Crooks: Crazy Week In Soccer Is About To Get Even More Wild With Women's World Cup
By Glenn Crooks
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Admittedly, I am finding it difficult to focus on one particular soccer topic for this column. It has been an eventful week on multiple levels.
There is the continuing saga of the FIFA scandal, which is a providing a daily dose of over-acting and drama rivaling the moment we discovered Adam and Stuart Chandler were twins on General Hospital.
I would defy the most stalwart writer of soaps to fashion a better tale – former FIFA executive Jack Warner holding up a fabricated article from The Onion in self-defense; FIFA's $5 million payoff to the Ireland Football Association to withdraw a law suit filed after Thierry Henry's hand-ball goal, which kept Ireland out of the 2010 World Cup; multi-million dollar payoffs to secure the title of "host nation" for the '98, '10, '14, '18 and '22 World Cups; embattled FIFA President, Sepp Blatter, reportedly had an affair with Cristiano Ronaldo's ex, Irina Shayk.
Jeffrey Webb, who replaced Warner as the CONCACAF chief and was lauded as a clean leader, was the first of 14 arrested in Zurich last week. The Chairman of the Canadian Soccer Association, host of the upcoming Women's World Cup, then attacked the media while putting his support behind Webb.
"With all due respect, you and your colleagues were saying the exact same thing," victor Montagilani told a group of reporters. "So you need to maybe look in the mirror a bit and maybe not put people on the pedestal so that you can whack the hell out of them after."
Montagliani, who displays an arrogance that rivals Blatter, is the man behind the use of artificial turf fields at the Women's World Cup '15. When questioned about the use of turf instead of grass earlier this year, he dismissed the notion that it was a gender-equity issue. In the same interview, he referred to the men's World Cup as "the real World Cup."
In the midst of the FIFA mess have been preparations for one of the favored events in soccer – the Champions League Final. On Saturday in Berlin, Lionel Messi and Barcelona will be the heavy favorites to defeat Juventus. Roaming the midfield, and the conduit between the back line and forward group for Juve, is 36-year-old Andrea Pirlo. A report earlier in the week from Spanish outlet AS indicated that Pirlo will play his final match for the Serie A Champions and has agreed to join David Villa and Frank Lampard at New York City FC.
"Right now, we're balancing being focused on building this team and being focused on preparing for a match," NYCFC coach Jason Kreis said after Thursday's training session at SUNY Purchase. "We aren't going to ever comment on potential summer transfer signings. We've always had in the back of our mind that we will need to make some additions in the summer – we're there. We have a third Designated Player (DP) spot available so that's one for sure."
David Amoyal, who covers Italian soccer for respected outlet ESPN FC and also writes for the English page of Sky Sport's Gianluca DiMarzio, told me that Pirlo really loves New York City and vacations there often. Amoyal has reported that Pirlo is seriously considering an offer to become the third DP for the expansion side.
"Players are attracted to New York City," Kreis said. "We're always going to be in those rumors."
For now, New York City will be desperate for its first win in a dozen matches when it makes the jaunt to Philadelphia on Saturday to play the Union. It will be the third and final meeting of the season between the two and the Union are in the playoff mix after a disastrous beginning to the season. Philadelphia has won three of four matches, good for sixth place in the Eastern Conference.
"Things in this league can turn around quickly," said Kreis, who will be without a pair of starters from last week's draw versus Houston, Mix Diskerud (USMNT duty) and Khiry Shelton (injured). "I look at what Philadelphia has done and say, why not us?"
Also on Saturday is the start of the Women's World Cup. Canada will play China, which hosted the first women's world championship in 1991, in the opening match at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta. The home to the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League has a capacity of 60,081 and has been a sellout for the initial match since March.
Team USA, which presented a disappointing send-off to the 26,000 supporters at Red Bull Arena last week, will play its first match on Monday against the 10th ranked team in the world, Australia.
The United States, currently ranked No. 2 in the FIFA rankings, is in the "Group of Death" along with No. 5 Sweden and No. 33 Nigeria.
Each match will present its own challenge but two items will be apparent from the outset: Lisa De Vanna and Kyah Simon have explosive pace up top for the Aussies. The Americans have been deficient when defending teams with speed. Meanwhile, there are legitimate queries on the attacking side for the United States. Abby Wambach and Alex Morgan have been the principal scoring threats up top for the Americans. Wambach has been slowed by age and can no longer perform for 90 minutes,while a bone bruise has sidelined Morgan for over a month. She is not expected to play in any of the three first-round matches. That leaves Carli Lloyd, one of the premier scoring midfielders in the world, with added responsibility to finish her opportunities. If the U.S. fails to generate goals from the other strikers (Sydney Leroux, Amy Rodriguez, Christen Press), it is doubtful that it can win a third World Cup championship.
Glenn Crooks is the color commentator for New York City FC on WFAN and the former head soccer coach at Rutgers University. You can follow him on Twitter at @GlennCrooks andglenncrooks.sportsblog.com.
