Germany unlucky with a couple of the calls but their defence was poor. Sweden played really well. Both semi's look good.
A qualifying tournament only for the Olympics would be stupid, but using the WC results only is also stupid. They should maybe use the results of the last 4 years and create something like the FIFA world rankings for that time period. Would make the most sense to me.
I think with all the tournaments and qualifications that are already in place it would be too much. I actually don't know how it is in other confederations but imagine holding a qualifying tournament with all UEFA teams where only 3 teams will qualify in the end. It is just too much.
They actually called offside on Magull (20), who was not interfering at all. Popp (11) was clearly onside. This is ridiculous.
I can't find a pic but from the other angle Popp's head did JUST look offside. If they did pin in on Magull then it's bullshit though. Yeah I was just saying it's not that unusual to use other tournaments to decide who qualifies instead of a specific Olympic one. Here in Europe at least.
Just feel like if it’s a full national team competition, it should have a qualification. The Euros, World Cups, Gold Cup, AFCON, etc all do (Copa America being the obvious outlier since everyone gets in). Not only would it be uniform with every other major competition and the other confederations, it would also give more exposure to women’s soccer on the global level. Especially at a time when nations like France and Brazil are finally starting to show major support for their teams in viewership numbers never seen outside the US before for the sport.
Yeah it could be a good idea. Olympic football has never felt like that much of a big deal for men (probably because of the age limit thing) but it could be a good showcase for the women if they built it up more like that instead of an afterthought from other competitions.
The image I posted was the one that they showed to justify the offside call. And they did pin on Magulls shoulder there and drew the line from that point. And even then it was pretty much level (one pixel more to the left and both lines are completely overlapping). You can also clearly see that Popps head is further back and not offside.
Yeah this is the other angle I was talking about. They didn't freeze it exactly when she touched the ball so Popp was probably actually a tiny fraction further back when it was played. So harsh.
Yeah this looks like the ball is already away from the player that played the pass (the rule is actually to use the moment where the player first touched the ball). Mine was the one that VAR used. But this is exactly the problem with VAR and close offside calls. There is no way to technically determine the exact time of the pass. It is just some guy that randomly decides to pause the video at some point. And then it makes absolutely no sense to call offside if a player appears millimeters offside. Had that guy paused one frame earlier we would see a completely different situation. But with that said in this case they even got the player completely wrong. In a World Cup game. It's really frustrating.
Paris public trans = Lyon public trans = I don’t know why FIFA chose Lyon as the location for the semis and final, but based on my couple of hours spent in the city it seems like a very poor choice.
Neville’s rant about the operations folk visiting their hotel doing prep work should we make the final was amazing. Grasping at straws.
He's such a baby. The US also scoped out hotels in the event that they lose and play in the third place game but of course he isn't going to mention that.
The whole world is backing England because, yes, the US is so fucking arrogant. And then all those clueless American casuals that are now all over the place in every football forum only make it worse.
That wasn’t in the first tweet I saw. Wow. Press helping cover the left with her pace makes some sense.