Mookie.... soooo? Should all three get the award in your opinion? Or not Abby because her teams didn't manage to finish first? And since we were speaking about Ms Swiss earlier: Bachmann has frequently said that her goal is to be the best player in the world. But playing for a country like Switzerland, will she ever even make the FIFA top 10 (assuming she deserved it)?
What's not to get, I hear what your saying . I'm just intrigued to hear about this less than palatable behaviour you saw from that front row seating section of the stands during the Norway vs Brazil game, that would help give credence to Roland25 assertions of Marta's on field WWC character? I'm not asking for a CSI type police report of evidence, and I'm not trying to speak from a soapbox of fandom morality. It's just that you were there live, and mention having a slight bad taste about something you saw her do. This I'm obviously going to find hard to appreciate having only seen the game on TV, but If she replicated anything close to her Swedish league days worst moments while playing for Brazil at a WWC . We both agree that she has displayed poor sportsmanship at various points in her club career, but beyond the push on the Norwegian defender on the build up to Brazil's first goal, and another certain piece of important action during a certain WWC game I shall not mention, I don't remember Marta doing anything but score goals, look annoyed, and cry, since WWC 03'.
I'm sorry. I should have disclosed that the order I posted would be my order or ranking for the award. Sawa being first, Marta second, and Abby third. I forgot about Bachmann. I imagined she was just dropped off in the desert after she left the Beat.
I'd like to especially stress this point: "her club team is successfull" is not something that should be discounted just because she plays in Japan. The level of Nadeshiko League had raised up a lot lately, and that was demonstrated last week, When England's current champions Arsenal FC Ladies played a friendly match with INAC Kobe Leonessa (Sawa's team) and were utterly dominated, although they managed to grab a lucky 1-1 tie. In current women's football there are not many ways to make comparison between local national leagues and their level, especially if they belong to different continents, but I guess that last week's match could be a sign that Japan Nadeshiko League (or at least INAC team) is about at the same level than most european leagues. So, the fact that Sawa won Nadeshiko League with her team, in my opinion, shouldn't be discounted under pretext that Nadeshiko League is low-level.
Who says? You can be disgusting, annoying and showing lack of sportsmanship, without directly cheating in a game. We have probably seen a different game then. Marta was booed by fans against US, because she cried and annoyed referee and every body else (including her own teammates) thorought the game. There was not a single referee call which Marta did not complain about. Still she had not been booed before that disturbing scene against Abby Wambach. Wambach suffered and fell on the ground after a truly hard foul. Marta cried and ask referee to book her for wasting time and then came to Wambach (still suffering in pain on the ground) and verbally abused her. She was booked by referee and after that was (rightfully) booed by fans until the end of the game. I am not a fan of US-team, but that equalizer at 120' was one of my most enjoying football moments ever
By that standard, football itself is a disgusting game. Any given Saturday. Take a look at this video from the World Cup Final: Hope Solo Shaken up in World Cup - YouTube The USA is 2-1 up and there are 3-4 minutes left in extra time - around the same time that Erica went "down" in the box. Should we now all assume that Solo's injury is - just that - an injury? Well maybe, but watch then as Japan gets impatient - and Miyama comes all the way in from the CK flag to dicuss with Sawa the plan. Well look who walks up to them not once but TWICE to BS them - Wambach! Well what happened next was the antithesis of "disgusting".
Seriously, you make her sound like an abnormally bad intentioned athlete in an otherwise angel like sport. Complaining about decisions? Bullying little ol' Wambach? Verbal abuse and simulation? Yes I wasn't in the stadium, so I could only judge from what the TV crew would show, but lets cut the out the name smearing in the sakes of popularity. The only clean emotionally stable player in the top three is Sawa, and that's mostly due to her nations characteristically honest way in approaching the game. Wambach did the exact same things you mention Marta doing in obtaining her now questionable character . Wambach fouled multiple players in unnecessary fashion, complained to the ref, as well as asking for cards against her opponents, but so what right. I'm not in favour of cheating, but these women are athletes playing in increasingly important major global events. As professionalism and parity increases across the board, we'll see increasingly male like behaviours appear from time to time. Without leg breaking loss of control, ridiculous negativity with and without the ball, and ref intimidation, we haven't seen the worst yet in international women's football.
Granted that I agree about Sawa being normally a perfect example of a player with a clean and fair style of play and behaviour, I have to admit that I saw her once asking the referee a yellow card for an opponent... But there was no diving involved for sure: it was in the context of a "friendly" (!) game vs Arsenal in Kobe, when Arsenal's coach Laura Harvey herself, the day after the match, said (I quote the Arsenal official site): "In England, the way that we play is maybe a little more physical than on this side of the world. But the referee respected that on Wednesday night and allowed us to play the game our way", that can be roughly traslated into: "On Wednesday night we eradicated INAC's players from the ground everytime we felt like it, and we got away with just 3 yellow cards!" In this kind of "physical" situation, I guess Sawa can be forgiven if, amid second half, she claimed a yellow card after one of those actions that the referee "respected"!
Hey ... Since most of y'all are already posting serious discussion in the thread upstairs in International, would you mind keeping it (somewhat) light in here? Thanks.
After posting in the wrong forums from time to time , I now always make sure to check the title of the thread before posting. Am I wrong in thinking this forum is definitely of the party and bullsh*t variety, where talking smack is OK to a certain point. "upstairs" as you put it, I was far more polite with my points of view, but I hear what your saying and it's cool. (Batfink, please shut the hell up. YET AGAIN you turn an open green zone into labyrinth of friendly fire)
If y'all want to be pseudo/somewhat serious and long-winded and, well, you could at least start your own thread and do it there.
The pseudo/somewhat serious, often long-winded, long live the Prinzess: 2011 FIFA awards pt2 thread. Hmmmmm that sounds like it would be popular .
Marta: “Homare Sawa and Abby Wambach had a great World Cup, so my sixth win in a row is certainly not a foregone conclusion. But I’m happy to have been nominated, and am looking forward to attending the ceremony, which is always a wonderful occasion, and to meeting other sporting figures. It’s the eighth time that I’ve been nominated, which I’m delighted about.” Source: FIFA official site (an article entitled "FIFA Ballon d'Or stirs worldwide debate", published about a week ago) Is it false modesty from Marta or does she really mean it?
I think she really means it, she has repeated this to different media sources in Brazil. She mentioned something to the effect that during world cup years more weight is put on your performance in the world cup, and this year both Abby and Homare Sawa had performed great, helping their teams advance in the world cup, so either them could win it.
I think she means it as well. However, I'm almost hoping that Marta wins the thing next year. As someone pointed out earlier in the thread, there wasn't this much haggling over the winner when Mia..Mia..Mia won continuously. I wonder why..?
The rules have changed...there is a cahier des charges that indicates the official parameteres for voting nowadays since they merged with the ballon d'or france football
There wasn't this much haggling b/c it wasn't was well followed. Won't the talk at least make it more likely that Sawa will win? She's the one I think deserves it for 2011. Mia only won twice (the first two) and I'm pretty sure a lot of folks (yes, even in the USA) laughed about it b/c she'd been hurt and not really playing much/well. I remember rolling my eyes since it was clear the voting process was pretty ridiculous. And I think Grings not even placing top 3 in 2009 pretty much solidified the "this voting process is a joke" stuff.
CAREFUL, your talking way too much sense. Like me, if your going to do that rubbish, then take it upstairs, or set up your own long winded pseudo/somewhat serious version of this thread.
Tomorrow is The Night. You should be able to watch the press conference in the afternoon as well as the ceremony in the evening on the FIFA website. The women's press conference starts at 2pm CET. Eurosport Germany shows the ceremony from 7-8pm.
... and, finally, thanks for the reminder, I had forgotten it was so close. The tempus she doth fugit, dothn't she? Marta, Sawa, Wambach. Martasawambach. That would be one hell of a player, although I'm not sure from what linguistic group she hails, other than that it's clearly one that favors the letter 'a'.
So, let's try a typical Philippine name, let's say Maricel (it's not tagalog, it's of spanish descent, but a rapid internet check says it's one of the most popular female names in Philippines). Well, so we can say that Maricel Martasawambach is a full-blossomed player, in the second half of her twenties. She reads the play well, she can be both playmaker and forward (and she's even able to defend; she can basically play in every part of the field); she dribbles like a damned brasilian, all kind of moves with both feet; she's got a powerful header and she's an absolut top-scorer, topping the rankings in quite all the tournaments she plays, both with her NT and her club: free-kicks, penalty-kicks, incredible acrobatic moves or powerful unbeatable headers in the stoppage time, she has them all; she's got a record number of assists for her team-mates and she's a real captain on the field, over-motivating all the team. Her behaviour is quite unpredictable: some days she looks quick-tempered and impulsive (and she can even be a diver); some other days she's very calm and composed in all her acts. She's deservedly admired everywhere in the world. The only question everyone is asking is: with a talented player like her, why do Philippines never won anything in women's football?