Could a woman ever play soccer with the men at the highest level?

Do you mean a woman capable of having babies?

 

closest person to have ever been able to play with men was michelle akers in her prime... i have no idea how far (level of play) she would have been able to play

but one thing i can say is that she was one tough son of a bitch

 

Nope. Never.

 

Re: Re: Could a woman ever play soccer with the men at the highest level?

Imagine Martina Navratilova at her prime, if she got into the sport.

 

Re: Re: Re: Could a woman ever play soccer with the men at the highest level?

I'm thinking Renee Richards actually.

 

i concur...phsyical differences are just too much.

 

If she's able to withstan being pushed, shoved, kicked, and everything else that goes on in the playing field, then she could. But I don't think women would like to play with men, at least at a professional level.

 

too wide a divide

No - and for the same reason that Annika will never be able to compete in a tour that she actually has to qualify for (instead of getting sponsored). The leader of the tournament on Thursday explained it perfectly when he said, "Annike played bett than me, but I hit the ball farther."

In soccer, the divide is due to athleticism, speed and strength. There were two female high school all-american who went to my high school. They were the best of the best on a national scale, but wouldn't have been able to crack the men's JV squad.

 

In my mind, it could happen, if you guys could just get over the image problems. Screw physical differences, they said the same thing about whites and blacks when it came to baseball. But put the two - male and female - on the same training regimen and subject them to the same challenging conditions, and three-quarters of the time, over time, you will get pretty consistent performances.

 

A woman coming out of a trip to casablanca and an operation, maybe.

But no, i'm wrong Kratochvilova could (do you remember her?)


Mmmh what a beauty...

 

At the u-17 level, a top woman might hold her own, but not at the senior level -- unless we are talking about over 50, recreational, THAT kind of senior, and we aren't

From a physical point of view, playing golf is probably closer to equestrian sports than contact sports, like soccer.

 

Bolonga. Look up the difference between the body's reaction to testosterone and estrogen and then get back to me.

 

Like I said, dedicated training makes up a great deal for physical differences. I don't care who you are, what you are or where you came from. I understand that the best female athlete will never undo the best male athlete, but you can't tell me with a straight face that the best female athlete doesn't have anything on the worst male athlete. And this is where you get the convergence.

 

One Single Sliding tackle at high speed, and that's all SHE wrote. like I said before NOPE. NEVER. Maybe I should refrase that: NOPE. NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER

 

First, there's a "ph" in rephrase.

Second, this is an argument that women shouldn't participate in any team sport whatsoever. They do have sliding tackles in women's soccer, if I'm not mistaken.

 

I'd say it's extremely unlikely. If you have ever played coed before, you'd know that the speed differential is way too much. I've been playing coed now for a few years and even the very best women in our league (including some teenagers on Olympic Development Squads and a woman that has since gone on to WUSA) aren't nearly fast enough to hold their own one-on-one with the average male players in the same division. And we're talking about guys that would have no chance whatsoever of ever even dreaming of making a semi-pro team.

I'm a 30 year old mostly out of shape guy who never even played high school soccer and I could easily mark women who were WAY more technically skilled than I right out of the game if I chose to. This is not to say that they could not make some good moves here and there if I were giving them space to work with, but the difference in speed is way too great for them to be truly effective.

 

She looks like Jeff Agoos

 

I don't know for sure, but it seems unlikely unless you found quite an exceptional woman. She'd have to be basically extra strong, fast, and athletic for a woman, and then she'd be just sort of average for a man. So she could find a place on the team, but probably wouldn't be a star player. I wouldn't go so far as to say never, as some would.

I don't base this on direct experience, just on game reports between woman's professional teams (WUSA and US Nats) and various men's/boy's teams I read over the years.

What do you think of the goalkeeper position? How big was Campos? He did well. Maybe this is the most likely position that a woman player could play as well as a man.

 

I don't see it happening. In theory, it could happen, but only the most butch of females could do it, I think.

It's possible, but highly unlikely. The woman who could do it probably wouldn't be one of the best. She'd probably just make a semi-pro team or something. I simply don't see a girl being a world class player, and a lot of that has to do with that fact that even if she was good enough, fast enough, strong enough, she probably couldn't take the punishment a lot of the best players take.

And yeah, they have sliding tackles in WUSA. But do they have all that crap that goes on behind the scenes? All the dirty elbows, sucker punches, kicks, and all of that other stuff? That's a serious question. I don't watch WUSA.

 

Oh, Excuse me! REPHRASE. You must be a woman femenist or a highly effemenate male to have made that observation.

A sliding tackle on a woman's team as compared to a mens team is like only using foul language to stop a man from scoring. I mean cmon. Do you know how many male players get their legs broken yearly around the world? And I mean WORLD CLASS PLAYERS.

 

Here's the rule of thumb for the US Women's National Team when training:

If we want to win, we'll scrimmage a U14 boys team.
If we want to have a close game, we'll scrimmage a U15 boys team.
If we want to get beat, we'll scrimmage a U16 boys team.

And that's where the physical difference comes in. No matter how much you train, women will NOT become as strong, as muscular or as fast as guys. Sure they'll be some women better than the lower rung on men, but those would be the best and most athletic women, vs the guys that won't make a rec squad.

The one area that women do have over men is in endurance. In ultra-marathon (100 milers, 24 hour races and the like) women are competing with men.

And yes. I am saying this with a straight face.

 

Do you want to know the real reason a Woman can never play the guys?

The moment you tell her that her ass is starting to look a little chunky, she will break down and cry and not speak to you for months. And God forbid you decide to play her during her period. That's all you need, one angry bleeding bitch with PMS....

 

Norway's national team for women plays practice games against local U16 boys teams every now and then. The games are very even. Sometimes the boys win by a goal and sometimes the women win by a goal.

They cannot play against U18 teams simply because of the physical gap. They don't get anything out of those games - physically or tactically. The 18-year-olds will just kick the ball upwards, run away and win every duel on the pitch in the air and on the ground.