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PARIS – The FIFA Women's World Cup 2019 ended without a hitch Sunday in Lyon when the The United States defeated the Netherlands 2-0 to win his fourth star over his ridge. Megan Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle found the back of the net in the second half to ensure victory in front of a crowd of 57,900 spectators sold out at the Stade de Lyon. Fans were singing for equal pay When FIFA President Gianni Infantino and French President Emmanuel Macron handed out gold medals to US players.
The members of the championship team traveled from France to New York where they will prepare for a ribbon parade at home on Wednesday. You guessed it, the last sports team to have received such an honor in New York was the USWNT in 2015. The 2-0 win over the Netherlands crowned one of the tournaments most entertaining women's football in recent history. the world is trying to catch up with the United States – an uninspired team that has pushed the limits and asked more of its bosses (including a lawsuit filed in March claiming US Soccer for equal pay). They had a major impact on and off the field.
The USWNT will host a tour of the winners – probably 6 to 10 friendlies across the country – starting in August at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The popularity of women's sport continues to grow. In the United States, men's scores were 20% higher than those of the 2018 World Cup final in Russia. Remember, last Sunday, the final of the Copa America between Brazil and Peru and the final of the Gold Cup between the US men's national team and Mexico also.
What are we doing now? Will the federation give equal pay to the players? What about the women's game? The National Women's Soccer League season is in full swing and is recruiting sponsors thanks to the World Cup fever. The Tokyo Olympics are around the corner – in just over 12 months. Will we feel the momentum that snowballs with the approach of the Tokyo Games?
Nike, who launched a powerful announcement a few moments after the United States claimed consecutive titles, held a women's football panel at Showroom Le 4 in Paris before the big game. Five influential women from the football industry joined us for a discussion on the state of the game:
- Laure Boulleau, former defender of the France team and current ambassador of Paris Saint-Germain
- Karina LeBlanc, Former Canadian Champion and Current Director of CONCACAF Women's Soccer
- Nadia Nadim, Afghan-Danish attacker of the PSG
- Rocky Hehakaija, former Dutch player and director of the Favela Street Foundation
- Anna Kessel, female sports editor of the Telegraph in England, author of "Eat, sweat, play: how sport can change our lives "
Nadim speaks with emotion about his career in professional football, which was recently shared in "Spit Fire, Dream Higher", a Gurls Talk documentary that was shown in London on Monday and showed that young women in football were breaking barriers and developed relationships within their communities. She was born in Afghanistan, where her father was killed by the Taliban at the age of 10. Her family has decided to leave the country where she says women have no rights or a voice to express themselves on issues such as women in sport. "It was impossible for us to be there, so we left the country – or we escaped, smuggled out of the country, we had to buy fake passports and all that." Faith m taken to a refugee camp where football was present, and football saved my life, "Nadim said.
LeBlanc told us that she had started playing soccer because it helped to overcome some problems of shyness. "Nobody ever thought I was the shyest boy in the room," said LeBlanc, one of Fox's hosts for the Women's World Cup. She was bullied while she was living in the Caribbean and eventually moved to Canada where she discovered the sport through a friend who invited her to play. "I think the statistic is that 76% of girls play football because they want to be connected to friends," LeBlanc said.
Hehakaija was an aspiring footballer for the Netherlands before his professional career was interrupted due to a knee injury. This has allowed her to become a street football legend and to create the Favela Street Foundation, where she works with disadvantaged children in neighborhoods around the world, including Brazil and Haiti. She also works as a motivational and thought-provoking speaker at Nike, looking for the new wave of talent in women's football.
I was fortunate to be able to talk to some of them to understand their impact on the next generation of women's football and their most memorable moment of the tournament:
What will be the lasting impact of the Women's World Cup?
Karina LeBlanc: I wore this shirt [that reads ‘game-changer’] intentionally. I think everyone will leave this World Cup with a very different feeling of women's football. I think if you're a player, you have to play in the World Cup the biggest, the deepest and the strongest, but even if you're a fan, I think everyone has had a moment where they have were amazed.
On behalf of all the people I've talked to, that it's about people who were watching the game for the first time or never watching a game or who were fans for many years, this World Cup has created unforgettable moments for people. forever.
Nadia Nadim: This World Cup has made the sport known to a wider audience and to see these incredible athletes become role models, hear their stories and their struggles, to which girls can identify. This will have a huge impact on future generations. You must see [the female athletes on television] before you can believe it. Growing up, I had no female football model. I had [Cristiano] Ronaldo and Zlatan [Ibrahimovic], people I love, but now you have the choice of your model.
Rocky Hehakaija: I think in a few years we will come back to this tournament and say, "It was a turning point. And that's why I continue to say that it's such a special momentum, because after this World Cup, I think more sponsors and more federations will mobilize to do more to raise the level of the game.
From the point of view of the Netherlands, this is the second time that we qualify for the World Cup and we are going to the finals. It's just something that has to elevate the game in the country. I know that they are already taking steps to do it. The wheels need to start spinning more, but it starts.
If I compare with playing for the national team, I dreamed of playing football in sold-out stadiums, so the fact that we see it and it happens is really crazy.
What was your favorite moment of the Women's World Cup?
The White: Because of my work, my favorite moment was the Jamaica team that scored because this moment counted a lot for these girls. They wanted to come here and make their country proud and change the conversation in their island, but what they did was change the conversation in all the Caribbean islands. You can see the joy that just scored that goal. As far as I'm concerned, I remember playing in a World Cup and being part of a team that scores a goal, but imagine scoring the first goal in your country and knowing that's the best. a region is watching you. Speaking to the girls before the tournament, I told them "be your own hero." Be the person you always wanted to be, but know that so many people look at her and want you to become their hero. At that moment they scored, I got strangled because they were their own hero. This goal was more than winning or losing, it was a goal to celebrate all that they lived.
As a Canadian, I thought my team had unfortunately lost too early. They were playing their best football ever and I am proud of them for that. Once again, they are heroes in Canada, so I am proud of them for that.
The France-USA match was the one I never missed playing until then. You hear the music … you hear the [American] Outlaw, but then you hear French fans. Everyone wanted to go because this game was called the epic game. We did not want that in the quarterfinals, it could have been the final and it was up to all that. No matter who I talked to after, they were like, "wow, that was a moment."
I was walking with the American Outlaws, which was odd for me because I thought, "OK, I'm Canadian." But they were so welcoming. We were supposed to walk up to the stadium and meet the French and walk together in the main alley, and the French police organized this. It's women's football, because you unite the world. Everyone is here and they are passionate about their country but also about women's sport. And it's a peaceful game.
Nadim: The Argentina-Scotland match was so exciting and emotional. People were applauding for Argentina and I was wearing the wrong jersey because I had friends in the Scottish team, and then I started cheering for Argentina too. I have attended many great games at Old Trafford, Anfield, Etihad, and so on. It was the first time I had goose bumps while watching a match. I lost my voice because of the resumption of the sentence. It's the one I prefer in football, period.
In addition, when Thailand scored its first goal in Nice … watching the reaction of the Thai fans who went crazy then his crying manager, it was cool to see how much this meant for everyone. ;them.
The England match against the United States was electric. You can just feel the atmosphere and the intensity. I do not know how to say it, but this World Cup was simply different. I will be sad that it is over, but on the other hand, I am a little happy because I am going to have some time to rest, because I feel like a fan that I have lived so much emotion by watching all these games. It's almost like I was camping with the national team for a month because of my work on TV.
Hehakaija: Marta's speech after the match when they were eliminated by France. Marta is my greatest idol … and the impact of this speech, the emotional cruelty of this speech, always touch my heart and it is one of my main things to remember. And of course, the Netherlands qualify for the final, but Marta stands out of course.
What are the next steps for women's football to develop?
Anna Kessel: I think that when they spoke to senior management or personalities in high-level positions in sport, they felt that there had been so much progress, as if we had achieved it. It's kind of attitude. And they forget what's happening on the floor – the kind of stories that Nadia has told. It happened when Nadia was small, but it still goes on.
I have two girls, one is 7, she goes to school and the boys always say "you can not play football". It's the status quo … and it's not unique to his school, it's really normal. Football is the national sport in England, and yet not all girls have access to the game. It's basically wrong.
I think it's really disturbing. We are doing research, we are fighting for the equality of women and men and there remains a vast area of sport where it is still culturally acceptable to tell girls that they can not play sports and that There is no logical or rational reason to let them do it. do not do it. That anyone comes to the world and that he is told that he can not do anything – at age 4 – because he has a vagina, that's crazy. Sport is such an important and powerful arena. It is there that money, politics and power intersect. We have seen our politicians use sport … and preventing women from having access to it is huge.
Yes, we have seen progress and girls are starting to play football, and that is fine. But you can already see the difference with the boy who started playing at 2 or 3 years old and who was always informed that it was natural and that suited him … and the girl who may be starting to 6 or 7 years and that is slower and … you have to overcome trust issues, obstacles and friendship issues. "Is it the right thing to do for me as a girl or not?" How can they get to this point?
There is a lot of work to be done … and I think if we start with that, then [we’ll continue to see more progress].
The White: I think this is about changing the mindset of the game's powers and calling on athletes who have lived through what they've been through, showing their story so that parents understand what football can actually do for their daughters. If I say it 50 million times, it's not as valuable as a current player who says "that's how the game changed my life." So we have to change the perception, we have to build foundations and make sure that football is not seen as a cost but as an opportunity – a solution for health and obesity problems, for girls who do not feel connected – beyond the field. That's how we develop participation.
FIFA has proposed a strategy, we [CONCACAF] came with our strategy about a month ago. But for the president to say that he is going to invest $ 1 billion, it's huge … It may actually be the place where we make our biggest change.
Commercial dollars are increasing, attention is increasing, the number of participants is increasing, everything is increasing. The time has come for women's football to explode, and this is not like before, but now people are falling behind.
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