Start of the Football Season relegated by Women's Sport
The start of the football season usually leads to a virtual media black-out on coverage of all other sport but this weekend felt different with the back (and some front) pages dominated by the Netball and Women’s World Cups.
The Roses delivered a magnificent campaign in South Africa, beating Australia in the pool round and New Zealand in the semi -final before Australia turned the tables in the final with an ultimately dominant display. Reaching the final was the best England performance in the tournament since it introduced knockout rounds and only the second time they have finished as runner up in the 60 year history of the competition.
An inaugural World Cup win still eludes the Roses, with their best tournament performance the 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medal where they beat the Aussie Diamonds by a single goal in the Gold Coast – let’s hope they will get the chance to repeat that feat in 2026!
The Women’s Football World Cup has also entered the knockout stage and with 3 of the top ranked 8 teams eliminated in the pool games and a series of other surprise results, the competition has really opened up, offering England a great chance of going deep into the tournament. They find themselves in a side of the draw where the average world ranking of the other 7 teams is 29, compared with an average ranking of 11 in the other side of the draw.
A tournament that has already thrown up a number of shocks looked to be heading for another as Nigeria, ranked 36 places below England, dominated the game in normal time and then had a numerical advantage through extra time following Lauren James’s rush of blood.
However, the tactical changes employed by Coach Wiegman and some very disciplined and experienced defending by the Lionesses took the game to a penalty shoot-out which they eventually won 4-2. As highlighted when discussing the recent Ashes series, it shows the very narrow margins involved in high performance sport and the importance of key decision making and the effective implementation of those decisions at critical times.
The best team on the day didn’t win the game but England remain in the competition whilst 24 others have packed their kit and gone home and are now 3 wins away from World Cup glory.
Recommended by LinkedIn
While most eyes have been fixed on Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, the BBC have been doing a great job in covering the World UCI Championships in Glasgow. Effectively the “Cycling Olympics”, this brain child of Paul Bush, CEO Event Scotland, is a remarkable event showcasing 13 different cycling disciplines. At the time of writing, the medal table is being completely dominated by Team GB which bodes very well with Paris just a year away.
Among the excellent team and individual performances, the highlight was the victory of Katie Archibald, Elinor Barker, Anna Morris and Josie Knight.in the women’s team pursuit who demolished New Zealand in the final.
Getting less coverage but equally as important, Team GB’s para swimmers are also shaping up really well for next year’s Games at the World Championships in Manchester. They will expect to deliver a top 5 finish of the medal table for the event and it was great to see gold medal winning swims by the brilliant Alice Tai and the irrepressible Maisie Summers-Newton.
Finally on the subject of media domination by women over the weekend, the magnificent movie Barbie, written and directed by the supremely talent Greta Gerwig took its gross takings passed the 1$bn, the first solo female directed movie to achieve this – if you haven’t seen, why not?
I was tempted to finish this article with a link to the classic Barbie Girl by Aqua but wanted to finish where I started with a congratulations to the England netball team. Generally regarded as the first UK punk single to be release, please enjoy the brilliant New Rose by the Damned