Must admit I have been surprised by the standard of some of the games whilst others have been very poor. There seems to be an emphasis on getting the ball down and playing on the deck, although sometimes it is overplayed and there seems to be a lot of passes for the sake of passing and many passes going astray.
The USA are head and shoulders above any of the other teams in the competition in their style of play and fitness levels. They play a very high pressing game for the first quarter of the game and have been very successful in scoring within the first twenty minutes of games and are then prepared to sit back and defend their lead whilst relying on their forwards to hit the opposition on the break. England on the other hand under Phil Neville have generally been patient in the build up and reliant on out passing their opponents and getting the ball in to White, who looks a decent striker.
Last night they were out played by the USA who were gifted two goals from crosses that should have been dealt with easily or prevented at source. The goal that was disallowed for offside was a shame as the VAR evidence showed that although her body was in line her foot was offside, very similar to the one we had ruled out against Norwich. Harsh decision for me. The penalty decision was also very dubious, but correct, the defender caught her foot as she was lining up the shot and was enough to prevent her getting the shot off. The penalty was poor and having missed two others in the competition should have been taken with power rather than placement, in my opinion.
To answer Wills questions, yes, I have watched a number of the games and some were better than others, and no, the standard of play and interest will never reach the same standard as the mens game. The USA are probably as good as it gets as most of their college soccer leagues are womens and therefore they are playing regularly and bringing players through from those teams yet are still only reaching lower league standard in the EFL. The investment in the game in Europe will probably help to bring the standard over here up and allow the European teams to compete at the same level, but I doubt we will ever see a womens team that could compete on equal terms with a top International mens team.
