Thoughts on the Women's World Cup

So another Women's World Cup ends with the US taking the trophy home. With my limited knowledge of the women's game, I guess I'm not surprised, since all I really knew about women's football before this tournament started was the 1999 tournament, with the now-iconic team that won their second trophy on penalties and, properly, for the first time, put soccer front and center here in the US in ways that the men's team hasn't been able to.

It may sound bad but I wasn't really planning on paying much attention when it all started last month. It was a little more top of mind for me than it might have been if I didn't religiously read the Guardian's football coverage every day, and their Football Weekly podcast has done a decent job in the regular season of mentioning the doings in women's football. I'd been sort of looking forward to a break, but then it all started and I found myself swept along in the excitement.

I remember listening to the Football Weekly that went out the day before it started, and getting a sense of excitement from the correspondents, and I think that's what made me want to keep up. But the thing that really got my attention was seeing Italy unexpectedly beat Australia.

As an Italy fan, I think it's fair to call myself "long-suffering". I still have fond memories of Italy's 2006 triumph (in the men's tournament), but since then the World Cup has been one disaster after another, and the European Championships have been only a bit better. To be honest I didn't even know the women hadn't qualified for the last couple of tournaments, so seeing this unfancied team come out of the blocks was impressive. Even more impressive was the 5-0 against Jamaica that essentially guaranteed progression to the round of 16. And if Italy went out in the quarterfinal to eventual finalists the Netherlands, well, it was at least a good run, which was needed after so many years of the men doing so badly.

The other thing I enjoyed about the tournament was the mirror-universe quality to it all. Some teams that are nowhere in the men's game qualified for this tournament (like Thailand), or were even considered strong contenders (like Canada). Even China and Japan got to the knockout rounds, which is a big feat for Asian teams on the men's side.

Probably the biggest example of this quality, though, is the position of the US. By winning today the US takes home its fourth trophy, making it the most successful women's team on this stage, whereas the men didn't qualify for Russia 2018 either. I was struck by the narrative surrounding their progress as the team everybody loved to hate, especially given how they kicked off their tournament with that 13-0 demolition of Thailand.

But I also got into the narratives around Megan Rapinoe and her ongoing spat with both Donald Trump and with the US Soccer Federation, as well as how the women's team overall has taken the federation to court to achieve parity with the men in terms of pay. Given their success internationally, it's hard to argue, especially when you read the analysis of how little they earn compared to the men.

All of a sudden, not only could I not avoid profiles of Rapinoe or Everybody's Favorite, Alex Morgan, but I couldn't get enough of them myself, especially given how outspoken Morgan is on this pay gap question. The profiles on her talk about how marketable she is (which I take as a euphemism for "attractive"), so it's more notable how willing she is to speak bluntly about pay, her goal celebrations or even backing up Rapinoe on not visiting the White House.

I also can't help contrasting Morgan with Neymar Jr. on the subject of diving and drawing fouls. Both are key players who score a lot of goals and therefore get the stuffing knocked out of them regularly. And if Morgan has started to incorporate diving into her own repertoire, it's still a far cry from the theatrics that Neymar engages in when he gets fouled - to the point that he's probably damaged his own reputation every time he pounds the turf while rolling about.

Morgan gets bowled over, makes maybe some kind of meal of it, but then she's back on her feet and drawing more fouls, with a lot less complaining than him.

Or another example that I loved: in the Sweden-Netherlands semi-final Kosovare Asllani took a ball to the face that left her getting stretchered off at the end of the match, and going to the hospital for scans. Yet she recovered fast enough to play again in the third-place playoff a few days later, and even scored the first goal. 

I'd say it's those kinds of stories that made me glad I've watched a fair chunk of this tournament. I just hope I'll be able to keep up with this side of the game as it develops, though with luck a true female equivalent to Neymar's playacting is still a few years off.