Lower than a yr after the worldwide breakout success of the FIFA Ladies’s World Cup in Australia, a great variety of that event’s greatest gamers will probably be again; this time, the worldwide soccer epicentre will probably be Paris Olympics 2024 with 12 groups preventing for the gold medal.
World champions Spain is among the many favourites to style glory, regardless that the crew will make its Olympic debut within the French capital, whereas perennial heavyweights america will probably be in search of redemption after struggling their worst-ever World Cup outcome.
Crew USA’s neighbours Canada are the defending Olympic champions after they did the unthinkable on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, defeating highly-favoured Sweden within the gold medal match. Disappointingly, the Swedes won’t participate within the Paris 2024 Olympics after failing to qualify.
Becoming a member of them on the absentees record would be the United Kingdom, who couldn’t safe an Olympic berth by the inaugural Ladies’s Nations League.
With senior skilled gamers and full-strength squads, the 12-team girls’s Olympic soccer occasion provides a star-studded and premier international soccer competitors of the very best high quality when in comparison with the 16-team males’s occasion, which is restricted to under-23 gamers with an allowance for under three over-age skilled gamers.
The fan curiosity in girls’s Olympic soccer competitors is anticipated to be increased than ever, because of the success of the 2023 World Cup, which attracted report international tv viewing figures.
USA: A crew in transition
With a brand new coach at its helm and a squad that includes upcoming stars, a new-look Crew USA will compete on the Olympics.
England’s Emma Hayes has been employed to show across the crew’s fortunes and the skilled coach might be a breath of recent air that the American girls’s recreation wants.
Hayes, who led Chelsea to seven Ladies’s Tremendous League titles, took over the reins simply earlier than the Olympics, though her appointment was introduced late final yr after Vlatko Andonovski resigned within the wake of their bitter World Cup exit.
After successive triumphs in 2015 and 2019, the US was anticipated to finish a “three-peat” of titles on the 2023 World Cup, however the Individuals had been knocked out within the final 16, dropping to Sweden on penalties.
The strain is on Hayes as she manages a crew looking for its manner again to the highest of the world rankings, having slipped to their lowest-ever spot (fifth). There’s additionally satisfaction on the road for the four-time world champions.
“Everyone knows the principle elements of the American DNA, and that won’t change underneath my stewardship,” Hayes stated in her first press convention as head coach in June.
US captain Lindsey Horan, who was a part of the aspect that received bronze on the Tokyo Video games, stated the crew has moved on from their World Cup heartbreak and goes for gold in Paris.
“After the World Cup, we actually regrouped,” Horan instructed reporters this month.
“You take a look at the younger gamers coming in, the leaders on this crew, you already know, simply [a] massive mesh of what now we have. I feel what you’re going to see and what’s in retailer for us is unbelievable.”
Crew USA’s 18-player Olympic roster options thrilling new expertise akin to ahead Sophia Smith and defender Naomi Girma, whereas veterans Horan, Alyssa Naeher and Crystal Dunn add high quality depth to the squad.
In a shock omission, Alex Morgan, one of many final hyperlinks to the good US girls’s soccer crew dynasty, was omitted by Hayes. Will probably be the primary time because the 2008 Olympics that the high-profile ahead won’t go well with up for the nationwide aspect in a significant competitors.
Crew USA has received a medal in all however one of many seven Olympics which have featured girls’s soccer, together with 4 gold medals, the final of which got here at London 2012.
Goalkeeper Naeher stated the Paris Olympics will give the crew an opportunity to start a brand new chapter, as they appear to regain their supremacy on the worldwide stage.
“We’ve talked to this entire yr about trying in direction of the longer term and turning the web page and having this new identification and transferring ahead,” Naeher instructed reporters.
“That is the beginning of that,” she stated.
“With Emma in right here and the total new workers and the roster being set, I feel now that is the chance to formally sort of transfer in that ahead course. And that is the primary event for that. You possibly can really feel the vitality.”
The US are in Group B alongside 2016 Olympic champions Germany, Asian heavyweights Australia, and Zambia, whose squad contains the world’s most costly feminine participant, Racheal Kundananji.
Can Spain do the double?
Spain emerged because the 2023 FIFA World Champions in Australia and New Zealand regardless of coping with off-field points together with an ugly participant revolt. Later, their title triumph was marred by a scandal triggered by ex-Spanish FA chief Luis Rubiales.
Rubiales provoked worldwide outrage by kissing star participant Jenni Hermoso with out consent in the course of the medal ceremony after the World Cup last. The disgraced former official is about to stand trial in February 2025, whereas his shut ally Jorge Vilda was additionally sacked because the coach by the Spanish FA.
In contrast to the World Cup, Spain will head to the Olympics with out distractions and has the prospect to turn out to be the primary crew to win the Olympic Gold-World Cup double.
The Olympics will probably be a brand new expertise for the top-ranked Spaniards however having received the World Cup and the Nations League final yr, they know what it takes to win at a significant event.
Their squad is wealthy in world-class expertise, that includes 2023 Ballon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmati, all-time high scorer Hermoso, veteran midfielder Alexia Putellas and promising winger Salma Paralluelo.
“We’re an bold crew and I’m an bold one who by no means will get bored with profitable,” stated Bonmati, who received Liga F and the Champions League with Barcelona final season.
“A very powerful factor now’s to give attention to profitable gold.”
Spain, enjoying underneath new coach Montse Tome, are in Group C with 2011 world champions Japan, two-time Olympic silver medallists Brazil, and Nigeria, the top-ranked African crew.
Marta steps up for Brazil, Canada excessive on confidence
Brazil will head to Paris 2024 looking for the gold medal that has eluded them, having received the silver in 2004 and 2008 Olympics.
Head coach Arthur Elias’s squad contains among the best gamers of all time, Marta. The 38-year-old will probably be enjoying in her sixth and last Video games earlier than retiring from worldwide soccer on the finish of the yr, and the legendary ahead would like to lastly add a gold medal to her prolonged record of profession achievements.
“She brings quite a bit to the desk, she’s the best athlete of all time,” Elias stated of Marta, who’s Brazil’s main aim scorer.
Canada have caught with a significant chunk of their gold medal-winning squad as coach Bev Priestman referred to as on 13 gamers who had been a part of the Olympic success in Tokyo.
Captain Jessie Fleming, one in every of six girls on the 18-player squad competing of their third consecutive Olympic Video games, stated the eighth-ranked crew are assured of a great efficiency.
The Canadians are the one aspect to have reached the rostrum in girls’s soccer at every of the final three Olympic Video games.
“We now have grown quite a bit within the final yr as a crew and are assured we are able to repeat the success now we have had traditionally on this event,” stated Fleming, who took over the captaincy after long-time skipper Christine Sinclair retired late final yr.
Canada is in Group A with hosts France, Colombia and New Zealand.
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You possibly can observe the motion on Al Jazeera’s devoted Paris 2024 Olympics event web page with all of the information and options, in addition to occasion build-up and reside textual content commentary on chosen soccer, basketball, tennis and boxing fixtures.
