They beat the USA 4-0 in the 2007 WWC, I believe the worst the USA has ever been beaten in a high level competition, which is part of what made the epic 2011 game so epic. But since then they’ve gotten continually worse. Or maybe they’ve stayed the same and everyone else has gotten better. Or both.
The rule is that if the ball is intentionally passed back to the goalie by a teammate, then the goalie cannot use hands to touch it (can only use feet). If it is any other circumstance - an “inadvertent pass”, or a header, etc., then the goalie can use hands.
Then, it was a terrible call. Ridiculous.
Has the rule changed on goal kicks? It doesn’t look like the goalie has to kick it out of the 18-yard line anymore – they often just pass it over to a player in the penalty box. At first I thought maybe they were offsides, but I’m pretty sure one was a goal kick.
Agreed. This is really bullshit.
I’m impressed with how nicely Cameroon is playing (ranked last among remaining teams) against England (ranked 2 or 3). I don’t think England is going to last much longer. My guess is that their comeuppance in the next round.
Americans found out long ago with the NFL that video review is not perfect . You also have cases where the video doesn’t help because it’s so close. It certainly helps in a lot of cases but the replay people are going to blow calls just like the main refs or umpires blow calls.
And PKs to decide a game is still a joke. There are many ways not to do that but the soccer/football people claim their sport is perfect so they don’t want to change.
This is the game where Hope Solo was benched and then Briana Scurry gave up 4 howlers, right?
Yes it was. Scurry was well past her best playing days. I think she was playing for Brazil that day. 
Still, it wasn’t all Scurry’s fault - we had a string of years where no one on the team wanted to finish a play, especially when it came to scoring. It often left me screaming at them. 2007 was one of those years. Mercifully, we’ve made a lot of improvements since then.
This France-Brazil game is very interesting so far. I didn’t expect Brazil to even the score, but they did.
Agree. After seeing the VAR replay on highlights, I was stunned that the Cameroon goal was disallowed.
VAR overturned a goal for France in the first half today, supposedly because the goalie had possession of the ball when it was knocked out of her hands. I certainly didn’t see it that way.
I just watched it and, in my opinion, you are clearly wrong. Commentator for Fox called it on the spot. She used her left foot to steer the ball back to the 'keeper, no doubt expecting the 'keeper to boot it out of the box. Clearly a violation, clearly an indirect free kick.
As for the second goal from England, the player who received the ball was not in an offside position when it was passed to her. There was an English player in an offside position, but she had no participation in the play. On the purported Cameroon goal, the still shows that the player receiving the pass was marginally offside. Her trailing leg is closer to the goal line than any part of the English player. That’s an offside position.
Not sure why people think any of these are contentious decisions. All three are clearly supportable and, indeed, pretty clearly correct.
The trouble is that there simply are no other good ways to decide games still level after extra time has been played. Matches are too draining to continue playing more soccer; if you watch most games played through extra time (30 min.), the effort just to move around the field becomes almost too much for many players. No one really likes the idea of kicks from the penalty mark to resolve games with a tied score, but attempts to come up with different ideas have failed to prove any better.
why not allow unlimited subs like almost every other major sport? That makes players less tired. (Baseball has the limit that you cannot return to a game once you are subbed out.) Every other major team sport you can go in and out as much as you want - American FB, hockey , hoops. There may be team sports that are not popular in the US that have sub limits.
I’ve been to a 3 OT NHL playoff game and yes the players are tired but they are also in fantastic shape. Skating is hard and they also wear a lot of equipment which makes it harder.
As I wrote above:
Have it be two-on-two, two attackers, one defender and the goalie. The attackers start at the midpoint and can pass back and forth or whatever. The defender has to try and break up the play and the goalie does her thing. The attackers get one shot on goal (determined when the goalie touches it, the play goes out of bounds, or there’s a goal (ETA: or the defender controls it)). For each attempt, the attackers have to be switched, but the defender can stay or be subbed at the defending team’s option.
Unlimited subs would completely change tactics, I could see mass subs for one corner kick and then sub off at the next opportunity. Generally you don’t want that as a result of a rule change.
I think allowing additional subs per overtime might be reasonable. However, I don’t think it would solve much. You already get multiple overtimes in hockey and it’s a higher scoring sport.
Actually none of the 3 major team sports, (Football, Rugby, Cricket) allow unlimited substitutions.
A suggestion I love is to do the PKs before the extra time, rather than after, with the PKs effectively being worth half a goal. Then play the extra time, with both teams knowing who will win if the score ends up tied on the field. Then the final act, the whistle blowing, is people playing actual soccer.
Others have argued that there are implications for that in the timing and conditioning of the players, but I feel like that’s a solvable problem.
How recent is the lipstick trend?
I agree that unlimited subs would be bad, but increasing the current allowed substitution by 2-3x would be good. I’d rather watch fresh-legged subs running around with energy in extra time than the starters just crawling around in exhaustion. It would also mean that the starters wouldn’t have to conserve their energy as much in the first half and could run and play with abandon.
Well played sir.
Unlimited subs would remove one of the important tactical challenges of the game - how the manager best judges how to use his subs judiciously. It’s part of the game - and the entertainment - not a bug.
I noticed the same thing.
Apparently, starting June 1st, opponents still have to be outside the 18 on goal kicks, but the ball is now in play as soon as it is kicked and moved.
I expect most U-Little leagues to stay with the old rule, for obvious reasons.