Women's World Cup 2023

Sometime I feel we know too much going into major sporting events. We go in with preconceptions and spend half our viewing time waiting for them to be confirmed.

But do you remember Men’s World Cups before, say, the early 90’s? Most teams would rock up and while you might recognise a name or two they’d basically be a complete mystery. If you wanted to know about their playing style, formation, talent and flat out excitement levels well, you had to watch. Pre tournament analysis was scarce, as was the chance you’d seen any of the players in an actual match. I still recall the Brazil of 1982 arriving, in the shortest of shorts, as if from another planet and introducing us to Eder, Serginho and Zico.

Well, the 2023 Women’s World Cup is giving me similar vibes. I’ve watched a reasonable amount of women’s football over the past decade or so but the vast majority of the players and teams are still a bit of a mystery to me….partly because I’ve studiously avoided reading about any of them in the build up to kick off.

That excites me and that’s why I’ll be live blogging as many matches as I can while running through my thoughts as the tournament progresses. If you stumble across my rambles, feel free to get involved.