This is one of those topics that, as a man, I feel has become a bit controversial. In the current social climate, having this type of opinion can really put you in some hot water. That being said, we can explore examples of these dilemmas in other sports. The one that springs to mind for me is the debate about lowering the hoop in the WNBA.
In that scenario, I do think that we could see a lot of benefits, particularly to the game as a spectacle. Dunks are not as popular a move in basketball as they used to be, but allowing their increase in the WNBA could be an interesting element. What about football, though? Could we really see a benefit in the Women’s game if the goals were smaller?
It’s not that I want to end the debate early in the article, but I do think that this is something that won’t happen. The reason behind my hunch is that FIFA is currently looking to increase the number of goals per game in both the men’s and women’s games. We see that evidently in the new penalty kick rules. At this point, you have to time everything perfectly as a goalkeeper to be able to make a save. The play already had you at a major disadvantage to begin with.
Lowering the goals for women would contribute to lower-scoring games. That may seem like a great proposition for the tactical geeks among us who love defense. I just don’t see it as being where the game is headed, at least not at the macro level. That being said, I still think it’s worth exploring the idea of, should goals be smaller in Women’s Football.
Who Would It Benefit?
Goalkeepers are obviously going to be the main beneficiary of a potential change. Let’s talk about why it makes sense even to consider this change. It comes down to the average height difference that exists between men and women. In my last article on Women goalkeepers, I talked about the average height of a goalkeeper in the men’s World Cup and the most recent Women’s World Cup.
Male goalkeepers, on average, were about 6’2 or 6’3, with female goalkeepers hovering around 5’8. This is a significant difference that cannot be ignored. The goals, as they currently stand for both men and women at the pro level, measure 8 by 24 ft. That’s 2.44 x 7.32m in meters. Obviously, if you’re a five-foot-seven goalkeeper, you’re going to have a lot more trouble jumping up to 8 feet.
One of the things that I mentioned in one of my other articles on women’s goalkeeping is that coaches really need to make an emphasis on improving leg strength and jumping power for women. That may seem like one of the most obvious statements ever uttered. However, if you actually sit and watch women’s soccer, which is something that I do on the regular, you’re seeing ladies really struggle with the height of the goal. This is particularly the case in countries where there are not too many 6-foot-tall women walking around.
How Much Smaller Could They Be?
This would be the second part of the debate that would be worth having. It may even be harder to come up with the right number. That number, as previously mentioned, is currently 8 feet. I would certainly agree that about 7 feet and a half will be much more reachable for anyone who is 5’8.
I did a little math for this one, and if you take into account the average heights for goalkeepers of either gender, with the goal currently at 8 feet, the women’s goal would have to measure about 7 feet and a half. The more I look at it, height-wise, the fairer it really seems. There’s another element that I feel is very unique to the women’s game, and it’s actually something that I like a lot. That is, we see more shots from outside the box end up in the back of the net.
That has to do, at times, with the fact that shot power is not equal between men and women. I know this is a topic that I wanted to avoid. Ultimately, it’s the reason why I don’t feel we’ll ever see a change. One of the things that we love about women’s soccer is that we see more of these long shots dropping in. With a smaller goal, they would go over the bar more often. That’s exactly what we see in the men’s game, and many people hate it.
Just a Shorter Goal Would be the Best Idea
The thing that I can’t really wrap my head around would be a more narrow goal. You’d have to bring the posts closer together. There’s a real issue, though, with making this change that I don’t think you’ll have if you just make the goal shorter. If you bring the posts closer together, that would force you to have to alter the dimensions of the field technically.
This brings up a completely different dynamic in that we’d be going into golf territory, where women are allowed to play on shorter fields than men. That could actually be an interesting proposal in its own right. I’d be more in favor of shrinking the field, though, to force more box-to-box action. If you’re making the field more narrow all that you’re doing is losing space for teams to set up their attack. That wouldn’t contribute to more action.
If you’re still with me by this point, you can probably tell I have fallen down the rabbit hole. The problem with making any alteration to the elements of the game is that it can affect other aspects of it unintentionally. That’s why FIFA, in general, has been one of the governing bodies in popular sports that’s been reluctant to make changes. Plus, it’s the governing body of such a widespread sport that their decisions could have a massive impact on betting markets and other elements around the game.
Since It Won’t Happen, This Will Take Place for Women Goalkeepers
This will mark the second time on this site that I take out my crystal ball and talk about where I see women goalkeepers headed. It just has to be a situation where we’ll see taller girls getting more chances. The problem is, that many countries don’t have that many 6-foot-tall girls that want to play the position, like I mentioned. This was actually an issue that we did see between the South American and the European game for years.
In Mexico and South America, it took a lot longer to start seeing the 6-foot-tall and up goalkeepers taking over. Today, it’s hard to see a male goalkeeper under 6 feet playing anywhere. There are exceptions in certain Asian countries and some South and Central American leagues. Even in these places, though, the prototype has grown, if you will. My sense is that we’ll see a similar shift take place in the Women’s game.
Goalkeepers in the US, Canada, and many European countries will start to climb up to that 5’10 6ft range. There’s going to be a bit of lag for some countries for the same reason that I just mentioned. As generations pass I do feel that we’re going to see the same phenomenon. Will I be alive to see it? That’s a bit of a mystery. I do think that a similar shift is coming.
What if a Country Decided to Do This Within Their Female Leagues?
This would be a very interesting situation. It’s not something that I expect to happen, at least not in any country that views itself as a contender at the international level. The biggest problem that ladies would face if their country decided to do that is that they would be playing a different game at the international level.
That being said, it could be very interesting as an experiment. It could make the game more dynamic if you also decided to shorten the field. In fact, keeping the field equally wide, but shortening although it would look odd could make for an interesting experiment. You would be rewarding teams that know how to stretch the field, and the physical toll on the players would be less so that the game could be more dynamic throughout.
These are interesting hypotheses, but as mentioned, it’s probably not something that’s going to happen. At the international level, it just doesn’t make too much sense to change things up now. Looking back at home, women’s sports have been altered over the years. I have to say I’m surprised we didn’t see shorter fields from the very beginning. Having all that change now doesn’t make too much sense in my book.
Should Goals be Smaller in Women’s Football – Conclusion
At this point, this is not something that I expect to see, at least at the pro level. Since the international game has stuck to regulation-size goals, it doesn’t make too much sense to change that now. What I do think is going to happen is that we’re going to start seeing much taller women goalkeepers. That’s something that we’ve been seeing already, but there are some countries that are going to struggle with that just genetics-wise.
What I would say we need to do a better job of as coaches is training ladies to have much stronger leg strength than they do now. At the moment, we’re really doing a lot of these girls a disservice. The problem is goalkeeper coaches just want to stick to the “plan” that they have. A lot of times, that plan doesn’t take into account the specific needs of each of their players.
Since most ladies are going to be shorter than their male counterparts, they’re going to need some of the skills that shorter goalkeepers can’t live without. They need to get up closer to shooters. That may mean forcing a lot more 1v1s than taller goalkeepers. It would also benefit them to learn to backtrack in goal for when they’re going to get chipped. I wouldn’t recommend playing below the crossbar.
You need to play further off the line while also learning how to get back when you need to. All of these are things that are going to be a must for women goalkeepers moving forward because the size of the goal is not going to change. At least, I would be very surprised if there was a change at this point.
