Are women bad at football?

I'm going to stick my neck out and look really sexist here. I'm sat watching France V England in a women's friendly and the quality of football is apalling. I'm yet to see a pass made with the right amount of pace, leading to the ball being lost or intercepted virtually every other move. The first touches are poor and the ball keeps bobbling off to an opponent and crosses fly hopelessly over the bar, and are attempted for some reason even when there is no one in the box. Both England and France are guilty of this.

Not the first time I've encountered this, it does look virtually factual that for whatever reason, the women aren't as talented as the men.

Just as I wrote this England scored from a free kick. The commentator said it was a great shot, but actually the keeper inexplicably stood right behind the wall, meaning all the girl had to do was boot it into the empty space.

Red614 wrote:I'm going to stick my neck out and look really sexist here. I'm sat watching France V England in a women's friendly and the quality of football is apalling. I'm yet to see a pass made with the right amount of pace, leading to the ball being lost or intercepted virtually every other move. The first touches are poor and the ball keeps bobbling off to an opponent and crosses fly hopelessly over the bar, and are attempted for some reason even when there is no one in the box. Both England and France are guilty of this.

Not the first time I've encountered this, it does look virtually factual that for whatever reason, the women aren't as talented as the men.

Just as I wrote this England scored from a free kick. The commentator said it was a great shot, but actually the keeper inexplicably stood right behind the wall, meaning all the girl had to do was boot it into the empty space.

The general standard of play is difficult to assess. Though there are some good, physical, fast, skillful players, the overall standard, comes nowhere near to men's football. There seems to have been a concerted effort to sell women's football. Some are buying, but it's not for me.

"Women's Football"
"Women's Cricket"
"Military Precision"

Oxymoron's the lot of 'em!

I gave it a go during the Olympics but it's not for me either.

I've found that the American (North and South) and Scandinavian teams seem to be of a significantly higher standard than the rest of the world. The good things in women's football are the lack of diving and minimal referee harassment, but technically the standard isn't as good

Phew, I haven't been lynched yet. Always a good thing.

I guess it's a sheer curiosity as to why the difference exists, really. A lack of testosterone would make women less aggressive that explains potentially part of it, but I can't think of a physiological reason why the difference in ball control capability seems to be so wide. In other sports its easily explainable, in golf the men hit the ball simply so much farther, basketball is a game where aggression is key. But football? I don't get it.

I wonder if men play football from a young age whereas a lot of girls convert to it from other sports at a later age

It's nothing to do with ability. The difference exists because there's no money in the women's game.

If you're male and you look to be half decent at football, you'll be (or you'll have the opportunity to be) coached from what, 4 or 5years of age, if not younger.
Women / girls just don't get that chance. The set up isn't there.

The money put into youth coaching and development is massive, but it's all geared towards finding young boys.

SteWells wrote:It's nothing to do with ability. The difference exists because there's no money in the women's game.

If you're male and you look to be half decent at football, you'll be (or you'll have the opportunity to be) coached from what, 4 or 5years of age, if not younger.
Women / girls just don't get that chance. The set up isn't there.

The money put into youth coaching and development is massive, but it's all geared towards finding young boys.

A slightly worrying statement...

Yup, with SteWells here. It's not inherent within culture for women to play football. At school, or at least at my school, they were all pushed toward netball and hockey while boys toward rugby, and somewhat reluctantly, football. At lunchtimes though, the vast majority of boys would be kicking a football about.

You could also say it's as about as rare to find a girl as interested in the game as it is to find a man who isn't. Make sense? Ok, so to clarify, I only know maybe 2 or 3 friends who are girls who I could talk footie with and about the same number of lads who I couldn't actually talk footie with.

When it's endemic like that, it's inevitably going to transfer down the line to the quality of the adult game. Likewise, and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, I don't know of any men who play netball - it's just not something we've been pushed toward.

While I thoroughly enjoyed the USA v Canada game at the Olympics, the quality of the play was overall pretty poor (although, that did make it more exciting!) it looked like non-league standard at best.

So, don't worry Red I don't think that's sexist it just seems to be a cultural thing and until girls start playing from an early age (and thus the quality, interest and funding goes up over time) the women's version of the game will always lag behind the mens.

Yeah I think it's been summed up pretty well by Arkay and SteWells. I personally don't know ANY girls that could converse fluently or comfortably about football

Done some match-reporting for Women's football in the week. The best players are just as good as many male footballers, but there tends to only be a couple of them per team.