ENGLAND’S WOMEN WANT RESPECT
Lionesses hope to topple Canada, turn some heads in U.K.
The debate rarely pops up here, in large part because Canada’s men’s soccer team has been so inconsequential over the last 20 years, dipping to 109th in the FIFA world rankings.
But as the England women prepare to face Canada in Saturday’s FIFA Women’s World Cup quarter-final match, their place in a United Kingdom sporting landscape so dominated by male footballers is still a burning question.
Canadians are justifiably proud of their women’s squad, bronze medallists at the 2012 Summer Olympics and No. 8 in the FIFA rankings. Even when Canada doesn’t play particularly well — losing all three games in the group stage at the 2011 World Cup, or struggling to find consistent form in the current World Cup — we are generally pretty polite about the shortcomings.
There’s certainly no desire, nor any real reason to view the women’s game with a genderbased eye, to talk about what it is or isn’t when compared to the men’s game. And surely not to the game played by OUR men.
In an era when minnows are routinely spanked by doubledigit counts in World Cup qualifying, the Canadian men could muster only six goals in a twogame series against amateurs from the tiny Caribbean country of Dominica — FIFA ranking of 168 and a population of 75,000, or about the size of Kamloops.
But as has been demonstrated in media-saturated England during the last few weeks, the debate is still lively around the quality of play by women, at least when the women’s game is even addressed.
There has long been a deeprooted disregard for the women’s game in the U.K., one that was brought back into focus by well-respected soccer writer Oliver Holt’s column in the Daily Mail 10 days ago. He slammed the way critics scorned, sneered at and belittled the women’s game after England’s 1-0 loss to France in the group stage on June 9.
“The misogynists and the fools came crashing through England’s hedgerows like a herd of T-rex that hadn’t been fed for a while,” he wrote. “Some of the reaction to the start of a football tournament eagerly awaited by so many was sad, ignorant, arrogant and really rather stupid.”
After his England side beat Norway 2-1 on Monday to advance to face Canada, young English coach Mark Sampson said the gutsy comeback win by the Three Lionesses was a timely response to the doubters.
“The women’s football community has taken some flak,” he said.
“We’ve had to go through some tough times. We’ve had a lot of doubters and a lot of haters in the past, but we’ve stayed on task and we’ve stuck together. This team is determined to keep inspiring the next generation.”
Interestingly, John Herdman, the 39-year-old Canadian coach who grew up in Newcastle, was approached about his interest in taking over the England job when longtime coach Hope Powell was fired in 2013. He had other options as well, given Canada’s Olympic success, but he elected to stay with the Canadian program, signing a contract that runs through 2020.
He has fallen hard for what he has referred to as the “honesty and Canadian-ness” his group of players have brought to the public.
“What they’ve brought to Canada is an altruism of what sport is.”
Herdman insisted on a Tuesday conference call that women’s soccer in the U.K. had made solid strides over the last 15 years under Powell. And he said that with the resources the British Football Association has at its disposal, which he noted are considerably more than those in Canada, the program will “continue to be a force.”
Yet, media coverage of the women’s team in England still lags well back of the men. And a recent survey showed that soccer is just the ninth-most popular sport in the U.K. for women behind, among others, badminton and equestrian.
Perhaps if England can get into the semifinals, or even the final, at this World Cup, things could change. Before Monday, the country had never won a game in the knockout stage of any previous World Cup.
The players like their chances, having beat Canada four consecutive times before losing 1-0 in a pre-World Cup tune-up one month ago in Hamilton, Ont.
“We’ve grown a lot since then,” says fullback Lucy Bronze, who scored the game-winner against Norway.
“But that game gave us a bit of an understanding of what Canada are about and what their home crowd are like.”
Herdman hopes another boisterous crowd of 50,000-plus at BC Place Stadium will provide the “12th-man” lift that Canada needs, although England captain Steph Houghton says her side won’t be cowed.
“It’s great to be playing the host nation in Vancouver in front of 50,000 fans,” she told The Guardian.
“These are the sort of games everyone wants to play in. We can’t wait for the challenge. We’ve already shown we can play under pressure. We know we can make history.”
Other than a 2-0 England win in the 2013 Cyprus Cup, all recent games between the two sides have been decided by a single goal. Herdman says he expects another nail-biter on Saturday.
“The difference will be who unlocks the defence,” he said. “Will it be a set play or will it be just a moment of magic from an individual player? That’s how tight this game can be.”
The “storm” that Japanese head coach Nono Sasaki suggested was coming never truly developed Tuesday night at BC Place Stadium.
Oh, there were big gusts at times from the Japanese women, the reigning World Cup soccer champions. And it got blustery at times around the Netherlands’ box in the final knockout-round game of the 2015 tournament.
But the real damage was minimal, at least until the 78th minute when Mizuho Sakaguchi’s powerful left-footed strike from the top of the box found net just inside the left post to give the Nadeshiko a 2-0 lead.
A weird stoppage-time goal by Kirsten Van den Ven made the final couple of minutes somewhat nervy for Japan. But the 2-1 win assured them of a quarterfinal matchup against surprising Australia in Edmonton.
Japan had not looked overly dominant in the group stage, scoring just four goals in three games. But Sasaki promised his side would be better against the Dutch.
The Japanese opened scoring in the 10th minute and it looked like they might romp. Their trademark speed, short-passing and tactically sound game produced a number of good chances, but the finish was off until Sakaguchi’s terrific insurance goal in front of a crowd of 28,000.
The Dutch, appearing in their first World Cup, had some chances, but several promising looking counter attacks were stymied by a Japanese squad that recovered with lightning quickness.
“After one, two, three passes, we didn’t make enough happen,” said Dutch coach Roger Reijners. “We were sloppy and lost the grip of the match.”
The Dutch goal came on an innocuous-looking play as Van den Ven’s header from the penalty spot went right at Japanese goalkeeper Miho Fukumoto. Inexplicably, Fukumoto made no effort to handle the ball and it deflected off her chest and into the goal as she stood with a stunned look on her face.
Before that, the Netherlands’ best chance might have come just before Sakaguchi’s goal when Fukumoto had to be quick to parry away a shot deflected at her by teammate Nahomi Kawasumi. The ball ricocheted back to the penalty spot where a hard shot was adeptly blocked by Sakaguchi.
“We played better in the second half and we were unlucky there to have two balls removed from the line,” said Reijners.
He said he was extremely proud of his side, which was looking to earn qualification for the 2016 Olympics with a win, but noted the Japanese were just too tough to break down.
“The space you have, the room you have to operate is very, very small,” he said. “We tried to keep things compact and close together but it was very tough. We would love to have hurt them a little bit more.”
The Dutch had a great chance to open scoring in the eighth minute when Manon Melis got in behind the Japanese defence on a perfectly weighted through ball from Danielle Van de Donk. But Melis whiffed on an off-balance left-footed attempt from 12 yards out. Two minutes later, Japan opened scoring on a goal by Saori Ariyoshi. A header by Yuki Ogmi that came back off the crossbar was cleared poorly by the Dutch defence, landing right at Ariyoshi’s feet. Her hard low shot from 16 yards out went off the fingertips of diving goalkeeper Loes Geurts and past defender Stephanie Van der Gragt.
Japan had a handful of good opportunities to go up 2-0 in the first half as the Dutch defenders were guilty of poor marking in the box. But an Aya Sameshima half-volley from the six-yard box sailed over top the crossbar and a Shinobo Ohno header from the penalty spot went just wide.