[peasy23]

Potsdam are full time and have an annual budget of around €2milion per year, they earn fortunes in sponsorship and advertising. They have a Japanese player, and there was a press pass issued to a Japanese journalist for last nights game who writes for a daily paper with a 10 million circulation. Whether people like it or not, the wonen's game is on the rise. Sadly at the moment, the Scottish ladies are as far behind their foreign counterparts as the men.

[Jeek]

With football as soft and poncey (and getting more so) the main barrier as to why women couldnt compete with the men, the physicallity of it, is rapidly deteriorating. Plus after last Saturday, Glasgow would have turned the methil widdies over, nevermind Potsdam

This post has been edited by Jeek: 11 November 2011 - 18:22

[jupe1407]

Jeek, on 11 November 2011 - 18:20, said:

With football as soft and poncey (and getting more so) the main barrier as to why women couldnt compete with the men, the physicallity of it, is rapidly deteriorating. Plus after last Saturday, Glasgow would have turned the methil widdies over, nevermind Potsdam

TBH the main barrier is that men are better at it.

[Gordon EF]

Jeek, on 11 November 2011 - 18:20, said:

With football as soft and poncey (and getting more so) the main barrier as to why women couldnt compete with the men, the physicallity of it, is rapidly deteriorating.

Don't be so fucking stupid.

[FairWeatherFan]

I didn't get to see it, so i was wondering what sort of attendance they managed to get? Despite them being effectively out from the 1st leg did they manage to pull in a decent crowd?

[peasy23]

I heard the crowd was around 550 or so.

[Jeek]

Gordon EF, on 11 November 2011 - 19:38, said:

Don't be so fucking stupid.

Dino,

Please elaborate on your wonderfully eliquent and altogether predictable response

[Gordon EF]

Jeek, on 11 November 2011 - 20:27, said:

Dino,

Please elaborate on your wonderfully eliquent and altogether predictable response

OK. The idea that "physicality" is somehow becoming and will continue to become less important in the game is ridiculous. Players now are fitter, faster and stronger than they ever have been. Just because centre halfs aren't allowed to kick the shit out of anyone they like for 90 minutes without so much as a ticking off from the ref doesn't diminish the importance of the "physicality" in football. The idea that, at some point in the future the physical requirements of the game will diminsh so much that women will somehow bridge that gap on men is ludicrous.

To be honest, I made that first post, knowing someone would probably get their knickers in a twist over it but the fact that a few of you are actually getting annoyed with me saying women's football isn't anywhere near as good as men's (which is as obvious a fact as anyone could ever state) is hilarious.

Folk saying Potsdam could beat East Fife?

Imagine the field day East Fife (or any Scottish league team) would have on corners, free kicks and crosses into the box alone.

[Savage Henry]

Jeek, on 10 November 2011 - 19:42, said:

troll or dinosaur?

Jeek, on 11 November 2011 - 18:20, said:

With football as soft and poncey (and getting more so) the main barrier as to why women couldnt compete with the men, the physicallity of it, is rapidly deteriorating. Plus after last Saturday, Glasgow would have turned the methil widdies over, nevermind Potsdam

Which indeed?

[H_B]

I watched one of the other Quarter finals. PSG versus some other German mob.

It really did sum up women's football. A bit of excellent play, followed by a moment of comedy ineptitude.

The left back for the German side was hilarious. Resembled a bowling ball. A decent Sunday amateur side in Scotland would have beaten both.

[Thumper]

Gordon EF, on 11 November 2011 - 12:34, said:

The BBC show games like this but don't bother showing 1st, 2nd, 3rd division. Ludicrous.

The Scottish elephant polo team has had considerably more success than the football team has, but I don't imagine BBC Sport are likely to change their Saturday schedules. Mother of Christ. Times are presumably hard round Methil way when people are reduced to playing Billy Big-Shot between East Fife and a women's team in Germany.

[Gordon EF]

Thumper, on 13 November 2011 - 17:05, said:

The Scottish elephant polo team has had considerably more success than the football team has, but I don't imagine BBC Sport are likely to change their Saturday schedules.

Excuse me? What the f**k has this got to do with anything I've said?

Quote

Mother of Christ. Times are presumably hard round Methil way when people are reduced to playing Billy Big-Shot between East Fife and a women's team in Germany.

That's not really what happened at all though is it. I said women's football wasn't very good so a few numpties came out with "Huh, well, they'd beat East Fife" and I pointed out how stupid that was.

[Thumper]

Gordon EF, on 14 November 2011 - 12:11, said:

Excuse me? What the f**k has this got to do with anything I've said?

You're suggesting that it's a travesty that women's football is shown while second division football isn't. For most purposes they're different sports, and so it's irrelevant whether the quality of one is lower than the other as far as scheduling goes.

Gordon EF, on 14 November 2011 - 12:11, said:

I said women's football wasn't very good so a few numpties came out with "Huh, well, they'd beat East Fife" and I pointed out how stupid that was.

In some sports, such as tennis, it is pretty much universally accepted that the physical advantage men have is impossible to overcome. The top seed in women's tennis would almost certainly get horsed in straight sets by any of the top hundred men's seeds. It is far less clear that this is the case in women's football when you compared Potsdam - a team of full professionals, internationals even, in a country with a rather impressive infrastructure around the women's game - to East Fife, a team of part-timers struggling in a league consisting solely of other part-timers. The physical requirements of football are far different to tennis: bear in mind that Mark Yardley plied his trade for a good while in the Third.

More than anything else it was your attitude that people were attacking. You weren't simply saying you reckoned there would still be enough of a physical / training gap: you simply laughed off the thought that a women's team could ever beat a men's team, even one which is in relative terms miles behind it infrastructure- and money-wise.

This post has been edited by Thumper: 14 November 2011 - 19:20

[Gordon EF]

Thumper, on 14 November 2011 - 19:19, said:

You're suggesting that it's a travesty that women's football is shown while second division football isn't. For most purposes they're different sports, and so it's irrelevant whether the quality of one is lower than the other as far as scheduling goes.

So says you. I'd say it's the same sport, quality does matter but, if it was up to me, I'd show both.

Quote

In some sports, such as tennis, it is pretty much universally accepted that the physical advantage men have is impossible to overcome. The top seed in women's tennis would almost certainly get horsed in straight sets by any of the top hundred men's seeds. It is far less clear that this is the case in women's football when you compared Potsdam - a team of full professionals, internationals even, in a country with a rather impressive infrastructure around the women's game - to East Fife, a team of part-timers struggling in a league consisting solely of other part-timers. The physical requirements of football are far different to tennis: bear in mind that Mark Yardley plied his trade for a good while in the Third.

I'd be very interested to see what the physical difference between Potsdam players and East Fife players is. We know East Fife players will be bigger and significantly stronger, that's pretty much a given. So the main question is, does Potsdam's full time status give them parity or even an advantage in terms of stamina and/or pace. I really don't think it would, certainly not in pace. There's a girl i at my work (who I've played football with quite a lot) who is an international level orienter and is as fit as any girl I know. She'd murder me over any kind of longer distance but I can still beat her over short distances very comfortably and I'm in no way especially fit. So I really don't know how much difference part-time/full-time makes here. The point about internationals doesn't make a difference. If Scottish 2nd division footballers were allowed to play women's international football, the vast majority of them would be internationals.

I don't really accept the point about Mark Yardley either. He's one player on a team. Yes, he was obviously unfit and could barely run and Potsdam would obviously have the edge over a team of guys in his state, at the time he was with Albion Rovers. It's just a fact that guys with superior ability but inferior fitness can step down and still be effective at a level below their actual 'ability'. To me, that doesn't mean a team full of women with significant physical disadvantages would be able to make up that gap on any decent men's team.

I don't think the difference is all physical either, I've actually watched some women's football and I don't think even the top teams are especially technically better than Scottish 2nd division level. I think the gap in technical ability would have to be huge for a women's football team to beat a team of fit (albeit part-time) men.

Quote

More than anything else it was your attitude that people were attacking. You weren't simply saying you reckoned there would still be enough of a physical / training gap: you simply laughed off the thought that a women's team could ever beat a men's team, even one which is in relative terms miles behind it infrastructure- and money-wise.

Well, the level of discussion had hardly reached a serious and mature level from anyone had it.

[dave258]

I used to work with a woman who played for Glasgow City (admittedly, a few years ago). She used to train with a local boys under 15 team during the week to keep fit as when she tried training with the under 17s she was too far off the pace.

Considering she was a first team player (right back, IIRC) for the best womens team in the country, that's a pretty damning endictment of the standard.

[yoda]

A PE teacher who taught at Millburn when I was still there is a Scottish internationalsit for the women's team. Wiki says she plays for Forfar Farmington now. A girl I went to school with also plays in the SWPL now, and she was much better technically than the majority of football playing boys in our year.

That's all I have to contribute to this topic.

This post has been edited by yoda: 16 November 2011 - 13:06