have to score. The longer it stays goalless the more frustrated US will get and if their discipline slips the Dutch have been masters in the past of the sucker punch.

It's goalless but dull it isn't. This game is tense and it's in the balance. It can go either way. Game on.
Jennifer1984 On July 20, 2022
Returner and proud





Penzance, United Kingdom
#12New Post! Jul 07, 2019 @ 16:18:32
VAR call for USA penalty. I bet it gets given
Jennifer1984 On July 20, 2022
Returner and proud





Penzance, United Kingdom
#13New Post! Jul 07, 2019 @ 16:19:18
It's given. And it's the right call.
Jennifer1984 On July 20, 2022
Returner and proud





Penzance, United Kingdom
#14New Post! Jul 07, 2019 @ 16:20:00
Rapinoe takes the kick. 1-0
Jennifer1984 On July 20, 2022
Returner and proud





Penzance, United Kingdom
#15New Post! Jul 07, 2019 @ 16:22:27
The goal should open up the game. Holland have to come out and attack now. That could leave spaces at the back for USA to exploit.

Ladies and gentlemen..... we have a game of football.
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