Certainly. But even with those teams, accounting for the weather and short time frame also does not as good a measurement as it could have.
Portugal in 2016 wasn't much better than that Greece team Fireworks at the Olympics Nothing controversial about the semifinal penalty and even less about today's one ...
The women's game is literally exploding in Europe. The quality of play, the salaries, great teams all over the place. I've been as guilty as anyone of getting spellbound by it. So happy for CONCACAF.
It will definitely be interesting to follow Wiegman’s reign. England always lack a good goalkeeper. That would be my main concern again. I am not confident with any of the new ones.
Whether teams made it or not to this tournament I think they will all have been watching thinking we don’t have anything to fear.
As a Canadian I saw nothing to complain about re: the penalty in the final. Not a thing. 100% penalty. The penalty in the semifinal I believe was a penalty BUT.... I can see why some would complain about it. BUT... then again, if it wasn't a penalty then they wouldn't have called it. Again, complaints about the call in the final would be ridiculous to me.
I agree that the Olympic soccer tournament cannot be seriously compared to the World Cup or Euros. As Nutter mentioned above, the schedule is too condensed, there are too few teams--and the weather (heat) certainly was a factor. It's frankly maybe a notch Olympic tennis--which shouldn't be an event at all as most of the top players, having just played 3 majors in 3 months, and the 4th (the U.S. Open) coming in, I think, two or three weeks, simply are not up for it. Same is true with other sports--golf, to name one. There's a lot of quirkiness in the Olympics--and most definitely event bloat as the IOC just keeps adding more and more silly events. As for Canada, meh: Excellent defensive team but you'll /never/ see a flukier tournament victory.
First country to win gold in both men and women's Olympic football. First gold in a summer team event for Canada since 68. London 2012 was a zeitgeist moment for the Canadian portion of the sport - since the men's team hasn't been in the World Cup since 86. It didn't necessarily carry over to day-to-day interest in women's football. But it made at least Canadians followers of the sport during the World Cup and Olympics. Then the World Cup was held in 2015. And today, about 2 WSL matches per week are shown on a sports network. No NWSL matches this year on tv ex getting matches shown on CBS. CanvsSwe is still the #1 trending topic on Canada twitter 24 hours later. The debates are now if this is the biggest win in Canadian sports. Bunch of Canadian hockey wins men and women held top 5 spots. The team itself has a world class defending back bone. Wasn't a fan of the previous manager KHM but he did bring the solid pragmatic style of play mid tier European men's team employ. So, they absorbed pressure quite comfortably. Shots were taken but Labbe wasn't really tested too often. But Canada is sub par upfront. No real replacement for Sinclair yet. No true #10 also. Wingers are too one dimensional and quite inconsistent. And unlike the mid tier European men, Canada women are hopeless at set pieces. The next step would be having a league. The CSA prez is okay with getting a NWSL team but a segment of the sport's base wants a domestic league a la CPL. They don't want a rinse and repeat of the MLS where journeyman Americans are played ahead of young Canadians. Was watching on my phone… absolutely amazing!!! Congratulations, #TeamCanada!🥇🇨🇦🙌— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) August 6, 2021 1423672665525526534 is not a valid tweet id To Canada - from @AbbyWambach pic.twitter.com/J5sMK3Fzq6— Glennon Doyle (@GlennonDoyle) August 6, 2021
I almost spit out my drink when I heard Wambach congratulating "the Tancredis" for helping to build the program. I guess Tancredi was part of the demolition crew.
Great achievement by Galt F.C. to beat Christian Brothers College and St.Rose Parish! As a nation Germany was quicker.
4.4 million peak audience for Canada vs Sweden in Canadian tv. Average audience not provided yet. In London 2012, an avg of 3.8 million watched Canada v US in the semis in a more favourable time slot - holiday Monday afternoon - and less impact from streaming/cord cutting. Streaming and French audience also not provided. But final average figure is line with most recent Stanley Cup Finals last game and Grey Cup. But considering this level was achieved in 2012, it hasn't translated beyond World Cup & Olympics in terms of ratings while coverage has expanded. Sports network (TSN) that had both men & women national team rights gave them up in 2019. They didn't do a great job as they barely showed half of the matches. Soccer streaming service has taken it over and has showed all matches from all age groups. Also provides 2 hours weekly of Canadian soccer focused discussion show (similar to ESPN FC). NWSL isn't on Canadian tv anymore ex watching matches shown by CBS. Can watch it on twitch and a few Challenge Cup matches were streamed by French CBC. 2 WSL matches per week are shown on a sports network and a soccer streaming service shows 2 matches per week from Spain Fem Div 1. On Friday morning, a TV audience of 4.4 million watched @CBC to cheer on the Canadian Women's Soccer team as they won gold for Canada at 10:47 am, making this the most-watched moment of #Tokyo2020 in Canada pic.twitter.com/31dE7VF937— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) August 7, 2021
I thought Canada could go as far as getting a Bronze medal again, but never thought they would win the tournament at all.
Yes, you also jinxed Spain, since Brazil won after extra-time. There were three main football events, in this year 2021 (men's Euro, women's Olympic tournament and men's Olympic tournament) and now you have a perfect record of picking the wrong winner for all of the three finals, mostly by claiming that the team you had chosen "couldn't lose" (actually I didn't read your original prediction for Brazil-Spain, so I am not sure if you were as bold as in the other two circumstances: I suspect you were, but I'll anyway give you the benefit of the doubt). I really don't want you to EVER predict the win of a team I like. Especially if you claim that the team "can't lose" the event. Edit: on the other hand, I have to appreciate that, by picking England, you basically made sure that my Italy would have won the Euro.
Perhaps playing the U.S. regularly, even if on the losing end, helped improve their side for the big moments. I mean, fans of the U.S. men's side, would like our team and players to play European sides on a regular basis for that reason. Iron sharpens iron.
No, I wasn't that bold on Spain. The men's tournament looked always more open to me. I have a track record of predicting correctly the last two men's World Cup winners. For France I have actually a comment on this board to prove that. https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/france-vs-argentina.2084622/#post-36812723 For the EUROs I'm 0/2 as I was on Germany in 2016 and originally on Belgium for this year. Don't worry. I won't pick Italy for the EUROs next year. They just don't have the quality necessary so I won't consider them. Them winning the EUROs would be even a bigger surprise than Canada winning this Olympics.