Norwegians ‘forget’ to use feet, want to use at least two goalkeepers
Several Norwegian players teamed with Norway’s national TV broadcaster NRK to produce a “mockumentary” addressing sexist stereotypes and critics who say the women’s game is no match to the men’s.
During the four-minute video, Scandinavian players — in mock seriousness — reveal to an “interviewer” how much they struggle at soccer.
Midfielder Emilie Have acknowledges how she sometimes forgets to use her feet and instead tends to pick up the ball. Goalkeeper Ingrid Hjelm
seth complains the goal is too large, and says it would be easier with two ’ keepers or, better still, three.
“We suck, plain and simple,” veteran defender Trine
Ronning says in the Norwegian-language film, which features English subtitles.
The Norwegians pretend to send FIFA suggestions on how to improve the women’s game. Their proposals include smaller pitches, lighter balls and having players throw the ball off free kicks.
They even produce a letter from FIFA president Sepp Blat
ter, who sums up his “response” to the proposals by writing: “HAHAHA these suggestions made my day. LOL.”
Posted to YouTube on June 15, the video has attracted nearly 270,000 hits.
HOT TICKET SATURDAY: Expect Saturday’s FIFA Women’s World Cup quarter-final between Canada and England at BC Place Stadium to set a new Canadian soccer attendance record.
The record was set just this past Sunday at BC Place, where a crowd of 53,855 watched the host Canadians record a 1-0 win over Switzerland in their Round of 16 game. It was the largest crowd to watch a national team in Canada, breaking the old record of 53,058 set two weeks earlier at the tournament opener in Edmonton.
While there was a scant supply of tickets available on game day last Sunday, that won’t be the case for the quarter-final. A Ticketmaster search on Tuesday yielded no results.
Unless FIFA organizers are holding some tickets back to be released later this week, fans wanting to go to the game will need to buy from a ticket reseller. And it won’t be cheap.
Stubhub.com, a website that caters to the secondary ticket market, listed 2,300 quarterfinal tickets for sale on Tuesday. Prices started at $90 for upper end-zone seats and topped out at around $1,000 for a spot along the lower sideline.
TOURNAMENT RECORD: Women’s World Cup organizers say they expect attendance at the Cup to reach a record 1.25 million. The current record is 1,194,221, set in 1999 when the event was held in the United States.
But it should be noted that the tournament has been expanded to 24 teams and 52 matches.