Semi-finals

Spain v Sweden 20:00, Eden Park (Auckland/Tāmaki Makaurau)

Australia v England 20:00, Stadium Australia (Sydney/Gadigal)

Very nervous as an England fan. Going to be a huge ask to beat Australia there, but noone you'd rather beat. Might need the spirit of Jonny Wilkinson on that same pitch!

I'm a little bit bemused by this so called "rivalry" between England & Australia in football. The reality is that there's never been a rivalry from the England point of view: We hardly ever play them and consider Scotland, Germany and latterly Argentina as our rivals. 
Australians seem to just shift their rivalry from cricket & rugby league and apply it to any other sport v England. I find it slightly weird and indicative of some kind of inferiority/little brother syndrome...

Not in football specifically but there's definitely a sporting rivalry that's been played out a lot this year. We've only just had an Ashes series finish in both men's and women's in the last few weeks that resulted in Australia retaining both. Not as high profile but there was also a netball World Cup final last week. Personally they are always a country I want to beat in any sport, but my view is possibly influenced by being an England fan who mostly grew up in NZ.

toffeeman1970

I'm a little bit bemused by this so called "rivalry" between England & Australia in football. The reality is that there's never been a rivalry from the England point of view: We hardly ever play them and consider Scotland, Germany and latterly Argentina as our rivals. 
Australians seem to just shift their rivalry from cricket & rugby league and apply it to any other sport v England. I find it slightly weird and indicative of some kind of inferiority/little brother syndrome...

it's just the same thing as we (Kiwis) have with Aussies and England.

"Not as high profile but there was also a netball World Cup final last week"

Case in point: Australians might have built it up & gone gaga, but I doubt very much that the English sporting public gave much of a hoot. As I've said, this "rivalry" seems very one sided (cricket & rugby league excepted) and historically non-existent in football from an English viewpoint...

theprof

toffeeman1970

I'm a little bit bemused by this so called "rivalry" between England & Australia in football. The reality is that there's never been a rivalry from the England point of view: We hardly ever play them and consider Scotland, Germany and latterly Argentina as our rivals. 
Australians seem to just shift their rivalry from cricket & rugby league and apply it to any other sport v England. I find it slightly weird and indicative of some kind of inferiority/little brother syndrome...

it's just the same thing as we (Kiwis) have with Aussies and England.

Yea it's not a "football rivalry", it's a sport rivalry.  Shark with Aus it's an everything rivalry.

toffeeman1970

I'm a little bit bemused by this so called "rivalry" between England & Australia in football. The reality is that there's never been a rivalry from the England point of view: We hardly ever play them and consider Scotland, Germany and latterly Argentina as our rivals. 
Australians seem to just shift their rivalry from cricket & rugby league and apply it to any other sport v England. I find it slightly weird and indicative of some kind of inferiority/little brother syndrome...

ajc28

Not in football specifically but there's definitely a sporting rivalry that's been played out a lot this year. We've only just had an Ashes series finish in both men's and women's in the last few weeks that resulted in Australia retaining both. Not as high profile but there was also a netball World Cup final last week. Personally they are always a country I want to beat in any sport, but my view is possibly influenced by being an England fan who mostly grew up in NZ.

Sure in men's football, there is barely a rivalry. I think it was Sven-Göran Eriksson who infamously subbed basically the whole England team at HT in a friendly at Upton Park, that the 'Golden Generation' Socceroos went on to win. When Swede Eriksson copped some flak from the English Press he basically stated he had no idea, that England & Australia were strong sporting rivals, and it was just another seemingly meaningless friendly. There are no Socceroos currently in the EPL?

But in the women's game with it's current shallower pool of top teams, the Lionesses & Matildas will know each other well. The Matildas beat England earlier this year in London, in an upset. Many of the Aussie girls play in the English WSL. It's going to be a huge semi in Sydney.

The result could even flow over into some media banter/buildup to the Socceroos playing England at Wembley in October. English/Aussie revenge & all that. Game prior to the Socceroos playing All Whites in London.

Edit - there is also a pretty strong Aus/England rivalry around the Commonwealth Games every 4 years, battling for top of the medal table. Though the Games themselves are fading as a significant sporting event.

theprof

toffeeman1970

I'm a little bit bemused by this so called "rivalry" between England & Australia in football. The reality is that there's never been a rivalry from the England point of view: We hardly ever play them and consider Scotland, Germany and latterly Argentina as our rivals. 
Australians seem to just shift their rivalry from cricket & rugby league and apply it to any other sport v England. I find it slightly weird and indicative of some kind of inferiority/little brother syndrome...

it's just the same thing as we (Kiwis) have with Aussies and England.

Exactly. Which is why, in the second SF, I'm cheering for injuries and red cards.

Gotta say. England have been very lucky with the draw at this world cup. Gone all the way to the semi-final and only had to play one other top ten ranked team so far. And that was in the group stage against Canada. Now in the semi they will finally play another top 10 team. But only just, as Aus are ranked number 10. 6 places behind England. Now I know England fans are going say, Rankings don't mean anything in the women's game. But if you had been given that draw pre tournament......How happy would you have been, avoiding Germany and Brasil.
I don't think England have been particularly convincing either. There best performance so far has ironically been against Canada.
Australia are a good chance in this game.
On the rivalry. That's only really an Australia perspective. And as someone mention earlier. A little brother mentality. The England coach in an interview even said she was unaware of any rivalry and admitted she would have to go away and look into what that was.

Edit. My bad. England didn't even play Canada. (should have fact checked) Top ranked team they have faced so far is Denmark. 13th ranked.

Ranix

Gotta say. England have been very lucky with the draw at this world cup. Gone all the way to the semi-final and only had to play one other top ten ranked team so far. And that was in the group stage against Canada. Now in the semi they will finally play another top 10 team. But only just, as Aus are ranked number 10. 6 places behind England. Now I know England fans are going say, Rankings don't mean anything in the women's game. But if you had been given that draw pre tournament......How happy would you have been, avoiding Germany and Brasil.
I don't think England have been particularly convincing either. There best performance so far has ironically been against Canada.
Australia are a good chance in this game.
On the rivalry. That's only really an Australia perspective. And as someone mention earlier. A little brother mentality. The England coach in an interview even said she was unaware of any rivalry and admitted she would have to go away and look into what that was.

 Huh? England haven't played Canada, their group included Haiti, Denmark and China. You're not wrong about the draw though - Denmark and China at 13 and 14 have been their highest ranked opponents. Arguably Nigeria and Colombia should be ranked higher, but it's pretty remarkable to have a route to the final where your highest ranked opponent is 10th. 

We've been a bit lucky to avoid certain teams but you can only play who gets through. According to paper/rankings the route to the final should have been Canada or Australia (7 or 10) in the round of 16, Germany (2) in the quarter final and France (5) or Brazil (8) in the semi final. USA (1) in the final from the other side of the draw (instead it will be 3 or 6 in the final). Top 10 ranked teams were the knockout route but they didn't all get through, so were they the best teams currently? Germany possibly had the easiest group going by rankings (highest ranked opponent was 17) and didn't get out of it. But of course it's never played on paper.

That's just how rankings/seedings work, especially being in the top 4 the reward for being higher ranked is that you play lower ranks in the early rounds and on paper the draw should work so that the top ranks meet later on. Federer, Nadal and Djokovic never played each other in the first round either. 

toffeeman1970

I'm a little bit bemused by this so called "rivalry" between England & Australia in football. The reality is that there's never been a rivalry from the England point of view: We hardly ever play them and consider Scotland, Germany and latterly Argentina as our rivals. 
Australians seem to just shift their rivalry from cricket & rugby league and apply it to any other sport v England. I find it slightly weird and indicative of some kind of inferiority/little brother syndrome...

It's almost as if New Zealand and Australia are former colonies that still retain the same head of state as the UK or something aye. Not that hard to see how it's a rivalry.

Indeed, and as an England fan I very much see it as a sporting rivalry even though not traditionally in football - but as I said I mostly grew up in NZ so that may also colour my view. The England coach is Dutch and possibly doesn't know what the Ashes is so she might not be the best indicator on how England fans view it.

I want a Tillies vs Spain final. 
I think we will get an England vs Sweden final. 

Fudge thought for sure that was Spain's goal

Come on Spain.  You don't wanna play 30 more mins.  Bang one in.

Terrible defending for Sweden's goal. Not sure why the one defender went on the post and leave the Swedish attacker unmarked and 2 v 1 situation 

Seems to be if Spain falls over they get a free kick. 

Spain definitely made the most of any contact for sure.

But fudge me what a 10 minutes of pre-additional time.

Bananas

Spain definitely made the most of any contact for sure.

But fudge me what a 10 minutes of pre-additional time.

 
Sweden guilty of not falling over. 

That Spanish striker though was class. Best player I’ve seen all tournament. Lots and off the ball stuff was excellent. 

Paralluelo you mean? Didn't understand dropping her to the bench for the QF but you'd have to say it's worked as she's come on and changed both games.

It was an even contest until 80th minute, and then unexpectedly an excellent game of football suddenly broke out.

Genuinely impressed seeing the sheer amount of people wearing Matildas gear around Sydney, gotta give it to the aussies they really get behind their teams.

Tonight If England win, we won't hear the end of it. If Aussie win, we won't hear the end of it.
A real conundrum. But then if England win and then win the final, we'll never hear the end of that but we might finally hear the end of "Back in 1966...." 

Monto

Genuinely impressed seeing the sheer amount of people wearing Matildas gear around Sydney, gotta give it to the aussies they really get behind their teams.

 
More colourful than Black which makes us look like we are in mourning.

I really can't see England winning tonight.
Spain v Aussie final for me.

Gooner 4 Life

I really can't see England winning tonight.
Spain v Aussie final for me.

I hope you're right.  Let's go Matildas 

Kracker from Kerr. 

I was just typing "Australia definitely looking second best. They'vebeen playing above themselves but getting found out tonight". Then along came Sam Kerr! Now we'll see what they are made of.....

And then they messed up their defence hugely! Normal transmission resumed.....

English ultra cynical. Australia played worse than some of their other games. Now all power to Spain! Kerr is amazing though.

Fudgeing yes! Nothing quite like beating them in a World Cup. Fourth consecutive major tournament final for Wiegman too.

Whoops was posting in the wrong thread.

Fudgeing hell what a game of opportunities.  Incredible goal from Kerr.  Followed by a series of ballsups by Aussie defence, then a couple of missed chances for Aus.

Brutal.

Bananas

Whoops was posting in the wrong thread.

Fudgeing hell what a game of opportunities.  Incredible goal from Kerr.  Followed by a series of ballsups by Aussie defence, then a couple of missed chances for Aus.

Brutal.

 I think you forgot to mention the other team. They were in blue and outclassed the home team...

England deserved the win and played smart, but truly awful defending by Carpenter to allow speedy Kemp to sneak in for the 2nd English goal. That bad error didn't happen and game stays 1-1, and I see it going to ET. Goal was sort of against the run of play at the time, with Matildas & crowd buoyant after Kerr's great strike, then the balloon was popped.

Carpenter hacks the ball out as she should have, and the game is very different. She was in tears after the game. Well aware she cost her team unfortunately.

TBH, having just watched the game at work at LHR most here don't care. Worse, some men fear the ladies doing better then the men (potentially winning both the WC and Euros within 2 years)!

Marto

TBH, having just watched the game at work at LHR most here don't care. Worse, some men fear the ladies doing better then the men (potentially winning both the WC and Euros within 2 years)!

That's the general vibe (not caring) i've been getting from all my mates back in the UK. No one cares which is a massive shame. Even my non footballing wife agrees how refreshing it is to see the women not dive around like the men.

WanderingSheep

Marto

TBH, having just watched the game at work at LHR most here don't care. Worse, some men fear the ladies doing better then the men (potentially winning both the WC and Euros within 2 years)!

That's the general vibe (not caring) i've been getting from all my mates back in the UK. No one cares which is a massive shame. Even my non footballing wife agrees how refreshing it is to see the women not dive around like the men.

I don't know, too much diving and time wasting for my liking - maybe less haranguing of the refs which is nice.