Northern Ireland president Kenny Shells has been targeted after claiming that women’s teams sometimes give up goals because they are “more emotional than the men”.
Chiles spoke after his team’s 5-0 loss to England in the World Cup qualifiers on Tuesday night.
It was an emotionally-charged night when Windsor Park hosted the largest audience for a women’s match in Northern Ireland, with more than 15,000 fans watching the match in South Belfast.
“I thought sometimes they would have a hard time opening up to us until we got to the climbing psyche,” said Shiels.
In the women’s game you will notice if you follow the patterns, when one team receives a goal, the other concedes in a very short time.
“With the full spectrum of the female game, because girls and women are more emotional than men, so their aim is not good.”
Northern Ireland conceded three goals in nine minutes against Austria on Friday.
England opened the scoring on Tuesday with Lauren Hemp in the 26th minute, but Chile’s team kept their goal in the middle until they conceded four goals in the 27th minute of the second half.
“When we lost 1-0, we tried to block them to give them time to get rid of the emotional imbalance. That’s a problem we have,” Shiels added.
This is not only in Northern Ireland, but in all countries.
Many fans on social media criticized the Northern Ireland director’s comments, while TalkSPORT host Laura Woods said the Northern Ireland results were based on tactics.
He said: “The truth is that the game in England is one leap ahead of other countries.
You just have to watch the World Cup qualifiers.
Talk about franchise schemes. There is actually a pattern with his team because in the first half of the second game against England they kept 0-0 in the first half and this time they succeeded.
“So there’s something about his teams that he manages to put them on a very strong defense in the first half, and then give up in the second half, so maybe that’s the game plan.”
Northern Ireland had to avoid defeat by Group D leaders England to keep hopes low of progressing to Australia and New Zealand next year.
While they could still match points with second-placed Austria, Northern Ireland’s youth record eliminated any chance for the rivals to jump into the lone qualifier.
Contact the Irish Football Association for comment.
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Source: Belfastlive
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