Really looking forward to this Canada / Sweden match. Granted I haven't watched much US-based coverage but I don't think Canada's been given enough credit.

One thing to consider: the USWNT has finished top-3 at every WWC. A loss to France on Friday would be our first time not reaching the semifinals.

I thought Canada would beat Sweden but they're now down 1-0 through 60 minutes.

I hate VAR

Wow. Why does Sinclair not get the nod to take that penalty?

My thoughts exactly.

What a ****ing save!!!!!!!

On a boat that doesn't have fox. WTF!

Yikes Canada's shooting has been ugly. Obviously they're trying to strike the ball waaay too hard.

This was almost assuredly Sinclair's last World Cup. She'll regret not taking that penalty forever.

Wow again. Canada has a real argument for a handball on that last shot but ref calls full time. Shocking result for me...really thought Canada would do better.

5 European teams have now reached the QF. USA the other. Netherlands and Italy have a chance to make it 7/8 if they win tomorrow.

littlebitofhifi said:

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Wow again. Canada has a real argument for a handball on that last shot but ref calls full time. Shocking result for me...really thought Canada would do better.

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Good non-call to me. Arm wasn't away from the body.

I think that's the biggest surprise for me in this WC, the level of the Europeans has gone up substantially and I think they might have a leg up on the USA when it comes to future development.
In Spain you now have a more serious approach by the big professional men clubs to invest on the woman's side and it shows IMHO.
While the USA has college soccer to farm for their league and national team, when you have teams in Europe like Bara, Madrid etc investing and growing their female soccer teams.....my money is going to be with the Europeans. Too much history and know how with very qualified men players helping development the woman's teams not to be the future of woman's soccer.
We will see!!

I could be wrong, but that's not the rule anymore is it? They've seemed much more likely to call incidental contact to the hand/arm of any kind.

I think you're going to start seeing more US 18s go straight to those growing Euro pro leagues and skipping/delaying college a la Horan. Particularly those who could spend 3 years in Europe leading up to a World Cup year and have a legit shot at roster spots earlier in their career.

Possibly

littlebitofhifi said:

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I could be wrong, but that's not the rule anymore is it? They've seemed much more likely to call incidental contact to the hand/arm of any kind.

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They normally call it if the arm is away from the body, but if tucked in or in front of the body they won't call it. Still way to subjective

I agree. You are also seeing the European players become much more technically capable and I don't see the same from the US players.

Canada needed to play with a little more urgency. They looked more than a little slow, and allowed Sweden to boss a lot of the game even when Sweden was just killing clock.

Apparently Sinclair backed away from the penalty chance.

andyv94 said:

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I think that's the biggest surprise for me in this WC, the level of the Europeans has gone up substantially and I think they might have a leg up on the USA when it comes to future development.
In Spain you now have a more serious approach by the big professional men clubs to invest on the woman's side and it shows IMHO.
While the USA has college soccer to farm for their league and national team, when you have teams in Europe like Bara, Madrid etc investing and growing their female soccer teams.....my money is going to be with the Europeans. Too much history and know how with very qualified men players helping development the woman's teams not to be the future of woman's soccer.
We will see!!

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A problem I have with the USWNT is that it's so top heavy. There's little chance for young players to develop when they can't get on the field consistently.

The 23 on the roster average 85 caps. Taking out the two outliers (3rd keeper with one, Lloyd with 278), it's still an average of 80. The numbers skew even higher when you look at the ones that actually get on the field for meaningful minutes.

The rest of the world will catch up. Maybe not to the present crew, but when they go, the US loses the edge that comes from experience. And at that point, they'll be on an even playing field (at best).

gougler08 said:

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littlebitofhifi said:

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I could be wrong, but that's not the rule anymore is it? They've seemed much more likely to call incidental contact to the hand/arm of any kind.

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They normally call it if the arm is away from the body, but if tucked in or in front of the body they won't call it. Still way to subjective

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The rule just changed before the tournament, just like the rule about balls hitting the ref did.

Bryan98 said:

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gougler08 said:

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littlebitofhifi said:

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I could be wrong, but that's not the rule anymore is it? They've seemed much more likely to call incidental contact to the hand/arm of any kind.

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They normally call it if the arm is away from the body, but if tucked in or in front of the body they won't call it. Still way to subjective

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The rule just changed before the tournament, just like the rule about balls hitting the ref did.

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It changed, but here's the language, so the one today was called correctly

Quote:

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The ball touches a player's hand/arm which has made their body unnaturally bigger

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fig96 said:

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Yeah, I can't find it either unfortunately. DVRed the replay so I'll grab it off there in a day or two if needed.

Watching when it happened, the defender got a tiny touch on the ball (like barely contacted) then went through the attacker and took her down. Had she cleared the ball I wouldn't make the call, but in this case had the attacker stayed up she'd have been in on goal.

Curious to get an interpretation from one of our resident refs (I was licensed a looong time ago), but at worst it should have absolutely been reviewed.

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Replay of this one...



https://i.imgur.com/OlFcbEe.mp4

In the real world, no AR is ever calling this. It's a dynamic play starting from the GK up to near midfield played right back the the player in the offside position. At that moment she's off by about a foot of space and on the far side of the field. In real time this call never gets made.

In the world of VAR it's objectively off by a good foot of space. In that world it's not close. We've seen it called way closer.

I think the referee would have helped herself and and calmed things a bit if she had gone to the monitor and looked at it. For offside she's not supposed to but I think it would have helped sell the call.

LeonardSkinner said:

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andyv94 said:

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I think that's the biggest surprise for me in this WC, the level of the Europeans has gone up substantially and I think they might have a leg up on the USA when it comes to future development.
In Spain you now have a more serious approach by the big professional men clubs to invest on the woman's side and it shows IMHO.
While the USA has college soccer to farm for their league and national team, when you have teams in Europe like Bara, Madrid etc investing and growing their female soccer teams.....my money is going to be with the Europeans. Too much history and know how with very qualified men players helping development the woman's teams not to be the future of woman's soccer.
We will see!!

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A problem I have with the USWNT is that it's so top heavy. There's little chance for young players to develop when they can't get on the field consistently.

The 23 on the roster average 85 caps. Taking out the two outliers (3rd keeper with one, Lloyd with 278), it's still an average of 80. The numbers skew even higher when you look at the ones that actually get on the field for meaningful minutes.

The rest of the world will catch up. Maybe not to the present crew, but when they go, the US loses the edge that comes from experience. And at that point, they'll be on an even playing field (at best).

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I had a similar discussion my my daughters skill coach during the spring. She was pissed at the lack of overall development in the women's side over the last decade and made the claim that because Wambach was so dominate (along with Rapinoe's great crossing and Morgan's speed) that the USWNT lacked any tatics besides long balls and relied on athleticism and size. There was never a concerted effort to "PlayYourKids." Of course Ellis job is to win games, not develop players but our skills coach was concerned that as the countries became more technically skilled and physically stronger they would run around the USWNT as the players aged.

What does the the 2023 World Cup roster look like? The midfield will be strong but are there holes forming in the front and back?

That's fair, my thought when it happened was "that never gets called without VAR" so sounds like we're on the same page there. That's what drove my "harsh" reaction when it happened and I'd imagine the same for a few other posters.

Yeah. To be clear, it's not harsh because it's close. And an AR isn't ignoring it because it's close. I think it's impossible to catch in live action. If you catch it you have to call it. VAR is doing something here that soccer doesn't expect.

That's my biggest gripe about VAR. Calls are being made with micrometers and slo mo replay with cameras and several hundred or more frames per second. That's not real life.

Well said.