Women’s World Cup: Canada brace for limelight amid football’s darkest days

Hosts open mega event against China, New Zealand face Netherlands.

EDMONTON: While the wider football world continued to convulse over revelations of FIFA bribery and corruption, Canada took a deep breath and prepared for their moment in the Women’s World Cup spotlight.

Their fellow members of Group A — China, New Zealand and Netherlands — who will share opening day honours on Saturday, have not been able to escape questions as the media digs for answers behind a scandal that has triggered multiple arrests and investigations of high-ranking football officials.

But players and coaches at the Women’s World Cup have provided no insight while side-stepping the controversy in the same way they might avoid a tackle.

“There is no attention being put on that any more, it’s all about game day,” said Canadian midfielder Sophie Schmidt. “The hype after the first 24, 48 hours of all that has settled down and we’re able to just focus on the game and task at hand. In this environment, we are now kind of shielded from all that.”

The tournament will open with Canada facing China in front of an expected sell-out crowd of more than 50,000 at the Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton on Saturday and end on July 5 in Vancouver with another capacity crowd for the championship match.

Edmonton has a long history of supporting women’s soccer, including over 47,000 filling Commonwealth Stadium in 2002 for the women’s under-19 championship game.

“The opening match is trending to be the largest attended ‘Senior A’ football match in our Canadian history, with over 52,000 people,” said Canadian Soccer Association General Secretary Peter Montopoli during the tournament’s opening news conference in Vancouver.

The women’s World Cup is FIFA’s ‘mom-and-pop’ operation when compared to the multi-billion dollar conglomerate that is the men’s World Cup and now the focus of bribery allegations.

But the event seems a perfect fit for Edmonton, a city of just under one million that has embraced the event while stripping it of much of the bureaucracy that has bogged down the men’s tournament.

“It’s a positive thing that the first tournament after whatever happened last week is the Women’s World Cup because women’s football is a very pure form of football,” said Canadian Soccer Association President Victor Montagliani. “Whether you call it irony or destiny ... I think it’s an opportunity for women’s football to shine some light onto the game that perhaps has lost a little bit of its moral compass.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 6^th, 2015.

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