Paul Marcuccitti works for an Australian
member of Parliament. His passion for the World Cup has survived despite his country's failed
qualifying attempts. He will share his views about the past, present and future
of the World Cup in this column.
Mail Paul
Read earlier columns
|
|
|
There's always the AFC Women's Asian Cup
So what do you do a week after the World Cup ends? Start counting the days
until the next one? Just wallow in your depression?
Don't despair - there's always the AFC Women's Asian Cup.
Yes, that's right. The finals of the Women's Asian Cup have just commenced
and, bless Asia's decision makers, they're being held in Adelaide. For
Australia, hosting and playing in this competition is another reward from
the Asia dividend.
When Australia was a member of Oceania, it qualified for every Women's
World Cup finals except for the inaugural tournament of 1991.
OFC has had a full place for each finals and that has meant that New
Zealand had been the Aussies' only real competition in qualifying. In
women's football, the Australia and New Zealand dominance of Oceania was
even greater than in men's football.
Unfortunately Australia's women's team (the Matildas) has a poor World Cup
record with no wins, 2 draws and 7 losses at the finals. If the team
qualifies for 2007, however, its preparation should be better. That's
because Asia has some genuine power teams in the women's game and
Australia will be playing them in meaningful matches at all age levels.
If the Asian Cup (for men) was staged in Australia now, the Socceroos
would start the tournament as favourites. But the Matildas are not
favourites to lift the Women's Asian Cup. They have China and North Korea
to contend with.
China won 7 consecutive Asian Women's Championships from 1986 to 1999. In
'99, China's women's team (the Steel Roses) also reached the Women's World
Cup Final but the USA denied them in a penalty shootout. (I'm sure
everyone remembers seeing Brandi Chastain rip her shirt off after her spot
kick clinched the trophy for the Americans.)
North Korea hasn't yet reached the Women's World Cup quarter-finals but
has been good enough to end China's dominance of Asia by winning the last
two Asian Women's Championships. Australia and North Korea are in the same
group and I'm looking forward to their meeting on Saturday night.
There are nine teams in the finals: China, Chinese Taipei, Japan and
Vietnam are in Group A; North Korea, South Korea, Australia, Thailand and
Myanmar are in Group B. The top two in each group go through to the
semi-finals.
Normally a tournament like this would have two groups of four but
Australia's recent move to the AFC means that qualifying began while
Australia was still in Oceania. To give the Matildas the chance to qualify
for the Women's World Cup, they were added to the competition and it was
also moved to Adelaide (Japan was the original host.)
The 2007 Women's World Cup will be held in China so the Steel Roses (love
that nickname) qualify automatically. Asia has 2.5 other spots at next
year's finals so the two highest placed teams at this tournament
(excluding China) will also qualify. The next best team gets another
chance through a playoff against the team that finishes third in
CONCACAF's Women's Gold Cup which will be played later this year.
Although Group A has fewer teams, it may be the tougher group. Recent
history would suggest that China and Japan would go through to the semis
but Vietnam and the youthful Chinese Taipei team could be competitive. In
Group B, Thailand and Myanmar look likely to struggle against the two
Korean teams and Australia.
Yesterday I watched the tournament begin with Thailand recording a 2-1 win
over Myanmar, and Australia defeating South Korea 4-0.
You might be thinking that watching these matches with about 1500 other
spectators couldn't be further from the excitement of the last
international I had a ticket for - the World Cup semi-final between
Germany and Italy (and it seems extraordinary that I was watching that
game less than two weeks ago).
But this tournament has its upsides. I'm yet to see anyone feign injury,
blatantly dive in the penalty area, sprint half the length of the field to
demand that the referee sends someone off, or commit sickening fouls. That
lack of cynicism has to be worth something, surely?
Thanks to a helpful official from Australia's football federation, I also
have a media pass which allowed me into the press conference after the
Matildas' win. I was also fortunate to have media passes for many of
Australia's World Cup qualifiers and I have to admit that I was stargazing
when I was able to sit just a few metres away from Guus Hiddink (and Mark
Viduka) after Australia defeated the Solomon Islands in Sydney last year.
I wasn't quite stargazing yesterday but it was still a privilege to see
the great Cheryl Salisbury answering the media's questions. The tall
defender has made more than 100 appearances for the Matildas.
She also combined well with defensive partner Karla Reuter to limit the
Koreans to just a couple of scoring chances in a match that saw the
Matildas controlling most of the play.
Australia struggled to score in the first half. The players were a bit too
impatient at times and only two fabulous strikes by midfielder Joanne
Peters (one hit the crossbar) threatened to break the deadlock.
Australia needed a bizarre own goal to take a 1-0 lead to half time. A
Korean defender simply headed a speculative cross into her own net when
she was under no pressure - there were no other outfield players in the
box.
In the 64th minute, Cha Yun-Hee could have scored from the Koreans' best
move of the match but, a minute later, Sarah Walsh put Australia 2-0 up
with a well taken goal. The Korean defenders were at fault and seemed to
struggle with the slippery conditions throughout the match.
The pace of the game really lifted in the last 30 minutes and the Aussies
finished off really well. They scored a third when left midfielder Caitlin
Munoz got on the end of a fine cross by substitute Lisa De Vanna. Munoz
had threatened the Korean defence repeatedly. Again, the goal came just
after the Koreans went close at the other end. This time Lee Ji-Eun forced
a good save from Aussie 'keeper Melissa Barbieri.
But it was Australia that found the cutting edge that had been missing in
the first half and De Vanna scored the fourth herself a few minutes from
full time.
It's a big result for the Matildas as North Korea, South Korea and
Australia will almost certainly be the teams fighting for Group B's two
semi-final places.
The earlier match between Thailand and Myanmar was entertaining if a
little less intense. Myanmar enjoyed some good possession but its attacks
kept breaking down as the Thai defence was just too strong.
The Thais went ahead in the 35th minute through Pitsamai Sornsai and they
dominated the last ten minutes of the first half.
With Suphaphon Kaeobaen constantly threatening the Myanmar defence,
Sornsai made it 2-0 in the 56th minute and, at that point, the match
seemed over. But within five minutes, Daw My Htwe pulled a goal back for
Myanmar after a scramble in the Thai penalty area and suddenly the
tournament's underdogs looked more potent. Thailand settled, however, and
finished the match confidently. The final score was 2-1.
Sadly, I won't be able to see every match in this tournament - a lot of
them will be played during working hours - but I'll be back with an update
in a week's time. (And you can always check out the dedicated site at
www.the-afc.com for results and match reports.)
Besides, another two weekends of international football action is enough
to satisfy my cravings - for now.
|
[HOME]
BACKGROUND
Info on how
the World Cup was founded and about the trophy as well. |
THE
WORLD CUPS
Detailed info
on every match in every tournament from 1930 until 2006 plus more. |
COLUMNISTS
Interesting columns about the past, present and future of the World Cup. |
THE
NATIONS
Every nation
with appearances in the World Cup. Detailed info on every country. |
LEGENDS
Player profiles
of many of the most influential players in history. |
A-Z STORIES
An A-Z collection
of strange and different stories in World Cup history. |
STATISTICS
A big collection
of various statistics and records. |
MASCOTS
Every mascot
since it was introduced in 1966. |
QUIZ
Test your
knowledge about the WC. Three different levels. No prizes, just for fun. |
TOP
10 RANKINGS
Rankings of
lots of stuff. For instance Best Goals, Best Players and Best Matches. |
LINKS
Our collection
of links to other soccer sites with World Cup connection. |
LINK
TO
Some banners
and buttons for you to link to us if you want. |
ABOUT
US
A little information
on who keeps this site available. |
|
