The future of the women’s game has never looked brighter but keeping fans interested after the World Cup is vital to its growthThe Women’s World Cup has been a tournament we will look back on as the point when all of our longstanding expectation of what women’s football could be was realised. You just have to look at television viewing figures around the world, which have been better than anything the men’s game has managed this year with nearly 12 million people tuning in to watch England’s semi-final defeat by USA and another 25 million in Brazil watching their last-16 game. That is immense. Related: Fifa's VAR bumbling hurt a World Cup in which the women's game shone | Hope...
From kindly taxi drivers to great goals, great games and the universally impressive Megan Rapinoe, here’s how our writers felt about their month in FranceMatch of the tournament England 1 USA 2. Yes, England lost and, on balance, they deserved to be defeated but it was tense and tight and a wonderful advert for the women’s game. An evening when many of those who have long patronised the sport were surely won over, with even the most stubborn refuseniks having to admit that it is rather good after all. Related: Lucy Bronze: Phil Neville is ‘not the best coach’ but made England better Related: USA’s Megan Rapinoe says equal pay talk must ‘move to the next step’ Continue reading...
Women’s World Cup has given us fantastic role models but elite success is not enough to get more people playing sportThe most seductive theory in sport has had one hell of a hearing during the past month. As the Women’s World Cup captured more hearts and minds, so the assumption intensified that England’s run will be a gamechanger, with elite success encouraging large numbers – particularly girls – to play football and get active. It sounds logical enough. Lucy Bronze, Megan Rapinoe, Wendie Renard and Rose Lavelle are fantastic role models, after all. There’s just one problem. There isn’t much evidence for what academics have called the “role‑modelling” or “trickle-down” effect. Related: English women's football seeks legacy from France 2019...
With attacking prowess, midfield mettle and an outstanding goalkeeper the Netherlands are an ascendant force after reaching final in only their second World CupWhen Vera Pauw returned to the Netherlands after the 2009 Women’s European Championship, she entered her office at the Royal Dutch Football Association expecting plaudits. The pioneering coach, a key force behind the establishment of the women’s Eredivisie, had just guided the national side to the semi-finals of their first major international tournament.Instead, in a nation long agnostic to the female game, she was met with silence. “Nobody in the association ever congratulated me,” Pauw recalled on Friday. Within six months the manager who laid the foundations for women’s football in the Netherlands had resigned, just as...
Netherlands got their tactics right and Americans struggled to impose themselves, yet once star of tournament scored there was only going to be one winnerIt became clear after 13 minutes that this was going to be a different kind of game for the USA. The Netherlands, it turned out, were different from any team they had faced at this World Cup. But the US had something no other side in tournament had: Megan Rapinoe, the biggest star of the World Cup, and the confidence she embodies.After steamrolling their way through the rest of the tournament and scoring within 12 minutes in every game, the mighty Americans had to wait an agonizing 61 minutes to score against a team that very...