Womens FA Cup Final

[LDB]

Women's football

Yeah, sorry, me too. I've tried to watch it. It's fucking appalling. Honestly my boy's Under 9's team play at a far better technical level.

There's people who actually argue that it would be around lower-league/Conference standard

Although in my experience those tend to be people who don't watch football and have never seen a game of women's football in their life.

The top women players are technically superior to lower-league/conference men I'd say but that of course doesn't mean they'd win against them

[northbank123]

Women's football

Yeah, sorry, me too. I've tried to watch it. It's fucking appalling. Honestly my boy's Under 9's team play at a far better technical level.

There's people who actually argue that it would be around lower-league/Conference standard

Although in my experience those tend to be people who don't watch football and have never seen a game of women's football in their life.

The top women players are technically superior to lower-league/conference men I'd say but that of course doesn't mean they'd win against them

Mate I have to one billion percent disagree with that. I'm only judging based on what I've seen but I'd say I've got more perspective on the issue than most.

Having played against a strong U18s academy team a few times pretty much all of their players could ping a ball 50 yards to within a few feet of you 9 times out of 10 (and I have no doubt that lower league footballers would do the same) - every time I've watched women's football the amount of scuffing, slicing, hacking etc that goes on is astounding. Likewise, it's a real rarity to find even a WSL player who can head a football to anywhere near the standard expected of semi-pro footballers. The vast majority of WSL games are largely kick-and-rush football.

I went to watch Bristol v Birmingham last year - two of the supposedly better teams in the WSL. I watched the England goalkeeper warm up from a few yards away and she couldn't even catch a football - I say without a hint of humour or exaggeration that I'm a comfortably better goalkeeper than her and would walk into the England team. Despite there being a few internationals playing the only impressive player was some dyke up front for Bristol who has since pissed off to America to play.

For the past two pre-seasons my club's youth team has played friendlies against Bristol Ladies who have put out strong/full sides - and the scores were 8-0 and 4-0 to our youth team, who commented that the women were well-organised (as expected with training regularly) but technically far inferior to what they face against other strong regional youth teams.

[Clash]

In no particular order. Five changes I’d like to see made in the future for women’s football:


1) Don’t televise it. Ever.

2) If they still insist on playing, make it 15 mins each way. No subs allowed, no stoppages of any kind. Just get it over with ASAP.

3) At least stick a man in each goal. Women keepers are excruciatingly bad to watch in action.

4) If they stubbornly want to stick with women keepers, then make the goals and the pitch smaller.

5) Actually, make the pitch really really small, replace each player with a Subbuteo figure and once the creases in the pitch have been ironed out, let men take control of the situation.


And please don’t let them all come out at the Emirates to wave at the crowd when they’ve won yet another treble or whatever. It is nothing to do with what I am there for. I don't care! When the youth team wins something, that's good, they might be in our first team one day. But with the women that can’t happen, so what relevance does it have?

Let me ask this: if there was a cock fight and one of the cocks was dressed in Arsenal colours and the other in Norwich colours - are Arsenal supporters in some way obliged to cheer on the cock in red? Is there any less relevance to this than cheering on the women's team? I realise some might think it is harsh that I have mentioned women playing football in the same sentence as cock fighting, especially as one of the events appears to involve nothing more than random flapping around and a lot of loud squawking. But to be fair, cock fighting has plenty of that as well!

(And no I wouldn't dare say any of this to one of our triumphant women's team face to face. Especially the goalie. she looks a bit crazy)

[LeftfootlegendGooner]

In no particular order. Five changes I’d like to see made in the future for women’s football:


1) Don’t televise it. Ever.

2) If they still insist on playing, make it 15 mins each way. No subs allowed, no stoppages of any kind. Just get it over with ASAP.

3) At least stick a man in each goal. Women keepers are excruciatingly bad to watch in action.

4) If they stubbornly want to stick with women keepers, then make the goals and the pitch smaller.

5) Actually, make the pitch really really small, replace each player with a Subbuteo figure and once the creases in the pitch have been ironed out, let men take control of the situation.


And please don’t let them all come out at the Emirates to wave at the crowd when they’ve won yet another treble or whatever. It is nothing to do with what I am there for. I don't care! When the youth team wins something, that's good, they might be in our first team one day. But with the women that can’t happen, so what relevance does it have?

Let me ask this: if there was a cock fight and one of the cocks was dressed in Arsenal colours and the other in Norwich colours - are Arsenal supporters in some way obliged to cheer on the cock in red? Is there any less relevance to this than cheering on the women's team? I realise some might think it is harsh that I have mentioned women playing football in the same sentence as cock fighting, especially as one of the events appears to involve nothing more than random flapping around and a lot of loud squawking. But to be fair, cock fighting has plenty of that as well!

(And no I wouldn't dare say any of this to one of our triumphant women's team face to face. Especially the goalie. she looks a bit crazy)

Quality

[LDB]

Women's football

Yeah, sorry, me too. I've tried to watch it. It's fucking appalling. Honestly my boy's Under 9's team play at a far better technical level.

There's people who actually argue that it would be around lower-league/Conference standard

Although in my experience those tend to be people who don't watch football and have never seen a game of women's football in their life.

The top women players are technically superior to lower-league/conference men I'd say but that of course doesn't mean they'd win against them

Mate I have to one billion percent disagree with that. I'm only judging based on what I've seen but I'd say I've got more perspective on the issue than most.

Having played against a strong U18s academy team a few times pretty much all of their players could ping a ball 50 yards to within a few feet of you 9 times out of 10 (and I have no doubt that lower league footballers would do the same) - every time I've watched women's football the amount of scuffing, slicing, hacking etc that goes on is astounding. Likewise, it's a real rarity to find even a WSL player who can head a football to anywhere near the standard expected of semi-pro footballers. The vast majority of WSL games are largely kick-and-rush football.

I went to watch Bristol v Birmingham last year - two of the supposedly better teams in the WSL. I watched the England goalkeeper warm up from a few yards away and she couldn't even catch a football - I say without a hint of humour or exaggeration that I'm a comfortably better goalkeeper than her and would walk into the England team. Despite there being a few internationals playing the only impressive player was some dyke up front for Bristol who has since pissed off to America to play.

For the past two pre-seasons my club's youth team has played friendlies against Bristol Ladies who have put out strong/full sides - and the scores were 8-0 and 4-0 to our youth team, who commented that the women were well-organised (as expected with training regularly) but technically far inferior to what they face against other strong regional youth teams.

The very best women, as in the internationals most of whom play in the states not here. Some of our girls the other week could ping a cross field pass. They'd get done for physicality and athleticism but I don't see how you can say lower league kick and rush merchants are technically superior to the very best women.

I do agree with your overall point though that the general standard is poor and the goalkeeping in particular is shocking

[northbank123]

Mate I have to one billion percent disagree with that. I'm only judging based on what I've seen but I'd say I've got more perspective on the issue than most.

Having played against a strong U18s academy team a few times pretty much all of their players could ping a ball 50 yards to within a few feet of you 9 times out of 10 (and I have no doubt that lower league footballers would do the same) - every time I've watched women's football the amount of scuffing, slicing, hacking etc that goes on is astounding. Likewise, it's a real rarity to find even a WSL player who can head a football to anywhere near the standard expected of semi-pro footballers. The vast majority of WSL games are largely kick-and-rush football.

I went to watch Bristol v Birmingham last year - two of the supposedly better teams in the WSL. I watched the England goalkeeper warm up from a few yards away and she couldn't even catch a football - I say without a hint of humour or exaggeration that I'm a comfortably better goalkeeper than her and would walk into the England team. Despite there being a few internationals playing the only impressive player was some dyke up front for Bristol who has since pissed off to America to play.

For the past two pre-seasons my club's youth team has played friendlies against Bristol Ladies who have put out strong/full sides - and the scores were 8-0 and 4-0 to our youth team, who commented that the women were well-organised (as expected with training regularly) but technically far inferior to what they face against other strong regional youth teams.

The very best women, as in the internationals most of whom play in the states not here. Some of our girls the other week could ping a cross field pass. They'd get done for physicality and athleticism but I don't see how you can say lower league kick and rush merchants are technically superior to the very best women.

I do agree with your overall point though that the general standard is poor and the goalkeeping in particular is shocking

Why is that so hard to believe? I appreciate the WSL isn't the strongest league in the world but England are ranked 7th in the world and (according to Wikipedia) 31 of their 33 players most recently called up play in the WSL - roughly the same sorts of numbers are the male equivalents, so I think comparing the two structures within England is fairly representative.

As a rough guideline say each league club has 25 first-team players (2300) compared to the national male adult participation numbers of over 2 mil - that means that those kick and rush merchants are still around the top 0.001% of male adult footballers in the UK. They will also have trained 3-4 times a week until 16 and every day since - unlike the women's sport which is generally semi-pro even at the top level, meaning that most WSL players have trained sparingly throughout their lives.

Also, you can't entirely separate physicality from technical ability. At the end of the day technicality is largely made up physical ability to kick the football in particular ways and how quickly you can carry out your actions. Look at the sorts of goals scored week in week out in the lower leagues and in women's football and tell me that women can strike or place a football better.

It just doesn't stand to reason that a thriving WSL team could get absolutely hammered twice by a group of 16 and 17 year old decent (but nowhere near Academy level) youth players yet still be technically around the level of Conference/League Two.

[topcat]

I'm telling you now barnet mens would thrash arsenal ladies. I'm talking 10-0 at least. The differnce is massive!

Did you see one of our wingers running down the wing with the ball? each of her touches went about 15 yards in front of her i was creasing it!!!!!

[StuartL]

I'm telling you now barnet mens would thrash arsenal ladies. I'm talking 10-0 at least. The differnce is massive!

Did you see one of our wingers running down the wing with the ball? each of her touches went about 15 yards in front of her i was creasing it!!!!!

Quite possibly Barnet would, as they would be far better in the air and physically far stronger.

Doesn't mean that they are technically superior.

Some of the Arsenal ladies have great technique, Kim Little is a fabulous player, touch, control, vision. passing and shooting she has the lot.

Re the winger running with poor touch - ever seen Theo or Gervinho play ?

[StuartL]

I'm telling you now barnet mens would thrash arsenal ladies. I'm talking 10-0 at least. The differnce is massive!

Did you see one of our wingers running down the wing with the ball? each of her touches went about 15 yards in front of her i was creasing it!!!!!

Quite possibly Barnet would, as they would be far better in the air and physically far stronger.

Doesn't mean that they are technically superior.

Some of the Arsenal ladies have great technique, Kim Little is a fabulous player, touch, control, vision. passing and shooting she has the lot.

Re the winger running with poor touch - ever seen Theo or Gervinho play ?

[LDB]

I'm telling you now barnet mens would thrash arsenal ladies. I'm talking 10-0 at least. The differnce is massive!

Did you see one of our wingers running down the wing with the ball? each of her touches went about 15 yards in front of her i was creasing it!!!!!

No doubt they would but it wouldn't be because they're better at picking out 50 yard passes, killing high balls with their first touch or retaining possession. They'd be fitter, stronger, quicker and would win all the second balls. The pace of women's football is not even close to U18 boys, nobody is denying that.

[northbank123]

I have to disagree on the touch and passing issue - I watched both Bristol and Birmingham warm up last year and they were both struggling with rather simple drills and small-sided games with easy passes regularly going astray and touches giving away possession. Exactly the same sorts of drills that good Academy sides will carry out pretty much flawlessly.

As I said given that their male counterparts (even in the lower leagues) have probably trained 2-3 times as much throughout their lives with a far higher standard of coaching, as well as the impact their physical advantage has on technicality, it's far from unthinkable that technically they could be better.