Women's World Cup 2015

[Balrog]

So apparently this started already. Some thoughts of what I've seen so far...

What Germany did to Ivory Coast could be considered a war crime - certainly if any Brazilian fans were watching it might've triggered their past trauma - but the other two African teams have done surprisingly well so far. Certainly didn't see Nigeria getting a draw with Sweden the way it did or Cameroon winning.

US came out poor in their opener, they were sloppy and seemed more interested in punting the ball as far down the pitch as they could, no matter who was there. And Wambach missing that header! They did shape up in the second half, and I hope they don't sleep on Nigeria this Friday.

[Thanas]

The World Cup certainly works as intended so far, I just wish the games weren't scheduled at nighttime.

[Titan Uranus]

I heard that there were some terrible problems with the artificial turf carving off skin and such, is there any truth to that?

[Thanas]

Yes, there were pictures tweeted by the German WNT that showed lots of ugly bruising and scrapes, some open and oozing blood.

[KroLazuxy_87]

John Oliver talked about the artificial turf in the same video he vowed to drink Bud Light Lime if Blatter was removed.

Here's some pictures of players' legs that were uploaded to twitter:

[Balrog]

Yeah, that artificial turf sucks.

Anyways, disappointing for the US team, they should've been able to play a lot better against Sweden, but at least it wasn't a loss. This result actually makes me a bit worried about the Nigeria game, but at least we will keep going regardless of the actual result.

And poor France was the latest victim in the terrible officiating.

[Balrog]

Well known that the round of 16 is over, I'm still not convinced the USWNT can win it all. Their defense is very good, but on the attack they're just meh. However I can easily see them getting to and winning 3rd place.

My predictions for the games this weekend:
US beats China: the China team just ain't like it was before, and despite the yellow cards the USWNT is just too deep.
Germany beats France: this one is close but the German team has simply been more impressive thus far.
Japan beats Australia: the defending champions are too much for a team like Australia.
Canada beats England: these two teams are evenly matched IMO but the Canadians have the home field advantage.

[Thanas]

Everytime I am watching Women soccer I am amazed at how elementary elements of the game are missing in it. The spaces are not efficiently cordoned off, passes are hilariously off the mark....at this rate there will not be an equal product to the one delivered by men's soccer. Of course it helps that the latter is vastly more supported, but this should be better than regional-level soccer.

[Lagmonster]

I'm pleased to see world-class games of ANY sort in my home town, but I can tell you FIFA fans this much: Your beautiful game is massively screwing up my commute.

Landsdowne park's new stadium is all shiny and pretty, but the space they built in was so claustrophobic that there is essentially zero parking for anyone, leading to an almost comical parade of tow trucks removing cars from spectacularly inappropriate parking locations, including the middle of the sidewalk.

[salm]

Hah, ein Neuer Angerer!

[Balrog]

Well it was finally entertaining to watch the American team for once, since they were actually attacking and applying constant pressure rather than just playing D-fence and blasting the ball up the field in the vain hope it'd land near Wambach or Rapino. And it really showed just how much better they were than the China team, they dominated that field like a gunboat sailing down the Yangtze River. The Chinese players basically handed the ball over every time an American player got close like they didn't want to be rude or something. If China hadn't buried some Kryptonite underneath the penalty box which caused the USWNT to inexplicitly start sucking every time they got near, the score would've and should've been more lopsided.

And damn you Canada for keeping my predictions from being perfect, though hats off to the Three Lionesses for their historic win. Likewise the German team lucked out their game came down PKs, since the Frenchies just looked to be the better team this time.

My predictions for this Tuesday is the US eeks out a narrow victory against the Germans while the Japanese are victorious against England. This sets up a repeat of last world cup finals except it goes the right way this time and the Germans bring home the bronze.

[madd0ct0r]

I still don't understand how England's top scorer is a defender

[Thanas]

And it really showed just how much better they were than the China team, they dominated that field like a gunboat sailing down the Yangtze River.

Get the fuck out.

[Balrog]

Fine, they dominated the field like a tank column rolling up on Tiananmen Square.

It would be quite hilarious if the US lost against Germany and ended up playing against England on the 4th of July.

[Thanas]

Do you find the references to brutal imperialist actions funny? I do not.

[Balrog]

I find humor can be a good way to deal with serious issues, but then this is getting off-topic.

[salm]

So what about blitz? AFAIK it´s a standard term in American Football.

[Thanas]

It is a tactic, not a celebration of imperialist actions.

That would be like trying to condemn "Sturm" or "Bedrängen".

[mr friendly guy]

How about the US dominated like Sherman marching to the sea?

[Balrog]

How about the US dominated like Sherman marching to the sea?

That's a good one, especially with the recent Confederate flag hullabaloo.

[salm]

Like Atta flying to NY?

[Lagmonster]

Can we get back to talking about football already? If you guys want to have the highly interesting and topical discussion about the nature and limits of comedy in a world where the political left is ascendant, we can set up another thread for that.

[madd0ct0r]

i've been quetly pleased by the bbc coverage - they just call it 'the world cup'

[salm]

i've been quetly pleased by the bbc coverage - they just call it 'the world cup'

In Germany we live in the sad state where Bild, our friendly neighborhood asshole tabloid has tons more information then normal sources. Besides the obvious nonsense articles about Hope Solos titts they actually have real information about the upcomming game against the USA. This can´t be said about a bunch of other sources.

[salm]

A well deserved victory for the US Team. We played really badly.