Indeed, Aggers, (and I'm basing this on having seen only a single ladies' match, the one indicated above), it's a very different game from men's soccer, in the sense that there is very little tackling. Challenging and harrying, yes, but tackling, not really. When there was anything robust, it was stamped on pretty quickly by the Swedish referee. England's Jade Moore was booked within minutes of coming on as a substitute for something I'd have regarded as pretty innocuous.
As Cromwell highlighted, I thought the goal-keeping was rather poor - Japan's Ayumi Kaihori always looked on the verge of committing a howler and had little rapport with her defence. Karen Bardsley looked a more accomplished keeper but neither of them had what I would call "command of the area".
There were some good, crisp passing moves, especially in England's wing play and the attack that led up to England's goal from Eniola Aluko. But there were more than a few misplaced passes as well, from both teams.
OK, it was a "friendly" game, and you can't judge a sport based on one match, but these two teams - England and Japan - are supposed to be leading lights in women's soccer. Japan are actually the reigning world champions. It was interesting rather than enthralling, workmanlike rather than spectacular. I would watch it live again, but not in preference to the men's game.
Anyway, none of this "armchair football" for me !! I have my 2013/14 spreadsheet set up on the computer and I'm slowly starting to fill in the coming Saturdays with fixtures I'm going to attend, as they are published by the various Leagues. The Conference fixtures were announced today, and the preliminary rounds of the FA Cup are drawn this Friday ......
- the 2013-14 extravaganza begins in earnest on Saturday with four weeks of pre-season friendlies, starting with Sutton Coldfield Town vs The Army. Assuming it's the full representative Army side, I gather they can field quite a strong team.
