General Soccer Thread

[Gumby]

They made everyone in this country proud. Well down to what they achieved! Not too sure about the age of the group but but hopefully the bulk of this squad can continue over the next 4 years for another crack at the World Cup.

 

[Shortfin Mako]

I do not think 4-4-2 was the right formation for us. We surrendered midfield possession to England. If you want to have 4 defenders at the back, then I would have used 4-4-1-1 with Fowler playing behind Kerr. This might have given us a chance for the battle for the midfield. However, we lost the midfield and lost the possession.

we gave too much possession and paid the price. We were playing more attacking later and created opportunities.

Hemp, from England, killed us with her physicality. We just could not handle her. For example, we should have brought her down in the middle of the filed before the 3rd goal.

The ref was too lenient on the time stealing tactics of England and missed some offsides but other than that was OK. Allowed England to be physical which we should have observed and matched.

Anyway, let’s go and get the third.

 

[Proud Shark]

They made everyone in this country proud. Well down to what they achieved! Not too sure about the age of the group but but hopefully the bulk of this squad can continue over the next 4 years for another crack at the World Cup.

Probably few old legs in 4 years. Kerr, Ford and Van Edgmond are all about 30 I think. It's probably Fowlers team moving forward, but you might be able to squeeze another run out of them. Hopefully some more young talent coming through.

 

[HaroldBishop]

The Danes were dominating in the first 30

They definitely have the bulk of the possession, and good ball. But that seems to be our game. We don't build pressure, we just counter hard.

Going to be interesting to see how this works against the Poms assuming we meet in the semis. Not sure you can give one of the top teams that much possession and field position.

I had a feeling our style of play wasn't going to work last night, England are just too good to allow them that much ball.

 

[Proud Shark]

I had a feeling our style of play wasn't going to work last night, England are just too good to allow them that much ball.

To be fair, there were opportunities. Just fewer. Losing Kennedy could have hurt our defence too.

If we don't let in that dumb second goal, who knows what happens.

 

[HaroldBishop]

To be fair, there were opportunities. Just fewer. Losing Kennedy could have hurt our defence too.

If we don't let in that dumb second goal, who knows what happens.

Yeah that's fair, just think you're playing with fire to allow a gun team that much possession.

Definitely some very costly mistakes on our part though.

 

[Proud Shark]

Yeah that's fair, just think you're playing with fire to allow a gun team that much possession.

Definitely some very costly mistakes on our part though.

100% agree.

England looked the better side all night too.

 

[MrDravid]

Yeah that's fair, just think you're playing with fire to allow a gun team that much possession.

Definitely some very costly mistakes on our part though.

Yeah you give a team like that possession, then your defense is constantly going to be under pressure and they are going to make mistakes.

 

[Shortfin Mako]

To be fair, there were opportunities. Just fewer. Losing Kennedy could have hurt our defence too.

If we don't let in that dumb second goal, who knows what happens.

That was Hemp again. She abused our defence all night. We just could not match her physicality.

 

[Proud Shark]

That was Hemp again. She abused our defence all night. We just could not match her physicality.

She did, but she got lucky there with a miscommunication. That should have been easily diffused.

 

[HaroldBishop]

Really incredible figures. I know not everyone will, but I hope plenty keep following the Tillies, I know I will.

The dream of winning the World Cup may have come to an end, but Australia’s love affair with the Matildas reached new heights on Wednesday night as the semi-final clash with England drew a record average audience of 7.13 million viewers nationally on Seven and its streaming service 7plus.

That number does not include those who watched on Optus Sport or in the many public venues around the country that hosted mass viewing events.

 

[bort]

Really incredible figures. I know not everyone will, but I hope plenty keep following the Tillies, I know I will.

Lot of contributing factors though - I had it on mute on my phone while watching something else. Same with their previous game - the only two soccer games I've watched this year.

Aus team doing better than expected
Ideal viewing times for Aus audiences
Obviously, and not irrelevant, that it is a very popular sport
Female element (especially with them doing well) would have increased female viewership a lot over other comparable events
Very palatable sport for non-soccer crowd - my sense is more aussie rules and league fans showed an interest in this than would each others sports which many see as more of a rivalry to dislike the other (when actually soccer potentially the bigger long term threat to both)

Not to belittle remarkable viewing numbers, as I said, I watched it too. But make all those games 6 hours later what are numbers like?

Wonder what numbers will be like for final?

I won't follow Matildas any closer than I did before, which is to say in a major comp I'll have a passing interest and will watch some big games if it is convenient for me to do so.

 

[HaroldBishop]

Lot of contributing factors though - I had it on mute on my phone while watching something else. Same with their previous game - the only two soccer games I've watched this year.

Aus team doing better than expected
Ideal viewing times for Aus audiences
Obviously, and not irrelevant, that it is a very popular sport
Female element (especially with them doing well) would have increased female viewership a lot over other comparable events
Very palatable sport for non-soccer crowd - my sense is more aussie rules and league fans showed an interest in this than would each others sports which many see as more of a rivalry to dislike the other (when actually soccer potentially the bigger long term threat to both)

Not to belittle remarkable viewing numbers, as I said, I watched it too. But make all those games 6 hours later what are numbers like?

Wonder what numbers will be like for final?

I won't follow Matildas any closer than I did before, which is to say in a major comp I'll have a passing interest and will watch some big games if it is convenient for me to do so.

You could say the same for almost anything that rates extremely high though regarding timeslot, number of people not watching properly.

Make no mistake, the interest in the Matildas has been unlike just about anything I can think of. Cathy is the only other one I can think of but I think this has been bigger.

So many young girls at my son's school who never had an interest in sport are all now wearing Matildas' gear.

It's absolutely fantastic.

 

[bort]

You could say the same for almost anything that rates extremely high though regarding timeslot, number of people not watching properly.

Make no mistake, the interest in the Matildas has been unlike just about anything I can think of. Cathy is the only other one I can think of but I think this has been bigger.

So many young girls at my son's school who never had an interest in sport are all now wearing Matildas' gear.

It's absolutely fantastic.

For sure, circumstances were ideal to allow for such great interest may have been required, but they also had to perform well enough to take advantage of it. Don't get those numbers if they 0-3 every pool game and bow out.

For women's sport it will be a massive boost, I think across probably a lot of sports but obviously soccer a big beneficiary. Lucky to have such ideal circumstances (home WC being one of the major factors) but earnt the outcome off the back of stepping up to the occasion.

 

[Sparkles]

That was Hemp again. She abused our defence all night. We just could not match her physicality.

You'd think she'd be more chilled

 

[Sparkles]

She did, but she got lucky there with a miscommunication. That should have been easily diffused.

We had some changes in the defensive lineup as well, which seemed to cause us a lot of trouble through the whole match.

 

[Pishposh46]

I hope it ends like this.
Spain
England
Australia

 

[HaroldBishop]

I hope it ends like this.
Spain
England
Australia

I hope the Poms win

 

[HaroldBishop]

So 42% of the population watched on Wednesdays night, that's just insane.

Won't be as high tonight but hopefully still a big number.

 

[HaroldBishop]

Lucky to be only down by 1