Fair enough, but the complaint was more nuanced than that. It was that it is so hard to score in soccer that one team can own the other and still lose based on a fluke. That really can’t happen in basketball, and while it does very rarely happen in football the chance is vanishingly small. (I have no idea about baseball.)
It’s much more likely to happen in hockey than the other major North American sports, but not nearly to the extent of soccer due to the higher scoring. For example, the 2010-11 NHL season averaged 5.6 goals per game, which (after a cursory google search) appears to be roughly double the amount of scoring in soccer.
I enjoyed the hell out of this game, but no it didn’t. Really poor finishing, really poor defending, really poor pks (on both sides). The women’s game is lightyears behind the men’s game, and will always be. If you’re a snob that’s looking for the best soccer on the planet, you will not watch women’s soccer.
I will say that there is, except for Brazil, a lack of gamesmanship in the women’s game, which I absolutely adore.
I suppose I shouldn’t have compared it to the men’s game, because that’s usually my complaint of other people! What I mean to say is, the level of the women’s game has improved a lot over the last 4 years (there was an 11-0 game in the 2007 World Cup). Now, some critics might come back with, “That’s not saying much”, but as a football fan, I was glad to see the quality of the game today.
Just out of curiosity, what would a snob watch if one was looking for the best soccer on the planet?
I think it’s pointless to compare them. Both games have their strengths & weaknesses and I think it’s unfair to hold them each up to the other’s standard. I adore the lack of cheating in the women’s game, too, but you can argue that there’s hardly as much at stake there as in the men’s game since money has taken over men’s professional soccer (and I mean, both club & country.) Yes, women’s football still has much room for improvement skillwise, but only in terms of themselves, not in the hopes of measuring up to the men. Men’s football will always be more skillful in every aspect because, on average, men are quicker and stronger than women and they have access to better training and competition.
I agree wholeheartedly. The US should have won this game, they dominated. In any other sport, the score would have reflected the US domination, but not in soccer.
I think that’s more about the bad teams getting better. Not necessarily that the entire women’s game is getting better. I don’t really follow the women’s game, but there were a fair amount of plays that made me cringe. Some very good passing sequences too. Rapinoe had some fantastic through balls as well, I was impressed with her before she got tired.
The best soccer is the Champions League, by far. Or you could watch Real Madrid play Barca in La Liga.
It’s really hard to compare though. The US women are about equal to a good 14 or 15 year old American club team. The women are much more skilled, overall, but they can’t compete athletically. So is that better soccer? Depends on your taste I guess.
I must admit the guys can play beautifully, but c’mon, it gets tiring to the see a good game stopped every 5 minutes thanks to theatricals and childish whiners, plus somewhat hidden attempts to cause actual injury.
While the women’s soccer games were more fluid, with less stoppage, less melodrama, and they were actually nice when one of them accidentally tripped over one another. I remember one of the Brazilian players (not Marta) got a yellow card. She didn’t contest it, and before she got the card, she had helped the fallen player and seemed to have asked if she was OK. I saw a similar thing today with the US.
BTW, dean, as ladyfoxfire said, this time US was Brazil. In the last match, Brazil dominated many parts of the game but couldn’t finish the goals. Had the goal posts been bigger, perhaps the US wouldn’t have even made it to where they did.
Champions League? Sometimes. Madrid v. Barca? Not unless you want to watch Madrid play with 10 defenders and Barca pass in triangles around them all night. La Liga as a whole is definitely exciting to watch, though. The Bundesliga, as well.
Interestingly, the suggestion by most critics is to make the nets smaller, so that the 'keeper would have an easier time of things. (The goal keeping in women’s football is notoriously bad, they say.)
Barca, yes. Madrid, maybe. But not the two together. The four Classicos they played this past season got increasingly poorer and poorer as they went. The first leg of the CL between the two was particularly dirty and noted by many as a blight on the game. I think La Liga might have to step aside these days for the Bundesliga.
Because they go for the corners now (only when they need to actually) they’d still go for the corners no matter how large the goal is? What if it was 3 times the size? They wouldn’t just pass it into the open areas?
Wait, you think the US Women’s national team is only as good as a team of middle school boys? Oh sorry, only as “athletic” as a group of middle school boys? Am I misreading something here?
I don’t think there’s any controversy that women will have less athleticism than men. I don’t think anyone would want women to be equal to men. They have to keep being feminine. It would be distubing if you had women out there who looked masculine.
I’ve said this before (so it’s not just because the US lost) and I’m sure I’ll say it again. PKs are a very unsatisfying way to end a soccer game. Everyone seems to think so. Why are they so reluctant to have sudden death (or a golden goal as soccer prefers to call it). Today’s outcome was of the worst type a goal by each team in extra time requiring PKs.
If we have to have PKs, I much prefer the MLS’s version which seems to make it a more equal fight between the kicker and the goalie.
And better than PKs, I’d prefer a series of alternating corner kicks or kicks from further outside the penalty area involving either a full or partial team. Play would continue until the defense clears the ball (not a to corner kick), or goalie holds it. At least that would be more like soccer than PKs.
Just checking. That’s a bunch of bullshit, but thanks for clarifying. I don’t think anyone’s arguing that the women’s national team is on the same level as the men, but that’s just really fucking insulting. 14 year old boys? Come on.
Want to place some money on this? It’s not an opinion. The USWNT often plays youth boys teams and lose. If they play the u-17 national team they get crushed. Last game I remember it was 7-0 boys.
What I mean to say is, the level of the women’s game has improved a lot over the last 4 years (there was an 11-0 game in the 2007 World Cup). Now, some critics might come back with, “That’s not saying much”, but as a football fan, I was glad to see the quality of the game today.
In the last match, Brazil dominated many parts of the game but couldn’t finish the goals. Had the goal posts been bigger, perhaps the US wouldn’t have even made it to where they did. 