"Women’s Football Isn’t ‘Proper’ Football"

StarCityFan · Aug 17, 2012

Don't be misled by the title. This may be the best short piece ever written about women's soccer:

"Women’s Football Isn’t ‘Proper’ Football"

Last week there were 80,000 people at Wembley Stadium watching the Olympic Women’s Football final between the USA and Japan. It was supposed to be a showcase highlighting the quality of the women’s game, but all it did was demonstrate just how far away they are from the level of professionalism that the men’s game has achieved. Sure the women’ game has competitiveness, skill, pace, energy and tons of hard work but it is missing some real key elements.

This disparity became blindingly obvious at the end of the second half. The game was in injury time with the USA leading 2-1 and something very odd was happening. The Americans were still playing, still attacking and still trying to score. They were two minutes away from Olympic gold medals and not one player was on the floor feigning injury and calling for the physio. Not once did they run the ball into the corner trying to waste time. They were trying to score goals, in added time, at Wembley, in the biggest game they will ever play in their career. Madness!
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BostonRed · Aug 18, 2012

StarCityFan said: ↑

They were trying to score goals, in added time, at Wembley, in the biggest game they will ever play in their career."
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I'm not so sure about that...

BocaFan · Aug 21, 2012

And if the score was 2-1 for Japan, you would have seen just the opposite.

I watched Barca v Sociedad last weekend and Barca were still attacking after they took the lead. The best teams in the world tend to play with more confidence and be more positive. Playing positive when you're already winning isn't a trait of women's football. It's a trait of good teams.

Another example of poor sports journalism.