Colombia’s World Cup prep took a twist when their closed-door friendly against Ireland was abandoned after 20 minutes because the Irish team felt things were getting a little too “physical.”
Ireland coach Vera Pauw: Our players “feared for their bodies.”
Colombia defender Daniela Caracas: “Let them eat (not cake).”
US fans with a longer memory might say, “No kidding.”
That’s Colombia’s Lady Andrade inflicting an injury, to put it nicely, on Abby Wambach in the USA’s 3-0 win in the 2012 Olympics.
Andrade wound up signing for Wambach’s former team, the Western New York Flash, which played close to where Wambach grew up.
She has since played all over the place for various clubs, and she’s on the roster for the Cup.
One more note on age, from Fifa’s site: If 16-year-old US high school student Casey Phair and 38-year-old goalkeeper Kim Jung-mi both take the field, they will set the record for the biggest age gap between two Women’s World Cup teammates. The current record is held by Brazil’s Formiga and Meg.
One of the fun things about any World Cup is seeing teams and players that might not necessarily be in your typical viewing pop up on your screens with unique skills and compelling stories.
I’ll go out on a limb here (not literally, given the giant branch that fell in my neighbor’s yard last week) and say most readers here aren’t too familiar with Colombia and South Korea. They have one thing in common – their biggest World Cup achievements were in 2015, when South Korea upset Spain and Colombia shocked France. Another thing in common – those are their only World Cup wins.
The players to watch are separated by 14 years …
For South Korea, that’s 32-year-old Ji So-yun, a longtime Chelsea player once mentioned by Suzanne Wrack as “arguably the best foreign player in WSL history.”
For Colombia, that’s 18-year-old forward Linda Caicedo, who has lived more in those 18 years than most people do in a lifetime. Her awards include Best Player honors in the Copa America, and she cracked into The Guardian’s top 100 players in the world even before her move to Real Madrid. She’s also a cancer survivor.
Now consider this … Germany will probably win this group, and Morocco may finish last. The winner of this match has a very good chance of taking the second Group H spot in the round of 16.
Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s how the opening game in this group unfolded:
After an opening-night upset and some unexpectedly close games so far in the Women’s World Cup, there was an open, albeit optimistic question as to whether Morocco could give Germany a scare. But it was evident from the first whistle that Morocco were not going to be able to keep a clean sheet for long and after a slower first half, the Euro 2022 runners-up brushed the debutants aside with an emphatic 6-0 victory in the Group H opener.
The divide between the world No 2 and No 72 was just too big and it took 11 minutes for Germany’s captain, Alexandra Popp, to find the back of the net, heading in Kathrin Hendrich’s cross from the left. Morocco’s goalkeeper Khadija Er-Rmichi and a defender came out to meet the ball but both misjudged it, leaving Popp with an open goal.
Crosses proved to be the biggest issue for the Atlas Lionesses, the first Arab nation to qualify for the tournament. Popp secured her second goal from a corner in the 39th minute even though it appeared she was facing the wrong way. The fact Germany were only two up by half-time was thanks to some solid interceptions and tackles from Zineb Redouani and Sarah Kassi.
The Moroccan forwards did expose some shakiness in Germany’s defence, which was missing Marina Hegering, something Colombia and South Korea, the other teams in Group H, will be better placed to take advantage of. The Morocco captain, Ghizlane Chebbak, and Rosella Ayane made promising runs forward, linking up nicely and forcing Germany’s goalkeeper, Merle Frohms, into action, but were unable to convert their chances.