Normally, I would not be posting on women's football. Yes, I'm a chauvinistic pig and think it's tedious to watch half-paced, half-man looking, handbags football.
However, I'll take it back and say I watched (amongst bits of other matches) Sweden against Finland yesterday. Not only this, but I was pleasantly surprised, no not because I'm watching 11 Swedish women running around in shorts. More that it was actually quite entertaining.
You see, yes, the pace is slower, yes the shooting is appalling at times, yes many of the players look like men, yes Italy especially have the ugliest team by far BUT there was something that kept me watching.
The biggest difference in my opinion about women's football is the space. The key concept in any team sport and in the men's game is about creating spaces to attack. The whole (men's) game is very compact, with the ball travelling much less distance, therefore it looks (and is) much faster. With women's football, I've noticed, much like in kids football, they spread out everywhere. This is noticeable on the wings as during any single moment both wingers tend to be on the line. This creates a natural hole in the middle of the pitch. It is also something you never see in men's football. What this does is allow easy through-balls and masses of space to run into, hence women's football is potentially much more flowing then men's (minus someone like Spain's national team who just pass the ball constantly and do nothing with it). The poor women subsequently have to run much longer distances as the ground to cover is much larger. It creates many more opportunities and thus is potentially more entertaining.
The negative is, things take time to build and usually the finishing can be fairly terrible. The ball seems to suspend in slow-motion at times, as it can freely role half the pitch before anyone touches it.
However, one more thing I do love about women's football, which is in complete contrast to the men's, is how hard the women are. After watching Johanna give birth, I now know why that is. These women just get battered, and not just the handbags that you see in the men's game, but truly munched and they just get back up like nothing has happened. No diving, no messing around. Actually, what football is supposed to be like. That is something I do like to watch, no nonsense, no cheating.
Sweden put 5 passed Finland, but could have been 10-15 nil, no problem. I'd rather see some 'namby pamby' women getting bruised and battered then just getting on with it, than some overrated, overpaid, under-educated man fall over the second the wind brushes his shirt, whilst grabbing his face and rolling around on the floor for 5 mins.
Women's football, I owe you an apology.
