World Cup Wrap-up

[Vic]

The Guardian announced their tournament awards today:

 

Team of the tournament (4-2-3-1)

Hope Solo (USA); Lucy Bronze (England), Julie Johnston (USA) Kadeisha Buchanan (Canada), Claire Rafferty (England); Amandine Henry (France), Aya Miama (Japan); Jill Scott (England), Lady Andrade (Colombia), Nahomi Kawasumi (Japan); Eugénie Le Sommer (France)

 

Best performance

USA v Japan in the final. There were many good games but to perform at your absolute best in the most important is something special. Some teams freeze at the biggest stage, Jill Ellis' didn’t. They were superb, beating the reigning champions, Japan, 5-2.

 

Best match (I saw live)

England v Canada quarter-final BC Place, Vancouver. In terms of speed, tempo, skill and sheer unpredictability, the best match was the technically superior quarter-final in which Germany beat a desperately unlucky France in a penalty shootout.

But, and it is a big but, there was nothing to beat the sound of 54,000 fans packing Vancouver’s BC place a long goal kick from the Pacific to cheer Canada on. The wall of noise when Christine Sinclair scored to reduce the deficit to 2-1 must surely have been heard in the United States. The atmosphere was incredible and offered proof that women’s football can provide some of the most memorable big occasions. England swiftly took a two-goal lead through Jodie Taylor and Lucy Bronze but after that it took an amalgam of the Lionesses’s sheer determination and Mark Sampson’s clever tactics to hold Canada off.

 

Best Goal: Mizuho Sakaguchi (for Japan against Holland)

Following a compelling preamble featuring intricate passing, a cute backheel and a clever dummy from team-mates, Mizuho Sakaguchi showed off seamless, adhesive control before curving the ball into the top corner with her left foot from the edge of the area.

 

Best player: Kadeisha Buchanan (Canada)

It’s impossible to pick a winner from the obvious suspects – Carli Lloyd, Amandine Henry, Aya Miama, Hope Solo et al – so I’m going for Canada’s 19-year-old central defender Kadeisha Buchanan. Watching her composure and assurance on the ball it was impossible to credit she is so young. The baby of seven sisters brought up by a single mother, much of Buchanan’s play belonged on a different planet to several team-mates. Her vision and reading of the game is so exceptional it will be intriguing to see if she ends up being relocated to central midfield. A Canada side struggling to score goals would have struggled to make the quarter-finals without her. John Herdman, their English coach, dubs her the “Christine Sinclair of my defence.” Praise does not come higher than that.

 

Coach: Mark Sampson (England)

The 32-year-old Welshman could not quite end “49 years of hurt” but he guided England to their first Women’s World Cup semi-final. It was also the first time an England side of either gender had got to the final four of a World Cup since 1990.

There is legitimate cause for concern regarding the shortage of female coaches at Canada 2015 but Sampson deserves immense credit for camouflaging his team’s limitations with some extremely clever, seriously streetwise tactics. A coach who really does his homework also helped create an extraordinarily strong camaraderie among the Lionesses.

 

Best hat-trick: Carli Lloyd

It was fast, it was furious – and it was in the final. Lloyd scored in every knockout game and got six at the finals altogether. No wonder someone changed her playing position on Wikipedia to read: “President of the United States.”

 

Best referee: Carol Anne Chenard (Canada)

A welcome exception to some poor officiating. Refereeing needs to improve significantly before the next World Cup in France in 2019. Too many games have been blemished by baffling, blatantly incorrect decisions. The women’s game is evolving fast and it seems the officials are struggling to advance at similar pace.

 

Friendliest Venue: Moncton

Vancouver was more beautiful, Montreal more chic, Ottawa more interesting and Edmonton – well Edmonton had more tall buildings – but Moncton in New Brunswick was the most charming venue of Canada 2015. Virtually everyone, everywhere, was friendly but in Moncton people are super friendly. If drivers see you hesitating on the pavement (sorry, sidewalk) and think you might want to cross the road, they stop for you. It also had by far the best newspaper of any read at breakfast in the five cities I visited – so hats off to the Times and Transcript.

 

Best quote: England’s Lucy Bronze

Bronze issued Julie-Stewart Binks, a Fox sports reporter, with a reminder of the established order of things in the Commonwealth ahead of the quarter-final with Canada “The Queen’s on the [Canadian] coin for a reason,” said England’s right-back.

 

Best cliche upgrade

Mark Sampson’s catchphrase was “We’re in a good place” but it upgraded to “We’re in a great place” by the semi-final. English journalists talked about having special T-shirts printed with the slogan “We’re in a good place” in order to wear them at his triumphant post-match conference, but it wasn’t to be.

 

Biggest Upset: Colombia 2 France 0

A group-stage day to remember in Moncton. Colombia arrived at Canada 2015 having never scored a World Cup goal, let alone won a game in the tournament. France, though, had no answer to their counter-attacking tactics or the individual brilliance of Lady Andrade and Yoreli Rincon. In Colombia’s goal Sandra Sepúlveda played the game of her life. Admittedly the referee missed a blatant handball which should have earned France a penalty but that would have spoilt the fun.

 

Worst moment: Laura Bassett’s own-goal

People often talk about football being a cruel game but this was particularly harsh on the Lionesses and one of their best defenders. Significantly that miscued attempted clearance was forced by an immaculate cross from Nahomi Kawasumi. It served to emphasise the enduring importance of high-calibre crossing ability.

 

Villains of the tournament: Fifa

They were queueing in the rain outside Moncton Stadium for England’s opening group game against France while bags and backpacks were inspected. The overriding suspicion is that it was less about security than confiscating non-Fifa branded food and beverages. Many fans attending the England v France, Colombia v Mexico double-header had come equipped with picnics and it was sad to see hampers abandoned outside as a condition of entry. Fans were instead instructed to invest their dollars on the overpriced, generally unhealthy and unappetising Fifa-branded refreshments on sale inside.

If, as Moncton’s Times and Transcript pointed out, the confiscation of liquid meant shorter queues for the “Porta-Potties”, dehydration still became a real problem for journalists. No food or drink was provided for reporters inside stadiums anywhere during the tournament. If you wanted some water you had to find a vending machine supplying Fifa-branded bottles and pay for it. If you wanted chocolate you had to dream on as stadium vending machines selling non-Fifa branded confectionery had all been disabled for the duration of the tournament.

 

Most heartfelt social media posting

Laura Sesselman, the Canada centre-half, on Instagram in the wake of her poor display in the quarter-final against England and error which led to Jodie Taylor’s goal. Sesselman received a barrage of abuse on Twitter, Facebook et al and finally answered back. “Yes, I slipped, yes they scored and you can blame me all you want,” she wrote. “If it makes you feel better, fine. For all you classless people with your negativity and your threats – you know absolutely nothing.” Good for her. It needed saying.

 

Only real disappointment

Not being able to see more games due to the logistical difficulties of covering a tournament in a country virtually the size of Europe. England played in five of the six host cities and in four of Canada’s six distinct time zones, traversing the country from Moncton near the Atlantic coast to Vancouver on the Pacific.

 

Biggest shock

Boarding a five-and-a-half hour flight from Ottawa to Vancouver and noting that the Canadians on the plane treated it as a short hop.

 

Best place visited

Sunset Beach, Vancouver. Redefined the phrase “unparalleled natural beauty”.

 

Best moment

Lucy Bronze’s spectacular long-range goal in the round of 16 against Norwaywhich secured England’s quarter-final place – and meant they had finally managed to win a knock out game at a World Cup. It seemed a new “Bronze Age” really was upon us.

[rkomar]

My favourite headline was for the Ecuador/Switzerland game: "Ponce scores 3 goals; 2 for the Swiss".  At least her one goal was the first ever scored by Ecuador, and they weren't shut out for the whole tournament.

[BearcatSA]

Best double entendre:  Hope Solo winning the Golden Gloves   (technically, the Golden Glove, but I need some leeway to make this work)

[Vic]

Almost as good as gwsmiths "Angerer vs. Angrier"

 

Funny you can win that award with few quality saves.  Like the golden boot going to someone who scored a bunch on the Ivory Coast, the golden glove should also be a TSG Group decision.  They should decide the best goal scorer and goalkeeper.

[BearcatSA]

Almost as good as gwsmiths "Angerer vs. Angrier"

 

Nothing was as good as that one, for sure.

[terpfan68]

USA played the 1st, 4th and 5th ranked teams in winning the wwc. They did not have an easy route. I would have liked to see them play France but that was not to be. England overachieved but because the Olympics require a team from a Great Britain will not be there. Canada finished about where their 8th place ranking would suggest.

LAST UPDATED 27 MAR 2015

NEXT RELEASE 10 JUL 2015

Rank Team PTS Prev.Pts +/- Pos

1 Germany. 2168 2176 0

2 USA 2158 2158 0

3 France 2103 2091 0

4 Japan 2066 2084 0

5 Sweden. 2008 2000 0

6 England 2001 1984 0

[Vic]

I noticed this spin in the CSA's wrap-up:

 

Canada has one of the world's most successful programs in women's international soccer. Along with finishing sixth at this year's FIFA Women's World Cup Canada 2015™, Canada recently finished sixth at last year's FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup Canada 2014 and eighth at least year's FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup Costa Rica 2014.

 

Canada was the only nation in the world to earn a quarter-final berth in all three FIFA women's competitions from 2014-15.

Sure but It's called CONCACAF.  We would probably not have even qualified for the youth tournaments out of UEFA.  In the U17 World Cup we won one game.  In the U20 two.  We beat Ghana twice and North Korea.  I'm all for positivity but with a dose of reality.

[rob.notenboom]

I noticed this spin in the CSA's wrap-up:

Sure but It's called CONCACAF. We would probably not have even qualified for the youth tournaments out of UEFA. In the U17 World Cup we won one game. In the U20 two. We beat Ghana twice and North Korea. I'm all for positivity but with a dose of reality.

We beat Finland (from UEFA) & North Korea (perennial junior powerhouse and eventual 4th place in the tournament). We played Germany tough in the QF. They were the better team but we generated several good chances and their opening goal was on a missed offside call.

Additionally UEFA sends 4 teams. We would have had an excellent chance of qualifying from Europe.

[terpfan68]

What the BBC thought about the WWC.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/33404363

[Soro17]

The BBC article was typically negative / ignorant in the British manner - complaining about 32,000 at Commonweath for the England semi final. He should revisit some of the pitiful attendance numbers for women's football at the London Olympics, crowds of 10 to 12k at Hampden Park, St. James Park, etc for the quarter finals and the bronze medal match.

[Vic]

We beat Finland (from UEFA) & North Korea (perennial junior powerhouse and eventual 4th place in the tournament). We played Germany tough in the QF. They were the better team but we generated several good chances and their opening goal was on a missed offside call.

Additionally UEFA sends 4 teams. We would have had an excellent chance of qualifying from Europe.

 

Right, it wasn't Ghana twice because they beat us once, it was Ghana and Finland.

 

I caught most of last year's EURO U19 live and we wouldn't have a great chance at all of coming out of Europe.  44 teams fight for four spots, including a dozen strong ones.  How tough is it?  Germany and France did not even qualify for the UEFA U19 tournament last year.

[rkomar]

Well, I was also somewhat disappointed by some of the attendance numbers, particularly in Montreal.  We may have set a record, but we had 20 more games to do it with.  Considering that these may have been the only senior World Cup games that will ever be hosted here, I think more Canadians should have taken the opportunity to attend.

[rob.notenboom]

Right, it wasn't Ghana twice because they beat us once, it was Ghana and Finland.

I caught most of last year's EURO U19 live and we wouldn't have a great chance at all of coming out of Europe. 44 teams fight for four spots, including a dozen strong ones. How tough is it? Germany and France did not even qualify for the UEFA U19 tournament last year.

Was the 2014 tournament that much more difficult than the 2013 one? Looks like identical formats to me. And the four highest finishers in the Uefa U19 women's tourney in 2013 qualified for Canada U20s last year. We beat one and played the other tough. Two didn't make the knockout round. I don't doubt that it would be difficult to qualify from UEFA but based on these results it looks like Canada would have a decent chance.

[Vic]

You would think Germany and France would have a decent chance too but they didn't qualify last year to even go to the qualifying tournament to determine who goes to the World Cup.  It's tougher to place in the EURO than the World Cup.  Used to be that way for men too before they expanded it.

[The Ref]

Succinctly this is my assessment or our women team at the 2015 WC:

 

1.  Ball control is significantly below the standard posed by the other teams.  This applies across the board to all our players with varying degrees of severity.

 

2.  Some of our players can only play one position and have a restricted comfort zone they don't dare come out of it.   

 

3.  Regardless of age, injury or experience some of our players don't possess the overall skill to fairly compete against strong teams.

 

4.  I found it impossible to identify any plan, strategy or system of play in any of our games.  If I can draw one conclusion it is that our system of play is one of making things up as you go.

 

5.  The players need a savvy coach who can impress onto the team a system and style, knows how to teach, has the experience and is not just interested in hearing the sound of his/her voice.

 

6.   I am unaware what our scouting and player identification setup is, but it needs to be revamped and expanded with an open channel.

 

7.  The team management must be receptive to recommendations and all taken seriously by inviting players to regular and frequent camps.

 

8.  Playing as a team where everyone knows each other well does not prosper with constant changes of roles and roles that are not a players forte.

[Vic]

Succinctly this is my assessment or our women team at the 2015 WC:

 

1.  Ball control is significantly below the standard posed by the other teams.  This applies across the board to all our players with varying degrees of severity.

 

Yes across the board in the country we don't appreciate or select technical players.  When you have a monopoly system, it's over for them if they're not selected.  In other countries there are lots of clubs and trainers who scout and develop them and they don't quit or go to other sports.

 

2.  Some of our players can only play one position and have a restricted comfort zone they don't dare come out of it.   

 

Not so bad or uncommon in men's.

 

3.  Regardless of age, injury or experience some of our players don't possess the overall skill to fairly compete against strong teams.

 

Yes, kind of #1 again.

 

4.  I found it impossible to identify any plan, strategy or system of play in any of our games.  If I can draw one conclusion it is that our system of play is one of making things up as you go.

 

I think this was there, just not feasible in the finishing third.

 

5.  The players need a savvy coach who can impress onto the team a system and style, knows how to teach, has the experience and is not just interested in hearing the sound of his/her voice.

 

I don't know anything about the coach, but Herdman is good with this.  Tactically in the Cup we were fine.

 

6.   I am unaware what our scouting and player identification setup is, but it needs to be revamped and expanded with an open channel.

 

Hopefully we go to more of an actual scouting/invite system per event and less of a union/club system.  But that said we can't have open tryouts for a national team.  If you do the former right you don't need the latter.

 

7.  The team management must be receptive to recommendations and all taken seriously by inviting players to regular and frequent camps.

 

The first thing you need to do is appreciate players exist outside your limited system.  Then vet to the best of your resources and connections and where it comes back interesting see for yourself via watching, having someone film, etc.  If someone looks promising from that take a deeper look.  Get out, everywhere, non-stop. 

 

8.  Playing as a team where everyone knows each other well does not prosper with constant changes of roles and roles that are not a players forte.

 

Yeah, that's the downside of a limited roster.  With injuries and people off-form, etc - you're forced to juggle whereas in pro (men's) teams you have about 10-12 strikers to call from.

[The Ref]

^ Thanks for your comments Vic.  In all my years of coaching I've seen a number of players, both boys and girls, with great talent who never went anywhere because of three main reasons.

1. Soccer in our country is not a rewarding profession.  At most it serves to get a scholarship in the U.S. and get a degree in anything else beside soccer.

2. There is no clear channel for players to advance to provincial or national levels nor is there anyone looking and

3.  Parents are not supporting of their kids making soccer a career as they may be with hockey for instance.

 

As an aside point, kids don't have soccer roles models to look up to and copy.  Sure everyone knows Sinclair, but her time is past.  It always amazed me on any team how many of their players have never seen a real soccer game, let alone one of high level.  In other parts of the world kids, young and old, are regularly attending at the stadiums.  Many learn soccer moves and movement just by watching the big guys play.

[Vic]

That's very astute and a good analysis of the cultural problem.  Most coaches of children at young ages are parents with no history in the game or people who have never played or played with two left feet.  Kids feed off passion, when there is none they have none.  It's also an uphill battle trying to instill passion in kids because our media isn't strong.  We were great for the Women's World Cup but the rest of the year it's usually a rarity and five pages deep in the sports section.  And fluff.

 

I like Ciara McCormack's idea of enabling the enablers.

 

 

As to #3, I talked to a parent they other day who was spending $8,000 a year all in for his 12 year-old to play OPDL.  I almost I threw up in my mouth.  Over a typical seven-year playing cycle that's almost $100,000!  Has nobody done the math on what this does to our player pool?

 

In the UK nobody paid and they stopped people scheming the system by put child welfare regulations in place so that no child could travel more than 45 minutes to train at age X, 60 minutes at age Y, etc.

 

We need to put something in place to protect PARENTS from themselves.  And not just them but the game here.  Otherwise the national games we watch will be Bronfman passing to Reichmann passing to Saputo, over to Bombardier, back to Sobey and scored by Pattison.

[rob.notenboom]

Otherwise the national games we watch will be Bronfman passing to Reichmann passing to Saputo, over to Bombardier, back to Sobey and scored by Pattison.

No. Pattison will miss the sitter.

[Vic]

Good correction.  Classic.

[rob.notenboom]

Good correction. Classic.

Chuckle. Just me expressing my Nats angst

[paul-collins]

As to #3, I talked to a parent they other day who was spending $8,000 a year all in for his 12 year-old to play OPDL.  I almost I threw up in my mouth.  Over a typical seven-year playing cycle that's almost $100,000!  Has nobody done the math on what this does to our player pool?

 

In the UK nobody paid and they stopped people scheming the system by put child welfare regulations in place so that no child could travel more than 45 minutes to train at age X, 60 minutes at age Y, etc.

 

We need to put something in place to protect PARENTS from themselves.

 

People complain about hockey being expensive, but this puts it into perspective.  A hockey season in Ontario will likely cost a 17-player team $65k (so $5k a year) at the single A level for 10-12 year olds, plus equipment; this gets offset by fundraising and sponsorship, so a parent might end up paying $3k - again, plus equipment, hotels (few), additional instruction.  I probably spent $5k all in for my son last year.

 

AAA for 14 year olds could see the team budget double.

 

My biggest struggle has been to convince people that they should be prepared to spend the same on their daughters as they do on their sons.

 

We are in a pay-to-play environment in North America.  We don't have pro teams financing development.  Full stop.

[The Ref]

Hey CSA where is the money? according reports the U.S. women got 2 millions for winning the whole thing compared to 35 million Gemany got in Brazil.  Also in the men even those who did not get out of the 16 group got 8 millions.

[tc-in-bc]

Total prize money for the 2015 WWC --  15 million dollars --   comes out of the tournament's 90 million dollar budget and in fact was doubled at the end of 2014. How the prize money was distributed can be seen in  the following article:

 

http://www.totalsportek.com/money/women-football-world-cup-prize-money/

 

To me, the issue for Canadian fans is:  Did the 2015 WWC make a large profit and if so, how does the CSA plan to spend  the money to keep the CANWNT competitive and to help grow the women's game in Canada?

 

When the 2011 Women's World Cup in Germany ended on July 17, 2011 it  took the DFB only nine days to inform the German public that the tournament made 7.6 million euros net profit and that the German federation planned on re-investing 5 million euros straight back into German women's football.

 

http://www.soccerex.com/news/2011/07/dfb-reveals-women%E2%80%99s-world-cup-profits

 

In contrast, on June 30, 2015, Victor Montagliani said :

 

        "It's going to be months before the accountants do their due diligence and we get a final handle on all our expenses with FIFA and everything. We know we're going to be in a profit situation but to what extent it's going to take time to totally find out.

"Whatever it is, it has to be about reinvestment into the game both at a grass roots level and at a high performance level. And that will be what we'll be looking to do here."

 

http://www.torontosun.com/2015/06/30/womens-world-cup-organizers-beaming-with-pride

 

A suspicious person would think Victor Montagliani is prevaricating.

[The Ref]

So Wambach now has her own demands.

 

Abby Wambach, who will turn 36 next summer, said she wants to continue playing but that the coaching staff would have to agree to keep her on the team.