How good is Women's football?

SexyGreyFox

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I always thought that we may see a Woman in the Premier league but I'm not so sure that a woman would be good enough for League 2 let alone non League sides.
What made me change my mind was the Harry Redknapp program where the 1966 World Cup teams were going to play each other and a very unfit and fat England team still beat (I think) Crystal Palace Ladies when I thought the women would have run circles round them.

So if we took the England team which league do you think they would do OK in?
 

mmj_uk

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In 2013 Swedish womens national team lost 3-0 to under 17's.
https://www.thelocal.se/20130116/45646

...and the boys team only played with 10 men?

I don't recall hearing about any other matches between men and women.

I think it's safe to say womens football has probably moved on a bit but my money would still be on a decent under 17's boys team.
 

sneakysnail

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mmj_uk said:
In 2013 Swedish womens national team lost 3-0 to under 17's.
https://www.thelocal.se/20130116/45646

...and the boys team only played with 10 men?

I don't recall hearing about any other matches between men and women.

I think it's safe to say womens football has probably moved on a bit but my money would still be on a decent under 17's boys team.
Click to expand...
I think the Aussie womans national side had a bunch of defeats to highschool teams before the olympics. they did well at the olympics 2.

found it
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/australian-womens-national-team-lose-70-to-team-of-15yearold-boys-a3257266.html?amp

to answer the question honestly it's probably very low. I think you have to look to the non proffesional local town sort of leagues.

basically the 7th division if you will
 
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MartinPrince

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SexyGreyFox said:
So if we took the England team which league do you think they would do OK in?
Click to expand...
I've watched a fair bit of women's football, even before the world cup and I wouldn't put it in a particular league. It's more akin to watching a men's age group and I'd put it at about U16 level. You will see flashes of brilliance from a few women players (some skills I rarely see men doing) but all too often you will see very poor execution of even basic skills.
 

inogen

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It's becoming tactically better, which is fun, but most people don't watch football for tactics. Especially on TV. People watch for pace and power and moments of imagination that include those.

As much as I am an sexual egalitarian, the idea that that women's football will ever as exciting as mens in that way is as likely as men giving me a motherly hug.
 

Rroff

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When we had a younger crowd at work and used to do charity football there were a couple of girls that were easily as good as the guys that worked for us who played in league 1 or 2 teams - one of them was very good though I couldn't really see them playing at premier league level but hard to really know.

Don't think it is so much skill that is the issue versus a male team just the match up of different styles - the way a group of women tends to play football just leaves too much space for a male team to exploit.
 
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chroniclard

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Been some great football at the womens world cup so far, however it lacks the pace, power and skill of the top mens game. Hard to tell what level/league they could compete in, I dont really watch lower leagues.
 

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Its not great and its being elevated beyond its natural level by virtue of being shown on prime time TV. Of course there will be good games and bad games but the overall standard that I have watched is just quite poor football. If it was men producing the exact same it wouldn't get a mention far less the coverage it is getting.
 

Jokester

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The pace and physicality of the men's game would mean it's probably at low/non-league level and it mostly shows in keepers who are still by and large very poor. Outfield players have come on leaps and bounds in the last 10 years though. There's also a gulf in class between our domestic women's game and the top international teams. Watching the Women's FA cup a couple of weeks back was like watching a couple of pub teams playing on a Sunday afternoon after the night before.

I enjoy the world cup games as the pace is a bit slower and games a bit more open and it doesn't have the same play acting and diving of the mens game.
 

mmj_uk

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USA are probably one of the best national teams though, I expect they're amongst the favourites if not the favourite to win the tournament and according to McBain's post they got turned over by MLS's Dallas Under 15's.

Manchester City who afaik have one of the best womens club teams should arrange a match for charity between both first teams. Give the money to charity. I expect promoting such a fixture would be a political minefield though. It'll burst the "anything men can do women can do just as good" bubble some people like to live in.
 

Rroff

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Jokester said:
Watching the Women's FA cup a couple of weeks back was like watching a couple of pub teams playing on a Sunday afternoon after the night before.
Click to expand...

Was having a quick look at my old town's women team - quite like the goal here hah https://youtu.be/QnKa_Ssjtw4?t=4195 in general though seems a good level of skill on display and at time good pace but often just doesn't have the power, especially noticeable around penalties but what I think really hurts is the amount of space a women's team tends to leave which is easily exploited by the style men tend to play and often there is a lot more deliberation in the flow of play from both teams while a men's team would be putting more pressure on. I think a mixed team of men/women of the same kind of skill levels as an all women's team versus an all men's team wouldn't have the same kind of problems due to a different group mentality.
 

FrankJH

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I actually watched a couple of the Womens CL games towards the end of the comp which were moderately entertaining this season, and have watched a number of the youtube highlight reels of Utd's womens team as well.

Given the stage they are at, they are pretty decent, obviously no comparison to mens teams but the whole stature of the womens team has to grow and Im sure competitiveness will along with the skill levels.

Would you judge the men's game on the competiveness in Internationals? I wouldn't as majority of Internationals are actually pretty woeful, and its only club football with the full season together that you can really give a fair appraisal imo

Looking forward to watching more of the WSL next season
 

A2Z

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Whenever I have watched a few minutes of women's football, the quality has been so bad compared to the men's, I would have rather watched paint dry.
 
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