(Added September 20, 2024)
After watching THIS match I want to again point out how much it appears to me that the blocking of potential shooters here is not as fast and as shielding as that in men's soccer. The difference in how much men are more willing to be shot in the face or in a sensitive area for this purpose seem far from explaining this difference in blocking quality. Actually, we all have seen how men players put their hands to protect an area of their bodies when they are part of a wall against a direct free kick. So how come they do not have such worry when blocking potential shooters during active playing? I think it is because they know that if they do the blocking fast enough and get close enough to the potential shooter then the risk is negligible. In fact, I cannot recall ever seen an incident of being shot in the face in men's soccer. I only saw that in women's and I think it is caused by the hesitation.
(Added September 4, 2024)
Watching the first match of Monterrey Femenil in the summer cup yesterday, I met an issue with the playing of this team I have never seen anywhere before. There are so many examples for the common problem (I like to call it the middle eastern teams syndrome) of doing good work in conducting so many attacks but without good finish. Here it is the reverse. I have never seen a team that can be that much dangerous near the goal but that much not interested in getting close to the goal.
There is also an issue with their defending. They seem to easily allow a free zone near their goal.
By the way, although never been a professional player or even considered that good in it in general, I often feel like I could have made better of a woman soccer team than their coach is doing.
(Added August 18, 2024)
I have mentioned more than once the issue of pause and pausing in the defense in the NWSL, and although things seem to be improving I still want to use THIS of a match occurred on June 29 as example through what happened at the shot at the goal resulting from the attack starting from 1:01:28 (57:00 game time). There are cases in which the last defender in front of the shooter takes more time than here just standing rather than moving forward toward the shooter to reduce the available shooting horizon for that shooter. And in general I have noticed what seems like a general confusion in applying one very basic rule of soccer and its exceptions. The rule is simply that the goal keeper is the only one who should stay in her place while all others in their defense effort should put their first priority moving to intercept the ball and getting close to the opposing player for better blocking. Many times you are also confusing your goal keeper by blocking her or her view when you instead get close to her to join her in protecting the goal.
(Added August 17, 2024)
(Added August 12, 2024)
I was very surprised by the effect of adding that Brazilian defender to the Houston Dash and how she was like a backbone that improved the whole team. Unfortunately, I now need to ask if anyone who watched the following matches (I am currently at June 28) can honestly claim not noticing discrimination in her treatment and unholy grouping and alliance against her by members of her own team?
(Added July 29, 2024)
Are those putting this schedule for the NWSL competition really honestly working for the cause? If we make the players themselves vote how many of them would choose the season off period to be in the winter months rather than the summer months? Even then I would reduce the number of matches if it is too exhausting. People are interested in watching beautiful soccer, not in watching who can win in an unnecessary exhaustion or toleration to heat and humidity competition.
(Added July 16, 2024)
Anyone else feels like a number of NWSL teams are so unable to score because of a psychological shield that if instead scoring counts when the ball misses the goal more balls would end up in the goal?
(Added July 2, 2024)
I again remind that the NWSL players and their coaches may need to pay special attention to how fast a path to the goal in front of an opposing player with the ball gets blocked, and that such blocking may require reducing not only the horizontal distance with that player but also the vertical one. It would be really bad to do the things that require skills and fitness but get less recognition because of such alertness only issue.
(Added June 29, 2024)
I do not know how with seeing how much the commentating in men's soccer is focused on what is going on in the field could one feel okay about the commentating in the NWSL? In how many of men's matches shown recently on CBS or Fox networks did the players appear like here in being left running on the field while the commentators divert the attention away from them?
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For the above and every other thing I say about the NWSL I want to remind that I speak from a watching position that is as current as the one I most recently mentioned (So, here it is May 17).
(Added June 28, 2024)
Look at this touch at 1:43:59 in the match HERE. Also, in general, the brave souls who dared to watch the European football may owe it to themselves to have some antidotes from at least the highlights for the matches offered on the NWSL+ website (Although the above selection, for example, is not included in the highlights of that match)
(Added June 27, 2024)
Beside having that "analysis" we hear in the NWSL matches not helping with enjoying the game, if one rewatch the match and really put the focus on that "analysis", how much of it would appear having good value as unknown beneficial knowledge? Actually, unless it is a joke, even with a fraction of such capability to tell that much what need to be done and in every match, who on earth would not even let go of the like of Pele in their teams in order to raise enough money to hire for the coach position any one of such soccer "analysts"?
By the way, starting from the earliest, I am currently at May 17 and the match I watched yesterday between North Carolina and Utah that is listed on NWSL+ as of May 17 is actually of March 17 according to a youtube video. I suspected it being from before May 17 because of something I heard at its end that did not fit my watching history, and then I did that youtube search.
(Added June 18, 2024)
Look at this goal at 9:07 (video time) in THIS women soccer match from China. Actually based on what I have watched from it so far the playing in general seems high quality and I intend to watch this whole match and probably other women soccer matches from China.
(Added June 15, 2024)
How exhausting is this NWSL Schudle? How much could this be why players sometimes fall on their own and the reason for the lower performance we saw, or shall be for what we shall see in the future? Should those teams have been divided into growps? Frankly speaking I for example usually pay attention to just how good or bad a team have played and the number of matches never occured to me as a factor. So, unless that number is noticeably low, how many other people are like this? So, by as much as the current situation suggests teams are not benefitting from such number of matches, wouldn't that alternative path have been be better for enabling teams to show better playing which can lead to better appreciation and all the benefits that can follow from that including better compensation leading to better motivation to play more?
(Added June 13, 2024)
Often in the NWSL an attacker may get what feels like as much as 3 seconds of time or more in the penalty box to make her shot free from any close obstruction. This is also related to the issue of the defense being badly spread or distributed in that area. How could coaches be this okay with such problems in the defense? Have they sufficiently brought them to the attention of their players and kept pressing for the correction? Up to what I have watched so far (May 4), it seems like at least the first goal is most of the time the result of such under performing defense rather than a really outperforming offense.
On the plus side, in the recent days, I saw more frequently better efforts and remarkable savings by the goalkeepers, and Utah showed in most of the time in its match of May 3 a surprising leap in the quality and seriousness of its defense (The offence was also better).
(Added June 11, 2024)
I think that for many people (myself included) an insufficient vigilance on the defense side in soccer can prevent a match from being considered a serious no joke game even if it is good according to all other measures. The defensive reaction to cover the adjacent open area in the penalty box should be like a reflex. Any pause is not acceptable. Any clear path and clear view to the goal for an attacker possessing the ball should not last longer than a glimpse for a fraction of a second.
By the way, while I hear it used for even when a shot does occur, I think "denied" is originally intended to express the blocking of the path to the goal when there is a potential shot, and I prefer to see it reserved for that.
(Added June 8, 2024)
The crazy Visible allowed me to exceed 100 gb of hotspot data even though my plan ($45 monthly including the tax) which is the best one available from them does not say it give more than 50 GB of high priority data. Most of this data went for my one NWSL match a day, and I kept watching for slowing or interruptions signs in the connection so that I duplicate the plan with another phone and continue with the matches, but nothing of that happen.
On the other hand, about a month earlier, I tried to exceed the 25 gb hotspot I got from Cricket (which was the result of 15 gb that comes with the $60 monthly fee plus $20 for an additional 10 gb hotspot) and things stopped around that limit and my download was spoiled in a way that felt like the cartoon way of having a fist extends from the phone and tries to punch me for daring to do that.
(Added June 3, 2024)
When it comes to the issue of hand-ball contact I remember from decades ago hearing about distinguishing between a hand seeking a ball and a ball seeking a hand. In any case, I do not think moving the hands away to the back is a good solution to avoid a penalty kick. No body can play comfortably in such posture. Moreover, it is distracting for a person in the defending position to focus on what part of the body should be away from the path of the ball rather than what should block the ball. Focusing on intercepting the ball with the valid body parts is a better alternative in my view.
(Added May 28, 2024)
I am currently at April 20 in watching the matches and it seems like the horrible commentating issue has dangerously spread to male commentator. Again, they need to know that commentators are not given such position because of interest in their conversation with each other like sitting in a cafe. This is insulting to the viewer and also, with more harmful effect, the players. Instead, their job is to connect the viewer to what is going on in the field. I have never experienced such thing in men's soccer, but it is like the rule here. Actually, even without the obligations of the commentating task, it makes you wonder how could someone who even modestly likes the game be that much unable to stay with it? They seem like unable to keep continuous interest for what is going in the field for even couple of minuets or less.
(Added May 19, 2024)
Here is a special selection of mine from what I have watched so far (from March 16 to March 30) for anyone short on time and wants something that is extra serious and extra exiting from the NWSL: It is the second half of the Portland Thorns vs Racing Louisville which occurred on March 30 and is available on the NWSL+ website.
(Added May 18, 2024)
Once Again...The Commentating
If those commentators rewatch the game on which they commentated, would they agree that they really did a commentating task? If they were watching a game they like at a cafe and a person talked loudly to another the same kind of talk they did, would that be engaging for them in the game or distracting them away from the game? Or let me put it this way: Would such a talk sound to them as just inconsiderate behaviour or both inconsiderate and abnormal? If such talk is real commentating, it should sound both. That is because real commentating is mostly not conversational. Despite what some may think, this kind of talking is contrary to and strongly conflicts with the talking issue that is commonly attributed to women, which the main complaint about it is that it focuses too much on the details rather than the bigger picture to solve the problem. Because of how it seems to outrageously ignore the psychological dimension, I am not with those taking this stand. Still, what is being complained about is itself what commentating needs.
And what would those assistant commentators really feel when they rewatch the game and hear themselves that much doing all the talking rather than inserting something occasionally? And what on earth makes you provide advice or analysis with every move like this? When you listen to it again do you really think all that was needed? And how can you have that much specific knowledge of every player? Actually it is not specific in the sense that allows for judging if it is true or false; you just take a commonly wanted thing and attribute it to one player as special of hers then redo the same with the same attribute or hardly distinguishable one with other players. And why does that knowledge so often comes afterwards? For example, one player does a nice penetrating maneuver and you immediately start to talk to us about how that is some of her special capabilities. And how about when you redescribe to us something we just saw with you? Then what about those unsupported claims that may come with such description to tell us about what the players were thinking and the depth of their planning for what happened? Honestly, when you hear yourself doing that, how many air purifier would you think one would need to run in order to take care of such smoke blowing?
....
Like Never Before?
Although, I have hinted at it before, I still would not feel good enough unless I point out that to me it is highly supported to argue for that the soccer played in the NWSL is the most beautiful ever played in soccer offense. The harmony that probably drives people crazy about Brazil seems to be clearly surpassed here while the skills do not seem far behind there (the latter could be a big understatement). But there everybody gives it the appreciation it deserves while here I, for example, just saw in my NWSL match of today a girl receives a ball and do that back pass to it while the ball is in the air and the girl is running, and it went like nothing there to the commentator and/or his assistant. And speaking of doing things on go I just saw a well-known Brazilian player of the highly regarded Brazil team of 82 do that sudden switch on the run from pushing the ball in front of him to passing it back to someone behind and it still was not done as on the go without pause as that girl did it in the moment to which I referred in May 2 (Racing Louisville vs Houston Dash game of March 16).
(Added May 17, 2024)
Yesterday I mistakenly thought I finished all the matches of March 30.
...
Up to this moment in my watching, the kind of goals I really count, which are those that come more as a result of the attack outperform the defense rather than the defense letting its guards down or not being fast in covering any occurring gaps seem to be considerably less here than they are in men's soccer.
(Added May 16, 2024)
Watching the matches one a day in sequence, I have just finished up to March 30 games and wonder why have the players regressed to losing themselves this much when opportunities in front of the goal come and waste them like this?
(Added May 15, 2024)
Where else can one see soccer attacks conducted at group level with harmony like that on the NWSL? Frankley speaking, despite the beauty it adds to the game, I have not taken such a thing into account until the latter brought it to me. And they do that in addition to the high individual skills they show.
(Added May 14, 2024)
NWSL Channel
Beside the issue of adding real commentating, why is it that, in addition to the online availability, those who bought the right to the NWSL matches through 2027 do not make it available on a specialized free over the air channel showing reruns of season matches if their intention is to build more popularity so they get better return on their investment? Actually, I also wonder the same for sports in general. Why is it that what is being done on all those free over the air rerun sitcom and drama channels cannot be done for sports?
(Added May 6, 2024)
Downloading Vs. Streaming
It seems that many of the current matches are also available on Youtube and when downloading two of them yesterday in order to watch them later I noticed what seems to be a saving of what could be more than half the mobile data consumed in comparison with streaming them directly. Although I do the streaming from the NWSL+ website itself not Youtube, I do not think this what made the difference. Instead, I think it is that having the video runs from your computer allows for sending it compressed.
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The availability of the matches on youtube or their download option may not be or stay the same now that the corruption guy saw me using this technique. The next match I searched for I could not find and the one after that showed no download option.
(Added May 5, 2024)
Game1 above is Louisville Racing vs Orlando Pride. Game2 above is North Carolina Courage vs Houston Dash. Both occurred on March 16 and listed last and second to last on that website.
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Searching for a list of all NWSL matches without showing the results, so that I look on Youtube for any match that is not available on the NWSL+ website. Not only finding such list has not yet been successful but I got some matches spoiled for me by showing the results with the offender being the NWSL site itself (Although NWSL+ does not show the results with its replay list). How hard is it to include in such list a button giving the option of showing the results rather than start with that?
(Added May 3, 2024)
This is the fourth NWSL game I have watched starting from the earliest available on that website and in all of them the sun seems to be too strong. I do not remember even anywhere close to this such sun in men's soccer. And this is despite that for the trunk area of the body men need to wear only the t-shirt. Even more important than the heat issue is the UV issue.
By the way, I want here to clarify that unlike my earlier one, my reference to places like where I came from above is not about soccer being the most popular sport there. Instead it is about the similarity of lacking a democratic system or from how far in the past it has been established.
Also, although registration in the NWSL+ site is free, it was not my intention above to call the games "Game1" and "Game2" in order to force that rather than allowing for looking for the games on Youtube. Since I have already mentioned that I am watching those games starting from the earliest and then also mentioned that I am not being selective at the game level, I thought that there is no need to specify the games by name.
Here is, again, the LINK to that website. You do not need to be registered to see what games they offer.
...
Actually, despite what I said about that last issue above, had I realized that the links lead to the registration without showing which match is the target and connected that to the issue above, I would have mentioned the names of those matches.
(Added May 2, 2024)
One of the commentators for the soccer game that aired on CBS yesterday kept using the word "majestic" for a move done there. So I would like to present as my gift to him these two moments I selected from two NWSL games (which, again, I am watching in sequence and not being selective):
But because I do not want to spoil the games for those who have not seen them yet, I put the points of time and the interesting thing I am pointing out listed as item 1 and 2 in this FILE .
(Added May 1, 2024)
Those girls continue to amaze me and now I am at a stage that makes it hard for me to avoid wondering about and trying to find any reason against considering the NWSL soccer the best soccer one can find in the world at least for the present time (although with extremely horrible female "commentating").
By the way, the guy writing this is the same guy who did not shy away from criticizing, on the ground that men play tennis better, giving the same winning prize amount to both genders.
(Added April 30, 2024)
Watched the game that was just aired on CBS between those two big names men soccer teams with stadium filled to its max and you think it was good? For me I just tolerated it to its end (which luckily came before mine). Anyway, now go to this NWSL website and after registering go to the home page and from the "2024 Replays" list you can select randomly or do what I did yesterday with the intention of watching all of them and click the arrow all the way back to the first which occurred on March 16 for Racing Louisville vs Orlando Pride and honestly answer to yourself which of those two games entertains you better. I watched this yesterday and, as it is often the case with these games, feel like I treated myself to something really good.
...
Okay, here we go again, I barely watched the first half of the second available game (between North Carolina and Houston) and felt like driven crazy. Again, and again and again those players are not getting their fair chance in something that has been provided for every soccer game from the time of Hammurabi: Normal Commentating. Re watch that first half or get a transcript and tell me could the woman commentator show anymore that she just want to escape from what is occurring in the field? And how long were each of her sentences? five pages? And for women commentator-helpers: Even aside from the issue of distracting the viewer away from the field, how much of the analysis and advice you give is really just over complication of already known things?
And, like I said before, I think you can pick a woman from the street in places like where I came from and find her commentating normally engaging. But the problem exist here because of that group identity thing.
(Starting Post)
I wonder how many who like me came from a place where soccer is the most popular sport agree with me that women's soccer has a special level of efficient and accurate passing of the ball and utilization of the whole field and that at least when this is combined with skills like those in the NWSL it shows soccer with a kind of beauty we have not experienced before? Of course this is not always the case. For example, the game of the Chicago Red Stars I watched on Ion yesterday was especially disappointing in that regard. It felt like the players of that team were shooting their passes and needlessly direct them ten meters in front of the receiver.
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