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Posted on 06/16/2019 1:57:56 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
PARIS — It’s been a major talking point ever since the Women’s World Cup draw back in December. If the United States wins its first-round group here in France, and the host nation tops their own foursome, the consensus best two teams in the competition could meet in a do-or-die quarterfinal later this month in the City of Light.
The possibility of such an encounter well before the final has prompted many to wonder if the French and American teams might strategically opt to not go all-out in the group stage, perhaps setting up an easier path to the July 7 final in Lyon.
We already know the former’s approach. After beating South Korea and Norway, Les Bleues would have to implode spectacularly against Nigeria not to win Group A. What will the U.S. do? A day before the Americans’ second match against Chile (12 p.m. ET, FOX), coach Jill Ellis left no doubt about where the favorites stand.
“I struggle to tell my team not to tackle in training the day before,” Ellis said during Saturday’s pre-match media conference. “I think at this point it’s making sure your focus is on yourself and your performance and you put yourself in the best position to advance in this tournament. For us, it’s making sure that we play as well as we possibly can and win the game.”
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...
Wow, that 3-3 result sends Scotland home.
Hopefully they’ll get more used to Pulisic being in the lineup.
Panama and T&T will be no gimmes.
Group tables
https://www.fifa.com/womensworldcup/groups/
We’ll get Boyd working with Pulisic and the world will hold its breath.
Great decision, it's already bearing fruit if she is having a fun time.
She could be the next Carli Lloyd.
Can’t Wait!
For the Chile game, she did stand for the anthem...No, she did not frown that time. I think most fans, like you, have moved on...How to explain the good ratings for games? I myself have not moved on yet...I am not yet supporting USWNT 100% like I did before...
Two earlier women's professional leagues folded but the NWSL seems to be holding its own. A couple of the franchises are quite successful, though most play to very small crowds. National Team players get a big bump from that, but most NWSL players are paid a pittance.
I went to several WPS games many years ago...LA had a WPS team for just one year. I have not been to any NWSL game...There is no NWSL club in CA. FOX announcers mention NWSL frequently when talking about which club players belong to. I am sure that most American viewers have no idea what NWSL is...I am not sure if they even care what that NWSL is. Many Americans are watching WWC to see how Team USA is playing...Many of them are not women's soccer fans. I just don't see NWSL seeing some attendance boost because of this World Cup...
U.S. Soccer does need to get off the Rainbow Flag bandwagon. The BLTQXYZ crowd is pushing all major institutions to make homage, and in women's sports, I'm sure there's an extra push coming from gay players. The men's team has sported rainbow colors as well; this isn't just a women's team issue.
I wish that US Soccer would do that also...But, I really don't see that happening. Does the Federation get letters from parents who complain about promotion of homosexuality? Maybe the Federation ignores those letters... About USMNT...Robbie Rogers did play for the team several times. He announced that he was homosexual many years ago...He even played for LA Galaxy. No, I never heard of him protesting national anthem...
U.S. women's soccer is trying to build a fan base. They do some smart marketing. Look at the former players who are doing the commentary on tv.
Cat Whitehill is doing commentary on FOX...She is very religious. She was on USWNT.
So does Major League Baseball:
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The players don't get paid very much, so a team can make those numbers work. The owners seem to have learned some hard lessons from the failure of the previous leagues. There is a very bad ownership situation in New Jersey, which is an embarrassment to the league, but most of the teams seem committed to doing things right and building for the future.
The Portland, Orlando and Houston NWSL teams are all partnered with their MLS counterparts. I don't know if there is any financial support involved -- as there is with the WNBA, which is a subsidy stepchild of the NBA -- but there do seem to be synergies of marketing and branding that benefit the women's teams with partnership deals.
I live in DC. The Spirit play most of their home games at the SoccerPlex in Germantown, which is about four zipcodes out of DC (at least it feels that way). It is monumentally inconvenient to anyone who does not live in Montgomery County. My circle of friends got used to the drive when our kids were playing travel soccer; the SoccerPlex is a former dairy farm turned into a soccer mecca, and the stadium sits on a loop drive with over 20 immaculate grass fields all lined up. In season, it's a hoppin' place, and travel teams in this area will end up playing there a lot.
That said, it is a very cozy, clean, attractive small stadium that seats about 5,500 (including the kids on blankets on the hill behind one of the endzones -- something 'ya don't get to see much anymore in the NFL or MLB). It is small enough that there are no bad seats. A small crowd fills it up nicely and a crowd of 4,000 or more feels electric. It's just an all-around nice stadium experience as well as a relatively cheap ticket. The Spirit played one home game at Audi Field (next to Nats Park on the waterfront) last year and will experiment with two this season. A bigger stadium and more convenient location might do wonders for attendance. (Plus they're playing well this year, after a miserable two year rebuilding slump.)
I've never been to a minor league baseball game, but I'm guessing the NWSL has some similar dynamics in terms of the stadium/attendance synergies. As long as the operation is right-sized, smaller numbers are ok. I would urge the soccer fans on this thread to check out a game or two. There is some good soccer being played, and it's a cheap ticket. It doesn't hurt to give it a try. The league also has a better television contract this year, which can only help in the long run. To make it a success, however, will require one big change in U.S. sports culture: women and girls will have to start buying tickets, instead of relying on their husbands and boyfriends to pay for everything. Women can't expect women's professional sports to succeed unless women support it themselves.
P.S. There are no soccer hooligans in NWSL stadiums. There are too many U-10 to U-13 girls' teams around for anyone to even think of misbehaving. It's really a bit of a throwback to the days when dads could regularly take their kids and their kids' friends to a baseball game without taking out a second mortgage.
And players line up after the game to sign autographs. As I said, it feels like a step back to an earlier era when the sports culture, and a lot else besides, was healthier.
The NWSL will get a significant attendance boost if the USWNT does well in this World Cup. The national team players are well distributed across the league and are major draws. A lot of national team players from other countries also play in the NWSL. The foreign leagues are improving but most observers seem to regard the NWSL as the strongest women's professional league in the world, though the Europeans are closing the gap rapidly.
I live in DC. The Spirit play most of their home games at the SoccerPlex in Germantown, which is about four zipcodes out of DC (at least it feels that way).
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In the WPS days, Washington Freedom represented DC area. Abby Wambach was on the team. Sawa, who used to be the captain of the Japanese national team, was also on the team.
You are right about women’s sports needing more support from women...
It is not just some guys who find women’s sports uninteresting...Many women agree with them...
The woomen aren’t really interested in men’s sports either. They just go along to humor husbands and boyfriends, and only as long as the guy is paying.
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