France, England show little darkhorse potential in sloppy group opener

If Women’s World Cup opponents were looking to the Group F-opening game between France and England as a way to scout those squads, they were highly disappointed.

France won 1-0 off a fantastic strike by Eugenie Le Sommer in the 29th minute, but outside of that play the game was slow, methodical and mostly unentertaining.

Part of that was because of the rainy weather, which made the artificial turf fast and the gameplay slow. Most of the through balls both teams have used to get their quick, attacking strikers into space were moving too fast and over the end line. Neither team seemed to be able to get a handle on the speed of the turf, which created a lot of short passes in the midfield and few quality shots on goal.

That being said, France tried its best to be the aggressor in the game with 19 shots, three of which were on goal. England had just three shots and only one was on goal. However, only one of those French shots came inside the 6-yard box. Seven of the shots came from outside the 18-yard box, and those were the three shots that either required a save English goalkeeper Karen Bardsley or found its way past her.

England seemed content, especially in the first half, to stack the box, have France take its chances and then try to counter with pace. This wasn’t the best option for an English team that was under a constant onslaught by the French. France held the ball for 64 percent of the game.

While France is the higher ranked team at No. 3, England is No. 6 and should have been more competitive in this match. Neither team looked like the World Cup championship dark horse both were harrowed as prior to the start of the tournament.

[Women's World Cup: Latest news | Scoreboard and Schedule | Groups and Teams]

So what does this game mean moving forward?

Not a whole lot simply because the rest of Group F is weak. France was predicted to be the group winner. England, however, will have some work to do to be the second-place team from Group F depending on what happens between Mexico and Colombia.

The ideal situation for England would be a draw. Both Mexico and Colombia are playing in their second consecutive World Cup, but neither has gotten out of the group stage. That should continue to be the case in 2015, if both France and England can move on from their uncharacteristic World Cup opener and play to their potential in the rest of group play.

-----

Follow Graham Watson on Twitter @Yahoo_Graham