Welcome to the latest installment of the Women’s World Cup updates. We’re in the calm before the storm – the rest days before the semi-finals. The games need no introduction. As that’s the case, I have chosen to give a quick review of the key talking points since our last piece. However, after reading this you want a quick refresh of the teams, player’s and venues, the World Cup Hub is available to keep you in the know.

From reading this back, I thought an early warning is necessary. The first section of this piece is more of a rant than anything else – it’s the only tone I felt appropriate for the topic. Please excuse that – should you want something more joyous and upbeat to read, the second half of this is what you’re looking for!

The Elephant In The Room: VAR

The combination of the abundance of new rules and the presence of VAR has been bedlam this tournament. As we approached the quarter-final stage of the World Cup, you must admit – you had a sense of foreboding about what crazy decision would happen next, which way the pendulum would swing this time. Group stage second half games were averaging 5-7 additional minutes, more than enough time for the result of a game to change.



To my, and probably everyone’s collective relief, the football norms we’re all used to seemed to once more take control. In all four quarter finals, just one intervention from VAR. By the standards set by this World Cup, a 2-minute delay in deciding an appeal that the referee didn’t deem a foul in the first place, was treated as a major success.

Amazingly though, an incident late on in the France vs USA game caught everyone’s eye. Well, everyone’s except the referee and her four colleagues in the VAR booth.

The new handball rule has largely been a disaster. There isn’t a consensus between referees on what is deemed “unnatural arm placement”.

For clarification purposes, these are the words of IFAB technical director David Elleray in an interview with BBC Sport Pre-World Cup:

“If the arms are extended beyond that silhouette then the body is being made unnaturally bigger, with the purpose of it being a bigger barrier to the opponent or the ball.”

This isn’t quite as clear as you’d want it to be as a new rule, but we can get the gist of what it is intended to be. Below is a VAR call from the round of 16 game between Netherlands and Japan. This snapshot is the exact moment the ball meets Japan defender Saki Kumagai’s arm.

This angle is the one supplied by FIFA themselves, meaning this arm placement must be deemed ‘outside of the player’s silhouette’. Even considering the distance (or lack of it) from where the shot was taken. Therefore, it’s seemingly a no-brainer that this following incident should too be a penalty.

If we’re to assume that Abby Dalhkemper’s (USA no.7) body shape is a ‘natural silhouette’, by that same rule as was followed in the awarding of Japan’s penalty just days before, one has to believe that USA’s number 5, Kelley O’Hara’s ‘silhouette’ is way out of place. Therefore handball, yes? No, as it turns out. The VAR team saw no offense within that screenshot – even after their trademark “play it in slow motion so it looks worse” move, the decision didn’t even warrant an official review – to the dismay of the masses of French fans in attendance.

For me, this raises a vital question: Are penalties now a subjective rule?

We have seen 22 penalties thus far in this World Cup. A staggering amount, most of them having not been awarded in the first instance by the referee. The VAR team has then been responsible for advising the referee to watch a slow motion replay – and then give whatever decision they initially disagreed with. But there have been other instances, the Scotland vs Japan game springs to mind immediately where it hits a hand clear as day, the only camera that could hide it would be one that was turned off. Yet no review, nor an explanation as to why there wasn’t one.

There have been many more instances of these new rules being ignored – in no way subtly either! I’ll save that further rant for another piece though. Let’s move on to something less depressing.

The Heat Is On

The weather in the past few days has been lovely. Sun out, clear blue skies, perfect for lounging around in. Not so perfect for those in France however, as they were subject to record breaking temperatures. The games played on Saturday afternoon were deemed hot enough for the cooling off periods we saw introduced into football a few years back.

Stefanie van der Gragt powered home a header to double the Dutch lead.

Inevitably the heat played its part, the tempo of the game wasn’t at its highest – but credit to the Netherlands, who in the mid-afternoon sunshine maintained an increased intensity and played the Italians off the park. Their play was dominant, convincing in defence too – limiting in form striker Barbara Bonansea’s opportunities to get on the ball, so much so she was substituted midway through the second half.

In winning the game, the Netherlands confirm their spot in their first ever World Cup semi-final.

Into the early evening, Germany and Sweden played out the game like it wasn’t so hot at all. Both teams adopting a more direct style of play than before, they managed to carve out a constant flow of chances – a real end-to-end match. It was Sweden who crossed the line first, not without being tested though – a bombardment of German pressure for the last 15 minutes of the game could have taken it to extra time. This was treated as quite a shock, even with such impressive performances in the group stage – Sweden were expected to fall at the feet of the Germans.

They will once more be underdogs in the semi-finals against the Netherlands.

Team GB

The elimination of France left us with three European teams remaining in the tournament, which fills the Olympic quota for teams that can represent their nations at the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympic games. Olympic runners-up from Rio 2016 Sweden and other Olympic games debutants and current European Champions Netherlands will join Team GB next summer.

Team GB Women’s Football at the 2012 London Olympics.

London 2012 was the last time we saw a Women’s team represent Great Britain, after winning all their group games, their only loss was the one that eliminated them. A 2-0 defeat against Canada in Coventry. The team then was dominated by English players, with only two Scottish players stopping it from being an all English affair.

In truth, one would expect it to be much the same next year. There is little doubt that the home nations have vastly improved, and now offer some much better players – but with it being solely down to the efforts of the Lionesses this summer, you’d feel quite aggrieved to be dropped for someone that played no part in helping to qualify. Thankfully that’s not my choice to make.

The race to the Rhône is now complete. It’s a matter of earning the right to stay there now.

Both semi-finals, and the final itself will be hosted in Lyon’s Groupama Stadium. The fixtures are as follows:

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿England vs USA🇺🇸

🇳🇱Netherlands vs Sweden🇸🇪

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