World Cup a continental stunner
Morocco loses by half a dozen to Germany yet still goes through and the Germans go home. Jamaica makes a three-day banquet out of one goal and moves on. On which planet are they playing this tournament? Mercury?
The women’s soccer World Cup is on to the second round and beyond and history already has been made. For the first time at least one representative from all six continents survived group play in the 32-team field.
Also for the first time three African teams reached the second round as did one Caribbean side. And several hardy perennials already have departed.
The Germans, the two-time titlists, lost to Colombia and drew with South Korea and were eliminated in group play for the first time. Brazil failed to advance for the first time since 1995.
Canada, the Olympic champions, are gone, too. And after Sunday morning’s meeting between the United States and Sweden in Melbourne, one of the other Tokyo medalists will be on the way home as well.
Most of the expected contenders still are in the chase, though, and on Saturday two of them earned places in the quarterfinals.
Japan, the class of the tournament so far, dispatched Norway, 3-1, to earn a date with the US-Sweden victor. Spain, which hammered Switzerland, 5-1, gets either the Netherlands or South Africa.
England, the European champion, will face Nigeria in the second round on Monday. The Dutch, the 2019 runner-up, meets South Africa on Sunday. And the French, despite a couple of wobbly outings, are up against Morocco in a reprise of last year’s enchanting men’s semifinal.
The Atlas Lionesses, who are making their Cup debut, should have been home by now after Germany booted them halfway to Rabat in their group opener. But Morocco rebounded to blank Colombia and South Korea and then waited nervously to see what Germany would do in its finale.
When the Germans couldn’t beat the Koreans, the result sent the Moroccans over the moon in what midfielder Anissa Lahmari called “a complete explosion of joy.”
It has been a wondrous fortnightplus for the African participants. Three of the four survived their group and rookie Zambia beat Costa Rica.
Much has changed in the global game during the last quadrennium. Nine of the 2019 participants didn’t make it out of their group this time, nor did five of the 12 teams from the Olympics.
Jamaica, outscored 12-1 in the last Cup, since has made a huge competitive upgrade. Tennessee grad Khadija Shaw, the team’s all-time top scorer, bypassed the NWSL for Manchester City. Four of her teammates also play in England and another three in France.
Now the Reggae Girlz are the best defensive 11 in the tournament, blanking all three group rivals including France and Brazil.
“To see these girls and a country like Jamaica be able to do this was incredible,” declared coach Lorne Donaldson, whose squad takes on Colombia on Tuesday with an excellent chance to reach the quarterfinals.
The results from down under not only have confirmed that the gap between the game’s first and second tiers indeed has narrowed but also that FIFA, the sport’s ruling body, was prescient in increasing the field from 24 teams to 32.
The eight newcomers generally have acquitted themselves well. Besides Morocco’s advancement the Philippines beat co-host New Zealand. Haiti, which held England to 1-0, conceded only four goals.
The Irish tied Nigeria and dropped one-goal decisions to Canada and Australia. And Portugal came within a ricochet of knocking out the Americans. “Do you know what that would have meant to us?” said Ana Capeta, whose 91st-minute shot missed by inches.
This Cup has been a global coming-out party for the overlooked, four of whom in the second round are ranked 40th or higher. Morocco, at No. 72, is the lowest-ranked team ever to advance. Can the outliers go even further?
The Lionesses will be hard-pressed to beat the French, who finally found their form in a 6-1 dissection of China. But the Nigerians held Olympic champion Canada to a scoreless draw and beat co-host Australia, which finished fourth at the Games.
And the South Africans pushed Sweden to the limit before giving up the winner on a 90th-minute corner kick.
What we’ve seen at this Cup is the breadth and maturity of the women’s game, which has accelerated during the last decade.
National federations that once ignored, if not suppressed, female players now are investing in them.
Elite men’s clubs such as Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Barcelona whose traditions go back a century and more opened their doors to women, who now share the advantages of modern stadia, top-of-theline training, development teams and coaching.
Morocco’s women perform for clubs in seven foreign countries as do Jamaica’s. They have skills and sophistication that their predecessors could only dream of. They’re not afraid of the world — and it’s showing.