The next World Cup will extend knowledge of the sport even more, at home and abroad. As host nation, games will be coming to cities across Canada. And internationally, eight more countries will be taking part. The next tournament will host 24 rather than 16 teams in the group round.The men's World Cup currently has 32 teams in the group round.
Of course the additional teams may "drop the standard of play a little bit," but it's important for the development of the sport and several regions such as Europe, Asia, South America and Africa already have "great depth."All of these aptly describe the Japanese team following its stunning and dramatic penalty shootout victory over the United States in Sunday's Women's World Cup final from Frankfurt, Germany.
]]> Tactically sound. Technically brilliant. Dogged and determined.All of these aptly describe the Japanese team following its stunning and dramatic penalty shootout victory over the United States in Sunday's Women's World Cup final from Frankfurt, Germany.
Here's one more adjective: classy.
Japan won plaudits for its superb displays in Germany. From their efficient counter-attack, sublime passing skills, expert possession and fearlessness, the Japanese were the class of the tournament when it came to the action on the field.
That Homare Sawa, the Japanese veteran who was competing in her fifth - and possibly final - World Cup won the Golden Ball (tournament MVP) and Golden Show (top scorer) was more than fitting.
Sawa exuded the very best qualities of the Japanese team, showing perseverance and great resolve during the competition. Aside from netting a hat-trick in a group-stage game against Mexico, she also set up the winner in Japan's extra-time victory over Germany in the quarter-finals.
After finding the back of the net against Sweden in the semifinals, Sawa saved her best performance for last.
It was her goal in the 117th minute that rescued Japan in the final against the Americans. And while some players have a tendency not to volunteer for duty in a penalty shootout, Sawa quickly raised her hand.
That's quality leadership, folks.
Lest you think Sawa carried Japan on her broad shoulders, think again. This was a team effort, with key contributions from many.
Goalkeeper Ayumi Kaihori made some outstanding saves throughout the tournament, none any more important than when she thwarted Shannon Boxx in the Americans' first attempt in the penalty shootout.
Midfielder Nahomi Kawasumi was limited to two appearances as a substitute (totalling 29 minutes) before she scored a pair of goals (including the winner) in Japan's 3-1 victory over Sweden in the semifinals.
But what was most impressive about the Japanese was how they carried themselves with great dignity and class every step of the way at this tournament, playing for the folks back home who are still dealing with aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the country in March.
After every match the players went to the middle of the pitch and displayed a banner reading "To Our Friends Around the World -- Thank You for Your Support."
Their heroism did not go unnoticed. On the surface soccer may just be game, but try telling that to the millions of Japanese who woke up at 3:45 a.m. just to watch their heroes take on the U.S. in Frankfurt.
Sawa and her teammates drew inspiration from the tenacity of regular Japanese citizens who are still trying to rebuild, while the Japanese team's journey to the final galvanized a nation and provided its people with some emotional relief.
It really is "the beautiful game."
Follow John F. Molinaro on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/#!/JohnMolinaro
]]>The third place match between France and Sweden on Saturday served as a microcosm of all the above.
There was a time when Sweden would have smashed France. As recently as the last World Cup there were an 11-0 game and a 7-2 final score. You could easily have seen France on the end of one of those score-lines in Germany - except the French had only even made the World Cup once before.
Those days of lopsided scores seem to be a thing of the past. There is no question that parity has arrived in the women's game.
The only fly in that ointment, however, could be that FIFA has chosen the next event, which happens to take place in Canada, as the first Women's World Cup to expand from 16 to 24 teams. Here's hoping that the road to parity will continue at a rapid pace so that the trend of evenly matched contests can continue.
And the quality of play overall has drastically improved.
By and large the games have been entertaining and played at a much higher pace than ever before. The third place match was a perfect example. French flair and individual talent with the ball was matched by the Swedes' athletic ability and overall teamwork.
Then there are the goals.
We've argued constantly over which goals belong on the top ten list and which goals don't make the grade. It's not an easy task. The winner in the third place match by Sweden's Marie Hammarstrom certainly belongs at or near the top. But which goal do you knock down peg? There have been that many good ones.
As for the match itself, France must feel frustrated. They played well once again, but could not find the finishing touch when they needed it the most. But they get my vote as the most improved team in the tournament. They're likely the most improved team anywhere on the planet. If they can find themselves a top notch goalkeeper, they'll be tough to beat.
All in all, this has been a competition to remember. Perhaps it will be re-called as the year women's football went mainstream. This wasn't just a women's soccer event. This was a true World Cup.
We don't think much of such displays in Canada. Two weeks ago on Canada Day, our country was awash with red and white, and year-round flags top stores, buildings and homes.
We take our patriotism abroad, too. Travelling Europe or Asia, it's hard not to run into Canadian travellers, their backpacks adorned with a dainty maple leaf (although arguably in that context, the crest is often less a celebration of Canada, and more an attempt to separate us from our southern neighbours).
Still the line: "I'm from Canada," is almost always met with smiles, and an affirmation that: "all Canadians are really nice."
Most Germans I know didn't grow up swathed in their national colours, or hoisting their flag atop their house. When my German friend Annette was travelling through Australia after university, some of her compatriots would say: "we are from Europe."
Even now Annette told me she's not quite comfortable with national pride: "I'm glad that I grew up in Germany, but I'm not 'proud' to be German," she told me.
Part of this has to do with the outside perception of Germans - organized, punctual, reliable, and "not very cool," Annette pointed out.
But more broadly, the lack of flag-waving has to do with the fact that over 65 years later, Germany is still living with the legacy of the Third Reich.
Feelings about the phrase "Ich bin stolz, Deutscher zu sein (I'm proud to be German)," have been polarized to such an extent that neo-Nazis adopted the phrase as a slogan for their political campaign a few years ago. And when the former general secretary of the Christian Democrats used the phrase in an interview, he was accused of 'having the mentality of a skinhead'.
With so much sub-text, and where 'nationalism' still has a haunting echo, it's understandable that Germany has struggled to find an acceptable face for its patriotism. So flag-waving and nonchalant national pride have always been difficult.
That all changed in 2006, when the World Cup came to Germany and provided the national psyche with a much-needed catharsis. More than score lines and statistics, the competition gave Germans a chance to experience what so many other countries take for granted: guilt-free nationalism.
When super fans from around the world arrived in Germany with their flags and t-shirts in tow, Germany responded with its own national train of support. A million German jerseys were sold that year, compared to 250,000 during the previous World Cup.
But I think it's deeper than that. Last year before the World Cup in South Africa, I described how the Ivory Coast team was instrumental in bringing their country out of civil war in 2005/2006. The healing power of soccer spans across countries and across the world; when national players step out on to the field, the entire nation steps out with them. And if the team wins, the country wins by extension. Soccer has this amazing ability to create a sense of national unity and identity beyond religious, ethnic and political divides.
Of course soccer is not a cure-all for national malaise) but in 2006, the success of the German team, and the World Cup in general, gave Germans - from East and West and from various cultural backgrounds - a reason to celebrate together. At the time Der Spiegel noted: "it's like being in a different country with Mediterranean cheerfulness and uninhibited open-minded patriotism. . . a country under a black-red-and-gold blanket."
Passing the flag
Though the 2006 World Cup ended, and the flags were put away, Germans have remained with a refreshed sense of patriotism, Norman Eiselt, a bank agent from Kaarst, told me during the U.S.-France semifinal game a few days ago. Whenever there's a big carnival, gay pride parade, Eurovision contest or soccer tournament, the flags are unfurled once again.
Viktoria Zeng, was sporting black-red and gold bunny ears when I met her a few days ago.
"Now we can support our national team," she told me, with a smile. "It's about being patriotic, which has nothing to do with the Nazis."
She added, though, that the Women's World Cup doesn't have enough clout on its own to have started the patriotic trend.
"All this wouldn't have happened before 2006," she said. "The Men's Cup was the first time people didn't have a second thought about the flag and it's been this way ever since."
Ich liebe Deutschland
There's a lot to be patriotic about in Germany these days. The country is Europe's economic powerhouse, and a leading exporter of machinery, vehicles and chemicals (OK, much of this is arms - Germany's the world's third biggest exporter of arms).
But the country is also a global leader in terms of wind power capacity, after China and the United States, and the country hopes to phase out all its nuclear plants by 2022. Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, though she has been labelled indecisive, is still one of the most effective leaders in Europe, and even Pope Benedict XVI is a German. Picture-perfect World Cups in 2006 and again in 2011 are two more things on the growing list.
There's even a new show on television called "Ich liebe Deutschland:" (I love Germany). It's a comedy packed with washed-up celebrities, and with an audience dressed in German soccer fan attire - leis and all. Although it's just a comedy, I'm not sure this type of program would have been possible before Germany's World Cup successes.
Still deep-seated problems
Although the success of Germany's multiethnic soccer teams have helped the country (OK Germany didn't do well this year, but they are still a powerhouse in the women's game), race issues still run deep. Polls suggest that a majority of people in Germany think that immigrants (and particularly Muslims) are a burden on the economy. And Chancellor Merkel got a lot of flack from the Muslim community for presenting a prize to a Danish cartoonist who depicted the Prophet Mohammad with a bomb-shaped turban.
During last year's World Cup in South Africa, people questioned why foreign-born players on Germany's team still don't sing the national anthem. Although it's possible that some players don't know the words (I'm told it's not taught in all schools), the press postulated it might be because of patriotic ambivalence. Currently the third stanza of the "Song of the Germans" is sung pre-match, but under the Nazis, the first stanza, which begins, "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" - "Germany, Germany above all" - was the official anthem.
Social scientists such as Wilhelm Heitmeyer and his colleagues, have also warned that the idea that World Cups produce a "tolerant patriotism" is "dangerous nonsense, a bit of brainwashing." The authors warn that mass media in identity and patriotism campaigns" should be discouraged.
Moving up and moving on
There are the reminders of Germany's "history" around every corner. In Berlin, some of the old buildings are still pierced with gunshot holes and there are thousands of "stolpersteine" or stumbling stones across the country commemorating the Jews, gays, resistance fighters and Gypsies whose lives were taken during the war. From the recovering cities of Frankfurt and Dresden, to the bleak skeletons of concentration camps that dot the countryside, I don't know if Germans could ever forget the past.
But it's getting easier to forgive themselves through sport, as demonstrated again this year through the Women's World Cup. The support for Germany started strong at the opening game, and has continued to the final, despite the home team's early exit. At today's final, people young and old alike are rocking the country's national jersey and colours.
"We are disappointed in the [German] team's performance," 16-year-old Milana Holtschuffe told me in the stadium.
"But we are still proud," she said.
]]>It's been a fantastic ride. Besides a short conference a couple of years ago, I'd never spent any appreciable time in Germany. And now I've seen parts of the country I never thought I would, and of course some parts I wish I hadn't.
I was impressed by the diversity in Berlin. The streets of Kreuzberg are like the frontline of German multiculturalism, where doner shops and currywurst stands are equally ubiquitous, and where women in hijabs blend with hipsters in thick-rimmed glasses and Converse sneakers.
The old town (Altstadt) of Dusseldorf has its own unique mix of old and new. In the shadows of ancient castles, Germans and tourists alike consume one-too-many locally-brewed Altbiers, before joining in late-night push-up competitions.
Dresden is, well, absolutely gorgeous. It's incredible to think a city so badly razed during World War II could have been so carefully restored and rebuilt to its former baroque beauty. Reuters estimates around 1.6 trillion Euros have been spent rebuilding East Germany and it shows.
Of course in-between, I've been to countess mediocre roadside villages boasting plain cheese sandwiches, pay-to-pee toilets and gambling machines like "Fruitinator and "Rawhide."
Despite the perpetually miserable weather over the last three weeks, the German landscape is quite simply stunning. The rolling fields of potatoes, wheat and rye are like patches on a ruffled quilt sown together with ribbons of greenery. The green, brown and gold are interrupted only by clusters of red-roofed cottages and the occasional derelict castle.
The countryside is peppered with wind turbines that slap slowly and metrically through the fog. There are actually more than 21,000 wind turbines across the country, and they provide Germany with seven per cent of its electrical power. Wind power in the country is set to expand in the future, as Germany tries to phase out its nuclear power plants. Canada should take pointers.
I opted to travel by car rather than train upon the advice of a friend (among other reasons). She told me that by choosing to drive in the region one "can say Autobahn as much as possible and make stops at towns like F_cking Austria."
Heeding to her advice, I found myself an 'economy' Renault and a navigational device, and I was ready to go.
"Autobahhhhnnnnn," I said under my breath as I got into the car, feeling the aspiration, heavy and warm in my mouth.
I pride myself on being a Montreal driver. After all, Montreal is probably the only city in Canada, where breaking speed limits, dodgy manoeuvres and using at least one expletive, is required to get a license.
But despite this impeccable training, I wasn't prepared for the Autobahn. Even at 140 kilometres per hour, I was going only half the speed of my fellow Autobahners. A shockwave passed through my mini Renault every time I was overtaken. I had to granny drive (with my hands at 10 and 2) to prevent from losing control.
It finally made sense to me why Germans listen to so much house music and metal. Cruising down the highway at those speeds, nothing else seems appropriate.
Another thing about the Autobahns - it's a rumour that there are no speed limits. Absolute myth. Though there are sections that encourage "free" driving, they are interrupted frequently and abruptly by red-ringed signs for 80 or even 60 kilometres per hour (due to road work). Without slamming on the breaks, I don't know how anyone evades radar mug shots. I'm not looking forward to the mail over the next couple of weeks, lest I get receive a stack of driving infractions.
Seeing the world one hiccup at a time
I'm the type of traveller that buys the guidebook, but never remembers to open it. I rarely, if ever, have a plan B, and so I have to "wing it" a lot.
On one hand it means I seldom have expectations, and so when I'm driving to an interview and the street opens into an old cobblestone square, baroque buildings and murals made of porcelain tiles [like Dresden's old town], I'm overcome by the beauty.
On the other hand, my lack of "planning" also means I'm often discombobulated, often lost and often in trouble. My inability to communicate in German (beyond ordering food) just made matters worse.
The 'trouble' started the night I arrived; I drove around for hours in the pouring rain in Berlin, with no concept of where my hotel was, after my navigational device failed. It continued until my last day in Dusseldorf, where I got lost for a good couple of hours while jogging through a park (OK, more specifically - a massive cemetery). So glad I didn't go at night.
My epic 'miss' was trying to visit the town of Erfurt for a lunch break during a six-hour drive from Dresden to Dusseldorf. Erfurt is a "not-to-be-missed medieval town," and home to the oldest standing synagogue in Europe, I was told.
Somehow I got distracted and ended up in a pedestrian area. A sea of Russian and Asian tourists had to part frantically around my vehicle. I kept my eyes forward as I weaved in and out of the masses, aware of the stares of disbelief from all directions. My cheeks were burning red, if that's even possible for a brown person.
Well, to my good fortune, that pedestrian walkway turned into a tram platform. Definitely not a place for cars, it turns out. The railed trams were swinging in to the station from every which way. There was nothing I could do but wait. In a line of trams. On a platform.
I spend most of my time in Nairobi, a place where slight traffic infractions lead to threats of jail time or considerable bribes to police officers. I honestly didn't know what the German police would have done if they found me there. Laughed at my sheer incompetence?
Needless to say I didn't stick around long. A quick re-program of my navigational device, and I was out of there. I can always find pictures of Erfurt and its old synagogue on the Internet.
Now grounded in Frankfurt, my final destination, and having already evaded a parking ticket this afternoon, I think I'll take the train to Sunday's game.
]]>Japan and the United States are more than worthy finalists for the FIFA Women's World Cup.
]]>Japan and the United States are more than worthy finalists for the FIFA Women's World Cup.
The Japanese and Americans overcame loses in the opening round and finishing second in their respective groups, not to mention defeating difficult opponents in the quarter- and semifinals, to book their spots in Sunday's finale in Frankfurt.
So, full credit to them both.
However, the Americans' victory over France Wednesday not
only relegated Les Bleues to the third-place match, it also deprived fans of
the beautiful game from watching Louisa Necib, this tournament's best player, from competing on the big stage.
A quick look at the statistics show Marta's Brazil and Homare Sawa of Japan tied for first in the scoring race with four goals apiece. Lisa Dahlkvist and her three goals paved the way for Sweden to reach the semifinals, while Abby Wambach's late heroics in the U.S.'s last two games is the main reason why the Americans will have a chance to claim a third World Cup title.
Necib's name doesn't appear anywhere on the tournament's
list of goal scorers, but statistics aren't always an accurate reflection of a
player's influence, and the Frenchwoman's influence at the World Cup has been
immense.
Dubbed by the French media as the female Zinedine Zidane, Necib was largely responsible for France making it the semifinals in the first place. Her artful displays on the field and the way she pulled the creative strings in the French attack won her plaudits from opponents and neutral observers alike.
FIFA really should
come up with statistical categories to measure elegant possession, sublime
passing skills, and a cultured touch on the ball. Necib possesses all three of
those traits in abundance and it would be nice if she received the proper
accolades and recognition for her superb displays in Germany.
There is also a marked intelligence to her play. Necib has a great football IQ, knowing when to take a defender on one-on-one, how to find a teammate with a slide-rule pass, and how to exploit tight spaces to create scoring chances for herself and her cohorts.
All of this is bound in a modest package - despite being
heralded as her team's best player, Necib cuts a quiet and shy figure off the
field, and is almost embarrassed to the point of being uncomfortable when
pressed to talk about herself in media interviews.
It's just a shame that she has been denied the chance to showcase her considerable skills on the grandest platform in the women's game.
But at just 24 years of age, and with France an emerging
European power in the sport, Necib will be back in four years time when the
Women's World Cup is staged in Canada.
Genuine fans of the beautiful game are already counting down the days.
Follow John F. Molinaro on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/#!/JohnMolinaro
What we were becoming convinced of at this Women's World Cup we are absolutely sure of now.
]]>What we were becoming convinced of at this Women's World Cup we are absolutely sure of now.
The women's game has been turned on its head. No longer are the top two or three ranked teams a lock to make it to the World Cup final. This is anyone's game now.
Germany's dismantling by Japan is the final piece of evidence required to say
with absolute confidence that what we once knew about the women's game no
longer applies. Just about anyone can win at anytime. The gap has narrowed, and
it's a brand new ball game.
There was something about Germany that didn't seem right
heading into this one, though. Birgit Prinz was not "mentally ready"
to play? She is obviously on the downside of her career and perhaps she's even
played her final match for her country.
It would be realistic to suggest that her state of mind rubbed off on her teammates. We watched all the off-air televisions pictures of the German team arriving at the stadium in Wolfsburg before the match and the players' body language spoke volumes.
This was a team that did not look ready to play.
Japan on the other hand is making believers of us. Until now we were wondering
if the team that smashed Mexico 4-0 was the real Japan, or was it the team that
lost 2-0 in lacklustre fashion to England. It appears the former is the case
and now Japan has to be considered a very dangerous opponent for anyone.
Back to Germany for a moment. UEFA uses the FIFA Women's World Cup as the Olympic qualifying tournament. Only the top two teams qualify. Having made the semifinals, France is one. If Sweden does the same, they are the other.
A loss by Sweden means Germany would get another chance by meeting Sweden in a playoff as they both went out at the quarter-final stage. But can you imagine Germany not at the Olympics?
My, how times have changed. ]]>