quote:

The USA defeated Thailand 13-0 at their 2019 World Cup opener in a historic thrashing that brought the Americans criticism for their continued celebration of goals. Thailand were a team making their senior World Cup debut and clearly overmatched by the USA, who were just beginning their campaign that would end with a fourth World Cup title.

Terminally Bored posted:

Why does the NWSL play during the world cup?

Nybble posted:

Going to those games in 2015 was awesome. I’m sure she would have rather been in Canada, but she made everyone pay attention and make sure they never leave her out of the US squad again.

Doctor Teeth posted:

putting this here since it's not directly related to the current world cup but lmao how does this stuff get published?

Thailand qualified and for the 2015 world cup and won a match against ivory coast. guess i'll just chalk it up to "lol grauniad"

quote:

Europe’s leagues are overtaking the NWSL. That’s a win for women’s soccer

The country that plays host to the most World Cup players is now England. That’s not down to anything the NWSL is doing wrong, but what English clubs are doing right

[...]

The first US pro league, the WUSA, drew most of the best players in the world. Sun Wen and Gao Hong from China. Sissi and Katia from Brazil. Dagny Mellgren and Hege Riise from Norway. Best of all, Germany’s Birgit Prinz and Maren Meinert, who was named the last MVP of the league a few months before scoring the tying goal in Germany’s 2003 World Cup win.

After the WUSA’s collapse, the USA endured five summers with no full-fledged pro league until WPS launched in 2009 with lower budgets and stronger competition for global talent. But it still drew many players of note in the 2011 World Cup from England, Sweden, Brazil and eventual champions Japan – including the magnificent Homare Sawa, the Golden Ball winner.

WPS went away the year after that Cup, and the NWSL popped up in 2013. In 2015, that league still accounted for many players from Concacaf neighbors Canada and Mexico, and the trade routes with England and Germany were not yet shut down. The best Spanish player at the time, Vero Boquete, bounced between the NWSL and Europe.

But when Spain beat England in the Women’s World Cup final on Sunday, no NWSL players were on either team’s roster. Only three NWSL players – Sweden’s Sofia Jakobsson and Australia’s Emily van Egmond and Alex Chidiac – were in the semi-finals. Only five NWSL players – the three who advanced to the semis, plus Japan’s Jun Endo and Hina Sugita – were in the quarter-finals.

Australia’s team shows the change most vividly. In 2019, more than half the team played in the NWSL, and another was in college at UCLA.

It’s not as though the NWSL has suddenly and completely dried up. The league would have had much more of a presence in the semi-finals if Brazil and Canada – and, of course, the USA – had advanced. In the Western Hemisphere, at least, the NWSL is easily the top league.

[...]

But the country that plays host to the most World Cup players is now England. An analysis of the official World Cup rosters, a useful snapshot that doesn’t take into account the predictable flurry of signings after the Cup, finds 108 players based in the sport’s country of origin, where women’s soccer was banned for much of the 21st century. The USA has 88, but when you subtract the players in US colleges, non-NWSL clubs and youth clubs, the number in the NWSL drops to 60. (The league site lists 61 players, including three that are on the way elsewhere and two that are on the way in.) Taking that calculation into account, Spain ranks ahead of the USA with 69 players at the Cup.

By comparison: In 2015, with just 24 teams in the competition, 29 players based in England were at the Cup, as were 21 in Spain. Most of those players were based in their home countries.

Terminally Bored posted:

Not sure what you're on about, I've been posting here for the entire year.

'this stuff' lmao

Nybble posted:

quote:

The Spanish football federation has threatened to sue the 79 women’s football players who signed a letter in which they refused to play for their country as long as the federation president, Luis Rubiales, remains in his post.

In a statement, the federation said that it would take the “necessary legal action” and told the players that “playing for the national team is an obligation on any member of the federation called upon to do so”.

Terminally Bored posted:

Every single day I'm even less inclined to watch men's football.

Nybble posted:

I also think about this a lot (Currently watching a lot more Spirit over DC United) but the drama of abusive leaders is ever present until someone strong willed like Kang comes along and just buys the team from the rear end in a top hat owners. Taking forever for similar actions to play out in Chicago & Portland, and notice how MLS/Garber have let MP keep the Timbers.

If it’s exhausting to me as a fan, I can’t even imagine what its like for the players and those few women in those rooms where misogyny is applauded

quote:

The mother of Spanish football federation president Luis Rubiales has gone on a hunger strike because of the "inhuman hunt" against her son.

Terminally Bored posted:

tbf Reign were doing the Clown Shoes defence and deserved to lose this

whypick1 posted:

Way to bring facts like "3rd string keeper who started even though everyone was healthy had two howlers" into this. Rude.