Good, Bad & Ugly: Fantastic crowds, Matildas redemption and Olympic champions crash out

By David Shilovsky / Expert

With the first section of the Women’s World Cup done and dusted, let’s take a look back at some of the more memorable moments of the group stage.

We saw incredible goals, shocking upsets and magnificent attendances, while co-hosts New Zealand created unwanted history and the Matildas had the nation on edge until a triumphant win on Monday.

Good

Incredible crowds flock to stadiums around Australia and New Zealand

We’ll get to the on-field action soon, but first let’s discuss the incredible supporter engagement this edition of the Women’s World Cup has produced.

Along with 40,000 other people I was at Allianz Stadium for Colombia’s thrilling victory over the highly fancied German side. The Colombian supporters produced a vivid atmosphere throughout the night, but the noise after Manuela Vanegas’ stoppage-time winner was simply incredible – I would’ve loved to see a decibel reading.

The Matildas sold out grounds across the country, and there will be another 75,000 fans inside the cavernous Stadium Australia on Monday evening when Tony Gustavsson’s side battle Denmark for a place in the quarter-finals.

(Photo by Richard Callis/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)

Gustavsson pulls win out of fire under enormous pressure

There was a real stench around the Matildas after the unacceptable defeat to Nigeria in Brisbane. All of a sudden, issues like the ousting of previous coach Alen Stajcic had come back to the forefront and questions were being asked about the current manager, the culture of the squad, everything.

Winning, of course, is the cure for everything in sport and boy did the Matildas get the job done at AAMI Park – an emphatic 4-0 triumph over Canada to seal top spot in Group B.

Momentum is now behind the Aussies, and with a week’s more rest, star striker and captain Sam Kerr will surely play some role in the knockout clash. Let’s see how far this Matildas side can go in their home World Cup.

Genius French ad right on the money

If you haven’t seen the Orange ad that used deepfake technology to subvert stereotypes about women’s football – mainly that it lacks the high-end skill of the men’s game – check it out below.

Granted, not every match showcased amazing skill and there’s understandably a big disparity between the top and bottom nations, but some of the football on show in the group stage was spellbinding.

A few personal highlights include Brazil’s awesome team goal finished off by Beatriz Zaneratto, Lauren James’ stunning strike from outside the area, and, of course, Linda Caicedo’s incredibly quick feet for her goal against Germany.

In terms of goals, though, nothing in the group stage beats this incredible hit, the only converted direct free-kick so far.

The ad isn’t saying the women are just as good as the men – and I don’t think many people are. Let’s just enjoy these athletes’ skill without the tiresome comparison.

Bad

Did FIFA expand too soon?

There are good arguments as to why the World Cup was expanded to 32 teams, but there was always concern about how some of the weaker nations would fare and that was validated with some very one-sided affairs. Does anyone want to see an established football nation beat up a minnow to the tune of 5-0 or 6-0? I know I don’t.

Sure, we do see blowouts in the men’s competition – Qatar, anyone? – but the gap between rich and poor is typically not as large as it currently is on the women’s side. With all due respect to everyone involved in those organisations, the results of sides such as Ireland, Haiti and Vietnam – with one point between them – give credence to the argument that expansion of the Women’s World Cup could have perhaps been pushed back.

But now the genie is out of the bottle, and considering FIFA’s obsession with improving their bottom line, the 32-team format is here to stay.

Football Ferns fall at the first hurdle

Women’s football, as a professional sport, is still in an era of upheaval. Standards and professionalism are improving across the globe, but it’s impossible to refute that improvements are typically much more obvious in traditional football hotbeds across Europe and South America.

For a nation of just over 5 million people, and where football has stiff competition from rugby league and the monolithic union empire, New Zealand has always punched above their weight in the men’s game.

With all this in mind, the Football Ferns faced a difficult task to qualify for the knockout stages out of Group A, also featuring European sides Norway and Switzerland. They came close – a 1-0 victory in the clash with Switzerland would have been enough to see them through to the round of 16.

But with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play all three group stage matches at home, concluding their tournament with a whimper in the 0-0 stalemate in Dunedin, it feels like a disappointing campaign for the Football Ferns.

Ugly

Olympic champions create unwanted history

As much pressure as the Matildas were under going into the do-or-die clash with Canada at AAMI Park, Beverly Priestman’s side, despite needing only a draw to progress, faced much scrutiny themselves. A win against Ireland had set themselves up well, but even in that game they were behind to one of the weakest sides in the tournament.

Ultimately the pressure told, with Australia putting Canada to the sword with four unanswered goals, and Canada became the first reigning Olympic champions to be dumped out of the following World Cup in the group stage.

It’s the end of the line – in World Cup play, at least – for legends Christine Sinclair and Sophie Schmidt.

Earliest-ever exit for world No.2 Germans

I think Alexandra Popp’s facial expression says it all here.

Canada’s fall from grace is one thing, but for one of the proudest football nations in the world a first-ever group stage exit in this World Cup is nothing short of a disaster.

Poor zonal marking from a corner undid Germany in the loss to Colombia, and failing to defeat South Korea was the final nail in their campaign, despite a 6-0 win over Morocco. Oh, and did I mention Morocco actually went through instead?

Clangers, hospital passes and blunders

On the opposite side of the coin from the dazzling skill come some less, shall we say, proficient moments. The plays the women involved would much rather forget, but thanks to high definition cameras, we never will.

Take a look at Chinese goalkeeper Zhu Yu’s comical attempt at coming out to collect an innocuous long ball.

And two in the same half of this game, with both Italy and South Africa’s round of 16 hopes on the line in Wellington. It’s moments like these that make you hope for a hole in the ground to spontaneously open up and swallow you.

One of my all age division 5 teammates would be admonished for such a ridiculous defensive header, let alone in a World Cup.

The Crowd Says:

2023-08-05T06:05:54+00:00

338

Roar Rookie


I have no issues with expanding to 32 teams. Think what a boost qualifying gives those countries that have come in. There were some thrashings but some of those involved unfortunate own goals nd penalties too and Australia put 4 past Canada and Japan put 4 past Spain (who are currently thrashing the Swiss 4-1 at half time). I don't think we should see the bad losses as reason for teams not to be involved.

2023-08-04T23:31:28+00:00

Brainstrust

Roar Rookie


Everyone underestimated the ratings potential of the world cup, FIFA have only gotten US 200m worldwide for the TV rights. I would say based on the ratings so far the world cup is worth about 40-50m in Australia alone on free to air. My guess would be Optus paid 15-20m onsold the games to Seven for 10m and would be really happy with that. Everyone else would be saying well we just missed out on the deal of the century. Thats what you call a commercial disaster not a commercial decision for those who missed out. For example the London Olympics on Foxtel cost them 120m for a two week event. Foxtel had 8 Channels on their service gave free to air one channel. Even if Foxtel sold the free to air rights of one channel for 40m they still shouldered the majority of cost. The free to air channel outrated their 8 channels but they still got record ratings. So basically what happened was no one really cared to subscribe to Foxtel for the event they were content with the one channel on free to air. The difference is free to air make all their money from ads, Foxtel make 5%, Optus dont have ads.

2023-08-04T23:26:03+00:00

NoMates

Roar Rookie


Look forward to the crowd numbers and tv viewing figures coming up. This world cup has had the underdog story with Morrocco and the dark horse of the comp Nigeria remaining unbeaten and i believe they will do over the poms. Its had it all including Germany bowing out.

AUTHOR

2023-08-04T14:47:07+00:00

David Shilovsky

Expert


It's a good point. Seven clearly underestimated the interest in teams other than the Matildas. Ultimately it's a commercial decision, so I can understand, but a bit disappointing too.

2023-08-04T03:22:16+00:00

Midfielder

Roar Guru


Personally I have enjoyed it a lot... and can only add to the voices asking why so few games on FTA...

AUTHOR

2023-08-04T00:36:23+00:00

David Shilovsky

Expert


Hi mate, me too made a similar point below as well. Overall, the quality of the tournament has been excellent. Plenty of upsets in head-to-head matches, as well as group standings. I still think it was perhaps a bit too soon to expand, if you look at sides like Panama, for example, even though Cox provided the goal of the tournament so far. I could have mentioned in the article that things will be very different in women’s football in four years. My sincere hope is as many players around the world as possible have access to professional standard facilities, and then 32 teams won’t seem a stretch at all.

2023-08-04T00:17:03+00:00

Brainstrust

Roar Rookie


Football is the most played sport in NZ for men, and rugby would be way down the list of sports women play in NZ. Rugby league? Just because NZ dominate rugby league especially if you take all the players eligible for NZ even in State of Origin doesn't mean it has a lot of playing numbers in NZ. You might as well be quoting the most deluded fools who state we would win dominate the gold Olympic medals in athletics if the supreme athletes in AUstralia didnt play AFL and NRL plus the football world cup.

2023-08-03T22:19:27+00:00

Grem

Roar Rookie


I understand your expanding too soon point. Does that mean that teams like Morocco and Jamaica should not have been there while the likes of Germany, Brazil, etc are? The lower ranked teams are catching up fast and this just supercharges that process and makes it more fascinating.

2023-08-03T21:25:03+00:00

me too

Roar Rookie


Been an enticing world cup and very watchable. Also a credit to Australian fans turning out in record numbers - hopefully fifa take note and realise we could host the men just as successfully. On the criticism of playing standards - it shows that a so called second rated sports tournament can still be appreciated, well supported and successful. And likely to have won more than a few converts. So it's very disappointing that the commonwealth games were treated so poorly by an australian host. the same host that failed to negotiate a suitable arena for this world cup, leaving our so called sports capital out of contention to host a major final. A real pity as the atmosphere generated by the meagre (but sold out) crowd in our last game was incredible. imagine those same fans in a world cup final at the mcg? And good luck to our women - really turned it around and should ride a wave of confidence from here.

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