rkomar

It looks like you can't watch the NWSL games at their website anymore from Canada, but have to go through the TSN app instead. Oh well, so much for that.

When TFC was winning a couple of seasons ago, it was said that they had a policy of playing those who showed well in training between games. There was strong competition among the bench for game time. I wonder if that has all changed now. It seems that Vanney's doghouse overrides any of those considerations now. If so, I think it's a step back for the program.

I haven't been following the NWSL too closely this season, but I knew that Rebecca Quinn had departed the Washington Spirit for France early in the year. So, I was mildly shocked to see her playing for the Seattle Reign today. I figured the Spirit would still have her rights, but somehow they lost them because she was transferred overseas. The Reign picked her up even though she wasn't allocated and had to take up an international spot. It all seems quite out of the ordinary.

I hate the way the Europeans qualify their teams early for the Olympics. How do the Germans or the French feel about not going? The French got knocked out of the Olympics by the Americans. How is that fair? At least the CONCACAAF teams get to decide who goes to the Olympics amongst themselves. As far as substituting the women and men goes, it's not the same situtation. Our women's team is favoured, our men's team is one of the minnows that the good teams have to beat. Of course it matters where you are seeded as a minnow, not so much as one of the expected winners.

The top two teams in the region are the USA and Canada. Everyone else is a fair ways back, so I don't see how the seeding for the tournament is going to change the outcome much. It will likely come down to Canada vs Mexico for the second spot, no matter how you lay things out at the beginning. How is it possible to "screw" us in the seeding? If we can't beat the minnows, we have no business going to the Olympics.

That doesn't look like Leon. Is it really her?

You make up your team with the best that you have. As long as replacing Sinclair with another player makes the team worse, she should stay on the roster. I don't care about how she has fallen off with the years; she's not in competition with her past self. She's in competition with our other players, and so far I don't see a lot of them that could replace her and make the team better (and that includes leadership along with playmaking and scoring skills).

A good question to ask is: Is 30 million dollars enough money to go around? National programs are not cheap to operate. I don't think it is enough money. With over 6 billion dollars in revenue, would it kill FIFA to hand over a few tens of million dollars more to the women's programs? It would make a huge difference in many country's programs. It may even be good business sense in that the revenues from the women's side of things could go way up if the quality and viewer numbers keeps going up (a factor of 40 difference in revenues makes it look like there is plenty of room to grow there). With so much cash available to them, I think it's up to FIFA to explain why so little goes to the women.

In that situation, the VAR can only bring the referee's attention to it. It was the referee that called the penalty after reviewing the video, not the VAR. I thought it was a weak foul, and Morgan did embellish it, but in the end it was the Dutch player who invited that disaster.

I hate this shift in the interpretation of handball. I expect teams will start to deliberately target arms in the box. It's easier than scoring in open play.

The slow-mo closeups of the fouls showed how the US players embellished so much. Instead of landing on their feet, they would often lift their feet on contact and flop to the ground. The ref fell for it most of the time. I don't mind that the US won the game; they were expected to. I'm just disgusted that the poor reffing was the difference that won them the game. Let's see if the same ref gets any more games in the tournament. Even more interesting, will the US get the same help playing against the French?

You can't blame VAR for the soft penalty. In fact, they offered it as something the ref should look at again. That's all they can do.

I can't believe the ref allowed that second penalty to stand. That contact was so weak compared with other shenanigans taking place in the penalty area. VAR gave her a chance to change her mind, but no...

I saw a lot of turnovers from Huitema against the Dutch, so I'm a bit mystified why she's getting so much love right now. I would put Leon ahead of her in this tournament.

I can see them now, when I couldn't see them before.