The first matchday in the last round of WC qualifying has something like 6 of 20 matches with GDs of 6 or more, and that was pretty typical. Even if a few happen to pop up over the group stage, the fact that we have nothing over 4 goals in the first 20ish matches now is a *massive* improvement.
Scoreline-wise it's an improvement so far but it would have been fine to keep the qualifiers as they were and introduce preliminary rounds like they've existed before. That way you usually eliminate teams that are suspectible to blowouts.
While this is true, Evrard (the Belgian goalkeeper) could have done much better on Roord's goal, to be honest. She also almost conceeded a second goal later on in the game from roughly the same position and angle.
They would have to eliminate many teams as most teams from pot 4 had lost games with 6 or more goals. Hungary (0:7 Spain) Belarus (0:6 Iceland, 0:7 Czech Republic) Greece (0:10 France) Albania (0:7 Norway, 0:7 Belgium) North Macedonia (0:10 and 0:8 England, 0:6 and 0:10 Austria, 0:11 and 0:9 Northern Ireland) Israel (0:7 Germany) Azerbaijan (0:8 Denmark) We would need qualifiers that just consist of teams from Nation's League A and B.
League C teams have shown that they can get decent results in the qualifiers from time to time, maybe not teams like Estonia and the Faroe Islands but certainly Montenegro, Malta and a few others can. With the current format, you're not given any of the smaller teams any chance to improve, rather only to stay within their comfort zone for the most part and "improve" exclusively among similarly-ranked teams.
Biennial NL-style Qualifiers - integrated with biennial NL - is a more efficient and productive way of doing that because every team plays at least 6 group stage games and - for those teams which peform well lower down the ranking - there remains a route to the final tournaments via qualifying playoffs. Also - in Qualifiers seasons - there is also the avoidance of automatic relegation to play for in Leagues A and B for those teams which fall out of contention for qualification.
I think you've forgotten two very important things: 1. Promotion exists in the NL. 2. Being significantly overmatched regularly does nothing to help teams improve. Improvement comes from consistently playing teams slightly above (and around) you. The NL format does this way better than the previous mix-top-to-bottom format.
I know promotion exists and now for the most part lower-ranked teams will never get a chance again to play against Spain, France, Sweden, England and so on. I'm not talking about Faroe Islands, Armenia or Andorra playing those teams, I'm talking about Montenegro, Turkey, Israel for instance, basically teams that do not tend to finish a qualifying group with a -40 goal difference even if they are now in League C. The previous format wasn't good because UEFA got rid of the preliminary round for some reason which was crucial to avoid or at least minimize blowouts. Also not every team in League C was significantly overmatched regularly under the previous format.
I much prefered the qualifiers format, now the actual qualifiers are just another pale copy of the Nations League they might as well stop calling them Euro or World Cup qualifiers and just call them The Second Nations League or something like that.
There is no NL title or Final Four tournament in Qualifiers years, just qualification and non-qualification like before plus automatic promotion and relegation for group winners in Leagues B and C and group bottom-placed teams in Leagues A and B.
I know there is no Nations League title or Final Four tournament in qualifiers years, I never said there was, in fact I didn't say anything about a title or Final Four tournament.
I was just emphasising that there is a significant difference between Qualifiers seasons and NL seasons, so you wouldn't call Qualifiers seasons a "Second Nations League" when it is more like the previous Qualifiers format with the exception that it is tiered into leagues.
I finally found a highlight clip of the penalty on Ilestedt in Sweden vs Spain (Only highlight of any kind I've found that plays in the US)
The tiering into leagues is exactly what makes it a Second Nations League as opposed to proper qualifiers. In proper qualifiers, there are no leagues, only groups where everyone from Pot 1 to Pot 5 or Pot 6 competes against one another.
Roord's goal? How is that remotely comparable to Weimar's play? I see goals like Roord's goal all the time, and I'm not critical of Evrard there. Are you talking about Roord almost scoring again after the Groenen-Martens-Van de Donk buildup? If she had scored there, I also wouldn't have blamed Evrard. I also didn't really get the criticism that Naeher got on Roord's goal at the World Cup; Roord's just elite at that kind of finish. (Just as a note, I've been plenty critical of goalkeeping in the women's game.)
That's hilarious to me with the added context of Spain somehow escaping giving up that PK vs the Dutch at the World Cup. Part of the argument was that Beerensteyn wasn't going to get to the ball anyways; I don't think the Spanish player would have got a good chance here even without getting fouled.
It's not remotely comparable, it's just another case of bad goalkeeping. The goalkeeping has improved a lot in the women's game compared to 10-20 years ago but there is still a work to be done.
I don't think Evrard is a particularly good keeper, but I just don't agree that Roord's goal was bad goalkeeping. Yes, there is still work to be done.
It was a combination of a good goal AND bad goalkeeping actually. Granted, it wasn't the worse I've seen from a goalkeeper, far from it but it still wasn't good enough.
Italy 0:1 Sweden Italy were much more competitive against Sweden than they were at the WWC, but they could not convert any of the chances they created in the second half.
Dutch up 1-0 over England with a goal by Martens. Beerensteyn hit the post as did Rachel Daly for England. Very entertaining and the Dutch are back to total football.
Wow, this had to be one of the best games I have watched in a long time. Both teams playing hard and the Dutch with a late goal from Renate Jansen win it 2-1. England were in full attack mode in the 2nd half but van Domselaar was equal to the task. IMO she is one of the best GKs in the world right now, super quick and strong enough to parry hard shots. Certainly better than any male Dutch keeper! Defense stayed strong and the England goal came on a deflection off of D. Janssen that went straight to Russo who just had a short volley to easily beat van Domselaar. Groenen has to be singled out as well as the back line. She is so commanding as the holding MF and marks any player she is assigned out of the match. It's baffling how this team lost to Belgium. Beerensteyn has to not be so selfish. She made a good move to get the ball in space but the second defender was coming over leaving Pelova all alone on the right but she took the shot herself which was blocked by the England defender. Roord, for me was the poorest player on the pitch. She is just a lazy passer and had one back pass that was so soft it was easily intercepted, allowing England to break. Depending on the Belgium result we could have four teams on three points.
That first half vs Spain and parts of the second half today were poor, but I have to admit that I never thought a system with Brugts and Pelova as wingbacks would perform as well as it has overall vs top level opposition. Dijkstra was absolutely terrific today at RCB; she showed exactly why I rate her. Van Domselaar, there's just no more words to describe how good of a keeper she is. That first half save vs Hemp was fairly routine; to follow that up immediately with a great save vs Bronze was world class. Her second half save vs Hemp was just the very definition of world class; that was one of the best saves I've ever seen. Groenen was as class as ever in my opinion, and she deserved an assist on that Beerensteyn shot off the bar. Martens' goal was offside, but the pressure from Groenen on Stanway was elite regardless. Hemp just got in on Groenen in the second half; however, given how good Hemp is at those runs, I thought Groenen kind of did well to put Hemp off, and Spitse (I think) was able to comfortably clear. Groenen did well to clear in front of Kelly on another chance, and her batlle vs Toone all match was great. Pelova shut me up today. Great, great match. Terrific dribbling, and she didn't get caught out holding onto the ball too long. Creative, forward play, and she brought out a pretty good save from Earps shortly after England equalized. Martens with a sublime finish and a sublime assist (that was a weird misplay from Greenwood). Just excellent execution. That was a world class finish from Jansen; Beerensteyn was unlucky with her great effort off the bar, but she can get some lessons from Jansen. Reminiscent of the Spain match, Beerensteyn could/should have set up Pelova for a good chance on the break, but she chose to go for goal. Regarding the Hemp vs Groenen and Spitse clearance play, in the buildup, the ref clearly impeded Van de Donk's ability to challenge either Stanway or Toone, and it obviously helped set up a chance for England. Would VAR have been able to overrule that goal if it was set up and England had scored? (Yes, I know VAR would have overruled Martens' goal.) I imagine the answer's likely no, but that was poor awareness from the ref.
Groenen was definitely excellent today (i.e. defensively solid, good ball retention and progression, great ball for Beerensteyn's shot off the bar). It continues to astound me that she's only a 79 on EA FC 24 (and before on FIFA23). If there's anyone who doesn't think Van Domselaar is one of the top like three keepers in the women's game, they don't what they're talking about. That second save vs Bronze and the save on Hemp were pure class. Spot on regarding Beerensteyn. Pelova was obviously frustrated, and this is the second time following that breakaway vs Spain. I thought Roord was fine/good, but I'd agree that she was one of the least impressive Dutch players on the day. Belgium are currently ahead. If there's anyone who predicted that Belgium could lead the group on maximum points after two matches, well done.