Women's World Cup 2011

I enjoyed what I saw of the Women's World Cup. My favourite players:

1. Homare Sawa
2. Abby Wambach
3. Sonia Bompastor

ESPN's coverage was... OK. Julie Foudy was good, and Kate Markgraf was excellent but Ian Darke and the other men were fountains of cliches. ESPN managed to show Sawa's fantastic goal from every angle...

except the one that actually showed what happened:

I was impressed by the way Abby Wambach was the first to go to congratulate the winning team, and the only player to talk to camera after the game. She also knew how to take a penalty.

I hope that we will soon be hearing more about the management style of Norio Sasaki. In the huddle before the penalties we expect to see the coaches sternly exhorting their players to win. Whenever I see coaches lecturing players I imagine them saying "kick the ball.... into the goal". But Norio Sasaki simply bowed to his players with a big smile on his face. He knew that there was nothing left for him to do.

I hope we will see more of Megan Rapinoe in the future, perhaps as an elf in the new Hobbit movies.

How did the newspapers do? Alas the Oakland Tribune is unclear on the concept of sports:

The other papers did OK with the Washington Post being the best for showing Sawa triumphant.