The GoalPost put together a guide to help you watch the Women's World Cup.
Now that the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup is in full force in Canada, The GoalPost put together a few notes to catch you up to speed.
Format
This is the seventh installment of the tournament, which first began in 1991 in China. This is the first time the Cup has been played in Canada.
There’s also a new format, with 24 teams competing in six groups, each having four teams. In the past there have been 12-16 team competitions.
First timers
With the tournament’s expansion, more nations have opportunities to compete at women’s soccer’s premier competition.
For the 2015 World Cup, there are eight teams competing for the first time. They are Cameroon, Coast Rica, Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Ecuador, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Thailand.
The favorites
Despite the fairly young tournament, the global powers are already established. Germany, FIFA’s No. 1 team in the world, enters the summer looking to lift its third World Cup trophy. It won the World Cup in 2003 and 2007.
The U.S. is also competing for a third trophy—and potentially first since •1999. The U.S. won the inaugural cup in 1991.
Norway won the tournament in 1995, while Japan defeated the U.S. in penalties to claim the 2011 trophy.
Gender inequality issues
FIFA’s issues don’t belong solely on the men’s side. The women’s tournament has plenty of controversy, too.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who has recently said he will step down, famously said in 2004, “Let the women play in more feminine clothes like they do in volleyball…they could, for example, have tighter shorts.”
Before touching a pitch in Canada, all women competing in the tournament were required to take a gender test. The International Olympic Committee no longer practices the testing. The men do not get tested before their matches, either.
The biggest complaints have come from FIFA outlawing the men’s World Cup to be played on turf, while all stadia in Canada have artificial turf fields for the women.
U.S. players have gone as far as taking the international soccer body to court, but the dilemma remained unsolved.
@charliehatch_
