SUFC Ladies: Anyone going this Sunday?

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Another caller said a few years ago that the England women’s team played the England under 17 boys team at the national centre in Burton. Apparently the under 17’s boys won 6-0.

Two or three years ago the England women played our U19s as preparation for tournament. Our lads played two very different systems in each half, to replicate how the women's opponents would play. I can't remember the score but I know our lads won.
 
I bet you have women queuing up at your door pal. Stupid thing to say. If you dont want to go fine, but these girls are part of the club and are doing very well, and playing at the Lane on Sunday wearing the red and white stripes. We should be proud of this part of the club. Comments like these baffle me

Chill pal he's having a joke....I know he has to do all 3 at home
 
Yeah but. Just because they wear the red and white stripes, doesn't mean I'm obliged to watch them.
But my lack of enthusiasm is more to do with the quality than merely gender.
 
I wouldn't say the issue is strength, if we accept that men are naturally stronger than women then we have to say that a female goalkeeper wouldn't have the same strength as a male goalkeeper, but at the same time a ball kicked by a female wouldn't be kicked as hard, so the strength is all relative.

I would say the issue here is coaching. Women's football is only just gaining traction and WSL teams only have to have a minimum of 3 full time professionals (this was true a few years ago I'm not sure if the number has been increased since I looked into it!). If you had to pick 3 positions to have full time, so they get more training and coaching etc, goalkeeper is not going to be top of the list. So outfield players are increasing their skill level faster than goalkeepers are increasing theirs.

Surely the biggest issue for female footballers is height. Looking at the male game a 5ft 6 (way above average female height) centre mid, winger or striker is not unheard of, but a centre back or goal keeper will always be way taller.
To give you some idea of the goalkeeping challenge women face, you only have to look at the average height of the first choice Premier league goal keepers; which is 6ft 3.75 inch (1.924m), with a range of 6ft 7 (Fraser Forster) to just over 6ft (David Ryan).
If you take the average of just under 6 ft 4 and assume that this is the optimum height for a goal keeper that puts the average male keeper in the top 98.9 percentile, so roughly 1 in 94 men will be taller than this. If we were to apply the same height to the female game that would put a woman of the same height in the top 99.999 percentile; roughly 1 in 111,723 being taller. When you then factor in the difference in popularity of playing the sport the numbers become even more shocking. If we assume that roughly 1 in 2 UK males play football as a child (at any level including a friendly kick around), then for every 188 men, you would have 1 6 ft 4 man interested in playing football, although the odds on that man being any good are even more remote (take it from a football mad 6 ft 5 male who can't even kick a ball). If with women we assume that roughly 1 in 20 females show an interest, to get that same 1 optimum height goalkeeper you would require just over 2.2 million women.

Okay so this maths over complicates things a bit, but surely it highlights that when ever the women's game is played in standard sized goals, regardless of money and training the standard of goalkeeping will always be considerably worse. To put in in simpler maths, the difference in the average height of a UK man v a UK woman is 5.5 inches, imagine if we deducted that from the height of those goalkeepers, the affects would be dramatic on the game. Sure a the equivalent giant of Forster would be over 6 ft 1 but for the equivalent of David Ryan at 5ft 7 would be really struggling.

I'm not sure what the answer to this is, the obvious solution would be to reduce the size of goals by the same percentage difference in average size circa 9%. But obviously that then throws up the issues of requiring different goals and probably pitches, throwing up all sorts of accessibility issues. So I think really we have to stick to the game being played on similar pitches, and accept that we will see some incredible skill and attacking football, but that goalkeeping will be someway behind the male game. On the bright side poor goal keeping tends to make for much more free scoring football, probably why the women's game is big in the US; Americans tend to struggle with sports where goals aren't ten a penny.
 
Just witnessed a highly entertaining penalty shootout win for United women after an excellent 3 3 draw v Leeds. United went ahead 3 times and got pegged back 3 times. United went 1 nil then 2. 1 then 3 2 up in the shootout.
At times you'd be astonished at the lack of ball control, or lack of awareness of the movement of teammates, but all told an excellent win for the ladies.
 
Actually went today. It was often ridiculously bad yet very entertaining at the same time, and those two things weren't mutually exclusive. One difference I saw wasn't the lack of ability (there was plenty of ability actually) but the lack of mental game intelligence, it just wasn't there in most cases. And as for those talking about the relative quality women's goalkeepers well, our keeper had an absolute shocker, pretty much throwing in two goals. On the whole though, it wasn't a bad watch.
 
United were the better team but the keeper let Leeds back in the game at a point when I thought we'd cruise home.

Enjoyed the experience. Some excellent play in patches and then some bizarre and frankly low quality moments too, I can see how the game is going to develop though with the big participation at school age level and the professional coaching set ups being brought in now.

That Leeds number 9 though. Billy Whitehurst.
 
I wish the girls all the best but I'm sorry, I really don't enjoy watching women's football, it's pathetic. I've watched the women's England team on telly and tried to get interested in it, but it's boring as hell because girls just aren't very good at football. Now, I'll sit back and wait to be called a misogynist or whatever, but I'm not at all. It's simply the truth.

I have avoided both of the recent men's England qualifiers as its also pathetic.
 
Actually went today. It was often ridiculously bad yet very entertaining at the same time, and those two things weren't mutually exclusive. One difference I saw wasn't the lack of ability (there was plenty of ability actually) but the lack of mental game intelligence, it just wasn't there in most cases. And as for those talking about the relative quality women's goalkeepers well, our keeper had an absolute shocker, pretty much throwing in two goals. On the whole though, it wasn't a bad watch.
I actually think that Helen Mitchell's Sheffield fc ladies of fairly recent times, were much more game aware and intelligent, than either of these sides today.
Blades could have had 8 or 9 goals today but for dire finishing, terrible final ball, or wasted corners.
Still it was very entertaining after the first goal went in.
 
Well had a bit of a giggle that she'd be tough to knock off the ball, and so it turned out, her close control was outstanding at times too.
She's an excellent player, two goals plus a penalty, even though our keeper gifted them their second and third goals.
 



I actually think that Helen Mitchell's Sheffield fc ladies of fairly recent times, were much more game aware and intelligent, than either of these sides today.
Blades could have had 8 or 9 goals today but for dire finishing, terrible final ball, or wasted corners.
Still it was very entertaining after the first goal went in.
That's to be expected as Sheffield FC play in the WSL while United Lades play a couple of divisions lower.
 
That's to be expected as Sheffield FC play in the WSL while United Lades play a couple of divisions lower.
Indeed. Thanks for clearing that up.. I actually wasn't sure how things stand with all the various leagues and rankings in the women's game.
Sheffield fc up to about a year ago, were streets ahead of. everyone in FAWPL.
 
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BRILLIANT! Where DO you get your humour from?? Oh yeah. Ricky Gervais.
 
3-3 after extra time. Bladies win on penalties. 3-2.

Just thought I'd mention it!

Anyone go watch it?
 
Did they win a cup? I thought it was just the next round in the FA cup.
 
Anything that gets women to do some physical exercise is to be encouraged, judging by the national doughy arse epidemic we are currently facing.
 
Actually went today. It was often ridiculously bad yet very entertaining at the same time, and those two things weren't mutually exclusive. One difference I saw wasn't the lack of ability (there was plenty of ability actually) but the lack of mental game intelligence, it just wasn't there in most cases. And as for those talking about the relative quality women's goalkeepers well, our keeper had an absolute shocker, pretty much throwing in two goals. On the whole though, it wasn't a bad watch.

I think that's an interesting and fair observation. Someone was asking what makes it different from men's football and I think you touched on a couple of things there. "The mental game intelligence" though is the one that caught my eye, and I think that is a big factor. I often go with my wife to watch the Blades (men's team!) and I just know from the questions she asks that she doesn't see a pattern to the game or spot opportunities. She can't see formations, or changes in tactics. I'm not saying anything she wouldn't admit to here - there's just something about not being able to see the pattern of play or where the ball needs to go to next. She freely admits that. And I wonder whether when you refer to "mental game intelligence" we are talking about a similar thing here in the women's game? It wouldn't be altogether surprising. It's perhaps something to do with the different way in which men and women are wired? A bit like women have different spatial ability. Ask them directions to somewhere and many of them will struggle because they seem less able to assess their spatial surroundings and detect a route or path towards the destination. There is a definite difference here between men and women that has been proven with evidence. And of course, a man never asks directions anyway!
 
https://www.sufc.co.uk/news/2017/october/ladies-leeds-report/


What was the oppo goalkeeper complaining about at the end of the video on that page. She didn't seem very happy.
I dunno. I didn't notice that when at the game.
To me the only time we got away with it when most refs would have punished us, was there was an awful mistimed challenge from one of our girls, a dreadful collision which left a Leeds girl stretchered off.
Most refs would at least give our girl a yellow present probably a red.
It was 1 1 at the time.
 
I think that's an interesting and fair observation. Someone was asking what makes it different from men's football and I think you touched on a couple of things there. "The mental game intelligence" though is the one that caught my eye, and I think that is a big factor. I often go with my wife to watch the Blades (men's team!) and I just know from the questions she asks that she doesn't see a pattern to the game or spot opportunities. She can't see formations, or changes in tactics. I'm not saying anything she wouldn't admit to here - there's just something about not being able to see the pattern of play or where the ball needs to go to next. She freely admits that. And I wonder whether when you refer to "mental game intelligence" we are talking about a similar thing here in the women's game? It wouldn't be altogether surprising. It's perhaps something to do with the different way in which men and women are wired? A bit like women have different spatial ability. Ask them directions to somewhere and many of them will struggle because they seem less able to assess their spatial surroundings and detect a route or path towards the destination. There is a definite difference here between men and women that has been proven with evidence. And of course, a man never asks directions anyway!
Yeah, pretty much that. Not sure what else I can add to that to be honest accept agreeing with the majority of the post. While it was a pretty entertaining watch, it was very frustrating at times because of this.
 



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