No pretty pictures for this one, some other time maybe.

Jen – loved the article, but I’ve already told you that.

I was part of a very strong team in my high school intermural soccer tournament which blew past everyone into the final, only to meet there a team which consisted of girls like the kittens that Jennifer mentions on an article on her blog (http://fromaleftwing.blogspot.com/2007/12/hugs-on-sexism-hollywood-uniteds-sister.html) which got to the final in similar fashion.

After a tight game, we lost fair and square on penalties. They were better than us and it was gard to believe. I have not underestimated girls playing football since and I am not about to give a girl a right to score 2 points per goal until I have seen her play.

Anyway I hope that guys who typically think very little of girls when it comes to sports read this and understand it. Or maybe it would be better if it happened to them. Changed *my perspective on girl footballers.

PS. I had only seen one of the five girls play football beofre we played them.
PS2. I should have sent this to Marco’s writing competition, but I didn’t think of it in time.

Anyway, Jennifer, I’ve got to call you up on something from that Man Utd post from your aleftwing blog. I haven’t followed the Jon Evans rape claim, so I don’t know if it’s real, false, or still under investigation. Still, you made a comment that you would passively condone (my words) a false rape claim if the women felt she’d been offendeded by boorish behaviour from troglodytes. That’s really, really wrong. It’s hard enough for genuine rape cases to be proved without having the waters muddied by false claims. Plus the obivous fact that there’s a distinction between criminal behaviour and just acting like a complete and utter fuckwit.

Anyway, I think the whole “pretty-girl-on-the-blog” issue is being taken out of context. Please refer to the “Biggest Losers of 2007″ article by Jan Nayimer(sic), and pay attention to the exchange between Ahmed Bilal and Frankie. I didn’t start it; I just like stirring the pot.

Anyway, I’m Ipanema Bob.

At my university, we don’t have two point rules for soccer. For American football, flag rules, teams receive 8 points instead of six when a women scores or throws the touchdown pass, two more than a man.

I like playing soccer with women; we won intramurals at my university last year, and the winning goal was off a pass that I delivered to my friend, and she hammered it home for the win. They are just as capable and it is enjoying to play with the opposite sex.

I’ve been playing Indoor Co-ed soccer for over 3 years now at McGill University (Canada), where we actually call it Co-Rec (standing for “recreational” instead of “educational”, which when you think about it, sounds better IMHO). Because of field availability, the only time we organize a Co-Rec league is during the winter, when we play indoor 5 vs. 5 soccer. The rules are you need to have 2 guys + 2 girls + 1 goalkeeper (gender non-specific).

Well, not unlike the ‘girl-goal = 2 points”, when I first started 3 years ago there was this weird rule that in order for a goal to be scored, a girl had to touch the ball past the half line, otherwise the goal didn’t count. That to avoid having games of 3 vs. 3 played, where guys didn’t pass to the girls at all. Personally I thought it was a very stupid rule, and when I became the league coordinator, we decided to remove it.

As it turned out, the fear guys wouldn’t “use” the girl players was completely unfounded, and the rule change allowed to have much more entertaining games, where girls were actively involved. In fact (though it will come as no surprise to you since you’ve lived in North America) girls in Canada are usually quite skilled when it comes to playing the beautiful game, so “passing it to them” has never been a problem these last years.

Based on what I just said, you can guess what my opinion will be on the “girl scores = 2 points” rule. As Ipanema Bob pointed out (I can’t believe I’m quoting the guy who wrote the first post ), the implicit statement you’re making by adopting the rule is that “girls are no longer seen as genuine players“, they are judged to be “a handicap”. In my opinion, much in the same way as girls shouldn’t expect preferential treatment during a match (e.g. will I personally shy away from a rough, but legal, challenge just because my opponent is a girl? No I will not… because if the girl has got true skills, she can’t just expect I’ll let her run around unopposed), they shouldn’t be considered “wild cards” who are worth 2 points instead of 1.

Now, while I can certainly value the advantages of the rule (which you outlined, such as for instance players feeling more motivated to put girls into striker positions) in leagues where the girl-guy technical disparity is huge, I believe that it is entirely up to the female players to rise up to the challenge, and bring the game to our (the men’s) level. It’s the best way for them to improve I think.

At McGill, ball’s in your court girls.

I’ll bet Angerer can more than hold her own. She’s a monster.

I actually think that within Ipanema Bob’s first comment there was an interesting point regarding varying points according to the gender of the goalie. If the “two points” rule is entirely based on the idea of encouraging boys to pass to girls, then the goalkeeping presence is largely irrelevant. However, I cannot but feel that within the rule survives a vestige of sexism since it departs from the notion that everybody thinks girls aren’t good enough. And despite David James’ honourable article, I still have yet to see a top class female goalkeeper who could hold a candle to the male ones.

Great comments. I’ve noticed that gallantry thing – and benefited from it. There is nothing quite like a good passing exchange – I’m a lousy shot, so regarding Andrei’s question, I’d pass to the guy – not because in this theoretical game he’d get the 2 points, because I’m not likely to get the 1!

Women and men do have different patterns – I was just talking to a coach about how women coming into the game seem to have less experience “reading” the ball than guys. And I think it takes many of us gals some time to learn to look at the goal – to take risky shots.

Honestly, my posts are about football, including the post about that Man U party. The fact that when a woman writes in about sexism in football you get people like Ibanema Bob writing in wanting pictures of babes, and talking about everything in the posts except actual football goes right to the problem. I.B. has likely never actually bothered to really get to know women’s football – so, I’m especially grateful for the conversation with those of you who have, and have something to share about it.

And here’s a thought for the day: Olympique Lyon Ladies (who knocked out the normally overwhelmingly dominant Arsenal Ladies in the Champions L tournament) are not only professional, they train with the men in the days leading up to big matches. When they arrived at Gatwick, the men’s tourbus was there to pick them up. Cheers to Les Lyonnais! (Got that info from The Offside.)

JD

I believe the Voyager satellite has a CD of all the human tongues on earth, an atlas of the world, a Radiohead CD and a huge stack of Playboys circa 1980.

That’s how I feel about it, anyway. I’m Ipanema Bob.

P.S. Kyle, Ipanema is a beach where Brazilians prance about in skimpy bathers. There’s a song “The Girl from Ipanema” which encapsulates that vibe. I’ll go further, but I don’t want to corrupt your impressionable young mind. You can do a much better job yourself with internet porn.