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.
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| 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
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| Goro v. Raiden |
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?
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| 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.
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| 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
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