Final time he coached a group at a World Cup simply eight months in the past within the males’s match in Qatar, Hervé Renard masterminded what was maybe the most important shock within the historical past of that competitors, when his Saudi Arabian group surprised the eventual winner, Argentina, of their opening recreation.
Right here in drenched Sydney, Renard, who coached a girls’s group for the primary time in a training profession spanning greater than twenty years and throughout three continents, all however escaped the other destiny on Sunday. His French group, who arrived in Australia with the acknowledged purpose of reaching no less than the semi-finals of the Ladies’s World Cup, ended the match opener with a scoreless draw in opposition to Jamaica, a group making solely its second match look after dropping all three video games 4 years in the past.
In a poor recreation, France had a flurry of possibilities late on to make up for its disjointed play. However Jamaica largely held on, although it was practically 40 locations decrease than France within the pre-tournament standings (avid gamers additionally thought of Jamaica a 40-to-1 underdog to win).
As a substitute, it was Jamaica’s star striker Khadija Shaw who threatened to unleash one of many greatest upsets in current match historical past till she was proven a crimson card within the closing minutes of the match.
Along with her bustling runs, Shaw, a participant for the massive English group Manchester Metropolis, was laborious to counter – a wrecking ball on either side of the pitch who pierced the French protection with slicing runs and repeatedly attacked her opponents to get the ball again. It was that eagerness that led to her late dismissal because the match raced to a frantic end, with Jamaica hoping to carry on and France determined to attain.
France, a group sewn collectively by Renard after practically falling aside by way of infighting and mutiny a number of months in the past, seemed a lot lower than the sum of its elements and fell wanting the sport wanted for the acknowledged purpose of reaching a semi-final.
Jamaica, which rightfully celebrated its first FIFA World Cup as if it had received, offered additional proof that the hole between girls’s elite groups and the remaining could possibly be closing.
Jamaica wanted each second to maintain tempo with France. On 89 minutes, Kadidiatou Diani, a striker for Paris Saint-Germain, leaped into the air and made a header that got here again into play after hitting the goalpost, with Jamaican goalkeeper Rebecca Spencer alone to look at.
That probability sparked chaos, together with Shaw’s crimson card and a late cost from France that noticed little greater than half possibilities and photographs thrown away.
Shaw’s crimson card, the results of two yellow playing cards, means she is going to miss Jamaica’s subsequent recreation in opposition to Panama on Saturday. “It is a large loss to lose a participant of that stature,” mentioned Jamaica coach Lorne Donaldson. He added that Shaw’s teammates must carry out in her absence in order that Jamaica nonetheless have one thing to play for once they meet Brazil within the last group recreation.
France will get Brazil subsequent.
“We solely began the competitors right this moment and there’s nonetheless a protracted solution to go,” Renard mentioned, including that he hoped Jamaica would repeat its efforts in opposition to Panama and Brazil, the opposite two groups in Group F.
The newest purpose celebration of the Ladies’s World Cup is delayed gratification.
The newest participant to affix the membership was Stefanie van der Gragt of the Netherlands, who scored her group’s solely purpose in a 1-0 win in opposition to Portugal on Sunday, being instantly dominated out for offside and reinstated three lengthy minutes later following a video assessment.
“It is all the time laborious to attend,” mentioned Van der Gragt. “However it does not matter: we win, and that is what issues.”
Van der Gragt’s quick emotional rollercoaster will be present in different video games on this match. Sophia Smith of the US skilled the identical wait a day earlier, when her second purpose in opposition to Vietnam was initially disallowed after which returned to her after the referees took one other look.
Typically the wait is value it. On Friday, England’s Georgia Stanway failed to attain on a penalty in opposition to Haiti, however one other video assessment awarded her a second attempt, which she transformed. That very same night, the very same collection performed out for Riko Ueki from Japan.
In each instances, as with Van der Gragt’s purpose for the Netherlands on Sunday, the important thing participant within the wait was soccer’s video assistant refereeing system. The system was launched a number of years in the past, to not re-referee matches, however to ensure the umpires acquired all the massive selections right.
Whereas few would argue with that motivation, the system’s many detractors complain that by attempting to do the correct factor, the VAR robs the sport of a few of its spontaneity. Penalty selections now routinely take a number of minutes to be confirmed as performs are scrutinized again and again. Targets are dominated out after which given. Typically that leaves gamers ready and ready for affirmation that one thing is definitely value celebrating.
Nevertheless, not everybody thoughts the wait. A couple of minutes earlier than Smith’s delayed gratification purpose in opposition to Vietnam, the US had been awarded a penalty when the sport referee, once more utilizing video assessment, reversed her preliminary resolution {that a} foul in opposition to Trinity Rodman didn’t advantage a visit to the penalty spot.
US coach Vlatko Andonovski mentioned he would by no means complain about ready for an accurate name.
“With all of the cameras, with VAR, with all of the angles the referees are judging, I am positive they’re making the correct resolution,” he mentioned.
The benefit for Van der Gragt on Sunday? She was allowed to rejoice the one purpose of the sport twice.
The primary 4 days of the World Cup have produced a collection of curiously slender scorelines for plenty of match favourites. A scoreless draw for Canada. A 1-0 win for England, the European champions, in opposition to World Cup newcomer Haiti. America’ 3-0 victory over Vietnam.
Sunday introduced the prospect of the primary actual shock of the match. After which it was simply gone.
The scare got here from South Africa striker Hildah Magaia, who bundled a rebound into Sweden’s purpose three minutes into the second half to provide her group a shocking 1-0 lead in opposition to Sweden, the third-largest group on this planet. The South African gamers could not consider their luck and shortly celebrated with a dance. Their teaching workers poured off the bench, then dissolved right into a collection of bear hugs.
However then Sweden stormed again. Fridolina Rolfo tied the rating with a purpose on the again submit within the sixty fifth minute, and defender Amanda Ilestedt acquired the winner with a header from a nook kick within the ninetieth.
Previous to the World Cup, a lot consideration was paid to the potential hole between the eight new entrants and the normal powers. The primary week has proven that the expertise hole will not be as large as some suppose.
For a small group of devoted soccer followers, the celebration of Sophia Smith’s purpose throughout the US’ 3-0 win in opposition to Vietnam will likely be acquainted.
After her second purpose within the U.S. group’s 3–0 victory over Vietnam, Smith ran her fingers over her lips to zip them shut, then tossed an imaginary key. It was the identical purpose celebration her good buddy and former Stanford teammate Katie Meyer used throughout a penalty shootout in the course of the 2019 NCAA championship recreation. The gesture of Meyer, the Stanford goaltender and group captain, quickly went viral.
When Stanford received the penalty shootout that day, Smith ran over to Meyer and jumped on her, knocking them each to the bottom.
Simply over two years later, in March 2022, Meyer was discovered useless in her dorm room just some months earlier than graduating. She had committed suicide.
“That was for Katie,” Smith mentioned after the Vietnam recreation, explaining that she and one other former Stanford participant on the US group, Naomi Girma, deliberate the purpose celebration within the days main as much as the World Cup. Each have devoted this match to Meyer.
In reminiscence of Meyer, Smith and Girma additionally launched a psychological well being initiative with the nonprofit group Frequent Objective, which included filming a public service announcement with a number of of their U.S. teammates. “We wish to honor her in each approach we are able to,” Smith mentioned.
Vulnerability is an indication of power, not weak spot. My teammates and I are dedicated to creating positive everybody will get the help they want.
Launching the primary psychological well being initiative of its type with my buddies at @CommonGoalOrg.
This one is for you Katie ❤️ pic.twitter.com/AoGLUcxeMU
— Naomi Girma (@naomi_girma) July 18, 2023
Smith mentioned Meyer’s loss of life “modified every part” in her life. It has helped her respect her friendships extra, she mentioned, and put different points into perspective.
“Now I do not take issues too significantly,” mentioned Smith, who left Stanford two years earlier to play professionally. “I spotted there are such a lot of extra essential issues occurring and the little issues that stress me out are taking a toll on me.”
France arrived in Australia as a World Cup favourite on the mend. Torn by bitter feuds, it has been the previous few months lost players, she welcomed backafter which lost them again. It has modified coaches, modified approaches and adjusted techniques. And now it has requested Hervé Renard, a revered 54-year-old with a embellished males’s World Cup resume however no earlier expertise teaching girls, to make it no less than to the semi-finals.
He began the method, he mentioned, by being open about what he did not know.
“The whole lot was new to me as a result of I did not know girls’s soccer, the best way to handle the ladies,” he mentioned. “I used to be fortunate, as a result of many individuals in our workers already labored with girls’s soccer. So I listened.”
