Beginning today, the World is our oyster

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This article was published 08/06/2015 (4094 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

So here we are.

After more than four years of build-up that began with Canada being appointed host of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, and just more than three since Winnipeg was named among its host cities, the moment has arrived.

By now most of us are aware of youth soccer’s scale in everything from the number of participants across genders to the magnitude of its value as a social tool. It was important to point out those facts, to tell those stories, and over the past few weeks, in particular, the Free Press revealed some of the best of them.

No doubt a good many serious outlets throughout the country did likewise, as is befitting the run-up to a truly global competition.

Incredibly, the feel-good factor surrounding this World Cup (notwithstanding the occasional pocket of bitterness that remains regarding the artificial playing surfaces) not only survived the latest revelations of FIFA scandal that threatened to diminish it, but thrived in spite of it.

And what we have as a result is a month of soccer celebration of the purest sort possible in a cynical industry — a sort of righteous foil to the evil forces that all too often detract from those heartening stories we see on the pitch, experience from the sidelines and feel in our fibres.

Soccer really does bring us together, often in a figurative sense but, every now and then, in a literal one as well.

It is right now — today, here — bringing the world to our neighbourhoods and making us — Canadians generally and Winnipeggers specifically — at once its safeguard and emissary.

The moment has arrived. Here we are.

World Cup Winnipeg

As of this afternoon our World Cup build-up period is over. We have games to talk about.

First up at Investors Group Field is the 3 p.m. contest between 2003 runners-up Sweden and reigning African champions Nigeria. At the 2007 tournament in China they played to a 1-1 draw, although the European giants have outscored the Super Falcons 6-2 in their six previous matches.

Nigeria, however, are easily the most competitive African outfit at this event, and in 20-year-old attacker Asisat Oshoala have the BBC’s female player of the year for 2015 among the ranks.

Last August Nigeria’s under-20 side took their German counterparts to extra time in the final of that age category’s World Cup — also held in Canada — and Oshoala, who plays her club soccer at Liverpool Ladies, finished as top scorer.

She’ll have to be in top form to help her side contend with a Sweden team that includes the likes of Lotta Schelin and Nilla Fischer, both of whom were short-listed for last year’s FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year award.

The lone American on the short list was Abby Wambach, who claimed the prize in 2012. The 35-year-old striker and the United States’ all-time leading goalscorer will kick off what will surely be her final World Cup at 6:30 p.m. against Australia.

Opposite Wambach will be Australia captain Lisa De Vanna, whose 2013 bicycle-kick for Sky Blue FC against the Boston Breakers earned her a FIFA Puskas Award nomination for best goal of the year.

She’ll be making her 100th appearance for the Matildas this evening, and the tenacity so often displayed by she and her teammates will have a lot to do with how the Group D underdogs fare against the section’s heavyweights.

Another variable in the match will be the availability of United States attacker Alex Morgan, who had been idle since April with a knee injury before completing a full training session on Saturday.

She may not start against Australia but could well come off the bench in the second half.

Canadian trail

Canada opened the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup with a nervy 1-0 win over China — the result of a successful Christine Sinclair spot-kick that followed a dubious, extra-time penalty decision.

Given Group A will likely be one of the brackets that sends three of its teams into the Round of 16 it’s conceivable the host nation could seal its spot in the knockout stages with just one more point.

But does this side intend on competing for the title or merely making up the numbers in the tournament’s second fortnight?

If it’s the former, there is work to be done. And lots of it.

Someone other than Sinclair, who is not the player she was at the 2012 Olympic Games, needs to step up and provide supplementary goal scoring, and another mistake-filled 90 minutes from Lauren Sesselmann will be punished by New Zealand and the Netherlands.

Thankfully, defender Kadeisha Buchanan was worth two players along the backline Saturday. The 19-year-old is already one of the top young talents in her position.

Jerradpeters@gmail.com Twitter @JerradPeters