2023 WWW - Canadian Post Mortem, etc.

Greetings, gentle readers.

When I conceptualized writing a series of commentaries on the Women's World Cup, I envisaged a series of discrete, thematically unified articles.  It seems that my spine has made the necessary concentration to perform such a feat increasingly impractical.  In short, take the sensation of dinging your funny bone against a lamppost, extend it to your whole arm, and have that happen every two or three minutes.  Truman Capote would say of these attempts at communication that "that's not writing, that's just typing."  And he would be correct.  Too much thought is going into the mechanics of operating the keyboard, and not enough into composing original or creative content.

Be that as it may, I still feel obligated to jot down some notes and reflections on the Women's World Cup.  So here goes.

Equal Pay

I don't want to bang on about this topic any more than is strictly necessary, but considering the length of my earlier post partially dealing with gender pay equality, I thought that I ought to post more factual information for those people who actually want to understand the deal the the United States Women's National Team struck with the U.S. Soccer Federation.  Luckily, the legal aspects of the court case are described by a character named Nate the Lawyer in a video found HERE.  I thought that I was being thorough in my delineation of the issue, but I missed out on some fundamentally significant aspects of the contract negotiations. I recommend giving the video a look.

What's in a Name?

I like to consider myself a bit of a cosmopolitan, well-travelled individual with more than a dash of cultural knowledge.  My ignorance was cruelly exposed when I realized that I had no clue that "Guro" is a common Norwegian lady's name.  In fact, the Norwegian women's national team contains no fewer than three ladies named Guro.  One of these distinguished herself in the six-nil rout of the Philippines last Sunday.  

Guro Reiten

Guro Reiten only registered one goal in the game, but would have had a hat trick if not for the acrobatic heroics of Olivia McDaniel in the Filipino net.  As far as narratives in this competition go, the goalkeepers of the lesser-ranked nations have had plenty of opportunity to display their talents and abilities.  In the Republic of Ireland net, Courtney Brosnan made some jaw-dropping saves against Nigeria, ensuring that the match ended as a scoreless draw.  Ireland and the Philippines join Costa Rica, New Zealand, Zambia, and Canada in making an early exit from the competition, but at least their goaltending served as proof that they have enough elite quality to deserve playing at the highest level.

Uh Oh, Canada

Goro v. Raiden

In the case of Canada, this represents the first time a defending Olympic champion has been eliminated from the World Cup at this early stage.  As an experienced commentator of the game, people will ask me how Canada's fall from grace could have occurred so sharply and abruptly.  Well, there are a number of responses, but the simplest answer can be summarized in a single name:  Evelyne Viens.

For two decades now, Canada's offence has been built around Christine Sinclair, arguably the greatest striker to ever grace the women's game.  She's over forty years old now, and she quite simply no linger possesses the wherewithal to carry the team's goalscoring any more.  Building a tactical structure that attempts to continue accommodating Sinclair on the pitch essentially handicaps the rest of the team.  There is no question that "Sinky's" experience and leadership skills are valuable, but her contributions should be limited to coaching in a Roy Kent capacity, as seen in "Ted Lasso," or as an endgame substitute in the final minutes of a game, managing a close win from the field.

Canada is also one of many countries mired in the epidemic of ACL injuries ravaging the athletes worldwide. Janine Beckie is just one of over two dozen athletes ruled out of this edition of the World Cup with a torn anterior cruciate ligament , according to Her Football Hub.  But to blame the injuries that adversely affected Jesse Fleming and Kadeisha Buchanan throughout the tournament for Canada's failure wouldn't constitute an explanation, only an excuse.

Canadian manager Bev Priestmann should have seen the Tokyo Olympics as the final outing of the Sinclair-era of Canadian football, and begun redesigning the forward line around Evelyne Viens, fifteen years younger than the veteran striker.  The failure to do so resulted in a team operating in a disjointed and uncoordinated fashion, something blatantly in evidence during every one of Canada's dead-ball set pieces.

Boring Technical Rubbish

This article was actually supposed to address rules and tactics, particularly as they applied to certain questions asked of me about specific incidents during the tournament.  Unfortunately, any such exercise in definitions and illustrations would be extraordinarily boring and tedious without the use of video, so I skipped it until I can conceive of a way of presenting the information in something other than plain text.

What Now?

Amanda Ilestedt

Well, Canada is out of the World Cup, Germany's probability of progressing is by no means a certainty, and the intensity of competition is only going to increase from now on.  Personally, I've become a big fan of both the Swedish and Swiss teams.  As soon as I saw Amanda Ilestedt operate from central defence against South Africa in Sweden's first game of the tournament, I knew that she was something special and made no bones about saying so to anyone who would listen.  She's a talisman in a team of skilled professionals, including attacking midfielder Kosovare Asllani and lethal goal poacher Stina Blackstenius.

Luana Bühler

Switzerland has played two goalless draws, but I'm hearing optimistic whispers in the wind that say that Field Marshal Luana Bühler may be returning from injury in time for the next round.  Her precision Swiss movements are what give momentum and power to the attacking prowess of Seraina Piubel, Ramona Bachmann, and Lia Wälti, the latter of whom is still recovering from her pre-tournament injury that prevented her from appearing in any of the warm-up friendly matches.  I'm hoping the best is yet to come from the Helvetians.

And so, until the next time I can summon up the bloody-minded stubbornness to bash away at these keyboard keys despite the intense and mind-melting discomfort of chronic nerve pain, I will say good night, England and the colonies.

Cheers,

—mARKUS

2023 WWC - Racial Purity and Ethnocentrism

 Greetings, gentle readers.

"Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."

– Bill Shankly, 1981

Football, as one of the most accessible and universally appreciated sports in human history, has the power and potential to act as a unifying social catalyst.  Correct me if I am wrong, but my interpretation of the liberal democratic social contract involves bromides like "We are strong not in spite of our differences, but because of them," and "The fundamental principle of peace is the respect for diversity."

It was puzzling to me that the substitute appearance of the youngest-ever player in the history of the World Cup (Women's or Men's) should be accompanied by a strange factoid released by the Korean Republic's football federation.

Hot Dogs

Half-breed Casey Phair

For those that don't know or haven't heard, when (South) Korea played Colombia on 25 July, Casey Phair was substituted onto the field of play in the 78th minute. She was just 16 years and 26 days old, making her the youngest player ever to grace the world's stage at this level, regardless of gender.  As soon as her boots hit the turf, commentators were quick to mention the note that had been released to the press by the Korean federation, announcing that Casey represents the "first multi-racial player" to represent Korea at this event.

On first inspection, one might think that this represents a great step forward for Korean sports in terms of diversity, inclusion, and all those other laudable values.  And then one would remember that it's 2023.  The fact that the Korean women's team only fielded "purebreeds" up until this tournament indicates one of three things:  girls with only one Korean parent or grandparent in a mixed reproduction scenario have either been universally untalented, completely unrecognized, or intentionally disqualified.

I sincerely hope that a sixteen-year-old girl is welcomed like a younger sister into a team completely populated by women selected by what appears to be an historically different methodology.  The weird ripples of Korea announcing that their women's team have hitherto been representing a homogeneous ethnostate seem to contrast with the Korean Men's Olympic Ice Hockey team that competed in the Pyeongcheang Olympics in 2018.

Since winning its bid to host the Winter Games seven years ago, South Korea has been steadily recruiting Canadians — even fast-tracking their South Korean citizenship to allow them to join the Olympic team (dual-citizenship is prohibited in South Korea, but the government has been granting special dual-citizenship rights to "talented" individuals).

One might suggest that the value of female Korean ethnic purity is of a higher value than that of male ethnic purity, and suddenly we're confronted with a gender issue rather than a racial issue.  

Who Wins the Human Race?

Racism is a word that expresses a value system based on a profoundly ignorant lack of genetics or empathy that generates ill will and hostility between people.  There are very few redeeming features of this concept.  That being said,  political scientists have known the solution to racism for decades —creolism.  If one accepts the fact that one cannot be racist towards the member of one's own family, then the solution is to accept other, different cultures and ethnicities into one's own familial unit.  I'll let Warren Beatty express the concept more succinctly in the film "Bulworth."

To be honest, discussions about race are becoming more and more anachronistic.  In 2018, when France won the Men's World Cup, Daily Show host Trevor Noah commented that "Africa won the World Cup," which caused a rather large stir in France.  The BBC article that details the furor can be found here.  The bottom line here is that France considers itself such a diverse and integrated society that it no longer needs to identify the quality or quantity of its plural constituent ethnic communities.

France's Sarina Karchaoui — Amy Winehouse
would like her eyelashes back.

Historically, the movement of peoples between France and North Africa has been happening since people could float boats capable of crossing the Mediterranean, but the vagaries of the Napoleonic Wars, the fall of the second empire during the Franco-Prussian War of 1871, the era of the communes during the third republic, and other sociopolitical upheavals made Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia sources of food, safe haven, and commercial opportunity.  Everyone remembers "Casablanca" as the film that depicted French African colonies as a form of underground railroad taking fugitives away from the concentration camps of Nazi Germany.  Similarly, Brazil harboured the Portuguese royal family in the 19th century.  The genealogical difference between the colonizers and the colonized was always fated to become blurred over time.  Perhaps the insular nature of some cultures just takes longer to erode.

As a fun exercise, try and connect the players on the left column with the country that they represent at this Women's World Cup in the right column.

And that's all of the typing that my disobedient limbs will allow me to publish today.  Until next time, good night England and the colonies.

—mARKUS

2023 WWC - The Official Story

 Greetings, gentle readers.

So what we have found is this:  the exhilarating triumphs of virtuoso goliaths juxtaposed with the moral victories of plucky minnows have made the dramatic narratives of the 2023 Women's World Cup tournament appealing enough to increase the value of the brand to the overall benefit of women's sports.  

Who's Yer Girlfriend?

One of the trends that the casual observer may detect is the continuation of the Qatar Men's World Cup proclivity for enormous swaths of injury time at the end of every half of play.  In a related topic, the number and frequency of injuries seem to be slowing down the flow of game play and restricting the availability of star players from competition.  Another common thread that seems to be interwoven throughout the competition is the awarding of penalties.  Finally, the one underlying factor that seems to affect all of these referee-related game management issues is the use of Video Assisted Review.

A Galaxy VAR, VAR Away

Football's governing body resisted video review for decades, the most prominent reason being that the game ought to be quick-flowing, organic, and dynamic.  The clock does not stop when the referee blows his/her whistle, there are regulations about the time taken to perform set plays, and if treatment for an injury threatens to slow down the game, the rules indicate that the player is to be removed from the field and play must continue in the player's absence.  Everything is designed to keep driving the course of the game towards its conclusion.

Jenni from the block

To be perfectly frank, the refereeing decisions in this tournament have been almost flawless.  The flip side of that accuracy is the slowdown of the pace of every game.  Not only are there long and extended breaks for video checks, but the trend of referees to hesitate to even make an initial decision and instead immediately refer to the VAR team for a decision.  Anyone watching the Spain-Zambia game will recollect that Jenni Hermoso had both of her goals initially disallowed before being reviewed, and the first even had a "La La Land"/"Moonlight" moment as the referee announced that, after review, there was no goal.  The referee then paused and looked confused for a moment before announcing that there was no offside, and that the goal was good.  The confusion of the Spanish players was palpable as they tried to determine whether or not they ought to celebrate.  Amidst the chaos of the second goal, someone had to remind Jenni that she had just scored her 50th international goal in her 100th appearance.

Seraina Piubel

In the Switzerland-Philippines match, Sarina Bolden appeared to make history when she scored the first
goal of the match for the Filipino side after latching onto a long ball over the top, beating two defenders and lashing a 20-yard shot into the Swiss net.  It looked to be the first ever World Cup goal for the debutante South-East Asian nation, and a dramatic upset of expectations in the match.  Then the VAR check was performed, and the goal was chalked off for offside.  The entire Philippines team went from ecstatic jubilation to confused distress in a matter of seconds and they never recovered their composure for the rest of the match.  Luana Bühler stroked some spectacular passes out from defence, Ramona Bachmann performed some dazzling feats of schoolyard freestyle flair, while Seraina Piubel and Lia Wälti drifted elegantly through the midfield en route to a comfortable 2-0 win that left the Philippines broken and disoriented.  To their credit, they regrouped after the match and turned all of that frustration and indignation into a verve that defeated host country New Zealand.

Everybody Hurts

Not all of the delays of game and ten-minute episodes of time-added-on are as a result of self-conscious and over-cautious referees relying on technology to make the right call.  Sometimes injury time is just that—a compensation for playing time lost because players are medically harmed or in distress.  As in the men's game, feigned injuries are always a factor, as tired teams seek to get an impromptu time out for players to catch their breath, receive coaching instructions from the touchline, and re-establish discipline within a positional formation.  

Italy's Valentina Giacinti

The Italy-Argentina game was a very physical war of attrition that exhausted its combatants throughout the match, and players that took anything more than a superficial knock or contact from a challenge tended to stay down just a little bit longer than necessary to afford their teammates a quick break from the action.  The problem with the referees in this situation is twofold:  they are supposed to discipline players suspected of simulating injury, and they are supposed to expeditiously remove injured players who require medical treatment from the field of play so that play may resume.  

Insofar as discipline is concerned, no yellow cards yet been issued for simulation, and in terms of quick and effective game-management, the prevalent trend has been for referees to allow physios and medics to treat players on the pitch for several minutes before insisting that the treatment continue off-field.

This is not to say that all injuries sustained during the tournament have been simulated.

Retired Canadian
International Kara Lang

In fact, a cursory glance at the players who have been rendered medically ineligible to play over the past few decades shows a large number of knee injuries, particularly cruciate ligament sprains and tears. Kara Lang, in an interview before the Canada-Nigeria Game, described her struggles with ACL injuries, and how they eventually forced her premature retirement from the game. She was unequivocal in laying the blame for these sorts of injuries on the playing surface. Unlike the men, women in footy are often forced to play on artificial turf, which doesn't have the same sort of give or yield that natural grass does. In cases of extreme stress, when the surface doesn't accommodate deformation or deterioration, the force is transferred to the joints of the limbs planted in that surface. In the men's game, Marco Van Basten's career was cut short by the fact that his constant twisting and dancing about in his studs eventually ripped up his ankles as much as the sod beneath him. Women don't have his kind of upper body muscle mass, so their injuries tend to be around the knees rather than the ankles.

No Au Revoir, Just Hors d'Oeuvres

And with that, I need to cease my blithering babble before I do myself irrevocable neurological damage.  Until my next installment about the scutal playing tactics within the tournament, I bid you adieu.

Good night England and the colonies,

—mARKUS

2023 WWC - Parity and Equity

 Greetings, gentle readers.

The principles of egalitarianism and competitive parity have been bandied about throughout the history of sports, and the gender divide between men and women has been particularly contentious.  While there have been occasional forays by women into men's sports, such as Hayley Wickenheiser in the Finnish and Swedish men's hockey leagues, and Mireia Rodríguez in the Spanish men's handball league, it is generally considered a good idea to segregate the sexes.  The simple scientific reason is pure physiognomy.  Elite male athletic performance is 10-12% greater than women's, and thus direct competition would be unfair.  That being said, there are many calls for financial equality between the male and female classes of the same sport.

Equal Pay

In tennis, for example, men and women play on the same surfaces at the same Grand Slam events; grass in Wimbledon, clay in the French Open, etc.  One side of the argument says that the men and the women should receive equal pay and rewards for playing the same game with the same rules in the same stadia.  On the other hand, women only play best out of three sets in each match, while the men play best of five.  Similarly, the techniques and tactics differ broadly between the sexes, and the direct comparison is shocking.

Venus and Serena Williams managed to lose consecutive matches against the same male opponent back in 1998.  Serena lost 6-1 to 203rd ranked men's player Karsten Braasch in Melbourne, when this happened:

Venus, who supported Serena from the stands, challenged Braasch immediately after the set to only a slightly better result. The German, who had a fondness for smoking Marlboros during some changeovers, extended rallies and deployed the same disorientating array of spins defeating Venus, 6-2.

Years later, during an appearance on the David Letterman Show, Serena emphasized that any attempts to blur the distinction between men's and women's tennis was unadvisable.

"If I were to play Andy Murray, I would lose, 6-0, 6-0, in five to six minutes, maybe 10 minutes," Williams told Letterman. "The men are a lot faster, they serve harder, they hit harder.  It's a completely different game."

In football, women in countries that have historically triumphed in the women's game but underwhelmed in the men's category have always felt aggrieved that the men earned more money per appearance and received greater performance bonus payments.  The American Women's National Team won a court settlement on 22 February, 2022 that not only guaranteed equal pay for international competitions between the genders, but authorized the distribution of equalization back pay for previous competitions.  The Canadian Women's Team reached a similar agreement in the following month.

The problem here is equal financial compensation for unequal revenue generation.  The Buffalo Bandits just won their fifth National Lacrosse League Cup in a league where the average player salary is $19375.21.  Why do Lacrosse players get paid less than NFL players, whose average salary is around $2,700,000?  Answer:  more people pay more money to attend and view the games, and advertisers and sponsors spend more money to reach those audiences.  It is just a fact that more people fill larger stadia and the worldwide television audience is larger for the Men's World Cup than it is for the Women's World Cup.  If nothing else, FIFA's egregious corruption and the enormous amount of wealth sluiced around during every World Cup Host bidding convention are testament to the filthy lucre that the men swim about in, compared to the frugal and conservative events coordinated on behalf of the women.

Harrison Bergeron

But the quest for equality extends beyond the gender divide.  Most North American sports hold high in esteem the concept that not only must all teams compete on a level playing field with neutral officials using universal rules and regulations, but they must also be of comparable talent and athleticism.  Teams that perform poorly are rewarded with early draft picks so that they can become more competitive.  Salary caps are implemented to prevent teams from stockpiling too much expensive talent.  Expansion drafts are used to siphon talent from existing franchises to augment new ones.  The successful are handicapped, and the mediocre are supplemented season after season with the overall objective that every team has a reasonable probability of winning against any opponent.

Davida v. Goliath

Unfortunately, competitive parity is boring.  It may be unfair, but goals in football create buzz.  For non-fans, the stereotypical footy match consists of a bunch of people falling over, rolling about on the ground, and clutching one body part or another for ninety minutes until the game winds down to a goalless draw.  In reality, teams that are very closely matched in a high-tension competitive environment are sorely tempted to clog the midfield, stifle the opposition's outlet passes, and play with a high defensive line to turn any over-the-top long pass toward their net into an offside one.  It's a risk-averse strategy, and helps to narrow any discrepancy in talent or prowess between teams.  It's also a bit dull.  The NHL dealt with this in the late 1990s and early noughties with the advent of the neutral-zone trap.  It increased parity, but caused a profound drop in offensive production for all teams across the board.  The ensuing ennui caused profits to drop, and fan enthusiasm to flounder.

The Solution

Mercifully, this year's Women's World Cup may help address the issues of inequality in a very organic way.  The tournament has expanded the pool of teams from 24 to 36 this year, meaning that there will now be a greater gulf between the best teams in the competition and the worst.  That greater inequality will provide fertile opportunity for more goals in one-sided blowouts, thus increasing fan enthusiasm and engagement, which will increase tickets, gate revenue, broadcasting demand, advertising, etc. and thus give more financial leverage to the women's game vis-à-vis the men's.  The lack of parity is what will generate excitement, contrary to what appears to be a central tenet of North American sports.

For Example

Christine Sinclair

In Canada, the Women's World Cup is broadcast on a cable sports network with three separate time-zone-linked channels.  Because the tournament is held in Australia and New Zealand, the time difference means that the games are broadcast in the dead of night, and then rebroadcast repeatedly over the course of the pursuant day.  Seventh ranked Canada's opening game against 40th ranked team Nigeria was notable for a penalty shot by Christine Sinclair that was saved, but very little else. 
The remainder of the game was a cold slog through the centre of the pitch with precious few jolts of adrenaline.  Those who were bored and disinterested with the live game were thereafter given nine more opportunities to revisit the tedium over the next eighteen hours or so.

Ballon D'Or Winner
Ada Hegerberg

Similarly, Switzerland and Norway butted figurative heads in a futile attempt to score a goal in a slightly less dry demonstration of clean sheet-keeping.  The fact that Swiss quarterbacking maestra Luana Bühler and Norwegian goal-machine Ada Hegerberg were absent from the match through injury and illness respectively explains much about the dearth of offensive results.  Norway are ranked 12th in the world, while the Swiss clock in at 20th, providing an example of a game that, at least on paper, was contested by teams of comparable quality.  This offers at least anecdotal evidence that having teams proximate to one another in terms of competitive advantages does not directly equate to a better or more entertaining end product for the consumers.

In short, even the players involved in the other nil-nil draw thus far in the tournament will be hard pressed to remember the details of the affair, and will not have served the cause of either football or women's sports by plodding through a dour couple of hours in the antipodean winter wind.  By the time of the final whistle of the France v. Jamaica game, even the most musical fans of the Reggae Girlz were subdued and dispirited.

Melanie Leupolz

In contrast to the previous two games, perpetual contenders and second-ranked Germany faced 72nd ranked nation Morocco in their debut appearance.  Although two of the six German goals were credited as own-goals against the Moroccan defenders, the result did not flatter the victors.  This was a game filled with flare, skill, and untrammeled exuberance.  The Moroccans were exposed as being weak in the air and prone to positional decomposition across the pitch.  The Germans expertly passed the ball about through Sara Däbritz, Lina Magull, and Melanie Leupolz in midfield and although 32-year-old Alexandra Popp had a brace of goals, she could have been credited with more.  The crowd cheered and sang, the Germans were triumphant, and minnows Morocco could hold their heads high that they faced the two-time champs and acquitted themselves well in their first attempt on the big stage.

Finally, Group C has already completed its eliminations after only two rounds of games.  Zambia and Costa Rica have one last meaningless game to contest against each other before they go home, but they were able to provide the backdrop for some gorgeous play from the Spaniards and the Japanese, who will now play one another for first place in the group.  Has the marked difference in quality between the top two teams and the bottom two diminished the value of the competition?  I would assert not.  In fact, the race for goal differential provided an added element of tension and drama as Spain sought to score a fifth goal against the Zambians on Wednesday.

At least the Zambians have the notable distinction of fielding the most players with the surname Banda on the pitch of any team in WWC history.  That's got to be worth something.

That's all I can do for now.  Until later, 

—mARKUS

The 2023 Women's World Cup

May my hand not tremble now that I start to relive the past and revive the feelings of uneasiness that oppressed my heart as we entered the battlements.

-Umberto Eco

Greetings, gentle readers.

As unsteady and palsied as my typing fingers have become under the withering assault of spinal nerve damage, it is my intention to detail some of the salient characteristics of this year's edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup.  Wielding the authority of one who has been following women's footy for well over twenty years, and who has able to attend the Women's Under-19 World Championship in 2002, the Under-20 World Championship in 2014, and the Women's World Cup in 2015, I sincerely hope that my insights have some value.

Her-Story

To put things in perspective, I've seen Christine Sinclair and Marta play internationally since they were teenagers, and now I have to opportunity see one or both of them make history by being the first person (male of female) to score in six different editions of the World Cup.  Since I first saw Sinclair play at Commonwealth Stadium, she has become the highest scoring player at any and all FIFA international competitions, eclipsing notables like Pélé, Alfredo di Stefano, Mia Hamm, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Abby Wambach.  This tournament provides her an opportunity to add to her amazing total of 190 goals.

Coming Up Next

As I previously stated, my typing skills and stamina are not what they once were.  I will try and break up my commentary into discrete insights or observations, followed by specific examples and photos from this year's competition.  If I can complete one or two a day, I will consider the mission accomplished.  I shall no doubt spend more time correcting and retyping my text than actually composing it, but zimachitika, as they say.

My prolonged absence from the blog-o-verse may mean that the readership of these articles is non-existent, in which case these meandering ruminations will serve only as archived thoughts that act as a baseline comparison during diagnostic evaluations of my impeding senility and/or dementia.

Back after some physiotherapeutic exercises to ease the discomfort in my arms.

Cheers,

—mARKUS