I was only impressed with the US in the first game. Everything since has been just adequate enough to slide through.
Agree, though, that they can win it all and early games don’t reflect the final result.
Watching China v. England right now.
China looks terrible, just terrible. I’m surprised China has not made a bigger impact on men and women’s soccer. I lived there 20 years ago and it was pretty popular. I wonder if lack of quality coaching holds them back since they don’t have as long a history with the sport as other nations.
Has the men’s team ever done well in the World Cup?
No, the Chinese men’s team is even worse, much worse. At least the Chinese women have gone deep in the tourneys before.
The men only qualified for the World Cup once, in 2002, and got outscored 9-0 in the group stage. And the only reason China qualified was because Japan and South Korea automatically qualified as co-hosts and didn’t participate in the qualifiers, thus clearing out a much easier qualification path for China - and Australia wasn’t a member of AFC yet.
The Chinese men have never qualified again for the World Cup since. The women at least still qualify for their tourney each time.
There’s a joke: “What do the Chinese women’s volleyball team and Chinese men’s soccer team have in common? Answer: Neither knows how to play soccer!”
The Chinese women team are however the Asian Champions which means they beat off Japan and Australia to the title. So they can’t be that awful. But England turned it on today and showed why they are the European Champions.
I had a bad feeling about the U.S. team even before the tournament started; kind of a pride-goeth-before-the-fall sort of thing. I’ve been seeing lots of hype, lots of commercials and endorsements from the players, lots of “going for an unprecedented third straight World Cup”. It seemed to be an afterthought that they actually had to go out and play soccer.
I wonder if they’ll keep running those commercials if the U.S. gets knocked out early.
Yeah, the USWNT has been the epitome of hubris for a decade. Combine that with this Western attitude that a woman can do nothing wrong, and that championships are their God-given birthright rather than something they need to earn, and…
The women have finally reached parity with the men, where they backdoor themselves past the group stage into the knockouts and immediately lose in the first round.
I could be wrong but so far their performance doesn’t seem to indicate they’re going to get very far.
At the moment per the oddsmakers at Bet365
USA 18%
Spain 16%
England 15%
Japan 9%
Germany 9%
Australia 7%
France 7%
Netherlands 5.5%
Brazil 4.5%
Sweden 3.0%
Not really sure how you are seeing this. They win some big tournaments. And they lose some. When the got knocked out of the last Olympics, for instance, it’s not like they were stumbling around bewildered, unable to understand how they could possibly have lost.
The MAGA crowd is very against the US team and pushing a narrative.
[Moderating]
This isn’t the place for bashing Western culture. If you feel like you must, that’s probably best for the BBQ Pit.
Well, that didn’t happen 
Made my day!
And now come on Jamaica! Or should I say Hang on Jamaica!
Jamaica is through to the Round of 16; first time ever.
They scored 1 goal in 3 games, but allowed zero goals.
This almost makes me want to root for the USA!
Brazil are out and it’s great to see upsets in this tournament. For too long the big teams in the women’s game have dominated and brushed aside everyone else with ease. Now its much more competitive, which is great for the sport.
I mean Brazil were not great but it seemed that Jamaica were defending for 75 minutes, which is some accomplishment.
Absorbing match. Brings home why nil-nil is not a failure, as some casual fans and non-fans think it is.
Indeed it was. I thought that the South Africa/Italy match was also quite fun to watch. A rather careless penalty gave Italy the early lead, but they gave it back with an own-goal. Then, after South Africa took the lead, Italy tied it in the 74th minute and looked like they were on their way to a draw, which is all they needed to advance. But South Africa scored in stoppage time and they are in the Round of 16 for the first time.
Just curious: how many teams are in the knockout round for the first time?
I just watched summaries of the games from last night, but there were some definite highlights and lowlights…
-Panama’s first goal vs France (despite losing) was their first World Cup goal in history and was one of the best goals from a free kick you will ever see, one of the best in the history of the women’s game
-Jamaica hanging on to a zero zero draw to send Brazil home is a pretty stunning result (I still haven’t forgiven Brazil for their shithouse play vs the USA 12 years ago…)
-South Africa beating Italy to advance is another really amazing result… although their first goal was one of the worst own goals I’ve ever seen. A genuinely bizarre sequence
This was a great game for Jamaica and I’m happy for them, but I also feel bad for Marta. What a sad last game for her after such a career.