I’m writing this having watched my Man City teammates help England make history.
Lucy’s winning strike was nothing short of incredible…she has so much confidence on the pitch and is always willing to take chances and that showed massively on Monday night as it has done throughout the tournament. Steph has always led by example and I’m delighted she scored but for me it was Jill Scott coming on as a substitute that made the difference. Jill kept the ball and showed a great sense of composure which actually lead to Lucy’s goal in the last 15 minutes.So while Canada the hosts beckon for England in Vancouver on Sunday, what other games have caught my eye? Well the Aussies’ defeat of Brazil was a great game – lots of pace on offer and another match proving that the form book goes out the window as new teams come to the fore.What’s for sure is that, just as in the men’s game, as the world’s women begin to realise that football is a beautiful game too, then more and more countries will come on board to rock the established pecking order.
So far, the tournament has given viewers reasons to continue watching women football. Incredible goals; shock results and some really tight, exciting games. The USA v Sweden game for me was the best standard so far. Even though it was a goalless draw it was anything but boring with both teams hitting the woodwork on numerous occasions and some great defending at both ends. Individuals such as Columbia’s Andrade have stood out for me with her endless skills and getting on the score sheet twice in the Group stages. As anticipated, Le Sommer has already made her impact inthe World Cup for France, with her player-of-the-match performance in their opening group game. Le Sommer lighting up the Canadian summer, if you like.So the quarter finals get underway on Friday. It’s definitely been the general consensus that this has by far been the best Women’s World Cup to-date, and there’s still more to come.
Out of the eight teams heading into the quarter finals, I still believe Germany look the strongest. As itstands they are topping the stats for the number of attacking moves and goals. Sasic and Mittag eachshare the top of the leaderboard for goals scored across the whole tournament with five a piece, andno doubt they’ll be looking to add to that and take their team into the final stages. Germany have also scored the most goals from open play, which for me speaks in volumes. They haven’t had to rely on set pieces or refereeing decisions creating free kicks or penalties but have stuck to a game plan by playing together and creating their own goals. They’ve played some great football and as normal for a German side they’ve also been incredibly clinical.I’d also single out the BBC as my twelfth player – they’ve done a fantastic job so far with every game either available live or on the red button.
The media hype surrounding the matches has been incredibly positive but there have been a few negative reports. Even though they’re out of the World Cup I think the Norwegians should definitely take the applause for their hilarious response to the naysayers. Their spoof YouTube video was a brilliant response to the typical clichés that every female footballer unfortunately at some point in their career has to answer to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehnMEjHyIgM
Now I’m just off to ask FIFA if they can give us smaller pitches, a lighter ball and some pegs so I can hit free kicks better!!
Manchester City and Scotland player Jenny Beattie is an ambassador for the Host Your Kit campaign from UK cloud company iomart called Host Your Kit which is giving away 15 FREE Nike squad kits to girls’ youth football teams during the Women’s World Cup. For more details on how to enter go to www.hostyourkit.com.
SHE KICKS – the online community for women’s football
