Womens football World Cup

It has been very impressive so far. Australia and Brazil had a very even match. Australia were better in the first half but could not find a goal and Brazil probably had the better second half, scoring a goal and winning 1-0. Australia were very unlucky!

Germany has won their first two matches in packed stadiums and France has had a couple of wins. It is promising to be a very good tournament.

Did you see the handball that the referee missed? Quite incredible. The last time I saw anything like that was watching 6 year-olds play. I can't believe the referee waved play on. I can't believe the Australian players didn't just kick the ball in the net after she dropped it either.

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/football/no-choking-as-unhelpful-hand-fails-...

Aside from that Australia were by far the better team and should have won by 3 or 4 if not for that decision and two awful pieces of defending where one player gave away the two goals. Australia's second goal in particular was very good. The quality of their game has improved massively since the last world cup.

As for who is going to win it, the top sides are the USA, Germany and Brazil. Teams like Japan, Sweden, Canada and France are also good. Australia outplayed Brazil the other day and still lost and I wasn't particularly impressed by Brazil. Maybe they will get better as the tournament rolls on, and they did beat Norway 3-0 last night, although Norway are not as good as they were 5 or 10 years ago. You are right, it is evenly matched, any of a number of sides could win it.

I guess FIFA is a bit embarrassed about it. I updated the post with a link to a newspaper article which has video of the incident.

The weird thing is if you have seen the camera angle from behind the goal you can clearly see that the player catches the ball and turns around holding it directly in front of the referee who can be seen slightly obscured by the goal post. That means the player was in clear view of the referee with no-one in between. She could not possibly have failed to see it unless she was looking in the opposite direction for some reason. Bizarre!

I don't believe it is a corrupt referee. It was so obvious that even someone corrupt would have to make the call if they saw it. I just can't understand how she did not see it. What was she looking at instead?

Anyway, luckily it did not change the result of the match.

The quarter finals start in a few days. Here they are and my picks for the winners...

Germany v Japan: Germany to win it. Both teams are very good. Should be a great game.
England v France: France. They play better football than the English.

Sweden v Australia: Australia - I am biased, I admit it 😉
Brazil v USA: Tough to call this one, but I think USA has the edge.

Oh yeah did you see the Brazilian girl in extra time go off on the stretcher like she had been shot, then jump straight back up and run back on? It was hilarious seeing them lose after that!

Australia were well beaten. The flimsy defence finally caught up with them. I also thought the coach made some baffling substitutions - 15 minutes to go and you need 2 goals and he brings on a couple of defensive midfielders. And he had another striker warming the bench who scored one and created another in the only game she played in the tournament. We have some very good young players though (average age of the team was only 22 or so), I think we will be a force in a few years time.

I have to agree with your picks - USA to meet Sweden in the final. The Japanese play very good football but they were incredibly lucky to beat Germany with what was pretty much their only effective shot on goal for the entire match.

I've been so busy with work and family and other stuff I haven't even watched a game in a few days. I'll see what I can do, but I'm a little wary of betting on the Women's games because I find them a little less predictable - great for watching, not so great for betting though!

Yes lucky I didn't tip because Japan won! Quite incredible really, as Australia recently won the Asian Cup ahead of Japan, Korea etc and they were outclassed by Sweden. So I was expecting Sweden to cruise through. Maybe they did too...

From what I saw of England Flash they looked just like the men's team - heaps of promise, followed by goalkeeping blunders and eventual self destruction in a penalty shootout.

So its a Japan vs USA final. My money is on the USA.

Wow what a final that was. It had everything - goals, drama and a miracle win. I feel sorry for the USA, they dominated the match and created the most chances but couldn't put Japan away.

After what Japan has gone through recently who could begrudge them a win? Fantastic stuff!