Why women's football needs a bit of rhythm

Last nights defeat was possible the most gut-wrenching defeat I've ever witnessed for an England team. I've not felt that bad after England got knocked out since at least France '98, and probably not even that (or 90 or 96) felt as bad. Despite that defeat it's been an excellent World Cup for England and women's football in this country. Women's football has come a long way in recent years but still has someway to go. So where is it? And where does it go next?

At international level there are encouraging signs of progress. The expansion of the World Cup to 24 teams, increased coverage and more competitive teams all point to progress. But then FIFA managed to potentially scupper that, not by the decision to use artificial turf in the World Cup, but by their stubborn refusal to admit it was a mistake and to fight any attempt by the players to get it changed to grass. The original decision was odd, but Canada has hosted men's youth tournaments on artificial turf before and so you can see why they decided to do it. Unfortunately, once it became clear this was a mistake and faced fierce opposition among players, instead of acknowledging the issue, FIFA decided to fight the players and even allegedly threatened retaliation against the players. What sort of message did this send about the importance of the women's game to FIFA? It's hard to draw any conclusion other than the players should shut-up and know their place.

While the artificial turf issue was the biggest own goal from FIFA, there are other issues which reflect the lack of resources devoted to women's football around the world. The game is still semi-professional at best in much of the world. Some of the teams arrived very late in Canada because they didn't have the budget to arrive earlier. This cannot have helped their performance. Also the standard of referee's has been poor. Of the 4 penalties award in the semi-finals, 3 can be best described as questionable. If the teams are struggling for resources, I imagine very little is devoted to the referee's. This needs to change if the game is to progress.

Domestically the picture is better. Over the last few years much progress has been made. The establishment of the Women's Super League has led to the top players being able to be full-time professionals. They may currently be paid nowhere near what the men earn, but is it any coincidence that England's best performance came after their players could train full-time? The FA has been helping to push the game forward, the national team is now one of the best funded in the world, and it's moved the Women's FA Cup final to Wembley this year.

But there is one thing that doesn't seem right to me. The domestic season lacks rhythm. Football fans are generally creature's of habit. The Saturday 3pm kick-off is part of our nations routine. TV companies now move lots of games away from this but even then it's to the same regular time slots. Most weekends, the Premier League has game's kicking off at 12.45, 3pm and 5.30pm on Saturdays. 1.30pm and 4pm on Sundays. and 8pm on Mondays. We know where to find the games, when they are on. In the women's game this is missing. Game's in the WSL seem scattered around and come in bursts. TV coverage also seems scattered around the schedule. From that it's hard to build a habit of going to games or watching them on TV as they are not part of a routine.

This lack of rhythm was also there during the World Cup. Last year, the men's World Cup had games kicking off at the same time every day. For the first couple of weeks it's 3 games a day, at the same time every day. For the TV viewer you know exactly when a game kicks off each evening without looking. In the Women's World Cup. kick-off times and the number of games each day varied. This is a planning issue. It's harder to achieve in Canada because of multiple time-zones, but it isn't impossible.

So if I were to suggest one immediate change for women's football it would be to look at the calender and TV schedules. Try to establish a pattern to it so habit's can form.

A question being widely asked today is whether this is a turning point for women's football in England. The 2012 Olympics gave the game a boost but failed to significantly change one thing - attendance at games remains stubbornly low. Attendance has grown but slowly and from a very low starting point. The real test of whether this is a turning point or not could well be attendance at games. If the calender can be tweaked to get a bit more rhythm to the season then maybe this will finally change. Women's football may not get a better chance.

Manchester City Women's WSL Debut, or a work in progress

I've just spent the evening watching Manchester City's women's team make their debut in the Women's Super League. First a slight confession. I haven't watched a huge amount of women's football over the years, just a few England games, one GB game at the Olympics and the odd Women's FA Cup Final. Every time I've made a mental note to watch more and not followed up on it. That said, a few observations on tonight's game

• Considering Manchester City were away at last seasons champions, it was a decent performance. Liverpool probably just deserved to win but City gave them a good game, creating a decent number of chances.
• But they do need to learn when to play out from the back, and when just to clear it quickly. In the first half they were very lucky not to give away at least one goal by playing out almost suicidally.
• Toni Duggan looks like a great player. But City need to learn how to use her talent. On the basis of this game she needs to spend more time on the shoulder of the last defender and needs the right service. Given that, there's plenty of goals there.
• For Liverpool, Gemma Davison was the most impressive player. Lots of pace and a good work rate.
• For City Jill Scott, Steph Houghton and Krystle Johnston had a good game, I was surprised to see Krystle substituted.
• The most noticeable downside for me was that it was too obvious who the full time players were. Each team has 5 full time players and while you would expect these to be the best players in terms of skill, it was also noticeable that the full time players were those quickest and with the higher work-rate. This is a direct result of them being able to train full time . Unfortunately, women's football cannot currently support a full time professional league. It is growing (last season there were 4 full time players per club) but there is some way to go.
• Finally, it's good to see BT Sport will be showing regular live games from the WSL,  I've made a mental note to follow it and definitely intend to follow up on that this time.