Today Canadian women’s coach Carolina Morace suggested to the media that Canada was jobbed out of a seed for next summer’s Women’s World Cup when the No 1 in the world USA were seeded despite losing the CONCACAF tournament.
If there were eight seeds – and maybe there should be – she might have a point. The problem is that there are only four teams seeded and Canada is currently ranked ninth in the world. It’s the highest they’ve ever been. Of course the women are also riding high after capturing their second CONCACAF title and first when the USA was competing in the same tournament. So, you can understand why Morace and company might feel a little slighted, especially when you consider that 99 per cent of the coverage of the CONCACAF tournament focused on Mexico’s win over the United States. A casual observer would be forgiven for assuming that Mexico, a team Canada beat twice, won the championship.
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In addition to the USA also seeded for the tournament is host Germany (No. 2 in world), Brazil (No. 3) and Japan (No. 5). I’m not entirely sure what No. 4 Sweden did to piss off FIFA either.
There is little doubt that the best three teams in the world are all seeded. So, from that perspective it all works out. However, there is the question of fairness. Should a country that fails to win its qualifying tournament be rewarded with a seed? It seems to fly in the face of the spirit of competition in my mind (and it’s not just Canada that is affected – Japan is also seeded despite finishing third in the Asian qualifiers).
Clearly FIFA has made allowances for confederations otherwise they would just seeded the top four countries in the rankings. So, flexibility is allowed. In the end it won’t matter much beyond tomorrow’s draw, but it does strike me as wrong that a team that only advanced through a playoff should be seeded – regardless of its past history. The top four seeds (minus playoff teams) regardless of confederation works for me. So, in this case: Germany, Brazil, Sweden and Japan.
As mentioned the draw goes tomorrow. Canada is in pot B with North Korea, Mexico and Australia. The Canucks can be drawn into any group except Group C, which has the USA in it. Since the Aussies and North Koreans can’t go into Group B with Japan, one CONCACAF team is likely to get the easiest touch seed. Knowing Canada’s luck with these things expect Germany.
Pot C is the weakest pot, with Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea New Zealand and Colombia with the non-host Euro sides filling out pot D (Sweden, France, Norway and England).
Canada’s dream draw?
Japan – Canada -Equatorial Guinea – England
The nightmare?
Germany – Canada – Nigeria – Sweden
The draw is at 1:30 p.m. EST tomorrow. We will have live text updates.