World Cup co-hosts New Zealand have a chance to take another big step on Tuesday.
Days after clinching the team’s first-ever World Cup win, New Zealand knows that a win over the Philippines in Wellington will virtually ensure the team known as the Football Ferns reach the knockout stages for the first time.
In other matches on Tuesday, Colombia and South Korea finished last of the 32 teams, while Norway, after losing to New Zealand in their opening match, will try to bounce back against Switzerland.
Colombia vs South Korea
Colombia had a good run in the Copa America Championship, beating Argentina in the semi-finals but losing 1-0 to Brazil in the final. These results suggest that they are ready to fight on the world stage.
But that competitiveness may have gone too far in the recent exhibition against Ireland: that match Canceled after 20 minutes for what the Irish called the Colombian’s “overly physical” play. Columbia rejected that characterization and defended its style. The Irish simply “preferred not to continue playing”.
Colombia will face 2022 Asian Cup runners-up South Korea in Sydney, Australia on Tuesday (Monday 10pm ET). South Korea has advanced to the finals once in the past three times they have participated in the 2015 World Cup, but four years ago they lost all three games.
New Zealand vs Philippines
New Zealand players shocked many, including themselves, by beating Norway 1-0 in their World Cup opener.
Now the Ferns find themselves in new territory. We are well positioned to break through the group stage. A checkpoint that we have not reached in our five trips to the tournament so far.
In fact, the biggest obstacle to progress may be behind them. Norway entered the tournament ranked 12th in the FIFA rankings, while the Philippines ranked 46th. New Zealand, ranked 26th, are currently riding the so-called Fern Fever wave and are looking forward to another night in front of a friendly crowd.
The Philippines lost 2-0 to Switzerland in their World Cup debut. The team attracted a lot of talent from the United States, and of the team’s 23-woman roster, 18 were actually born in the United States. And I make no excuses for that.
“I don’t really care where they were born,” said the team’s Australian coach, Allen Stadzic. “If they have Filipino blood in their heart and are good at football, they are eligible for our team.
“They all play for their flag, they play for their country, they all play for the Filipino people wherever they live.”
Switzerland vs Norway
Norway are looking to bounce back from their opening loss and will need wins against Switzerland and perhaps the Philippines to secure a place in the knockout stages.
The Norwegian side is led by 28-year-old striker and former world best player Ada Hegerberg, who withdrew from the 2019 World Cup in protest at the federation’s treatment of women’s football. Hagerberg, one of the best players in the game, was out of her national team for five years before returning for the European Championships last summer. But she was surprisingly ineffective against New Zealand, and that won’t work against Switzerland.
Switzerland overwhelmed the Philippines in their opening match, beating them 17-3. They are unlikely to have the same advantage over the Norwegians. Ramona Bachmann, who plays football for Paris Saint-Germain, was a standout player in her side’s opening game victory. A similar performance will be needed today if Switzerland is to move forward.
A young Ali Riley was one of 90,185 fans in attendance when the United States defeated China on penalties to win the 1999 Women’s World Cup. Riley, then 11, watched Brandi Chastain score the decisive penalty, then took off her jersey and fell to her knees in victory.
24 years later, Riley is in his own World Cup. Despite being born and raised in California, Riley, 35, has represented New Zealand internationally since his teens. (Her father, John, is from Christchurch.) But she herself rode the wave of women’s soccer growth, and now hopes her team can help her rugby-loving homeland fall in love with the sport in the same way that the USA national team made rugby a big hit in 1999.
“If little girls in New Zealand see the World Cup with the world’s best players and the world’s best teams in their backyards, and feel inspired to start playing some sport — hopefully it’s soccer — that’s how I think we can really make a difference for women and young girls in New Zealand,” Riley said in an interview in Los Angeles last month before leaving for the tournament. “So that’s my dream.”
The foundation for that dream was laid last Thursday when New Zealand beat Norway 1-0 to claim their first victory in six World Cup trips.
During the post-fight interview, Riley fought back tears as he flashed his hands at the camera, revealing his painted nails. With one hand in the light blue and pink of the trans-pride flag and the other in the rainbow of the LGBTQ pride flag – she proclaimed, “Anything is possible.”
Both of Riley’s nails were a sign of support — a local newspaper declared her a “”.straight and gay icons— and also one of the smaller rebellions.
FIFA banned the rainbow ‘One Love’ armband ahead of last year’s men’s World Cup in Qatar, saying it was seen as a provocation against the host country and violated FIFA uniform rules. FIFA tried to thread a different needle for the women’s tournament. Multicolored ‘Unite for Inclusion’ armband at an event attended by dozens of gay players.
So Riley’s manicure was a deliberate workaround.
Rachel Allison, professor of sociology at Mississippi State University and author of The Kicking Center: Gender and the Selling of Women’s Professional Football, said what made Riley’s interview different from other high-profile moments, such as Abby Wambach kissing his then-wife after the United States won the 2015 Women’s World Cup, was that Riley’s actions were deliberate.
“Equality and inclusion are core values of the women’s football community,” Allison said. “It’s incredibly courageous to see a player like Ali Riley clearly understand that being the captain of a team will bring him more attention and plan ahead to make this statement.”
Lise Klavenes doesn’t throw punches. That’s not her style. For some, it’s a problem. For Klavenes, a former national team player and current president of the Norwegian Football Federation, that’s just who she is.
So she will appeal to FIFA about its ethical conflict, its treatment of migrant workers in the World Cup project, and the rights of women and gays. She is happy, if necessary, to speak candidly to the (mostly male) officials at FIFA rallies and demand that, as football’s leaders, they hold the sport, and themselves, to higher moral and ethical standards.
“Politically, it exposed me a little bit, so maybe people want to ask me, ‘Who do you think you are? She said there is a “cost” to openly questioning human rights and good governance.
She also believes her position reflects that of the Federation and the country. And she says she won’t stop putting pressure on them. “I’m very motivated,” she said. “If I lose motivation, I will quit. I have nothing to lose.”
