Barcelona v Glasgow City - live now

[GordonS]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/football/45868154

Some stadium too. Mon the lassies!

[GordonS]

Tough lesson for Glasgow, who were far from their best and suffered from two howling keeper errors.

Worth bearing in mind that the Glasgow team all have other jobs, while Barcelona are all full time. Leike Martens is rumoured to be on around 100,000 Euros a year and they can afford to bring in top players from the best clubs. The equivalent gulf on the men's side is something like Alloa v PSG. There's a huge, unbridgeable gap between the part time and full time clubs.

[pleslie99]

Tough lesson for Glasgow, who were far from their best and suffered from two howling keeper errors.
Worth bearing in mind that the Glasgow team all have other jobs, while Barcelona are all full time. Leike Martens is rumoured to be on around 100,000 Euros a year and they can afford to bring in top players from the best clubs. The equivalent gulf on the men's side is something like Alloa v PSG. There's a huge, unbridgeable gap between the part time and full time clubs.

I understand the gulf however, Glasgow city cannot moan about any gulf when they have been untouchable for years in Scotland a long with hibs. There is a huge unbridgeable gap between the top 2 in Scotland and everyone else.

[GordonS]

4 hours ago, pleslie99 said:

6 hours ago, GordonS said:

Tough lesson for Glasgow, who were far from their best and suffered from two howling keeper errors.
Worth bearing in mind that the Glasgow team all have other jobs, while Barcelona are all full time. Leike Martens is rumoured to be on around 100,000 Euros a year and they can afford to bring in top players from the best clubs. The equivalent gulf on the men's side is something like Alloa v PSG. There's a huge, unbridgeable gap between the part time and full time clubs.

I understand the gulf however, Glasgow city cannot moan about any gulf when they have been untouchable for years in Scotland a long with hibs. There is a huge unbridgeable gap between the top 2 in Scotland and everyone else.

It's not unbridgeable and tbh I think it will be bridged in the next 5-10 years at most. Celtic, Rangers and Motherwell are putting a fair effort into their women's sides and their youth teams are being well coached. I think they're going to catch up. Glasgow City have only been dominant because their focussed attitude has let them attract the best, most ambitious players at a young age. It's certainly nothing to do with money - in fact, City players (like all others in the country) aren't classed as professional by UEFA because they are paid less than the expenses they incur playing! The Old Firm in particular have a sentimental pull on large numbers of kids, and with the facilities an coaching they're starting to put in, that's going to tell.

In the long term City are at a serious strategic disadvantage - crowd numbers are trickling up at games as fans of the men's teams at those clubs come out on a Sunday to watch the women. That might accelerate with the World Cup next year. But City's ability to build a fanbase is much more limited. 

There's big gulf in men's football between part time and full time too. You usually get a part-time team clinging on fro grim death at the foot of the Championship, but it's been a long time since any have gone higher. There are only a couple of part-time clubs ahead of any full-time clubs, and only a couple of full-time clubs below a part-timer. It's the single biggest fault line in the sport.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

A team from Glasgow, strides ahead in its domestic league, getting pumped abroad?

 

[pleslie99]

It's not unbridgeable and tbh I think it will be bridged in the next 5-10 years at most. Celtic, Rangers and Motherwell are putting a fair effort into their women's sides and their youth teams are being well coached. I think they're going to catch up. Glasgow City have only been dominant because their focussed attitude has let them attract the best, most ambitious players at a young age. It's certainly nothing to do with money - in fact, City players (like all others in the country) aren't classed as professional by UEFA because they are paid less than the expenses they incur playing! The Old Firm in particular have a sentimental pull on large numbers of kids, and with the facilities an coaching they're starting to put in, that's going to tell.
In the long term City are at a serious strategic disadvantage - crowd numbers are trickling up at games as fans of the men's teams at those clubs come out on a Sunday to watch the women. That might accelerate with the World Cup next year. But City's ability to build a fanbase is much more limited. 
There's big gulf in men's football between part time and full time too. You usually get a part-time team clinging on fro grim death at the foot of the Championship, but it's been a long time since any have gone higher. There are only a couple of part-time clubs ahead of any full-time clubs, and only a couple of full-time clubs below a part-timer. It's the single biggest fault line in the sport.

People have been saying the gap is closing for years. It's simply not true. The old firm don't have the pull you think. If city or hibs want someone then they generally get them, that is seen as the only way into professional football for girls up here who have ambitions to play higher. Celtic, Rangers and the rest are lagging miles behind and it will continue to be the case. What was the recent swpl cup final score between city and Celtic? Finals should be close and well fought, not close to a double figure drubbing by 1 team which shows the gulf. Answer me this question, when was the last team to beat city or hibs in the Scottish cup? The competition should be the pinnacle for all teams however in reality noone below maybe swpl1 wants to play it, as we seen this year with a team "not having enough players" when drawn against hibs but are about to win their league and become promoted to swpl2!
For you to say it is nothing to do with money is ridiculous quite frankly. Ok the girls may not get 'paid' as such, but they all get 'sponsored' and expenses paid to them. All other girls in the country pay to play for their teams, so straight away there is an advantage and a 'pull' for anyone who gets their head turned.
To say there is a big gulf in men's football between PT and FT teams is partly true however the PT teams can compete with their FT colleagues, look at Dumbarton for the past 6 years, Alloa this season, the number of junior and semi pro teams that progress in the Scottish cup. In the woman's game in Scotland city and Hibs are so far away from the rest there is no comparison, the SWF are doing nothing to help the teams at the bottom as everything is geared towards the big 2.
I do hope both teams do well in Europe but something needs to be done by the SWF to make the domestic game more competitive.

[GordonS]

30 minutes ago, pleslie99 said:

People have been saying the gap is closing for years. It's simply not true. The old firm don't have the pull you think. If city or hibs want someone then they generally get them, that is seen as the only way into professional football for girls up here who have ambitions to play higher. Celtic, Rangers and the rest are lagging miles behind and it will continue to be the case. What was the recent swpl cup final score between city and Celtic? Finals should be close and well fought, not close to a double figure drubbing by 1 team which shows the gulf. Answer me this question, when was the last team to beat city or hibs in the Scottish cup? The competition should be the pinnacle for all teams however in reality noone below maybe swpl1 wants to play it, as we seen this year with a team "not having enough players" when drawn against hibs but are about to win their league and become promoted to swpl2!
For you to say it is nothing to do with money is ridiculous quite frankly. Ok the girls may not get 'paid' as such, but they all get 'sponsored' and expenses paid to them. All other girls in the country pay to play for their teams, so straight away there is an advantage and a 'pull' for anyone who gets their head turned.
To say there is a big gulf in men's football between PT and FT teams is partly true however the PT teams can compete with their FT colleagues, look at Dumbarton for the past 6 years, Alloa this season, the number of junior and semi pro teams that progress in the Scottish cup. In the woman's game in Scotland city and Hibs are so far away from the rest there is no comparison, the SWF are doing nothing to help the teams at the bottom as everything is geared towards the big 2.
I do hope both teams do well in Europe but something needs to be done by the SWF to make the domestic game more competitive.

That's fair.

Glasgow have lost two league games (3-0 v Spartans in 2016; 1-0 v Spartans in 2014) in at least 8 years and nobody other than Hibs has beaten them in a cup as far back as I can see, at least 8 years. So it's probably premature to think they and Hibs are being caught. I just think Motherwell and Rangers' appointments of managers are statements of intent and both clubs are promoting their teams much more, and attendances at Celtic games seem to be creeping up. They ran City very close last week. I deinitely see green shoots, though yeah, probably too soon to make predictions for the future.

As for making the domestic game more competitive, I agree to an extent but not totally. We're a tiny country in women's football and I think we need to focus on the elite. I think a big part of growing the game is a successful national side. That's the approach the SRU took, with having only two professional teams and from next season a hand-picked top division of just six. We need more than just two clubs to make that work but at least it has driven both of them on. I'm not sure we'd have had a team make the last 16 or last 8 of the Champions League with a wider share of playing talent, and I think the best players working with each other regularly has made them better than they would have been as top dogs elsewhere.

That's a longwinded way of saying "dunno", I could see how a more competitive league would be good but I could also see it being less beneficial to the national team, which is critical for development.

[BroadcastCallum]

It is a hard cycle. City strong, not as they used to be full of Scotland players but still have that SCO players, experienced SWPL players and young player blend, Hibs closed gap by going through pain, growing a group together over past 5 years and now strong.  Celtic under performed in last couple of seasons with their squad not as good as top 2 but have the best of the rest players wise in SWPL 1 plus some good youth.  Probably should be within single digit points to top 2 (At least should only lose to top 2).  Should change next season with Wolecki-Black next season.    Rest of the clubs in top flight in recent years have seen some experienced campaigners retire or drop out of the top flight and we've less of this mid-aged experienced players who might not be good enough for Scotland but are good top end players - the ones City, Hibs and Celtic have now.  More and more young players are playing - which is good - however any really quality ones still go to Hibs or City (Even academy players who might have an old firm lure/love might move to another academy).  Thing is any good young player for Hibs and City aren't staying well into their 20s then perhaps moving.  They are gone after a couple of seasons due to pro deals.  City always lost players but as seen this season now Hibs are at that level/standing they have lost key players too (in the summer break period particularly).   Forfar do quite well that have some experienced heads that maybe don't want to move from the North and have impressed back in SWPL1.  Motherwell have a lot of ex top flight league winning players in their autumn I think will do ok in SWPL1 short term but wait will be if they can build momentum in years to come academy wise.

There are some great coaches at likes of Rangers, Spartans, Hamilton etc however difficult to project to winning the SWPL 1 title with squads with 3/4s under 23 as they are developing/raw and although great playing senior football it is a real challenge.    Just my thoughts anyway. Some good stuff out there.