Olympics: Hunt for gold in women's football as keen as a World Cup run
Ivana Andres of Spain and teammates celebrate with the FIFA Women's World Cup trophy at Stadium Australia on August 20, 2023 in Sydney / Gadigal, Australia. They are favourites to add the Olympic gold to the trophy. Picture Catherine Ivill/Getty Images
After the pandemic years, it is nice to again have a summer packed with events. The epic final last Sunday in Croker preceded by the Euros in and the Olympics in means that we have had plenty to distract us, no matter how much the weather tries to make us feel like it's winter.
With the World Cup, Euros, and Copa America such huge events in their own right, it is understandable that football participation in the Olympics does not always garner the type of attention the other marquee sports partaking in the Games get. Nevertheless, it will still play a significant role in in the coming weeks.
It also provides the only international platform where the women’s and men’s tournament are played at the same time. In saying that, it is the women’s tournament that will really generate most interest.
This is due to the rather anarchic IOC rules defining what a professional athlete is. Senior professional football players in the teams of the best European and South American leagues are excluded from the Games for what’s deemed to be noble Corinthian reasons. It doesn’t seem to matter that billionaire NBA basketball stars will be slam-dunking it just down the road, ‘we can’t have the sight of millionaire footballers besmirching our high amateur ideals’.
To be fair, the exclusion of senior professional footballers is really down to the fact that they have their own biggest of big events in the aforementioned World Cups and Copa/Euros and having them play in the Olympics would genuinely overshadow much of the other events in the Games.
So, the compromise is that the men’s teams are constituted of U23 players with the exception of three overage players. It does offer the opportunity to spot some exciting and emerging talent play for their country before they become famous.
And much the same as the sport’s regular tournaments, are favourites to win the gold with Spain and Argentina close contenders.
The real attention of football fans in these Games will fall on the women’s tournament, where full senior sides and professionals are allowed to play for their country and so will be more competitive too.
Indeed, the women’s game really made its name in the Olympics and the hugely successful US teams, who won four of the first five gold medals since the women’s game became part of the Olympics.
Twelve team make up the women’s competition across three groups of four. The top two from each group qualify automatically to the knockouts. While the best-ranked third place sides will them in the quarter finals.
The early attention concentrated on defending gold-medallists Canada. Their battling form secured them the medal last time in Tokyo, but they subsequently tamely exited last year’s World Cup in Australia at the group stage. Rather luckily claiming their only win in the 2-1 victory over Ireland.
But controversy has already dogged their bid to retain their gold, when it was discovered that someone in the Canadian camp used a drone to spy on their first-round opponent’s, (New Zealand) training camp. The drone operator was subsequently arrested, and two Canadian football officials have stood down from their position.
While investigations continue, they will still hope to make the quarter finals from a tough group that includes , Colombia, and the aforementioned Kiwis.
As many parts of the Olympics started before the opening ceremony yesterday. The sides faced each other on Thursday evening with the Canadians winning 2-1. A winning start, whether it was gained by fair means or foul.
Their biggest challenge may come from hosts , who have built up an impressive squad including Wendie Renard, Amandine Henry, and Kadidiatou Diani, who will obviously be hungry to impress on home turf. Of course, Ireland showed they are beatable, as exampled in the Girls in Green recent victory over them in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
As the most successful team in history, there will be obvious interest on the US team. They have not won gold since 2012, which is a bit of a famine in their high standards. New manager Emma Hayes has fostered a new breed of exciting players and optimism is high in the American camp. They have several exciting players in Naomi Girma, Sophia Smith, and Trinity Rodman (yes daughter of famous basketball star Dennis). The US faced Zambia on Thursday, winning 3-0, then face , and Australia in Group B. A decent group with 2016 champions , 2023 World Cup hosts Australia being potential banana skins.
The final group contains the gold medal favourites Spain, who will still be living in the glow of their terrific World Cup triumph and no doubt boosted by the exploits of the men’s side in Euro 2024.
Ballon d’Or winners Aitana Bonmati and Alexia Putella will again look to lead the side all the way to the finals. Japan, Nigeria, and Brazil will be in their way in the group but if they can rekindle the fire and form, they showed in the World Cup then they should get to the knockouts without too much effort. The Spaniards opened their campaign with a 2-1 win against Japan, also on Thursday, and it will be interesting to see if they will be in the Parc des Princes come the final on August 10.
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