The Women's World Cup

You may not even know that it is going on, but England's women went out in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in China. They lost 3-0 to the Americans who were favourites for the tournament but have been comfortably beaten by Brazil in the semi-finals 4-0.

What has been interesting to me is the complete lack of coverage there has been. The BBC took the courageous decision to televise England matches live, and it's a pity that England didn't get to the semi's or final when there may have been a bit of a ground swell of support. I say "may have been" because it doesn't seem that anyone cares. Having watched the first 50 minutes of England's quarter-final I went to the pub expecting to watch the rest on the TV there. As I entered there was the reassuring noise of football supporters so I knew the football was on. Once I'd got a pint I turned round to realise that the game on the TV wasn't England v USA in a crucial World Cup quarter final, but Cardiff City v Preston North End! It amazes me that could possibly be deemed more important!

Not to worry, I thought, women's football is massive in America and they'll all be watching it. Apparently not. I met a football fan mate of mine who lives in America that evening and asked him if it was big the other side of the pond, to get the reply "what World Cup?" and then when I explained, "I don't think anyone knows it is going on mate". So it was also interesting to see the video on the right-hand side of the Brazil-USA match report called "the under-reported women's world cup".

Once again I am clearly in a minority, but why isn't women's football supported or thought to be important?

Unlucky Mourinho?

Some readers may know that I get really frustrated with the scoring for football. You know the sort of thing....the team you are supporting hits the post and bar 6 times in all, has 2 blatant penalties disallowed, but the other team gets a harsh free kick award outside your area with a minute to go. The ball is going to be easily saved by your keeper, but it ricochets off the head of a defender in the wall, and you lose 1-0. Clearly the better team hasn't won.

So it's interesting to look at Chelsea's last 3 games that have, to a lesser or greater extent, influenced Mourinho's departure. Yes, they had a complete shocker in going down to Villa 2-0, but they "won" against Blackburn, only for a wrong decision to rule out Salomon Kalou's goal. And then they had, according to Mourinho's much publicised post match quote "20 chances" against Rosenborg, but only scored once, although they hit the woodwork twice. Mourinho then left Chelsea.

I can't help but think a different scoring system which gives a more accurate reflection of which was the better team would have meant 2 wins out of 3 for Chelsea. But equally there were games last season when Chelsea scraped through by the skin of their teeth where they didn't really deserve to, so it works both ways. But I'd still like to see the team that has clearly dominated a game winning more often, and ideally in my book, every time.

Mourinho

There are a lot of untruths in the media, but it appears that the split between Abramovich and Mourinho was one that was reported accurately. The immediate replacement of Mourinho with Avram Grant shows that this has been a work-in-progress from Abramovich, even if they have claimed that Mourinho left by mutual consent. Interestingly, Pat Nevin has said "Avram Grant is going to be as welcome as Camilla at Diana's memorial"!

I work with a number of young women who are all very upset that Mourinho has gone. He was apparently "decent totty" and he "always had something interesting and funny to say" it seems. I have no comment on the first, but I do think that the Premier League will be weaker for the loss of Mourinho. It will be interesting to see where he ends up managing next, although from the size of his payoff, he certainly doesn't need to work again...

Sigh of relief

You may have noticed that I couldn't bring myself to post about England's performance against Israel for fear of tempting fate for last night's Russia game. But all seems to have gone well, and England got exactly the result they needed.

What do people think about Heskey? I said he was the man and I definitely think he's a good partner for Owen. It will be interesting to see if he is now ahead of Crouch in the pecking order for good.

Owen on form is a class act, and how Sven must be regretting that he didn't have him fit and firing at crucial times during his period as manager. Long may it continue.

But the best perfomance last night, which saw Wales win as well, was Scotland's 1-0 win against France to put them top of group B. If they can get through a group including France and Italy, they will show England a thing or two, given that England are still struggling to make it through a group in which only Croatia should have provided difficult contests.

England miss out on win v Japan

Yes, it is Russia tonight, but I guess you've heard enough about that. England's women played their first game in the World Cup last night - one in which Kelly Smith is expected to star in. She did her bit, scoring two goals, although she has the slightly strange habit of taking a boot off each time she scores - her second goal celebration involved both boots coming off. I couldn't help wondering what comes off if she scores a hatrick!

The game was one that England should have won. Both Japan goals came from controversial free kick awards just outside the area....controversial being charitable - neither were actually fouls. You can see the highlights here. The first of the free kicks ricocheted in, making me wonder again if goals like that should count full value. I still occassionally dream about what might have been in the 1990 World Cup if Andreas Bremer's freekick hadn't ricocheted off the wall high over Shilton and into the net (clearly we would have gone on to win it)!!

Now England's women have the mouth-watering task of taking on Germany who are fresh from scoring 11 in their last game....

Heskey is the man

I realise that this post is unlikely to make you nod in agreement but, if England do start with Heskey tomorrow, I'll be happy. To me it makes no sense to start with two players that are similar like Andy Johnson and Michael Owen. Heskey isn't everyone's cup of tea, but he'll hold the ball up well for Owen and the midfielders to thrive off, and he'll get a couple of free-kicks around the box.

Of course Heskey will now have a shocker and Johnson will come off the bench and score a hatrick! But I think Heskey should start.

An individual being targeted by refs

This story - Crouch is targeted by referees - really annoyed me. Is it acceptable for referees to be warned to look out for individual players? To me, it's clearly not acceptable. Refs need to be advised on how to implement the laws of the game, not told to watch for particular players.

Overseas imports

Once a season (or more) someone complains about the number of foreigners in English football. Not for the first time, Sir Trevor Brooking has made a few comments about his concern for the English game given the number of foreigners.

I've never been worried about the number of foreigners because I'm in the "if they are good enough, they will make it" camp. One of the things that I reckon holds back young sportsmen and women in this country is lack of competition....the 10 year-old star is only allowed to play in the under-12s for example, rather than having a real challenge and playing in the under-15s. Consequently, he/she doesn't keep improving at the same rate, and it makes it harder to break into professional sport.

Major League Soccer in America is an interesting parallel. As The Observer's article this weekend described, they are happy to break their wage structures to bring in the likes of Beckham and Angel because they realise there is only so far they can get without attracting foreign talent. Without that, they have a mediocre league where average (on a world stage) players compete in exciting games, but the interests of the American national team aren't best served, which is why several of the USA team play abroad.

So bring in the foreigners and let's improve English standards so that they all sit on the subs benches - that's what I say!