Women’s World Cup: Italy Starts a 16-Year-Old, and Germany Leans on Its Experience
Australia’s workforce has been tight-lipped all week concerning the standing of its star striker Sam Kerr, who was dominated out of the primary two video games of the World Cup final week with what workforce officers known as a calf damage.
Australian officers mentioned on the time that Kerr’s damage could be reassessed after the second recreation of the group stage on Thursday, and in doing so held out hope she would return to the sector.
But one in every of Kerr’s teammates, the 21-year-old midfielder Kyra Cooney-Cross, brought about a stir on Monday when she advised reporters at Australia’s camp that Kerr had a torn calf muscle — a much more severe damage that may nearly actually rule Kerr out of the event.
“It’s unfortunate that Sam tore her calf before the game,” Cooney-Cross advised reporters. “But I think, as a team, we’re just focusing on Nigeria. Sam’s doing her own thing to get back as quick as possible and that’s also important.”
Team officers instantly attempt to row again Cooney-Cross’s assertion. A workforce press officer mentioned in a textual content message that Cooney-Cross had misspoken, utilizing “inaccurate wording as a young player” and “colloquial language rather than medical language.” In a separate message, a senior federation official mentioned the suggestion that Kerr had torn a muscle was “not accurate,” and that the unique prognosis — a light calf pressure — was nonetheless in impact.
Australia beat Ireland in its opener, 1-0, however the lack of Kerr is a probably devastating blow to its hopes of constructing a deep run within the event on house soil.
Germany kicks off its World Cup marketing campaign on Monday with the identical goal as all the time: to win all of it. Germany, a two-time champion that has by no means failed to succeed in at the least the quarterfinals, drew a positive group this 12 months, with Morocco, Colombia and South Korea. So though it has probability to succeed in the ultimate eight once more, it has set its sights a lot greater.
Another prime competitor taking the sector is Brazil, a workforce higher recognized for one participant, Marta, than the general power of its roster. However, with Pia Sundhage, the previous United States coach, on the helm, Brazil may very well be a harder out than typical.
Germany vs. Morocco
Germany gained the World Cup in 2003 and 2007, and in addition has eight European Championships and an Olympic gold medal from Rio 2016 in its trophy case. But it misplaced to England within the ultimate of final 12 months’s European Championship, and its kind has been erratic in latest months, with losses to Brazil and Zambia and a slim win in opposition to Vietnam in a pleasant in June.
Morocco, against this, is likely one of the eight first-time qualifiers within the discipline. Its qualification has gained the workforce new followers again house. But reaching the event is one factor. Knocking off Germany in it’s fairly one other.
Italy vs. Argentina
Italy reached the quarterfinals of the final World Cup, a stable end result after a 20-year absence from the event. But after lacking the knockout stage of the European Championship final 12 months, the workforce started a generational transition, with Coach Milena Bertolini dropping a variety of veterans to make manner for brand spanking new expertise.
Giulia Dragoni, a 16-year-old midfielder whom some have nicknamed Little Messi, solely made her debut earlier this month in a scoreless draw in opposition to Morocco. She will begin in opposition to Argentina, and she or he may very well be the face of Italy’s workforce within the close to future.
“I have no expectations,” Dragoni mentioned this week. “I can’t because I am still so young and I came here to learn and to have some experience.”
Argentina has by no means superior previous the group stage, failing to win a World Cup match and scoring solely 5 targets in three tournaments. But the Argentines gained 4 of their 5 friendlies and are in prime kind heading into their opener.
Brazil vs. Panama
All eyes are on Marta. The Brazilian legend is showing in her sixth World Cup at age 37, and nonetheless hoping to seize an ever-elusive title. Marta is taken into account by many to be the best participant within the historical past of the sport, however she has usually carried the load for her nationwide workforce alone.
The closest the Brazilians have come to successful the event was almost a era in the past, once they misplaced to Germany within the 2007 ultimate. This 12 months’s workforce shouldn’t be thought-about as robust as some previous iterations, however in Sundhage it has a revered coach with a embellished historical past of her personal.
Brazil’s first opponent is Panama, one other World Cup debutante and the ultimate nation to earn a spot on this event. Panama has its personal Marta: Marta Cox, the 26-year-old midfielder who scored off a bicycle kick in Panama’s World Cup qualifying match in opposition to Paraguay.
Colombia vs. South Korea
Colombia is coming off a robust efficiency within the Copa América Championship, the place it beat Argentina within the semifinals and fell to Brazil within the ultimate, 1-0. Those outcomes counsel a readiness to contend on the world stage. But that competitiveness might have gone too far in a latest pleasant in opposition to Ireland: That match was known as off after 20 minutes for what the Irish labeled “overly physical” play from the Colombians. Colombia rejected that characterization and defended its fashion; it mentioned the Irish merely “preferred not to continue playing.”
Colombia will face South Korea, the runner-up within the 2022 Asian Cup. The South Koreans have made it to the knockout stage as soon as in three earlier World Cup appearances, in 2015. Four years in the past, the Koreans misplaced all three of their video games.
One of eight first-time qualifiers within the Women’s World Cup discipline, Morocco might not win a recreation enjoying in a bunch that features a former champion (Germany), an Asian common (South Korea) and the second-best workforce in South America (Colombia).
But the truth that Morocco is enjoying on this event, which started Thursday in Australia and New Zealand, and that its girls’s workforce exists in any respect, is serving as an inspiration and a measurable supply of delight at house and overseas.
Morocco is the primary Women’s World Cup qualifier from North Africa, and the primary from a majority Arab nation. Still, its squad was little recognized even to most Moroccans earlier than it hosted the occasion that served because the continent’s World Cup qualifying event on house soil final July. As it posted win after win, nevertheless, the nation’s stadiums began to fill with followers, a lot of them seeing the workforce play for the primary time.
In a rustic the place soccer is revered however the place curiosity within the girls’s recreation is a brand new phenomenon, that success raised the workforce’s profile. “They showed us that they can fill stadiums and make Moroccans happy,” the workforce’s French coach, Reynald Pedros, mentioned. “They did it on the African stage. Now we are hoping to do the same on the international one.”
