Sports
AU/NZ 2023: W’Cup Of Shocks As Germany, Brazil Crash Out
It has been a World cup of shocks and surprises.
Three of the top 10 teams from the FIFA world rankings are out in the group stages while the width of a post stopped defending champions, the USA, from suffering the same fate.
Germany, ranked second, have failed to progress past the group stages for the first time in their ninth appearance at the tournament.
Canada and Brazil, ranked seventh and eighth respectively, have also had their World Cup journey cut short. Milena Bertolini’s Italy were another big side to fall at the first hurdle, losing multiple group-stage games for the first time.
While some of the big hitters and tournament favourites are heading home, Colombia, South Africa, Jamaica, Morocco and Nigeria are taking their places.
“Development is fast in women’s football at the moment,” said Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall.
“There’s no standing still. We see that with USA, we see that with Germany, we saw that with Brazil as well.
“Other nations are moving fast here now.”
Germany, Canada, Brazil and Italy are all out in the group stages, something that would have been unthinkable before the tournament began.
Two-time World Cup winners Germany started the tournament in style by thrashing Morocco 6-0 and were tipped by many to win it again after that display.
They were brought crashing back down to earth after suffering a shock 2-1 defeat at the hands of Colombia and their position in the tournament was under threat.
Germany’s final group opponents were South Korea. Cho So-hyun opened the scoring for South Korea after six minutes and, while captain Alexandra Popp equalised for the Germans, the draw was not enough and Morocco went through at their expense.
After reaching the European Championships final last year, Germany were expected to go deep in this tournament and potentially challenge the USA for a third World cup title. Despite Popp’s best efforts, Martina Voss-Tecklenburg’s side headed home.
After reaching the last 16 of the World Cup in 2019, Canada became Olympic champions two years later.
However, they were drawn in the so-called ‘group of death’ and duly failed to survive. Group B contained Australia, Nigeria and Republic of Ireland with most predicting co-hosts Australia and Canada would progress. Bev Priestman’s side followed up a goalless draw against Nigeria with a win against Republic of Ireland.
Going into the last group game, Canada had to beat Australia to advance but lost 4-0 after being thoroughly dismantled by the co-hosts and suffered their first group-stage exit since 2011.
The team is one of several at the World Cup who have been unsettled by disputes with their federation over budget cuts and a lack of competitive warm-up matches prior to the tournament.
Marta’s last World Cup ended in huge disappointment as Brazil failed to progress to the last-16 stage. They had progressed from the group stages six times in a row and were being tipped as an outside bet to win the tournament.
Brazil won their first game 4-0 against Panama with typical South American flair but Pia Sundhage was unable to replicate that in the next two games.
They lost 2-1 to France and then endured a goalless draw with Jamaica when just one goal would have been enough to see them through.
In 2019, Italy returned to the World Cup after a 20-year absence and made the knockout stages.
This time around, Milena Bertolini controversially left former captain Sara Gama out of her squad and star forward Cristiana Girelli did not start any of the group matches, despite scoring the only goal in Italy’s opening game against Argentina.
A 5-0 thrashing at the hands of Sweden left Italy in a perilous position going into their final game with at least a draw needed against South Africa to secure their passage to the next phase.
Ranked 16th, they were knocked out by South Africa who are outside the top 50 in 54th. Banyana Banyana beat them 3-2 with Thembi Kgatlana’s stoppage-time winner sealing their passage through to the last 16 at Italy’s expense.
Could 2023 be the year that an underdog team upsets the status quo?
The underdogs have certainly made their mark so far, with three teams outside the world’s top 40 making the last 16.
By: Marissa Thomas & Emily Salley
England captain Harry Kane netted a hat-trick to guide Bayern Munich to an impressive victory against Stuttgart.
Kane’s goals, plus one from Kingsley Coman, helped Bayern end a three-game winless run in all competitions.
They faced a tough task against a Stuttgart side who sat back and limited their chances, leading Vincent Kompany’s side to enter the break frustrated and with the deadlock unbroken.
Bayern eventually found a way past Stuttgart’s steely defence when Kane drilled a low effort into the bottom corner from around 30 yards out after Joshua Kimmich overturned possession.
Former Nigeria goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is full of thanks to God after he miraculously survived another life-threatening automobile accident recent at Kara, along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, where a heavy-duty truck ran into his SUV.
Narrating his ordeal, the 51-year-old, who guided Nigeria to gold in the Men’s Football Tournament of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, broke the news in a statement on his social media handles on Friday.
“To God be the glory, another death escaped by Grace and Mercy of God. Me and my friend SM were at Enyo Filling Station after Ojodu Berger bus stop to get fuel on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, around 6 p.m. when this MACK truck fully loaded with iron, with registration number LND 470 XX, left the road and crushed my car beyond repairs. Thank God for life,” he stated.
This is the second time the soft-spoken club proprietor will cheat death by a whisker, having been involved in an accident in 1997 that ended his career at 23 and left his spinal cord in bad shape.
He helped Julius Berger win the Nigeria FA Cup in November 1997 shortly a memorable Olympic outing by keeping a clean sheet in the finals against Katsina United. The following year, he was involved in the auto along Ikorodu Road, Lagos, which not only cut his career short but also left him almost paralysed, ending his spell at Serie A club Reggiana.
The former Nigeria international, who also kept goal for Julius Berger FC, said the case has been reported to Isheri Police Station, Ogun State, where the driver is currently detained and the truck also seized.
According to him, the owner of the truck said he can’t fix the badly damaged SUV until after a year.
Ex – Super Eagles of Nigeria, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze has observed that sports development in Nigeria is going down.
According to him, grassroots sports is very important, without it, the administrators cannot get it right. So everybody should key into grassroots sports development, he said.
Waobikeze said this last Wednesday in an interview with sports journalists shortly after the Port Harcourt All Stars Independence football festival (OCTOBERFEST) at the Port Harcourt club, Rivers State.
He explained that for sports administrators to get it right, grassroots development is key. “They should be organising competition at the grassroots level to fish out the young ones for different sporting activities.
“Grassroots sports is very important so the administrators have to go back to the grassroots.
” Sports Development in Nigeria is going down we need to go back to the basics.
“Look at the just concluded Paris Olympics, Nigeria did not win any medal.
” Our football team did not even qualify for the Olympics. We are going down.
” If they should go back to the grassroots, they will get young ones in the games and talents will be developed.
” I started from school games, to youth games before playing for the national team. Now everybody wants to fly board to play professional football and a lot do not know the basics of the game.
” A lot of people did not know the little things about the game, they just want to play. It is not done so,” Waobikeze stated.
Kiadum Edookor
