Friede and I just watched the second match of the women's soccer world championship, Germany vs. China (Germany won 1-0). the Chinese women had quite a robust style of play; there were a lot of fouls, sometimes real brutal ones, by the Chinese.

after one of these fouls one of the German players said something to one of the Chinese women, and this was shown in slow motion. though there was no sound to that scene it was clear what the German player said (at least for anybody who speaks German well). she said: "willst du mich verarschen"?

this phrase is hard to translate because there are many meanings to it which all come through at the same time in German. literally the phrase means "are you trying to arse me?"; the meanings that are in there are "are you trying to make a fool out of me?", "are you trying to deceive me?" or "are you f**king around with me?".  Friede and I really had to laugh when we saw that slow motion.

the commentators in the studio made a few remarks about that scene after the game too, including quoting the phrase; it really was obvious what she had said. the phrase is very colloquial and generally only used when you are really pissed off at someone

Cheering for Norway! 

 

Hey, Hey,

get out of our way

Because today is our day,

We are Norway, We are Norway

We got Leprous, we got Wobbler

we play world class women's soccer!

Should be an interesting series of games, and we will know a bit more after the USA plays, tomorrow I think ... Brazil is today and many articles are already saying that the Brazilians are falling apart and that their team will end as Marta leaves and retires.

I think that Sweden is dangerous, specially with their coach that previously ran the American team, and Germany is also always a problem, and I would not rule out China, although they have not been the power that they used to be.

I'm thinking that we will know more, and better after a game or two ... and see where the surprises lie.

Was rooting for Scotland.  Next time.

Kudos to the US-team for claiming payment equal to their male counterparts. Considering the fact that, being the current world champions, they are obviously the better team, they more than deserve that.

Equal payment for women is a problem in all areas of occupation, not just in sport. The problem is that it is mostly men who decide about these payments.

BaldFriede wrote: Sad news for the German team: Their top-player Dzsenifer Marozsan, one of the very best female soccer players in the world, broke the middle toe of her left foot in the beginning of Germany's match against China. She played until the end, but this serious injury explains why she was not as good as usual in this match. it is highly unlikely, nigh impossible, that she will be able to play in the rest of the tournament.

I've broken toes in karate and they are extremely painful, but very recoverable.   She should be fine next season.

I sympathize and believe that these women should get paid a lot more ... and in fact, players like the Men's National Team (in America), would have to donate 20% of their salaries to the women, for their low ranking and absolutely ridiculous and lousy play in the past 3 to 4 years!

I now think the USWNT can bet the men 5-3, or 5-2 ... because at the very least, the women can pass the ball and shoot ... the men, it feels like the old days in Victorian England ... the men leave the room to go out and have their smokes! And ignore the women until they can get laid, of course!

The whole thing is sick ... and the US Women deserve more ... their record speaks for itself, as it does the number of magnificent players ... not to mention others from around the world ... that also deserve more than just a kick in the butt ... how about the girl from Norway was it? (... saddest thing I have ever seen, and their media don't give a crap ... guess who runs the media!)

The real scary thing is seeing in the first 10 minutes, the US had like 6 or 7 shots on Thailand ... and you knew this game was gonna get busted silly!

I'm not sure there is any team right now, that wants to come anywhere near the American team.

The overall standard of play has been very impressive but there are two areas where the ladies have much to learn:

1 - The goalkeeping is awful to the point of slapstick, notwithstanding there are some excellent reflex shot stoppers (Argentina's Vanina Correa aside, who is superb and also commands her penalty area)

2 - Apart a very elite core of players, they don't set their bodies correctly before shooting i.e. they don't place their weight over the ball but behind it which leads to lots of shots being tantamount to scooped 'chips' that usually fly too high

 The Dallas boys ( under 15 years old) team beat Team USA 5-2.    Girls just wanna have fun.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4389760/USA-women-s-team-suffer-5-2-loss-FC-Dallas-U-15-boys.html

  

You have to watch the USA/Chile game for seeing one of the most amazing goalkeeping exhibitions EVER.

The score might have been about 6-0 were it not for her, and to the point where at least one American player was not going to get through ... period. Quite insane, and I think that many folks hope to ever have one game like that, let alone do it on the world's biggest stage.

Chile actually played well, despite being under pressure all game long and to come out with that score is a bit of ... you know ... one of those poetic justice kinds of thing ... but they could not move forward and their midfield was apparently more set on defending than they were on moving the ball forward.

While it has to be admitted that there is some truly abysmal female goal keeping there have been some very remarkable exceptions. One is former German goalkeeper Nadine Angerer who not only did not concede a single goal in the 2007 world championships (this included saving a penalty shot by the legendary Brazilian player Marta in the finals), she was also named female European soccer player of the year by the UEFA and female world soccer player of the year by the FIFA that same year. No other goalkeeper, male or female, was ever given that award (of course for their sex respectively).

BaldJean wrote: I am always torn between 2 camps for such world cups. one half of me routes for the USA, my former home country, the other half roots for Germany

 

I must have missed that! Where are you from originally?

Glad you're hear, I mean here, to relate these tidbits. 

I am originally from Oakland, CA. I came to Germany in 1993

You grew up in Oaktown? I'm SoCal born and raised, but I have tons of family, I mean tons, scattered around the Bay Area: Oakland, Piedmont, San Leandro, Alameda, Newark, Redwood Shores and also down in San Jose. I don't get up there as often now.

Maybe we stood next to each other on the BART 30 years ago and never knew it. 

Well, the preliminary round is over, and we are down to sixteen teams now. These are the pairings:

Germany - Nigeria

Norway - Australia

England - Cameroon

France - Brazil

Spain - USA

Sweden - Canada

Italy - China

Netherlands - Japan

Nice to see that two African teams advanced, but I expect them to be kicked out in the round of 16. Germany and England are among the favourites for the title, alongside with France, Brazil and the USA.

King of Loss wrote: France and Brazil should be hell of a match!

Netherlands - Japan too.

I think you are underestimating Spain. They have some good young players on that team. I think France US will be a very tight game with few goals.

well, the US team advances. the second goal for the US team was a defense mistake again; Megan Rapinoe was totally unmarked and scored her second goal of the match. the French team woke up too late, though the French goal was a nice header by 6'2'' tall French player Wendie Renard

while the US is king... it ain't like men's basketball..  the US can and has lost.. the world ain't that far behind us. 

 

A few positives:

 

- the best team won, no discussions about it (not the case with men last year in France, Belgium was the best)

- play quality was high and drama levels low  and with no-one systematically flattening the grass for 20 minutes per Brazilian games, it was more fun to watch.

- Prefer to see/watch women running after a ball than men - the pleasure of the eyes - and I'm glad to see that they're wearing shorts instead of those ugly Bermuda trousers... maybe next time mini-skirts like in Tennis??

- anyone who tells Trump to f**k off  is cool in my book, unless he's North Korean.  Now if the US team wants to tell Bo Jo the Clown to f**k off, be my guest.