Football! Footie! Fußball! Fútbol! And of course Soccer!

[Gilly Goodness]

MANCHESTER IS BLUE

Slammin' Sammy Kerr just doin' Kerr things...



Wonder goal and assist. Watchin' replay on youtube.
Man U are decent. Russo is a keeper. Terrific work rate. Probably need some decent midfielders. Lauren James likewise. Positive. Great dribbler. Both should be in Lionesses world cup campaign.

[Ash Armstrong]

Leicester City 1 ⚽
Newport County 0
Half-time

Carabao Cup 2nd Round.

[Gilly Goodness]

It's Vardy-Time !!!

⚽️⚽️⚽️

# barnesandvardyforenglandsquad

[Ash Armstrong]

Carabao Cup (or the League Cup)
4th round draw.

Fixtures to be played week-beginning December 19, which is straight after the World Cup Final. A busy week.

[Gilly Goodness]

Just home from visitin' the grave of my mum-in-law, to find USWNT V Germany on youtube. Groovy!!!
The hurricane to hit Florida has come and gone so game is on. Germany lookin' dynamic their B team. No Oberdorf. Pity.

Morgan. Smith. Pugh up front.

Good even game.


btw lovin' the ads. Who knew there was such a thing as a Carl's Junior hamburger? Much bigger than a Big Mac. Truly a land of abundance 🍔🍔🍔

Gotta make a cheeky maccas run in the arvo. 0-0 at halftime. Both sides have had chances. Horan robbed of a PK that VAR if they had it would have awarded.



OK. Germany score. Own goal off the back of Murphy. Murphy's Law??? 1 nil.


OK. Ends 2-1 for Germany. USWNT home winnin' steak over. Oberdorf did come on to boss the game. Magull best on ground. Plays on another level.

[Gilly Goodness]

INTERNATIONAL WINDOW


Good ol' youtube. Lionesses V Japan. 2-0 England up with 30 mins to go. England look immense. Chloe Kelly is fast becomin' the most excitin' winger in WOSO. Great cutback dribble and long shot. Scored a worldie. Daly the other scorer playin' defence. They have weapons all over the park. I'm scared for next year. Wiegman is great coach. At this rate I fancy Germany and England in final unless they are on the same side of the bracket. Japan are composed and technical but lack height and pace. Kelly and Mead are carvin' 'em up.

OK. Ended 4 nil. England officially favourites for WC2023.


Later The Matildas face the Tall Blonde Godesses AKA Sweden in Melbourne. Will see if the jetlag affects the Swedies more than our girls who are used to that kind of travel.

[kkleinschmidt]

We did not watch England v Japan but we did watch US lose to Germany, and I agree GG Germany looked very good. Not sure what's up with the US Women they are definitely in a rut.

And for the record GG Carl's and Hardee's, which is Carl's sister company where we live, both are pretty horrible and are definitely on our avoid list.

[Gilly Goodness]

Don't worry about USWNT K-shmitty. Too much talent. Weapons. Horan was unlucky 3 big moments. Could have easily scored. Germany def got rub o' the green. Teams were well matched. Your girl Lavelle did some great things. WOSO chat forums are demandin' Vlatko's head. Think he just has to let his best team play longer minutes to gel better. No early subs. They miss Ertzs' steel but players like Girma, Huerta and Cook are fine. A little bit of instrospection won't hurt them. Humility. Expect US still to be the team to beat.
Rodman has X factor but passes sloppily a lot. Once Horan has the DarkSharkMacario back. Things will feel more connected. Murphy is a keeper as keeper. Never liked Naeher's restin' anxiety face. Murphy has such a wingspan. Won that game against The Matildas in Sydney.

[Gilly Goodness]

They said we were too slow
They said we were too old
They said we couldn't beat European teams
Especially a team ranked # 2

So knock on our door and ask for sugar
We'll give you sugar
We'll give you Aussie bloody sugar!!!


ALL THE STARS COME OUT TO SHINE


Australia 4 - Sweden 0







Sam Kerr plays for Chelsea. Golden boot in WSL
Hayley Raso plays for Manchester City
Mary Fowler likewise
Steph Catley plays for Arsenal as does
Caitlin Foord who is arguably the form WSL player.

Form matters. Vivienne Miedama has lost form and motivation. Is in Adelaide right now on a mental health break, visitin' old friends who play there. Can't make Arsenal's startin' team. Foord was the MVP today. Playin' centrally she bossed the duels. Scored twice. Set up other goals.

When our stars are fit and together, they gel. They create. They thrill. We have found some great defenders. Jacobsen and Blackstenius were handled. Sweden are athletic and disciplined but have no pizazz. They all look the same. Play the same. We had a girl barely 5 foot tall in midfield called Katrina Gorry. In the land of giants today she stood tall with craftin' plays, holdin' possession, smart passin'.

So. Happy days. Momentum. Smilin' faces. Now to play Thailand on Tuesday.

[Ash Armstrong]

West Ham United 0
Leicester City 2 ⚽⚽

[Gilly Goodness]

ROUND 2 : USA V GERMANY


OK. Sauerbraun and Naeher are back. Strong side. But. And it's a big but. Oberdorf to start. Popp back at # 9.
Tasty encounter. Seb "gooooooaaaaalllllaaarrrzzzooo!!!"
and Julie Foudy " USA should win every game" are commentatin'. .. OK Julie. Very ballsy.


OK. ESPN allows 29 minutes free on youtube then directed to go over to twitch. Tried to sign in. Halftime. Hopefully it works for second half. Germans 1-0 currently winnin' most 1 V 1s. Does not look good. Oberdorf off as well with shoulder injury.



Woo. USA bounce back with 2 quick goals. Smith. Pugh. Havin' a crack. Smiles are back. Seb creams himself in commentary.

Btw you think youtube is annoyin' with ads? Twitch sends 'em in batches of 8. 😤


Well someone has put some dencorub up Mallory Pugh's nostrils as she has singlehandedly wrested momentum back for the states. Causin' all kinds of nightmares for the frauleins who took tired.


In last minute.

Yep. They've done it. Avoided fourth straight defeat. 2nd half led by Smith and especially Pugh, played with freedom. Not much team connection. More individual brilliance. Germany looked rattled and stretched. Speed killed them.


Kerr and Foord have played 12 years together in national team since they were 15. Telepathic.

This USWNT team today looked like the best. No subbing grandma on. Let Smith, Morgan and Pugh play long minutes together. Create connections. Gel. Otherwise they will look disjointed. Pugh convinced me today. She must be super fit. When she comes back he may play The Dark Shark Macario as a 10.

[Gilly Goodness]

Dominant 2-0 win over Thailand. One of those nights where the ball just doesn't go in.

Thai keeper and defence played well. May make WC if they win in Feb in NZ.

[kkleinschmidt]

It was good to see the USWNT end their losing streak as 0-4 going into the year end break would not have been a good thing to have hanging over their heads (0-3 at home for the first time in about 30 years is bad enough). The whole game was surreal though because throughout they kept talking about how this is the last match that will air on the ESPN family of networks after 25 years of broadcasts, and in particular we will dearly miss Julie Foudy's commentary. Coincidently (or maybe not) MLS is also changing their TV contract and apparently we are losing our local game coverage and announcers who have been around since the early days of FC Cincinnati (radio too apparently). Last I heard MLS is moving to AppleTV which is a deal breaker for us so I sure hope there is an alternative available. I just read a quick blurb about the MLS deal and it is for 10 years so that might mean the end of our FCC watching days. We (I) am not paying money to a streaming service (especially Apple) to watch something that I have been watching on over the air TV for free since it began plain and simple.

I understand the whole "Change we must as surely time does changes call the course" sentiment but that doesn't always mean change is good...

[Gilly Goodness]

Yeah. Buryin' sport behind paywalls have bitten the backsides of sport. Eg. In England cricket was completely behind paywall I believe. Unless they made a final then Channel 4 or ITV would do a special deal. Lost a lot of casual observers or people unwillin' to pay for different streams. Millions. Will affect junior development.

In Oz we have anti-siphonin' laws to prevent national teams leavin' free to air. Still get a creepin' sense that its bein' slowly eroded.

Must say I have become dogged in seekin' live streams on youtube. Sniffin around Twitch or watchin' 2/3 screen at a slight angle. Its barmy.

With the mens WC comin'up will pay Optus Sport again for the month. Wanna watch most games. Gonna be fun.

[Gilly Goodness]

Thanks to the good people at Youtube and DAZN

LYON V ARSENAL

Champions League from a very cold, snowy Stamford Bridge. Spicy encounter with McCabe especially spicy!!! Miedama. Down. Bad knee injury. Stretchered off.

Cascarino V Catley battle. Amazin'.

Lyon 1-0 at halftime.




Steph Catley in action