Women’s World Cup a showcase for great talent

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/05/2015 (4152 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When most people think of football they automatically assume it’s a sport dominated by men. That may be true in the rest of the world, but this is Canada and, for one thing, we don’t call it football here. It’s soccer.

Sadly, the Canadian men’s national team seem to be perpetual strugglers. They have only qualified to play in one World Cup — in 1986 — and are currently ranked 116th in the world.

It’s a different matter for our women’s team, though. Ranked eighth globally they are talented, hard-working, entertaining to watch and capable of beating anyone on any given day.

So it’s interesting that the Women’s World Cup is being held in Canada for the first time this summer. This will be the largest women’s soccer tournament in history.

Canada automatically qualified for the tournament as hosts and will be one of 24 teams that will play at six venues throughout the country. They’ll open the tournament on Sat. June 6 with a game against China at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium.

Winnipeg is one of the host cities and, while Canada is not scheduled to play any matches here, we will be hosting games between 10 different national teams, including two-time winners and tournament favourites USA. The Americans are joined in a so-called “group of death” by Sweden, Nigeria and Australia.

Other games to be played here will feature Thailand, Germany, China, New Zealand, Ecuador and Japan.

We will have a chance to see some of the world’s top players such as the American Abby Wambach, who is currently the world’s leading international goal scorer with 178 goals,  just slightly ahead of our Christine Sinclair. Wambach will be joined by her controversial teammate Hope Solo, who, despite an arrest for domestic abuse and a recent suspension for bad attitude, still remains one of the world’s top goalkeepers.

The tournament will wrap up on Sun., July 5 with a match at Vancouver’s BC Place.

FIFA is the world governing body of soccer, and its president, Sepp Blatter, will be in Canada for the tournament, although there’s no word yet whether he’ll be coming to Winnipeg.

One interesting note about FIFA is that it doesn’t allow stadiums used in its tournaments to go by their corporate names. Only FIFA-sanctioned tournament sponsors can have their corporate names used or
displayed.

So, although all the Winnipeg games will be played at Investors Group Field, FIFA will refer to it simply as Winnipeg Stadium. And all the advertisement hoardings will have to be removed, including those on the cup holders in each of the seats.

Naming rights aside, many of us will be witness to some of the best soccer we’re ever likely to see.
I just hope the members of our men’s team will be watching.

Trevor Smith is a community correspondent for River Heights. You can contact him via email at smitht@mymts.net