Women's World Cup Lookback

This post was full intended to be written quite a while ago but things got busy and it kept getting shelved.  The good news is now I can write about the WWC with a bit of distance and hopefully give a more assessment but lets face it no matter how long I wait it will still be my own skewed view. 

The first thing that I have to say is that this summers Women's World Cup is the most enjoyable FIFA event outside of a men's world cup that I have ever watched.  On top of that I will even go as far as to say that on the whole it was every bit as good as WC2010 in South Africa.  That might seem like a huge statement for me to make but this WWC really did have every single thing you could ask for in a football tournament.  It had some fairly big upsets, it had great story lines, and underdog champion, and most importantly it had a whole lot of quality playing. 


The Women's world cup was not plagued by all kinds of blowouts, the worst scorelines were 4 goals wins including the one that France got over Canada, and it did not have the issues with diving and simulation that so often destroy the credibility of the men's game at the highest levels.  So me the Women's game may be at a slower pace, the shots may be less powerful, and in many cases the keeping is not as great but this year that did not ruin it for me.  It was nothing like watching women's hockey, which is something I can only do every four years and then only Canada's games, in fact I found myself trying to catch every game possible.  For the first time in my life I was watching rebroadcasts of games that did no involve United which is saying a whole lot since I normally cannot stand watching a game at all if I already know the score.  The games were good enough to keep me interested long after Canada were eliminated and in fact the success of this World Cup is going to keep me coming back to the Women's game for years to come.

Another positive thing about the WWC is that it satisfied my need to dislike many of the traditional soccer powers as well as my constant desire to cheer against the Americans.  The fact that Germany and Brazil did not make to the finals made me quite happy and even if the US went all the way to the final watching them lose to Japan was so satisfying.  Yes I would have loved the event even more if Canada had done better but I think I actually enjoyed it more this way, once I overcame the crushing pain of once again seeing Canada come up short, as I was able to just sit back and enjoy the games and just appreciate the skill on display.

Speaking of Japan, them winning the WWC was a storyline that you could hardly even dream up.  They are of course a very good side and would have been among the contenders to make it to the semifinals for most knowledgeable fans but picking them to win it all would have been quite a long shot.  Japan was a country in need of a good storyline after a really rough year from which they are still struggling to recover and their women's team delivered.  Just their showing in the final match against the United States shows that they were a side driven to succeed and every time the US wasted a scoring chance you just got that feeling that Japan were somehow destined to win the game.  Then each time they fought back I could not help but support them.  By the time the match made it to penalties I had gone from cheering against the USWNT to cheering for Japan and the only way I could have been happier with the winner would have been if it had been Canada.

With all that praise I do have to add that their is still a long ways to go in the Women's game.  The quality of the players is only going to continue improving, the depth of the competition should keep getting better (it has to with the tournament field expanding for 2015).  The other area where the game is going to need to see improvement is officiating.  For the most part it was good during the tournament but there are a few terrible moments that are going to stand up as glaring marks on the event.  The handball that was not called in the Australia match will be one of the moments that most people will remember but I do hope that with a little more time people who watched the event forget that some of the reffing was poor and instead only remember this event as being something special and great fun to watch.

I can hardly wait for 2015 now when with any luck I will be going to at least a couple of matches.  I can now safely say that I am a supporter of Women's soccer and that is a big statement for someone who has once been accused of being a sports sexist.

Early Impressions of the FWWC

After just three match days in the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, one thing has stood out for me from following the matches. In previous tournaments, teams like the United States and other top sides would run rampant over all other opponents. In the 2007 tournament, winners Germany did not concede a goal to emphasis their dominance. But this time around in the 2011 addition, increasing parody has been on display with only one of the six matches played so far being won by more than one goal (USA 2-0 North Korea).

The growing parody in women's soccer has really been displayed by tight results in matches where one team is heavily favored over the other. Two matches really stand out for me: Japan-New Zealand and Sweden-Columbia. In both matches the eventual winners, Japan and Sweden, were heavily favored based upon world rankings entering the tournament. New Zealand came out and gave Japan a real fight, narrowly loosing 2-1 from a free kick from a nearly perfect position. Columbia may have been lucky to loose only 1-0 to Sweden after clearing the ball off the line twice and the Swedes missing other good chances but they still put out a good effort in their debut match in the FWWC. The young Columbian side held the lion's share of the possession and made the 5th ranked side work hard for their win.

Today's match between the United States and North Korea was the first match that ended with a goal margin greater than one goal. The top ranked side won 2-0 but it was not a comfortable match. The North Koreans did not sit back against the Americans in the two sides 4th straight meeting at the World Cup. The first half was full of excitement with end to end action. The North Koreans took advantage of a weakness on the American's left flank and threatened the goal with a number of tempting crosses asking for a finish. A tactical change at the half let the American's take control of the game and made the break through thanks to some sloppy defending. The US finally stuck to their game plan after the interval which was to get wide and take advantage of their size in the box while an interesting shift in personal by North Korea seemed to change their approach to the game and saw them sit back a bit more.

Group D kicks off tomorrow and from the little I know about the women's game, I think this display of new found parody will come to an end. Norway are former champions and take on minnows Equatorial Guinea. Norway are heavily favored and seemed poised to pile on the misery on the Africans. The other match in the group in Brazil versus Australia. The game is developing very well in Australia and has seen their women's national team improve but Marta will have something to say for Brazil. The 5 time player of the year is one of the greatest women's soccer players of all time and will be the main threat for the Brazilians. Australia will have a hard time handling the women's version of Lionel Messi. I expect to see some goals tomorrow, especially from Norway against the 61st ranked team in the world.

This year's addition of the FIFA Women's World Cup has really changed my opinion of the women's game. The gap between the men's and women's game is not as obvious as I expected it to be which makes it worth watching. Stay tuned to the blog and Rogers Sportsnet and CBC for continuing coverage of the FIFA Women's World Cup from Germany, the "Beautiful Side of 20Eleven."

Farewell to a true Legend

A few days ago, while most of us were watching Canada take on USA in the Gold Cup one of the best international careers in many of our lifetimes came to an end.  I am of course referring to Tuesday nights friendly between Brazil and Romania which would have been nothing special if not for the fact that it was the final match for Brazilian striker Ronaldo.

Ronaldo's actual appearance in the match was merely a token chance for the home fans in Sao Paulo to say goodbye to the striker that helped them dominate for more then a decade on the international scene.  Having retired from football back in February Ronaldo clearly did not have the fitness to even play a full half but he came on at the 30 minute mark and played through until the intermission where he was honoured in an emotional send off.  He did get involved in a couple of decent chances and a younger version of himself probably would have scored 2 or 3 of them but it was not to be in his final match.  Ronaldo is now 34 years old and was able to represent Brazil in the World Cup on 4 different occasions.  His 4 trips to the World Cup is an impressive enough feat but when you add to that the fact that he is the greatest scorer in the competition history having netted 15 World Cup goals it is clear that he will long be remembered for his performances on footballs biggest stage.

The Brazilian fans, as well as Ronaldo, were clearly very emotional about saying farewell to each other. That only seems fitting to me since Ronaldo was always at his best when he pulled on the Brazilian shirt.  He had a decent club career but it was in that yellow shirt that he really made a name for himself.  He scored a total of 67 international goals in the 104 matches that he played which ranks him second all time behind only Pele (who scored an amazing 95).  He came into the footballing spotlight in the 1994 World Cup in the United States where as a 17 year old he helped to lead the Brazilians to the title.  In 1998 he was back in the finals but this time around Brazil lost to France.  In 2002 Ronaldo won his second world cup title in large part due to his performance in the finals against Germany.  Ronaldo came back from a knee injury that had him in doubt for the finals and was able to score a pair of goals against the Germans.  In 2006 Ronaldo said farewell to the World Cup as Brazil were only able to make it to the quarter finals.

Ronaldo scored 15 World Cup goals, won 2 titles, made another final, and his worst ever finish was as a quarter finalist.  That is what he will be best remembered for and his performances at the World Cup assure him a place as one of the greatest strikers of his generation.  His club career saw him score another 247 goals in just 343 appearances as he made stops at some of Europe's top clubs including AC Milan, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, and PSV.  He also spent time at Cruzeiro where he started his career and he returned to Brazil to end his career at Corinthians.  He won basically everything possible in Europe as well as collecting 3 World Players of the Year.

In my humble opinion Ronaldo is the best pure goal scorer that I have seen play during my 20 years of life.  I guess I am not going out on a limb at all by saying that but I do consider him as better the Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Pippo Inzaghi, Raul, and Klose.  He may have faded away towards the end of his career thanks to fitness issues that resulted from recurring knee injuries and led to him being unkindly referred to as "fat Ronaldo" by some to distinguish him from Cristiano Ronaldo.  But in my mind Ronaldo will always be the player who was physically impressive and a dominant force in 4 straight world cups.  His scoring marks will be very hard for anyone to surpass and I hope that history remembers him right along with the all time greats including his countrymen Pele.