1 Canada’s hearts and minds are still to be captured
Depressingly, Montreal’s vast, 56,000-capacity Olympic Stadium was almost empty for Tuesday’s Spain v Costa Rica and Brazil v South Korea double-header. Although the official Fifa attendance was 10,175, the Montreal Gazette claimed 1,000 were present.
If the 53,058 crowd for the opening Canada v China
match at Edmonton’s 60,081-capacity Commonwealth Stadium proved
encouraging, Vancouver’s 54,000 BC Place has been merely half-filled.
Interest is greater in Winnipeg where 31,184 almost filled the city’s
ground forSweden v Nigeria and USA v Australia. Audiences have proved
similarly enthusiastic in Ottawa, while a disappointingly sparse
gathering for England v France at the 13,000-capacity Moncton Stadiumin
the bilingual New Brunswick province was blamed partly on an
embarrassing malfunction in the city’s park and ride system. The litmus
test will come when an arguably overblown tournament – did it really
need to be expanded to 24 teams and 30 days? – reaches the knockout
phase.
2 Most nations are still recruiting managers from the men’s game
Hope Powell, Mark Sampson’s predecessor as England coach, is, on one
level, right to be concerned that eight of the 24 team managers are
female, although this dearth is perhaps a reflection of the low numbers
of women taking their coaching badges – zero out of 44 on the FA’s
latest A-licence intake. Until that very necessary bridge is crossed –
and if there is still racism in English football, there is most
certainly sexism – deploying high-calibre male coaches in the female
game can help raise the overall bar.
It was instructive to hear Lucy Bronze,
the England and Manchester City defender, talking about how much she
had learnt from working with Rodolfo Borrell, a former Barcelona coach
who once tutored Lionel Messi, at the Etihad. Certainly, it is no
coincidence that some of the leading nations here are led by coaches
with substantial pedigrees in the male game.
France’s Philippe Bergeroo was an assistant national coach as Les Bleues
won the 1998 World Cup and Brazil’s Vadão has trained Rivaldo and Kaká.
This is intended as no criticism of England’s 32-year-old Sampson, who
began his career working in Swansea’s academy, but did the FA even think
about trying to persuade Peter Taylor, Stuart Pearce or David Platt (to
take three former England Under-21 managers) to contemplate a stint
with the Lionesses?
3 If this were a men’s tournament Fifa would ensure it was played on grass
The official line that grass surfaces were too expensive to install
in a country subjected to arctic winters does not really wash. To date,
non-impact injuries have been rare. Even so, it is hardly a coincidence
players are pulling their socks over their knees to afford added
protection.
If Bronze was far from delighted by a burn mark on her thigh incurred
during a sliding tackle, no player enjoys being covered in the black
rubber crumb apparently moulting from underfoot. Then there are the
temperatures. Artifical turf is generally around 20-30F hotter than
natural grass. So in Edmonton – where the outside temperature has
averaged 75F – teams have played on pitches warmed to a toasty 120F.
When it comes to the quality of the playing experience the Norway
midfielder Lene Mykjaland is not impressed. “It’s hard to establish a
decent tempo or rhythm,” she said.
4 Asisat Oshoala is shaping up to be a star of the tournament
The 20-year-old Liverpool forward is all invention and incisive improvisation. Wonderful to watch, Oshoala not only scored a goal in Nigeria’s 3-3 thriller with Sweden but terrorised Pia Sundhage’s defence. Small wonder Matt Beard, her manager at Liverpool, claims she is on course to become one of the “world’s best” footballers. It is hoped Nigeria can survive their group of death. Marta, meanwhile, is used to being regarded as the best female attacker and already the Brazil has broken a World Cup record to become the leading goalscorer in the competitions’s history.
5 This could be a defender’s tournament
France’s Wendie Renard shone at centre‑half during the 1-0 win
against England while Claire Rafferty proved fabulous at left-back for
Sampson’s side. If this emphasis on denial and containment underwhelms
spectators, Sampson is not apologising. “If England won the World Cup,
it would be the biggest boost the women’s game could ever get,” he said.
“It would be about winning matches and if we can do that playing in
an entertaining way, fantastic, but what’s entertaining? What’s
entertaining for me might not be entertaining for you. We have to make
sure our number one focus is winning – we can’t be a one-trick pony.”
6: Fifa’s deals are turning fans off
They were queueing in the rain outside Moncton Stadium on Tuesday
while bags and backpacks were inspected. The overriding suspicion is
that it was less about security than confiscating non-Fifa branded food
and beverages. They like their food in New Brunswick and many fans
attending the England v France, Colombia v Mexico double-header came
equipped with picnics. It was sad to see hampers abandoned outside the
stadium as a condition of entry. The Times & Transcript,
Moncton’s local paper, said: “On the bright side it may mean fewer
trips to the porta-potties.” It warned readers that water bottles were
not allowed into the stadium so anyone thirsty must buy the
Fifa-approved brand on sale inside the turnstiles.
7 Fifa has proved unforgivably soft on illegal use of the elbow
The referee may have failed to spot Camille Abily jabbing an elbow into the face of England’s Laura Bassett
on Tuesday, leaving the centre-half with a real shiner, but Fifa should
have used retrospective video evidence to suspend the Frenchwoman. If
match officials confirm they missed such incidents the Premier League
imposes retrospective punishments at the drop of a hat. So why not here?
8 The Australians are awfully bad losers
We are talking Australia’s 3-1 defeat to the USA.
Admittedly Australia played quite well but the result hardly warranted
an item on the Football Federation of Australia website headlined: “The
USA, well, they just aren’t that good”. Criticising the Americans’
“rudimentary, bog standard, 4-4-2 style of play” was rightly dismissed
as “the sourest Shiraz” by North American journalists.
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