Kick It Like A Girl

Unfortunately, women's blind football won't be played in the Paralympics. But you can still watch the men's blind football tournament starting on the 1st of September at 10:30. There are also other women's blind football tournaments such as The Women's Blind Football World Championship which took place last year in Birmingham, England. You can watch highlights on Youtube. It is important to support this sport, as while all costs for traveling and accommodation are covered, for both women and men players, there is no salary or prize money. Hopefully, if the sport gets bigger and more popular, there will be. 

Qualified Denmark, England, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland (hosts) Play-offs Round 1 23-29/10/2024 Romania vs Poland Greece vs Belgium Montenegro vs Finland Georgia vs Republic of Ireland Slovenia vs Austria Luxembourg vs Sweden Belarus vs Czech Republic Albania vs Norway Türkiye vs Ukraine  Croatia vs Northern Ireland Bosnia and Herzegovina vs Serbia Azerbaijan vs Portugal  Hungary vs Scotland  Slovakia vs Wales   Round 2 opponents will be decided through the round 1 play offs and will be played between the 27th of November and the 3rd of December.

United States 1-0 Brazil USA's head coach Emma Hayes lead the team to victory just 76 days after her first training session with the team. USA take gold with a goal from Mallory Swanson in the right bottom corner. The final was shown on TV but in case you didn't catch it you can watch highlights on Youtube and BBC iPlayer.  

Germany 1-0 Spain  Germany take third place and the Olympic bronze medal with a goal from a penalty kick by Guilia Gwinn and a late save from Ann-Katrin Berger (Germany's goalkeeper) from a penalty kick.

Semi-Final Results Brazil 4-2 Spain United States 1-0 Germany Bronze Medal Match 9/8/24 Germany vs Spain Final 10/8/24 Brazil vs United States Watch on Eurosport, Discovery+, BBC and Peacock and watch highlights on BBC iPlayer and Youtube.

Irish footballer Amber Barrett plays for the Republic Of Ireland's national football team and Standard Liège. She was born on January 16th 1996 and plays as a forward. Barrett scored the winning goal against Scotland. This meant the Republic Of Ireland qualifying for the 2023 Women's World Cup. This was their first time in a major tournament. Although they didn't get past the group stages they did get their first goal in a Women's World Cup scored by Katie McCabe. This is what Amber Barrett said in an interview before the Women's World Cup Play-offs "We have a role to play for a lot of young girls and boys that are starting out in their footballing journeys that we have to set the standards now. In 10, 15 years we can say well those girls are playing football because of us, because we pushed and we bettered the conditions in Ireland for them". 

6/8/24   United States vs Germany 17:00 Brazil vs Spain 20:00 Watch on Eurosport, Discovery+ and Peacock and watch highlights on BBC iPlayer and Youtube.

Brazil 1-0 France Germany 0-0 (4-2) Canada Spain 2-2 (4-2) Colombia United States 1-0 Japan 

I have said on my blog post that you can watch the tournament on BBC. Unfortunately now most of the games for the women's and men's olympic football tournament will only be shown on Eurosport, Discovery+ and Peacock. If you don't have any of these platforms I will still be updating you on the results. You can also watch the highlights after the game on Youtube and and BBC iPlayer.  

3/8/2024 United States vs Japan 14:00  Spain vs Colombia 16:00 Canada vs Germany 18:00  France vs Brazil 20:00 Watch on BBC iPlayer, Discovery Plus, Eurosport or BBC Channels 

Spain 2-1 Japan Canada 2-1 New Zealand  Germany 3-0 Australia Brazil 1-0 Nigeria  France 3-2 Colombia United States 3-0 Zambia Colombia 2-0 New Zealand Japan 2-1 Brazil Spain 1-0 Nigeria Australia 6-5 Zambia United States 4-1 Germany Canada 2-1 France Spain 2-0 Brazil  Japan 3-1 Nigeria  United States 2-1 Australia  Germany 4-1 Zambia  France 2-1 New Zealand Canada 1-0 Colombia   

England vs Germany 25/10/24 7:30pm in Wembley Stadium Watch on ITV1, STV, ITVX or STV Player England vs South Africa 29/10/24 7:45pm in Coventry Building Society Arena Watch on ITV4 or ITVX  England vs USA 30/11/24 5:20pm in Wembley Stadium  Watch on ITV1, STV, ITVX or STV Player England vs Switzerland 3/12/24 7:45pm in Bramall Lane, Sheffield Watch on ITV4 or ITVX