Fucking hell. Graham Hansen with a Robben-esque finish in 90th+3 that hits the post, goes across the goal and just outside the other post. Would've been 2-1.

Kerr with a disastrous penalty way off target and Hjemseth saves the next.

Nice....
They were up for the shootout.

There was constantly just that last touch missing yesterday, but she was still the best player on the pitch for me (not saying she's a better player than than Kerr). When Hansen and Hegerberg broke through at Stabæk during the same time I actually thought the former was the bigger talent, but she's struggled a lot with injuries, especially one long-term one.

France v Brazil is starting now. Should be good.

French women’s jersey is mint. Love it.

[Twitter]
I have no interest whatsoever in women's football; the standard is appallingly low and that's not for me. But this Marta, who I have heard of and is one of the best I think, makes one hell of a speech there.

allez les bleus!

Well, that's that. England are the better team by far.

G'wan England - that was a classy goal

Got a game here! Both goals were nice, seems free flowing right now

Get in there.
Fingers crossed for England

I like the women's team much more than the mens due to the players involved.
Only issue i have is Phil Neville!

That’s a excellent save

England have got to hold on here, can't concede another before half time

The one thing I'd absolutely hate if England do win is the credit Neville will get...still hate him and his ugly brother for what they did to Reyes  :angry:

spicy second half

Watched a grand total of two minutes of this tournament. Turned on England had a corner and the lass hits it in to the stand without the ball coming on to the pitch. Instantly turned the telly over

let's go oranje.

Let’s not be too hard on her. Didn’t she also play that peach of a cross for the first England goal?

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

Watched a grand total of two minutes of this tournament. Turned on England had a corner and the lass hits it in to the stand without the ball coming on to the pitch.  Instantly turned the telly over

You do realise how this sounds don't you Dules?

I'm sure today may have broken the Dutch record and the final will be the biggest ever.
I don't know about the Netherlands but, for the first time in London, there has been blanket advertising and top billing in the media.

Daz wrote:

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

Watched a grand total of two minutes of this tournament. Turned on England had a corner and the lass hits it in to the stand without the ball coming on to the pitch.  Instantly turned the telly over

You do realise how this sounds don't you Dules?

I just hope his unequivocal condemnation and love for the different players being linked to us is based on more than a single kick.

Yeah that was one poor corner but felt she was one of England's better creative players throughout the tournament. The cross for the goal wasn't her first such assist of the tournament either. Offered more than Duggan who started the previous 3 games instead and was fairly pony considering she apparently plays for Barcelona. And why did White who had scored all the goals not take the penalty?

Daz wrote:

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

Watched a grand total of two minutes of this tournament. Turned on England had a corner and the lass hits it in to the stand without the ball coming on to the pitch.  Instantly turned the telly over

You do realise how this sounds don't you Dules?

Sounded like he was talking about Bebe.

To be fair everyone ripped the piss out of him (or Rooney that one time he blasted a corner kick straight to row Z)

Yeah but I doubt anyone stopped watching the EPL because of it

If I watched any other good league regularly and it was the first piece of action I ever watched of the PL I probably would have as well.

Well that'd be stupid.

Well smack me with a fish and call me stupid.

I'll rather just say that I don't believe you.

If my first view of the EPL had been Rooney doing anything at all I would have stopped watching

I watched both semi-finals, admittedly the first minutes I saw of the competition. I got into the England-USA game because of the VAR controversy, but, come on, it's a poor standard of football.

There's no speed or athleticism, technique is at a really low level generally and the worst part is the goalkeepers can barely touch the crossbar. The two headers the USA scored were in the middle of the goal and only about 6 feet in the air. Through a combination of a small goalkeeper and poor positioning, they went in without threat of being saved. No set-piece had any real power or whip on the ball. The ball was constantly given away under no pressure.

English non-League teams would annihilate the 4 teams I saw in those semi-finals. I'd even argue a decent Sunday League team would beat them. I saw Arsenal women at the Emirates when they were dominant domestically and I would say the same of them. Physcially it's football in slow motion, much the same way men's amateur football is, but without the occasional standout athlete you see, even in Sunday League teams.

Gabby Logan and Hope Solo were talking at full time about potentially making the goals smaller, and the former was confusing in what she said. My understanding is the goals are the same size as in men's football, but Logan seemed to be suggesting they were smaller?

In my opinion, it would make for a better spectacle played on a 3/4 pitch, with 3/4 goals. But I understand why that would damage the credibility of the sport when they are fighting to be taken seriously in comparison to men.

The atmosphere was fantastic in the England-USA semi-final and over 11m watched here in the UK. If they can translate that to the club game here--the Premier League are trying to take over the running of the game from the FA-- and pack out stadiums then more power to them.

I don't really have an interest because of the poor standard. I don't enjoy watching non-league teams play each other in the FA cup, let alone mediocre women's teams as part of league fixtures on tv. Burnley vs Brighton is bad enough in the Premier League, now imagine the women's versions of those teams! I watch football on tele to see what I can't see at the local park, women's football will always lack the physical level to offer that, and it certainly lacks the techncial ability at least for now.

I enjoy watching some football despite poor standard. I'll enjoy a wonder goal in my own sunday league team despite it being against sunday league players, I enjoy my local team in the Norwegian league winning even if the league is of a poor standard and I'll always like watching Arsenal even though they're much worse than Manchester City. To draw the line at women's football when I watch football at so many different levels would feel weird to me. I'm absolutely not saying that the standard is good, but I don't really compare women's and men's football as they physically can't compete.

Ricky1985 wrote:

Gabby Logan and Hope Solo were talking at full time about potentially making the goals smaller, and the former was confusing in what she said. My understanding is the goals are the same size as in men's football, but Logan seemed to be suggesting they were smaller?

Not sure about the specific conversation, but they're talking about making the goals smaller because women are, on average, 6 inches shorter than men and weigh 60% less or so. I'd imagine male goalkeepers would have plenty of objections if someone suggested we'd make the goals a foot wider in every direction. The large goals are one of many examples of letting women play along in male spaces instead of making an effort to create space for their sport.

Have to echo Quincy's post above about finding enjoyment in lower levels of football. I would have thought that someone who spends so much time watching youth players strut around on weeny pitches and shooting at junior-sized goals would recognise that point, Ricky. Maybe it's different if you're born in north London with Premier League outside your door, but there are literally billions of blokes around the world who fiercely support their own shithouse local teams only to scoff at the poor standard of women's football whenever an international tournament comes around. I know because I see them in the stands myself every year.

I'd also add that a sport can't really develop when it's being denied exposure, money and facilities. That has been the reality of women to various degrees in any sport I can think of, but football is easily one of the worst defenders. The popularity of the sport and the disgusting sums that modern football throws around just exacerbate the inequality. Take Arsenal for instance; we don't even put a fraction of the money we spend on our male U20 teams into the women's first team.

We should be forced to allocate a significant percentage of all earnings into the women's side, and having a women's team should be one of the requirements for gaining entry into Premier League in the first place. We talk about giving back to the sport by spending money on academies, but the same should go for developing the female side of it. It's frankly disgraceful that a club like Manchester United, the richest bellends in the world for the last three decades, didn't even have a women's team up until 14 months ago.