Euro 2022 Final: England v Germany

[Wilf]

It's a blatant pen, arms comes right right up to make contact with the ball, doesn't change anything though, England won end of.

Yep, you do wonder if the VAR person bottled it or didn't look at all the views. There were a few bad decisions all round, but Germany have the right to feel aggrieved. Can't remember, did they appeal for the handball? Anyway, as you say... England won.

 

[inva]

Just if anyone who enjoyed the Euros is interested in watching womens club football it's worth taking a look at the FA Player it's mainly WSL but there's also some coverage of other competitions too. You can watch full matches live and replays and other bits and bobs for free

 

[Rebelda]

Yep, you do wonder if the VAR person bottled it or didn't look at all the views. There were a few bad decisions all round, but Germany have the right to feel aggrieved. Can't remember, did they appeal for the handball? Anyway, as you say... England won.

Do you (not just you Wilf, but your post got me thinking) genuinely think you've watched it from more angles than they will have done in the VAR box? I don't mean that question with as much sauce as it reads But like, assuming it goes similar to a rugby decision, it'll be check every available angle, more than made it to television. So to say they called it wrong is bold. I've already said I think VAR should show us their receipts on big decisions, but then if you disagree you've got to have tickets of your own. We've all seen how angles and perspective change how things look. From where we were sat yesterday Toone's ball was way wide, until the back of the net moved we had no idea it was on target.

 

[strung out]

You have to put it in the context of the mess that the handball law has become over recent years too. Talk of the armpit, the natural silhouette of the player, the t-shirt sleeve etc. all coming into the equation.

Plus, football doesn't need every decision to be correct - it wasn't any less popular or entertaining before we had VAR (arguably more so).

 

[two sheds]

And Rauch should have been sent off - nasty intended painful challenge with elbow in back right early on should have been a booking, then got booked later on.

 

[Rebelda]

Ah I'm still grinning from ear to ear and watching clips. Still fuming at that player going down to shout at Earps when she bodied a save in extra time. Still laughing at the last 5 minutes fuckery in the top right corner. Still fuck off you fucking pricking. Great game, it had everything

 

[Flavour]

Yeah Numbers is right the toone goal was a work of art, a truly wonderful lob. Don't remember seeing many like it in finals

 

[belboid]

We’ve only just got back to Sheff so haven’t had a chance to watch the match back (there is a vague chance we were on telly, sat a couple of rows behind a woman with a ‘walking in a Wiegman wonderland’ banner)

We got the two England goals right in front of us, as well as the VAR incident. So I think I can pull rank when I say ‘fuck knows’

 

[Steel Icarus]

We’ve only just got back to Sheff so haven’t had a chance to watch the match back (there is a vague chance we were on telly, sat a couple of rows behind a woman with a ‘walking in a Wiegman wonderland’ banner)

We got the two England goals right in front of us, as well as the VAR incident. So I think I can pull rank when I say ‘fuck knows’

I saw her on the telly! Obviously dunno if you were in shot, I wasn't looking and I don't know what you look like anyway

 

[oryx]

This is an interesting story:

The lost lionesses

England's forgotten teenage football trailblazers

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[two sheds]

Fascinating - I had no idea, 90,000 watching their games

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Plus, football doesn't need every decision to be correct - it wasn't any less popular or entertaining before we had VAR (arguably more so).

Yeah, this. Thing is there's always something isn't there. If it wasn't the handball it would have been something else, guaranteed. And vice versa if Germany had won. VAR hasn't made any difference to that, it's just the nature of the sport.

 

[May Kasahara]

This is an interesting story:

The lost lionesses

England's forgotten teenage football trailblazers

www.bbc.co.uk

Thanks for posting this oryx, I had no idea Really fascinating. And frustrating.

 

[Lord Camomile]

Still fuming at that player going down to shout at Earps when she bodied a save in extra time.

Yeah, do we know what the fuck was up with that?!

I mean, aside from general tetchiness in the game, it seemed a rather pointed reaction to a relatively benign incident, far as we could tell.

 

[Edie]

Thanks for posting this oryx, I had no idea Really fascinating. And frustrating.

Read this and it almost made me cry. Makes you realise just how held down and ignored women have been and what an absolute victory this was in so many ways beyond the actual game ‘People say, “You started it all!”: The Lionesses who paved the way for England’s historic win

 

[Chilli.s]

What a great spectacle, one that Id be happy to take kids to. Unlike the mens game. Lets hope it doesnt get dragged down to that level

 

[Rebelda]

Yeah, do we know what the fuck was up with that?!

I mean, aside from general tetchiness in the game, it seemed a rather pointed reaction to a relatively benign incident, far as we could tell.

Shithousing and frustration, trying to get in her head, would be my guess. They needed to score at that point.

 

[Steel Icarus]

I've been looking for teams near me to go watch a few games this upcoming season. Could hardly be in a worse place in England for not just Tier 1 of the women's football pyramid but the second also. Closest second tier team is Sheffield United (65 miles) and closest teams below that are Lincoln and Hull. Besides, I'm a Liverpool fan!

 

[Numbers]

Fair play to the clubs who hosted the games, apparently a lot of the big clubs turned it down.

My lovely Bees hosted 4 games at the Brentford Community Stadium

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

I've been looking for teams near me to go watch a few games this upcoming season. Could hardly be in a worse place in England for not just Tier 1 of the women's football pyramid but the second also. Closest second tier team is Sheffield United (65 miles) and closest teams below that are Lincoln and Hull. Besides, I'm a Liverpool fan!

Lincoln did actually have a very good women's team until a few years ago (well maybe 10). I think they were getting one of the highest attendances in the country for a while and got to Tier 2 iirc. They were picked up and moved to Notts County though - following the money isn't just a thing in the men's game.

 

[Steel Icarus]

Lincoln did actually have a very good women's team until a few years ago (well maybe 10). I think they were getting one of the highest attendances in the country for a while and got to Tier 2 iirc. They were picked up and moved to Notts County though - following the money isn't just a thing in the men's game.

Doncaster Belles were also very successful back in the day

 

[two sheds]

I think an England v France final would have been much better. Not sure we'd have won that though.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Doncaster Belles were also very successful back in the day

Yeah also got squeezed out by the push to align women's football with the big men's teams. You can see why they want those clubs involved but it's still a bit of a shame isn't it.

 

[belboid]

It’s the fucking FA again, they’ve fucked over the teams who had built a proper grassroots following over decades to get a fairly small number of the big clubs fully in and hunt glory. Only arsenal, in the top flight, actually did it the right way.

It also created the situation where the England team became so white.

 

[Lord Camomile]

Yeah, I'm sure I've bleated on about it before, but do worry that the more the women's game becomes a 'viable prospect', those who just want to get as much out of it as possible will move in and fuck around with it even more.

Also, only very tangentially related based on mention of the FA, but something that pissed me off about the organisation of the game: a lot of the German fans (don't want to say all, 'cause how the fuck would I know) had big flags provided for them. While I'm a little ambivalent about flags because they restrict people's view of, y'know, the football, it did look great when they were all flying together and was a very visible way for the fans to support their team and feel a connection between each other.

What did England fans get? Diddly squat. As the host nation, in the final, and the only flags or 'owt else on show were those fans had brought with 'em.

Also meant that the only memento from this 'historic' event for the home fans were tiny paper flags that you could get at any match, or a £10 programme that was exactly the same as the programme many of us had already spent £10 on earlier in the tournament, with a couple of extra pages added.

Just felt incredibly underwhelming and dismissive.

 

[Lord Camomile]

Oh, I think they were also selling half 'n half scarves

 

[inva]

In a strange way womens football is a more pristinely commercial product than in the mens game, its lack of tradition and depth of fan culture leaves it even more at the mercy of the governing body and commercial interests who have overwritten its history and shaped it however they like. I think I'm right in saying London City Lionesses who recently broke away from Millwall in the second tier of the leagues are the only independent professional womens team in the country (as in not an appendage of the mens clubs). A sad state of things.

 

[Lord Camomile]

Someone else pointed out elsewhere that it is (currently) also more 'family-friendly', which is often seen as a commercial plus.

I wonder if anyone will pick up on the fact that part of the reason it's more family-friendly is because tickets are priced far more accessibly than they are for the men's game...?

(For the avoidance of doubt, I'm not saying the players shouldn't get paid more than they currently do. As ever, just think that both the player/support staff wages and accessibility to fans should be the two priorities, not... everything else that turns up to profit off of a success built by and for others)

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

In a strange way womens football is a more pristinely commercial product than in the mens game, its lack of tradition and depth of fan culture leaves it even more at the mercy of the governing body and commercial interests who have overwritten its history and shaped it however they like. I think I'm right in saying London City Lionesses who recently broke away from Millwall in the second tier of the leagues are the only independent professional womens team in the country (as in not an appendage of the mens clubs). A sad state of things.

I think to be fair there is a tension there that's hard to resolve isn't there. If you ask 'do we want the women's game to have it's own independent clubs and traditions etc, and different (better) values than the men's game' then the answer is probably yes. But if you also think women should get paid similar (or closer to than currently) to the top male players then that money has to come from somewhere and it's unlikely that's not going to involve quite a lot of the same sort of stuff a lot of people dislike about men's football.

 

[Lord Camomile]

Aye, you see the same with non-league teams. The very thing a lot of the fans like about football at that level would be removed if the club were to have a certain amount of success.

I really doubt it'd happen, particularly because the FA would have vested interests in it not, but I do half-heartedly wonder if the women's game could somehow protect certain aspects of the game and develop in a slightly different way to the men's.

Probably not, though.