Upsets not only trend to emerge at tournament
SYDNEY — The traditional elite have been cut down to size at the Women’s World Cup.
That has been the standout theme as a tournament that has already set records for attendance and goals scored enters the quarterfinals stage, and it has made for high drama.
“It’s been absolutely incredible and a great testament to some of the work that is happening around the world,” FIFA’s head of women’s football, Sarai Bareman, told the Associated Press. “To see the results of this World Cup brings so much meaning to the work that we do.
“It’s really special, not only for the players and the teams, but for those of us who are working on the game day in and day out.”
Soccer’s world governing body FIFA is trying to grow the women’s game at pace, and it seems to be having an impact.
Established nations have fallen one by one over the past two weeks, with the back-to-back defending champion U.S. team joining No. 2-ranked Germany, Brazil and Olympic gold medalist Canada by going home early.
The tournament, being co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, has produced one upset after another.
What remains to be seen is whether the upsets are a quirk of this year’s tournament in the Southern Hemisphere or a more permanent trend.
Here’s a look at some other trends from the opening weeks:
Better goalkeeping
There have been standout performances by goalkeepers so far, with the Americans repeatedly frustrated by Sweden’s Zecira Musovic in the round of 16. The Chelsea keeper produced a string of saves and was voted player of the match as the U.S dominated but couldn’t find a breakthrough in the game that ended 0-0 through extra time.
Netherlands keeper Daphne van Domselaar was player of the match as the Dutch advanced to the quarterfinals by beating South Africa 2-0.
While that game saw South Africa keeper Kaylin Swart make an error to allow Lineth Beerensteyn to score, she also pulled off a string of saves to keep the Netherlands at bay.
Nigeria’s captain, Chiamaka Nnadozie, made a crucial save to deny Canada’s Christine Sinclair a place in history in a scoreless opening draw, earning her player of the match accolades.
“Of course everything is not perfect, but I think we are going in the right direction,” said former Germany keeper Nadine Angerer, who is part of FIFA’s technical study group at the World Cup.
“What we’ve seen so far in general is that there are way better goalkeeping performances.”
Time added on
It was a feature of the men’s World Cup in Qatar last year, and FIFA is continuing to clamp down on time-wasting.
Lengthy periods of stoppage time have been played, seeing games go well beyond 90 minutes during regulation time.
While that initiative wasn’t continued by major domestic leagues after Qatar, the Premier League appears set to follow it up this season.
Arsenal scored an equalizer in the 11th minute of stoppage time against Manchester City in the Community Shield on Sunday before going on to win on penalty kicks.
Growing interest
The Women’s World Cup has been pulling in the fans.
Australia has twice played in front of crowds exceeding 75,000 in Sydney, limited only by the capacity of the stadium.
The attendance of 1,533,545 fans so far in the first two rounds has exceeded the previous record total of 1,353,506 when the World Cup was staged in Canada in 2015.
More than 500,000 people have attended fan zones in host cities to watch games on giant screens.
While this tournament has been expanded to 32 teams, up from 24, the fact that 14 games in the first two rounds have had crowds of more than 40,000 people points to the popularity of the event.
“This World Cup has shifted from being a teamsupported tournament to a globally-followed event,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino said. “This is why we are witnessing the greatest Women’s World Cup ever — and a recordbreaking one.”