It looks like this week, the things that got us talking were also things to get all hot under the collar about. Sport and travel were our top talking points, getting us hot and bothered on social platforms, so let’s take a look why.
Football
Women’s football has certainly seen some incredible highs and lows of late. There was the devastating own-goal taking us out of the final, but then the follow-up game against Germany that saw us win on penalties (not something we can usually say). The women got bronze with 3rd place, taking their team the furthest in this tournament than any other before them, and the furthest any England squad has come since 1966.
The tournament also saw the use of goal-line technology and artificial turf for the first time. Viewing figures were up, with 32% share of the audience for the England match in the UK (1.35million viewers with a steady 2.5million throughout their campaign), but over in the states the figures were unprecedented. The final between USA vs Japan became the most-watched football game ever in the US with an audience peak of 30.9million. Though we saw the unfortunate Twitter embroilment from the sexist tweet from the FA (which rightly got people’s backs up and saw the tweet immediately deleted), women’s football gained fans all over the globe.
Strike
The TFL strike was indeed the mayhem that was predicted, and knowing how much us Brits like to talk about travel and the weather, it’s no shock that #tubestrike was the top Twitter trend all day on Thursday, with people uploading their travel misery (or little wins) for all to see. One element that did shine through was our unwavering ability, through anger and travel suffering, to form a perfectly orderly queue, whilst quietly seething of course. It’s been widely documented that Londoners did their best muttering on Thursday, so I think we can all pat ourselves on the back for that one.
The Ashes
And finally another sporting event, The Ashes. It kicked off earlier in the week, setting Twitter alight with most of the squads’ names, from each side, trending at some point during the day. The uniqueness of this tournament sees people joining in who don’t usually have an interest in cricket, and it’s also found a huge boost in our young audience too. With five tests to play, each lasting five days, there’s plenty of time to get involved and get excited about the smallest trophy in sport. It really is a British summer favourite.
