So familiar - England's women pay the penalty

In the end England's women's did tread exactly the same path as the men usually do - they lost on penalties in the World Cup quarter-final.

Misses in the penalty shoot-out by skipper Faye White and Claire Rafferty meant that England succumbed 4-3 to France after a 1-1 draw after extra time. This, despite leading the penalty shoot-out 3-2 with only two kicks each left. England missed their two; France scored theirs.

And that was after England had led 1-0 through a Jill Scott goal, only for Elise Bussaglia to equalise for the French with only three minutes of normal time to play.

It all sounds so depressin gly familiar doesn't it? Only the names have changed.

Yet, once again like the men, England's women performed up to the expectation of their ranking; tenth in the world, they reached the last eight of the tournament.

France are joined by Japan (conquerors of hosts and holders Germany), USA and Sweden in the semi-finals.

England's women follow traditional path

The men do it all the time, the youngsters did it a couple of weeks ago, and now it's the women's turn.

I'm talking about their failure to grasp a tournament by the scruff of the neck - and actuall win the first game.

At last year's World Cup England's men took an early lead only to end up drawing against USA 1-1 (a match they were expected to win). Although they qualified from the group the stumble meantr that they had to face Germany in the first knock-out match and they lost 4-1.

At the recent Under-21 European Championship the men actually did rather well to draw 1-1 with Spain in their opening game, but they then failed to beat the Ukraine (a match they were expected to win) and went out with a defeat to the Czech Republic.

And now the women are doing the same. They drew their opening World Cup match on Monday, 1-1 with Mexico (a match they were expected to win) , and now face a 'must-win' game against New Zealand tomorrow.

Sorry to be cynical, but I can already read the headlines ...