Opinion
It’s coming. The hype has started. The FIFA Women’s World Cup is coming to Australia and New Zealand in a few short weeks, and we are going to served up a sumptuous feast of top-class international football from some of the best footballers and the best teams in the world.
Three and sometimes four games per day will be enough for every single sport fan in the region to fill their boots and immerse themselves for a whole month in the world of women’s football. Diehard football fans will be full of excitement, casual fans will be happy to have so much sport to consume, but what about everyone else?
The Football Ferns kick off the competition on Thursday 20th July, and all eyes will be on Eden Park as they come up against the classy Europeans from Norway. The Matildas open their account later that day with a winnable fixture against Ireland, and by then everyone in our corner of the globe will know that the World Cup has arrived. But what happens on day two?
That’s when the general public will need to be fed context. Context is a wonderful thing.
What is the drawcard to watch the next game, and the one after that? The World Cup is not simply a collection of the top 32 teams in the world – it is much more than that. A complicated qualifying path involving many games has been trodden by all but two of these teams, the two host nations given a free passage into the tournament.
(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
The remaining 30 teams have earned their berth at the World Cup, some teams having played qualifying games to reach even the qualifiers, and others having taken their journey right to the end in the inter-continental play-off tournament in New Zealand in February.
Day two, for example, sees Nigeria play Canada, the ‘other’ game in Group B. The complex FIFA World Rankings, based upon various rules in a fantastical formula, have Nigeria ranked 40th in the world, and Canada ranked seventh.
The fact that Canada beat the Matildas in two recent games in Australia suggests that this will be a one-sided affair, but Nigeria could be a force themselves. They were beaten semi-finalists in the Africa Cup of Nations, so can claim to be one of the best four teams in the continent, and have hit their straps in their friendly matches recently, much in the same way that the Matildas have peaked at the right time. This could be a fascinating match-up.
Every game has a quite wonderful context, if the casual observer or the mainstream media feeding the general public is inclined to do the homework, and there are some startling stats that need to be shared. For example, the top goalscorer in World Cup qualifying is not even in the tournament; Tessa Wullaert scored for fun in qualifying, but her Belgium team was beaten at the final hurdle by Portugal.
Zambia is the lowest-ranked team, sitting at 77 in the FIFA rankings, despite beating Nigeria in the 3rd place play-off at the Africa Cup of Nations. Along with Morocco, ranked 72, they will be absolute wildcards at the tournament, and we live in hope of seeing an upset or at least some nervous moments for the higher-ranked teams they face in the group stages.
Of the top 32 countries in the world, 21 of those are from Europe. With only room for 12 European countries in the World Cup, eight of the world’s top nations missed out, while Russia were disqualified by FIFA from competing altogether. That meant a cut-throat qualifying tournament, where strong nations were ruthlessly eliminated.
Iceland, for example, ranked 15th in the world, were drawn in a group with powerhouse Holland, and only just missed out on top spot after some commanding results. The lottery of the play-offs saw them beaten by Portugal in a one-off do-or-die fixture, and other nations such as Scotland, Austria and Wales met a similar fate.
The Portugese team were sent to the inter-confederation play-offs and had another win-or-bust game against Cameroon in Hamilton and were victorious. The lowest-ranked European team in the tournament will be Ireland, though, but they are still ranked 22nd in the world rankings. No easy pushovers.
For every France versus Brazil or Japan versus Spain, there is a Portugal versus Vietnam or China versus Haiti.
Games such as Italy versus Argentina will be huge, simply because the two countries are massive footballing nations. And while the big games will attract the attention of the media and the casual football fan, the lesser nations will attract thousands of proud supporters to make a terrific atmosphere that is more than just about the football.
National identity will be on show and just being there, being part of the celebrations, win or lose, will be the important factor for many attending. Memories of the men’s Asian Cup in 2015, where Iran and Iraq brought thousands of fans together in memorable scenes around the country will be rekindled as the FIFA Women’s World Cup attracts unparalleled positivity for the women’s game.
Being able to come along for the ride, picking up tickets at ridiculously low prices, is something that we will never be able to do again, and to miss out due to apathy or pride, or even simply because it’s not seen as cool, will be unforgivable.
Embrace that potential dead rubber Costa Rica-Zambia clash – it could be the most amazing game you ever see and who knows what happens in the first two matches in Group C that could turn this match-up into a moment in history.
Have a look at your World Cup schedule. Have a look at the non-Matildas games in your city. Have a look on the FIFA ticketing website. Find out a little bit of context of the teams playing and get your tickets before the huge wave of hunger for spare seats engulfs our region. This is going to be bigger than any of us anticipated.
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