Female football. | Vital Football

Female football.

H

Hampshiregills

Vital Youth Team
Maybe it's me living alone in a bygone age, but I just can't get enthusiastic about football played by females, even if they are representing top Premier League clubs. Also, female commentators and/or presenters leave me cold. Yes, most are very knowledgeable, but somehow their voice doesn't hack it for me. Am I alone in feeling this ............... or am I just being a sexist slob ???
 
I can understand what you mean about women's football, but I put this down to a variant of me enjoying certain leagues but have found other leagues like the Italian serie A to be an bit slow and boring. Women's football while often technically decent at the higher leagues doesn't have quite the same blood and thunder than men's football often has.

As for female commentators, I think I was scared for life by Jodie Fielder several decades ago. It isn't that they are female but the few the BBC have used were terrible to Mark Lawrenson aNd Phil Neville levels. In the studio, I do have respect for Alex Scott who comes across knowledgeable and with more personality than Shearer.
 
I have no interest in it either but each to their own. It sometimes frustrates me that the bbc and others clearly prioritise it over better supported lower league football.
 
I have two close relatives that have played a high level in the women's game.The difference in terms of skill is not that great .But like other sports the physical strength can be a big factor in the professional game.As for commentators well there are good and bad in men and women who appear on TV commentary and so called experts. Clearly men should have a advantage but I think you will find more and more women will take over these jobs as they get more opportunities to do so .A top player no longer needs to earn money after retirement .That fact alone will mean you will have to get used to more females on football programmes. Certainly on free view channels. Or cut back on what you watch on TV which I already have.
 
Give me women's football any day alongside the men's stuff. I don't make direct comparisons; so, don't get disappointed.
 
Many years ago I played in a works interdepartmental 6 a side competition. One of the teams had a young lady who played for Charlton Ladies.
She was so much better in terms of skill, than any other player that day and she wasn't even trying that hard. A couple of guys, whose egos was obviously badly bruised, tried to muscle her out the game but she just brushed them aside and made them look stupid.

Womens footy doesn't feature that often in NZ, just the odd black-ferns game on sky. I usually enjoy the odd match I watch.
 
Only ever watched if it was the england womens team before mainly for the same reason I dont watch any crap football unless it is the gills lol.

Recently watched the recently created man u womens team, they are excellent.
 
Back in the day in my youth (late 70’s early 80’s) I went out with a lass that played for Gills Ladies FC. Still not sure if they were affiliated with GFC or just took the name.

They weren’t a bad side and played some pretty decent stuff. Plenty of skills albeit slower and a bit shorter in range of passing. They certainly didn’t hold back from the physical side either. Some games got quite “tasty”.
 
I coached in girls football for 5 years and saw plenty of lasses that could have played in mens football, but I can,t watch it and struggle with female commentators, but the 3 women that are regular on sky sports saturday programme, with Stelling, are really good. There are, however, some male experts that are the worst; Crooks, Lawrenson, Neville, Redknapp. My wife cannot stand, and will not watch, any sport played by women
 
So long as no one's going out of their way to stop women playing, I think it's fine for plenty of men to not be interested. There's only so much football you can watch and lots of people are going to prioritise what they grew up with anyway.

I definitely get the complaints about the quality of the women's game - keepers especially are laughable outside of the elite level. But I thought the 2011 World Cup where Japan won as a massive outsider was one of the best tournaments I've ever seen.
 
got to tread carefully here
looks like they are enjoying themselves so that's good
but footie is no better than 12 year old boys level
but good luck to them
suggest they use a smaller pitch
 
Although "12 year old boys level" is a tad harsh, in defence of the claim you might want to look up the match in 2016 when the Australian Women's national football team lost 7-0 against the under 15 side of one of the men's teams. Maybe he meant can't beat 15 year olds and caught the 2 key rather than the five. Oh, and the Australian side was ranked the 5th best nation in the Fifa rankings at the time.

It is just a reality is that in organised men v women exhibition matches the men always beat the women comfortably. Although the individual women's teams might be technically better than the men's the fact the men tend to be bigger, faster and stronger means the women are physically "bullied" within legal means and they can't compete.

The few stories I've heard where the scoreline has been close, there have been restrictions on the men banning them from doing slide tackles or being allowed to shoot from a direct free kick and so forth.
 
Baghdad_Rob said:
Although "12 year old boys level" is a tad harsh, in defence of the claim you might want to look up the match in 2016 when the Australian Women's national football team lost 7-0 against the under 15 side of one of the men's teams. Maybe he meant can't beat 15 year olds and caught the 2 key rather than the five. Oh, and the Australian side was ranked the 5th best nation in the Fifa rankings at the time.
Click to expand...

I think the 12 year old boy level might be accurate - the US women's national women's team (best team in the world) lost 5-2 to FC Dallas U 15 boys team in a friendly.
 
I watched and enjoyed England's win over Brazil yesterday but two factors spoilt the game and the atmosphere. First the pitch was diabolical and second the attendance was sparse.

Womens' football had a big following a century ago and had not the FA pretty well banned it we might be at a different point in the game's development. Great strides have been made in the last few years but the womens' game has had a completely different trajectory. In the US it's there is massive participation but it's amateur and there is no tradition of spectating and supporting. It would have been interesting to have seen last night's game at a ground in England say the size Of Priestfield.

Goalkeepers, big improvement ditto fitness levels and overall technique but it will be many years before any straightforward comparisons make any sense. Of course it's a slower game and players don't display the physical strength and explosive shooting seen in the mens' game. If you can be bothered concentrate on a couple of the better players. I defy you to watch Fran Kirby, or Lucy Bronze over a 90 minute game and not recognise them as proper footballers.

There is no duty to enjoy any football. I struggle to watch a Prem game through nowadays because of all the BS but that's just me and I understand why others love it. Nothing but nothing beats watching the Gills for me.
 
Sorry it's not just a lack of "blood and thunder" and strength; it is skill levels too. Take one very simple example - the pace of a pass (from the Brazil game first half). The ball was generally rolled to the team mate, whereas it is often 'pinged' at greater pace in the men's game, and rarely 'trapped' first in the conventional way by the male receiver as it is by the women, but played immediately much more often, even if it is just the ball flicking upwards off the boot. These are two regular features (slower passing, trapping) of the women's game that make the whole thing slow and laboured, and to cap it all the amount of lost posession due to misplaced, poorly weighted or poorly judged passes of the highly ranked international women's teams is far in excess of even men's premier league football. For all their lack of pace and responsiveness, the passing moves could still be entertaining if they didn't break down as often as they do due to players' mistakes and lack of precision.

Don't be deceived by the occasional clever close ball handling skills either. These are quite unexceptional (well within the grasp of our previoudly mentioned 12 year olds for example) and if you are impressed by these, it just shows how uninspiring and bereft of equivalent quality to the men's game that women's football actually is!

Agree that Alex Scott adds some value to analysis of men's football (assuming all her comments come from original observations of her own and that she hasn't been helped with what to say beforehand as they pick out the players and tactics to highlight!) but commentary of the women's game does lack punch and excitement (although admittedly this is due in large part to it mirroring similar lacks on the pitch) and can sometimes sound more like a conversation amongst coaches and friends of players discussing what are the best options and prospects for their chums' careers than an impassioned commentary on what is going on in the game.
 
Do not need commentary or analysis when watching live football - therefore I do not need it at all on tv lol so irrelevant whether it is from a male or female.
 
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