Three Tension Points At The Olympic Football
As if we needed further proof that women don't have the luxury of focusing only on what happens on the pitch
The hypocrisy of FIFA and the IOC
Everyone was gripped by the women’s olympic football tournament before a football was even kicked. It feels like this story started months ago, and in reality it was last week(ish).
It all started when Canada were caught spying on their opposition New Zeeland days before their first Olympic game. Twice. At first it was innocent and funny because why would reigning Olympic gold medalists Canada need to spy on an opponent who has not won against them in decades? It quickly turned darker however, as more facts came out. At first it was just two assistant coaches involved, one of whom was arrested by the French police. Then it turns out head coach Bev Priestman had been in on it - all along. She was swiftly sent home, to then be banned from football for a year because it turns out it’s systematic and Canada has been doing this for years. Turning everything we know on its head, including that gold medal they clinched by edging past Sweden on penalty kicks at the Tokyo 2021 Olympics. Raising questions about the legitimacy of that win amongst other things.
The players are the ones you’re left feeling for in this situation, because they’re the ones that have to deal with the questions, the suspicion, the fall out. The Canadian side got six points deducted, meaning that they had to win all three of their games to potentially have a chance of getting out of the group stage (we’ll get to this but spoiler alert: they did just that).
At the same time, whether they knew about it or not, the fact is that their game plans and tactics have been tainted by this information attained by not-fair means (even if Priestman tries to get away with saying that *everyone* does it) and that’s what is the biggest shame. Like one of the players said — 'it hurts that they did not believe that we could do it on our own.’
On the disciplinary side of things — it’s great that the International Olympics Committee and FIFA so swiftly get involved when it comes to these disciplinary matters.
Bruce Mwape, who is under investigation for SEVERAL counts of sexual misconduct, is allowed at the Olympcs even though he is not even allowed to be one on one with his players without supervision. There is a Dutch athlete who is a convicted rapist who gets to compete at the Olympics, and gets protection while doing so. Meanwhile, French athletes are still banned from wearing the hijab whilst doing sports and one athlete did not know if she was even going to get to go to the opening ceremony.
The prerequsities
It’s hot in France.
Really hot. I remember how it was during the World Cup in the summer of 2019 — and it does not seem to have cooled down. Combine the weather-conditions with a compact playing schedule and the instructions of the referees to put. on. that. extra-time. And we’ve got ourselves a lot of football, goals and injuries.
The Colombia - Spain game alone was 90 minutes + 61 minutes of extra-time on either half, taking the total up to over 150 minutes, nearly three hours, of football. Colombia saw several players go off injured in that game, among them star attacker Linda Caicedo who left the field on a stretcher much like her team mate Catalina Usme had done earlier in the competition.
“It’s not that bad,” Germany’s Alexandra Popp said whilst icing her right knee after the 4-1 loss to USA in the group stages. “It’s just due to fatigue.”
Brazil had several players go off injured in their semifinal against Spain. Centerback Tierna Davidson missed two US games due to injury and France’s captain Wendie Renard missed their game against Canada (which they lost) with a thigh injury.
The semifinalists played five games of football within 13 days.
Spain had already played almost 20 minutes of stoppage time against Brazil in the group stage. The Canada-France also saw 16 minutes of stoppage time being added in their second half.
The tournament is dense which makes sense: there’s a lot to get through in these days. But one is left wondering how responsible that is. With the smaller squads required at the Olympics, meaning less rotation within the team, as well as fewer teams, one is left wondering — something has got to give.
The increasing demands on top players can be best illustrated by Mariona Caldentey who, if/when she plays the bronze medal game for Spain on Friday, will play her 67th game in 12 months.
This database by FIFPRO is incredible, outlining how much each player has been playing and the impact thereof.
The golazos getting overshadowed by the off-pitch drama
Japan turning that game around against Brazil with this absolute stunner of a shot from Momoko Tanikawa.
Australia - Zambia was a mad one, 6-5 and that one didn’t even go to any mad extra-time.
The fact that the ‘triforce’ or the ‘triple espresso’ US attack consisting of Sophia Smith, Mallory Swanson and Trinity Rodman, each have three (!) goals after five games is a testament to the effectiveness of Emma Hayes’ tactics.
Nigeria holding out so well against Spain, only to be sunk by a beautiful left-footed freekick effort from Alexia Putellas. This should in no way reflect on the Super Falcons’ defense, especially goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie had an incredible game and tournament.
Canada advancing out of the group stages despite receiving a 6-point deduction, winning all three of their group games before going out on penalties to Germany in the quarter-final. A penalty shootout where German goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger contributed with two saves as well as scoring the winning penalty.
Marie-Antoinette Katoto scored five goals in three games and becomes only the third player to contribute to 80%+ of her team’s goals (of those that have scored three or more, alongside Sun Wen and Barbra Banda).
Barbra Banda becomes historic as the first player to score three hat/tricks at the Olympics.
Naomi Girma’s whole tournament and especially her stats in the game against Germany — she played 120 minutes, took 146 touches and had 125/132 accurate passes. That’s a passing accuracy of 95% in a semifinal (!) with four games in 12 days behind you (!) and it was obviously the most in the match.
She also created two chances (like the one for Mallory Swanson which Swanson almost scored on) and had five passes into the final third. Add 13 recoveries and five clearances to that.Brazil coming back and winning that semifinal against Spain! Because how! Without Marta nonetheless … it was not the most beautiful of football games, there were a lot of individual mistakes and yes, they subbed Alexia Putellas on WAY too late etc. It was still a football game that needed to be won and Brazil wanted it more.
USA and Brazil are the only two sides to have played in every knockout stage of the Olympics since its inception in 1996 and it’s giving me chills thinking about these two giants of women’s football going up against each other in the final.
The take away here is: Women never get to just focus on what happens on the pitch and yet what they create on the pitch is magic.