In collaboration with another bigsoccer.com poster, I wrote two articles here and here which were published by Goal.com during the World Cup tournament. We were asked to plan a third article before the Final, but once it was submitted, Goal.com declined to publish it. A junior editor stated that the “webstats weren't great” and that (by Wednesday) the "actual game became less relevant” Yet the facts are that Goal.com published absolutely nothing about the Final, not even a simple game account. Perhaps because the English-language speaking world lost ? Or the readership disliked the comparisions to Barcelona ? Who knows. About the Copa America final they already have a dozen articles up. In fact Goal.com did publish this article and although it is interesting, you can see that it is solely about the men’s game in Japan and says nothing about the women’s team, or this Final. Well, to get to the point – I am suggesting or asking that, if the topic interests people, that they contact Goal.com here to complain that women’s soccer is not irrelevant, and that an article covering the actual Final should be published.
Visited the site and it seems impressively sexist. There are something like eight categories for the 2010 MWC but nothing for the WWC at all. If you look at their menus, you'd think there was no such thing as women's soccer.
Double edged sword there. Goal.com is not known for covering the women's game so fans of the women's game don't go there to find news. They finally decide they might want to hop on the bandwagon. Astonishingly the fans of the women's game fail to flock to the site that continually ignores their teams. Goal.com's response is to crank up the alarm on the whambulance and refuse to cover more. Establish that you cover women's soccer and when things happen in the women's game, people will look there for your coverage.
Or we can ignore them, let the dinosaurs have their cave, and get our women's soccer news from more noteworthy sources that give a damn.
Well you need broad appeal to make women's soccer work. Look at the other thread where the case is presented to hold the WWC every two years. Without a World Cup, can club football exist ? I dont think so because there is no ultimate meaning. By the way, I know that the articles we wrote were "partisan" and we made no effort to hide that. We just thought it would be a novel angle to discover, as we ourselves had. And we are neither Japanese or Asian etc; to us its just women playing football with a style of their own. It seems so difficult to preserve it's memory for a worthwhile period. To us it may have been the greatest of all World Cups, but it is rapidly disappearing from the news – for example, look at the BBC women’s football page here, which is full of links. While the England team is mentioned in these links, otherwise the World Cup tournament no longer appears.
Why stress about Goal.com. When did Goal.com become a serious gate keeper to all things football I tend to find Goal.com a relentlessly useless source of information when it comes to discussing the real issues of the game. It's a site filled with more inane chatter, and weak info based on rumour and hearsay, than a local women's hair salon Goal.com not being receptive to the idea of seriously reporting the events of the WWC is fine, because in the end there were plenty other places in existence that did a fine job. Leave Goal.com to continue doing what they do best, with the things they know best.
I go to Goal.com when a link is posted or google takes me to an article but that's about it... never thought about women's games on Goal actually. Do they have a proper corporate and financial structure? or more like a forum with membership writers?
I think in poor economic times web revenue from advertisers just dries up. So despite the domain name, profits are thin at best. I am guessing of course. Anyway, Goal.com this weekend did issue an update on the Japanese L-league: http://www.goal.com/en/news/1717/ed...hits-new-peak-in-japan-with-record-crowds-for- Apparently INAC Leonessa, Sawa's club, had 21,500 for a home game last weekend, although fans get in free. The article was written before this weekend' INAC away game to Albirex Niigata which drew 24,500 fans.