Women's Soccer

I like that the women don't dive as much.

In another thread (International Hockey Championship) cjhsa wrote:

What about [futbol/soccer] women's rankings, though? I wonder how good that Iraqi or Afghani women's team is?

The only more or less known women's ranking is unofficial.

Germany is #1,
USA, #2
Norway # 3
China # 4
(Australia # 13)

No Iraqi or Afghani teams.

Iranian women do like soccer. In 1998, they staged a protest march against regulations that forbid them to go to the soccer games. Clad with their traditional chador, thousands of them occupied part of Teheran's main stadium and cheered the Iranian national team during practice.
I don't know if the regulation still persists.

All I can say is that watching my 10 year old daughter play in her U12 league is a heck of a lot more exciting than watching youth baseball. That is like watching paint dry.

Soccer is very popular in the U.S., expecially among young women. I'm surprised to see that we aren't ranked #1. Mia Hamm is still considered to be the best woman player in the world. She plays for the Washington Freedom.

cjhsa

Actually, those ranks are made of international results.

The USA-women team made quite a lot, unfortunately with not so good results as the German team.
However, I really think, your actual team is better than the Germans.

Mia Hamm at rest. Not only is she a great soccer player...



If you can't see the picture, right click on the image, select "Properties", then copy the URL and paste it into your browser's URL bar. I tried posting the URL but if you click on it from within A2K it takes you to an adult site. If you do what I said above, it works correctly (and yes, she's fully clothed!

It's a paradox that so many Americans consider football (soccer) a "women's game", only because it is so widely played among girls in the US.

Elsewhere, football is considered a "boy's game", even where women are catching up at a fast rate. Women's soccer is Olympic only since 1996.

Obviously, the more gender equality, the greater the capacity of women's teams to surpass men's teams in the ranking.

Also, bigger qualitative differences are present today at women's level, compared to men. Whippings are relatively normal. This will diminish as more women get hooked on playing the sport.

No paradox - the three biggies take up so much of the boy's time that it leaves little room for soccer, unless you specialize. Brandy Chastain's goal at the 1999 World Cup convinced a lot of young girls that they wanted to focus on soccer.

There's a lot more fame and recognition, even at the high school level, if you play on the football, basketball, or baseball team, not to mention college and the $$$ of pro.

Right, cjhsa. Here and in many other countries it's the other way round. The High School captain of the boys' soccer team is a demigod.

We have our own paradox. While soccer is the sport that can "give the money", american football is more useful for college scholarships.

When my niece played in the national Austrian U 17 team - she was playing in boy's team at home the years before (until she was 16). That's five years ago. (Now she is playing First Austrian Bundesliga)

It's sad but understandable that it's a game for females in the US, there is no equivalent to American footbal for females so Football it is.

I think Mia is over the hill. Pretinho and many many others are far better than she is.

Craven you have no respect for your elders!

I also can't type:

pretinha*

Walter, I believe that your niece's experience (playing in boys' clubs) is not unique in countries with less women soccer players.

My sons went to soccer school since they were 4. The elder one (turned 22 this year) belongs to the first generation who had one girl in every team. There were no girls' leagues at the time (we're talking about late 80's, early 90's), but the gender barrier was truly broken.
Now they have girl's leagues and many schools have a women's football (soccer) team.

Craven,
I've seen both Hamm and Pretinha on TV (the American, several times; the Brazilian, in the World Cup game against Mexico ). Hamm, already a veteran, is superstrong and can read the game very well, like an offensive Beckenbauer. Pretinha is like a female Garrincha: artful and witty, she plays more beautifully, but Hamm is more effective.

Do you think she is still effective?

I dunno. She's past her football prime.

What just happened?

Women's World Cup will be played in the US

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/sports/AP-SOC-Womens-World-Cup.html

Good news for your daughter, cjhsa.