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   

Mary Earps was born on the 7th of March 1993. She is an English goalkeeper, born in Nottingham. She plays for the England National Football Team and is on a two year contract at Paris Saint-Germain F.C also known as PSG. Earps has a MBE and is a two time winner of the Best FIFA Women's Goalkeeper in 2022 and 2023. In the history of the award she is the first two-time winner.  At the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2023 she received the Golden Glove award for best goalkeeper of the tournament and also served as England's vice captain.  Mary Earps said in an interview for Children In Need "The advice I'd give teenage me is that, yeah, it's gonna be alright and that it's alright to be exactly who you are. And don't be afraid of being yourself".  

Marta was born on the 19th of February 1986 in Dois Riachos, Brazil. Marta is widely considered the greatest female footballer ever. She has won the FIFA World Player of the Year award six times from 2006-2010 and 2018. At her first Women's World Cup in 2003 she was 17 years old. It was Brazil vs South Korea and 14 minutes into the match she scored a penalty for Brazil. The game finished 3-0 with two other goals from Kátia Cilene Teixeira da Silva.  This is what Marta said in a press conference ahead of her side's match with Jamaica: "When I started playing, I didn't have an idol, a female idol. You guys didn't show any female games. How was I supposed to see other players? . . Today, when we go out on the street, people stop. The parents stop and say, Oh my daughter loves you, she wants to be just like you. . . This wouldn't have happened if we had stopped at the first obstacles we faced. So it's a continuous persistency and it didn't just start with m...

FIFA first banned the hijab in 2007 and released the ban in 2014. FIFA's original reason for not allowing the hijab was religious symbolism, but that would mean also banning religious tattoos, the signing of the cross and multiple goal celebrations made a lot by prominent male players. Because of this they used health and safety as a reason for banning the hijab saying that the hijab was unsafe. Asmahan Mansour was Canadian. It was 2007 when she stepped onto the football pitch in Laval. She wore a hijab because of her Islamic faith but the referee said it was unsafe and told her she could still play but she couldn't wear her hijab on the pitch. Her team, from Ottawa withdrew from the event and did not play that match. Mansour went to the Canadian Soccer Association but they agreed with the rule and so did the FIFA officials.  In 2011, the Iranian women's football team were facing Jordan in the Olympic qualifiers but they were banned from playing because of their hijabs. The...

Record Breaking Women It's the first day of the Women's Olympic Tournament today and the first match is Canada vs New Zealand. I've decided to write about one amazing Canadian football player, Christine Sinclair. Christine retired in 2023 but she definitely left a legacy behind. She holds the record for the most international goals scored by a female or male football player worldwide. What an amazing woman! Her record is 190 goals in 331 appearances.  Most international goals in women and men's football Rank Name Country  Goals Appearances 1 Christine Sinclair Canada 190 331 2 Abby Wambach USA 184 256 3 Mia Hamm USA 158 276 4 Maysa Jbarah Jordan 137 133 5 Carli Lloyd USA 134 316 6 Kristine Lilly USA 130 354 6 Cristiano Ronaldo Portugal  130 212 7 Birgit Prinz Germany 128 214 8 Alex Morgan  USA 123 222 9 Marta Brazil 119 184 10 Julie Fleeting Scotland 116 121

 Japan vs Nigeria (Group C) 16:00 Brazil vs Spain (Group C) 16:00 Zambia vs Germany (Group B) 18:00 Australia vs United States (Group B) 18:00 New Zealand vs France (Group A) 20:00 Colombia vs Canada (Group A) 20:00 Watch on BBC iPlayer, Discovery Plus, Eurosport, BBC Sport or a BBC channel

 New Zealand vs Colombia (Group A) 16:00 Brazil vs Japan (Group C) 16:00 Spain vs Nigeria (Group C) 18:00 Australia vs Zambia (Group B) 18:00 United States vs Germany (Group B) 20:00 France vs Canada (Group A) 20:00 Watch on BBC iPlayer, Discovery Plus, Eurosport, BBC Sport or a BBC channel

Canada vs New Zealand (Group A) 16:00 Spain vs Japan (Group C) 16:00 Nigeria vs Brazil (Group C) 18:00 Germany vs Australia (Group B) 18:00 United States vs Zambia (Group B) 20:00 France vs Colombia (Group A) 20:00 Watch on BBC iPlayer, Eurosport, Discovery Plus, BBC Sport or a BBC channel

Hi everyone, my name is Ava Hussein, I'm 13 years old and I love football. I love playing it and watching it. I love the competitiveness of it but also how it brings people together. It's an amazing feeling watching your team play, cheering them on with friends and family. I want everyone to be able to have that moment, I want everyone to feel accepted and safe playing or watching football. Not everyone might enjoy it but I want everyone to have the chance to enjoy it. Being a girl playing football isn't always easy. Boys sometimes steal our ball or shout things at us. Sometimes they assume we don't know how to play football. All of those times have just made me more determined to play football and to prove them all wrong but it does sometimes put me off. I don't want anyone to ever be put off of doing something they love just because other people think they shouldn't do it.  In this blog I'll write posts about the history of women's football and amazing...