I dunno going defense is just a way to get piled on into submission against a better USA side. Our defense is the worst part anyway.
Yes leave the wooden shoes and tulip celebrations to the Dutch.
Well men's competitive football is by far the biggest and most professionalized sport in the world. Conversely, women competitive football was just a hobby for most of the world outside of the USA until very recently. Most major European football teams seem more interested in setting up an esports section than a women's team. In addition the football pitch is much bigger than any of the other sports you mention, requiring more strength and endurance.
I don't think so.
So the best hope the Dutch have is to foul Morgan and Rapinoe nonstop to blunt any attack they muster?
Yep this is the first time the US side will have more rest than their opponent all tournament through the knockouts. Rapinoe should be good to start with the extra rest and the squad will be at full strength against the Dutch
even if she's not at full strength got plenty of options backup wise or just keep her in for possible PK's
how did that work out for Spain?
No the best hope is that the Dutch finally reach their potential this tournament.
with Miedema not on form and Marten's not on form/injured, Van De Sanden being poor, no way I can rate Netherlands attack better than England's or France's.
Yeah the pitch is too big, we were talking about it yday.
For basketball there is a lot more contact, so I understand the difference in the way they play. For football even if you dont consider speed, strength, just the technical level is really big. As someone that quoted me said, women's football just recently started to grow in more countries, it used to be an USA thing mostly. If I am not mistaken only this week Real Madrid, the greatest (men) club in the world creates their women team (I think they bought some team to make their way into the first division instead of starting in lower levels).
prize money is still too low even doubled. and going to 32 countries means waaaay more money for them
I think they should give it one more cup before they raise the number. Let the others catch up in terms of skill level.
Problem is without a chance to make into the tournament (more spots), a lot of countries won't invest as much locally. This way you can start spurring investment in kids soccer even if one or two tournaments will have weaker players until the pipeline improves.
You can't look at this tourney and say it's ready, you have to look at the state of women's football in many countries, Foxsports broadcast mention Chile and Argentina don't have funding from their football federation, Thailand has players who have regular jobs, The tournament can't expand until the women's game is being probably funded..
On the flip side, being able to make the tournament will encourage more countries to invest in their programs. You have to deal with these sorts of results in order to truly grow the game on an international level.
