Post No. 991 - Women's World Cup

I just watched England edge Nigeria on penalties in the Women’s World Cup. 

Lauren James, whose brother Reece plays for Chelsea, the Premier League club team I follow, as well as the England Men’s national team, is a lucky lass. Lauren has had a very productive world cup, but against Nigeria she was nonexistent for long stretches and then completely lost her cool and got sent off for violent conduct in the 86th minute. This forced her teammates to battle for nearly half an hour a player down, which is one of the toughest things to do in all of sports. Football (soccer) is a game of space, passing lanes, and losing a player puts enormous pressure on the team. Fortunately, England, the reigning European Champions, have enough talent and nous in their squad to overcome such a devastating occurrence. Lauren James is a technically gifted player, but there’s simply no excuse for what she did. It was obviously deliberate, a stupid decision that hurt her team, in the match with Nigeria and the next one when she will be ineligible to play.  

My favorite English player is Lucy Bronze, who plays her club football for the Barcelona ladies. Bronze was running as hard in the 120th minute as she was in the 40th. She’s not the flashiest, but she is the kind of player I respect because of her work rate, her smarts, and her on-field leadership. Bronze does all the little things that are needed to win tournaments. She’s a remarkable player. 

I’ve watched Japan play twice now and have been very impressed. The Japanese are extremely well-drilled. While they’re not the most physically imposing or athletic side, they show a collective understanding of how to play football. They maintain a compact shape, move the ball crisply, and move as a unit. They transition from defense to offense very quickly. While I have some doubts about them, I will not count them out. With a bit of good fortune, they could win the tournament. 

France is another side that has impressed me. Very athletic and dynamic. I was particularly impressed with Sakina Karchaoui. She not only defends effectively, but puts dangerous balls into the box. 

The other player that has impressed me with her all around play is Danielle van de Donk of the Netherlands. She’s another player who understands the game, who reads the game and instinctively knows what to do. 

I saw that Donald Trump put out a statement on his third-rate Twitter look-alike platform criticizing the US Women’s Team for being eliminated. The American team set a very high bar for themselves as multiple World Cup winners. It goes to show how difficult it is to win a World Cup, let alone repeat as winners. So many things have to go right, and there’s always a bit of luck involved. Trump extrapolated the loss as an example of America’s decline under Joe Biden, about as ignorant an argument as you’ll ever hear. Trump knows as much about football as he does about the Constitution, which, of course, is next to nothing. 

One thing is for certain: these women are fantastic athletes, fantastic competitors, and it’s a pleasure to watch them perform.