England Women

[voice]

all the commentators are saying Spain was the far better team and played England off the park, but England were fitter and dug in, and they are mystified why Spain's most dangerous attacker was subbed off.

Sounds like a great game

[flatandy]

I actually think that's also a bit unfair. Spain were utterly dominant for the first half hour and I think a lot of commentators extrapolated from that. But really, from England's disallowed goal onwards it was fairly evenly matched. Spain's goal - while not exactly against the run of play - didn't come during a period of dominance. And after their goal they dropped too deep.

Until England took the lead in extra time, and then when the ball was inside 40 yards of England's goal the defending started to look desperate. The good thing about that was that it wasn't full-on like it sometimes is with the men's team. The women took the ball forward in numbers from time to time which gave the defence a chance to rest and reorganise and meant the Spanish couldn't commit everyone to attack, and created chances for a third.

[voice]

1 up, shame it's not on TV here

[perrykneeham]

Well, if it's up, it's up. There's always Babestation.

[voice]

2 now

[voice]

3, England as good as in final

[wetkingcanute]

4 !!

[voice]

Wow 4 now, sounds like a good game and Enland running away with it

[bertruss2]

It's quite complicated. Why is the colour of a player's skin important? Language, culture, nationality, football traditions count more, surely?

Just looking at the Real Madrid squad for their match tonight in San Francisco.

There are two Belgians. One of them, Eden Hazard, is said to be a Muslim but footballers generally don't make a big point about their religion. More signficant is that both his father and his mother played professional football. There are four Brazilians of various shades of colour. Two German-speaking players of African descent, born in Europe, and two French players of African descent. Karim Mostafa Benzema is French and his parents Algerian immigrants. These are the Spanish league champions but they usually have no more than two or three Spaniards in their starting lineup.

The Real Madrid women's team is entirely white, just looking at the team photo, with one black Frenchwomen. It's just that women's football is beginning it's commercial expansion. If it becomes a really big money profession, the women's teams will have a far more multi-ethnic look than the current pony-tailed squads.

[mids]

Do any men play in the England women's team?

[flatandy]

Great result. I managed to watch the first 30 minutes which was a great match. Both teams bombing forward. Sounds like it must have changed by the second half. England still look a little weird at the back - but that might be my make-football prejudice. They look very good going forward.

[wetkingcanute]

So what you're saying is the English girls don't look so good from the rear?

[mids]

Hideously white.

[perrykneeham]

And hideously binary.

[perrykneeham]

I see they're still playing the old XX formation.

[perrykneeham]

England Football's 1st XX.

[flatandy]

You people are weird, weird obsessives.

[flatandy]

Anyway, the first goal was a cracker, and the third goal is the kind that will be replayed over and over again. I felt so sorry for the Swedish keeper. It looked incredibly embarrassing but it was so utterly unexpected that it would be totally unreasonable to blame her.

[flatandy]

So, an England - Germany final, eh?

Let's hope the media behave themselves.

Probably the two best teams in the tournament, too. And it's very unusual to have England as the super-creative goal-scoring machine half of this.

Meanwhile, yesterday's semi-final reminded me of 30 years ago. A major tournament semi-final between France and Germany where France have the creative players and are the more fun to watch, but Germany are better and winning the battles in the right part of the pitch, and are - to use the cliche - more efficient. France definitely better to watch, Germany definitely the better team. There was no Schumacher-Battiston incident, at least. And hopefully none of the players will become as corrupt as Michel Platini.

[voice]

I'm gutted its not on TV here and no of the streaming platform I've got are playing it either