I am amazed and dismayed at the same time re Women's World Cup
The level of fitness is phenomenal - full out sprinting for 90+ minutes
The crispness of the 1 or 2 touch ball movement even starting from the back is impressive
The turns by the backs and the wingers are similarly impressive
There is great parity developing esp involving the African nations and Jamaica, who played quite well, albeit overly physical IMO
And speaking of, I am bummed about the brutal physicality of the games. Body checks, shirt pulling, bad tackles, stomping opponents feet - over and over with minimal calls in the early part of the games, then the refs need to get the game under control (because they let it get out of control from the start) so start calling yellow after yellow, which sucks because of the yellow card rule and the suspensions if you get two yellows over a multi-game period.
Example - England's Lauren James stepped on a player and deserved a red card, but getting suspended for two games is kind of extreme, and the reason she stepped on the other player was out of sheer frustration after being fouled over and over and nothing getting called. I think letting foul after foul go uncalled contributed to some of the better teams losing gamers and not advancing.
Example - Germany vs Columbia. Columbia played hard but benefitted from their roughhousing not being called, which frustrated a hard but FAIR playing German team.
I hope this is not the new face of soccer/football - the play is simply dirty and why the powers that be think we want to see an American football game on the pitch is beyond me. Actually, I don't think NFL players could get away with the amount of clipping and holding and cheap shots that the women players engaged in.
I'm disappointed that this is the new face of soccer.