The World Has Caught Up
A Preview to a Miniseries to Recap the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup
If you’re someone who reads my articles regularly, you’ll know that sometimes I struggle with brevity. As I began writing my analysis of the early US exit from the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, both in my mind and on paper, I found my singular article becoming more of a mini booklet with different chapters.
And that shouldn’t be surprising. The 2023 FIFA WWC deserves analysis as a standalone for many different reasons. The Women’s game has matured in palpable ways that given the right support (lol maybe not from FIFA…) can see it soar to new heights. If you have been paying attention to the growth of the game internationally, some of the results from this tournament should not have been too shocking. A final between two nations with established footballing infrastructures domestically and being invested in shouldn’t surprise anyone, especially considering the talent England and Spain possess.
No analysis in this preview though. I will break my overall thoughts down into three parts. One will be the USWNT between the lines, a combination of tactics, injuries, and overall performance. Two will be an overall look at how the tournament on the whole has shown how the women’s game has grown, even in places some of you least expected. The third and final installment will be a combination of some coaching, but mostly subpar and uninformed national media analysis. From overconfidence to not talking about actual soccer tactics, mainstream coverage of this tournament in the US when it specifically comes to the USWNT has been, I’ll just be honest, awful and harmful.
But we’ll save my thoughts on Alexi and Carli for a later date. For now, just expect to see over the next few days a 3-part recap of the FIFA Women’s World Cup from yours truly. College football season is right around the corner (woo!) but I am happy to live up to the name of my page here “eclectic musings”. I think I’ll make it a point to continue to cover the women’s game moving forward in some capacity here in general. I certainly watch enough FAWSL to do so.