With the global showpiece on home soil looming the three-team mini tournament is crucial for coach Tony Gustavsson’s planningTony Gustavsson possesses an undeniable stage presence. Enthusiastic – almost earnest – he arrives in Matildas camp from the air via umbrella, toes out-turned, ready to dance in dreamed-up settings with a smile and some catchy quotes. Five months before a World Cup for which Australia is still not convinced his national team is adequately prepared, he is in dress-rehearsal mode. “Everything we do now is like a World Cup rehearsal,” Gustavsson said on Wednesday, the eve of the Cup of Nations tournament – effectively a series of friendlies against Czechia, Spain and Jamaica.Whether the main act turns out to be Mary...
Alessia Russo and the re-emergence of Nikita Parris are just two reasons Sarina Wiegman can be optimistic about the tournament in Australia and New Zealand next summerThe fallout of a failed crusade led to Wiener Neustadt’s creation in 1194 but England will remember it as the place where their World Cup qualifying mission was accomplished.Although the city’s 3,000-capacity stadium, an hour’s drive south of Vienna, seemed a slightly underwhelming setting for the Lionesses’ first match since winning Euro 2022 in front of nearly 90,000 fans at Wembley in July, it was perhaps a fitting venue. A settlement built with the ransom money paid by the English to secure King Richard I’s release after his capture by Duke Leopold of Austria...
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...