Women's World Cup Qualification 2019

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

honestly it's a joke that Wales will get more points than Denmark but fail to qualify cos the teams Wales drew with were better than the teams Denmark drew with

[Kevin S]

https://twitter.com/ScotlandNT/statu...194153473?s=19

https://twitter.com/ScotlandNT/status/1035262562194153473?s=19

[Kevin S]

honestly it's a joke that Wales will get more points than Denmark but fail to qualify cos the teams Wales drew with were better than the teams Denmark drew with

Yeah, this format is shite. Of course, Wales could just beat England tomorrow...

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

The away goal for Switzerland sees them take charge of the group

[Etienne]

Denmark might have had more points if their first game with Sweden hadn't been awarded to the Swedes.

[blameless]

Winning by one goal too few. Great effort by the ladies, but that's a very Scotland result.

[Patrick Thistle]

I wonder how many tickets would’ve been sold had the game been played at somewhere like Cardiff’s ground? Have Wales actually missed an opportunity?

Cardiff have a home game this weekend although I think the venue was decided before the Premier League fixtures came out.

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

I wonder how many tickets would’ve been sold had the game been played at somewhere like Cardiff’s ground? Have Wales actually missed an opportunity?

A packed Rodney Parade always strikes me as pretty edgy (having that many Newportonians in one place is not for the faint-hearted, after all) but is that why it was selected or were there simply no other feasible options?

I'm not sure how many people expected the game to sell out in 24 hours tbh. I didn't - the previous home game against Russia took a few days to sell out and that was in a stadium with 1/5 the capacity with open ticket sales. My guess is 10,000 Wales fans and 2-3,000 England fans.

One of the really nice things about this campaign is much of the buzz has been driven by supporters and not the association. When I watched England play Wales in Millwall in 2013 I probably wasn't the only Wales fan there, but it felt like it. This time around, supporters organised a coach from South Wales, arranged to buy tickets together in a section of the ground and the result was that ~500 Wales fans sat together for a match most of us expected to be a drubbing. Wales supporters have been producing their own media, their own merch. It's not really to criticise the association but rather to recognise that some of this has caught the FAW slightly on the hop.

I think a small, hostile venue is a good choice though and I hope it pays off (even if not with a result, with an atmosphere that makes people want to come back for more).

[Patrick Thistle]

Although I moaned about it, I'd guess trying to create a home atmosphere is a good reason to release tickets to the Red Wall first.

Rodney Parade's capacity for football matches is 7,850. I'd put the away capacity at 1,500 max. The away end is all seater now so it might be lower. (I presume they'll use the normal away end for England fans)

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

I think England's allocation was 250 so I doubt it's the normal away end.

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

Lucy Bronze sounds rattled. Bold of her to bring up the semi-final against Holland though, where England were heavy favourites but ended up losing 3 - 0.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football...ed-passionate/

[Patrick Thistle]

I think England's allocation was 250 so I doubt it's the normal away end.

The normal away end is a bit of the Bisley Stand (backs onto Corporation Road) and the seating on the South End. But when I went in with the Notts County fans a couple of weeks ago we were shepherded into the Bisley Stand only. There were 185 Notts fans in there (well, 184 + me) and it wasn't full.

The South End doesn't have any cover.

[HORN]

The Hazel Terrace appears to be closed. It’s the most intimidating bit of the ground with fans just a couple of yards from the pitch. Shame.

[HORN]

England are so much better than Wales I’m finding this borderline unwatchable. Pity.

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

England's success makes a compelling case for racist victimisation as a strategy for building a national team

[Amor de Cosmos]

Canada host Brazil Sunday prior to the CONCACAF qualification in October. Should be worth watching as their matches are usually close. Canada currently fifth in world rankings, Brazil seventh. KO: 2:00pm Eastern time.

[Janik]

England are so much better than Wales I’m finding this borderline unwatchable. Pity.

The first game was much the same, but with more snatched finishing and excellent goalkeeping. It had a feel like a Conference side gutting out a draw against a Premiership outfit. But what else would you expect between a side of full-time pros and one mostly composed of amateurs?
Wales have performed well above themselves in this group (and England have been below the level they should be reaching), but it's going to take a few years more of development before they are a top 20 in the world side.

[Ray de Galles]

Perhaps it was being in a very partisan crowd but I didn’t think the disparity in quality was that apparent, for the first half at least. Wales equalled England as the half wore on and threatened more and more.

I was concerned as soon as the second half started though, England were far more focussed and potent and Wales didn’t seem to switch on at all (Uros told me that England had been on the pitch running drills for most of the break).

Perhaps crucially, we seemed to drop ten yards deeper after the interval which invited pressure on to us, meant we didn’t press the England defence in to the mistakes they’d been making earlier and resulted in us having no out ball when we broke up their attacks.

The first and third goals were scrappy and a result of the above factors as well as multiple mistakes but the second was a great goal, Bronze’s hook back in to the box and Scott’s header being wonderful pieces of skill (even though I thought the free kick they followed was very harsh).

Scott was head & shoulders (metaphorically and literally) above every other player on the pitch and it was frustrating to see Fishlock have less and less influence as we were pushed back.

Still, it’s been a fantastic campaign and has piqued interest in the Women’s side (mine included) that I hope endures. It’s a mark of how far the female squad have come that they have manufactured such a typically Welsh “so near, yet so far” finale to the qualifiers.

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

Wales not totally out of things as it stands.

If Belgium lose to Italy (as expected) and Iceland lose at home to Czechia, Wales will qualify.

[Patrick Thistle]

And then there's a play off as well isn't there?

[Ray de Galles]

I think it was the play-offs BLT was referring to qualification for. Every analysis I’ve seen has the set of results required for Wales’s to do so down as very unlikely but I’ll bow down to his superior knowledge.

[Patrick Thistle]

Oh, ok. He meant qualify for the play offs.

[diggedy derek]

Agreed on Scott’s header, that was a piece of class.

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

I think it was the play-offs BLT was referring to qualification for. Every analysis I’ve seen has the set of results required for Wales’s to do so down as very unlikely but I’ll bow down to his superior knowledge.

I would say Italy to beat Belgium is very likely while Czechia to beat Iceland is not incredibly unlikely but also would be an upset. That said, Wales have been very unlucky in how the other groups have gone so far. Many, many painful last gasp winners and equalisers - so we're due a bit of fortune.

[Patrick Thistle]

I've just remembered something about the build up to this on radio 5. They had a woman presenter talking to a former England Women's player who was punditting and they talked about how Jayne Ludlow had chosen to make the Newport pitch as narrow as possible and had brought the bylines in so that there were grass tramlines along the side and behind the goals.

Having seen that pitch I'm pretty sure that extra grass is there because they also play rugby on it and you need extra grass behind the goal line for rugby. Newport play their games with the extra grass there, so it clearly wasn't Ludlow conniving with the groundsman to limit England's wide game.

It was such a nonsense discussion. There's an unreconstructed part of me that wonders if male commentators would have realised the rugby link and not even brought up the issue.