The State of Soccer in the World

To begin this week’s blog, I will be covering four main components of what’s recently been happening in the soccer world. That includes, the USWNT winning the SheBelievesCup, the final Women’s World Cup qualifiers, STL City SC’s first home game, and the Player of the Year awards.

Let’s start with the USWNT winning the SheBelievesCup. For starters, I feel much more at ease now then I did last fall when we had lost three or four straight games. It was such a bad streak that I don’t even know how many it was. However, three solid wins over Canada, Japan, and Brazil that we once again won this tournament. Getting wins over high quality teams is something that this team needed very bad. Also, take a bow Mallory Swanson for all the goals you scored. She for one, will be a factor in Australia and New Zealand this summer no doubt about that. Our midfield was slightly worrying and the always occurring doubts about the defense definitely won’t go away after this tournament, however it was a well done tournament for the USWNT. It’s also worth mentioning that they will be playing a game in St. Louis very soon against Ireland. Now, the other main talk of the SheBelievesCup, and that is the ongoing dispute between the Canadian Women’s team and Soccer Canada. This dispute, similar to the USA, is about how much the players are paid. It was heartwarming to see so many players and fans stand with the Canadian team as they were literally forced to play this tournament or incur a fine. For my own beliefs, choosing to not pay the current Olympic champions even more is one of the worst ideas I’ve ever heard. When it’s put like that then it sounds even more idiotic.

Continuing with women’s soccer, the final teams qualified for this summer’s Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. The three teams that qualified were Portugal, Haiti, and Panama. I for one am thrilled that two North American teams, or CONCACAF teams qualified to the World Cup, particularly Haiti. I have been a fan of the Haitian team for a while, and they played so well at the CONCACAF Women’s Championship last summer that I just knew that they had to get the ticket and they did. So, having them alongside Panama in the tournament is fantastic news for North American soccer. More about the Women’s World Cup will be featured in future blog posts.

Next up is the long awaited debut of STL City SC. I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS TEAM! Holy smokes, I don’t know what it is, but from kickoff against Austin FC I just knew that this team was gonna do something special. And that they already have as they defeated Austin FC in Austin and then this past weekend they defeated Charlotte FC inside a sold out CITYPARK. Being a debutant team and winning your first two games means you are doing something right, and I want nothing more than to see this team go far this year. However, my biggest complaint is with the MLS for their deal with Apple TV. Putting all of the games behind a paywall? Really? Doesn’t sound like you care about growing the sport at all in my opinion. I feel the same way about so much of the Olympics exclusively being on Peacock. Putting sports behind a paywall is such a pet peeve, and it’s something that makes no sense if you truly want to grow the sport. However, turning the attention back to STL City SC means focusing on what can be improved for their next games. The answer to that is finishing much better than they have been. As odd as it is they have been gifted many lucky goals this year, and I can’t anticipate that happening much more.

My final thoughts are with the FIFA Player Of The Year Awards. However, those thoughts are mostly in disagreeing with the winners. However, let’s start with the winners I agreed with…
Best Men’s Player: Lionel Messi
Best Women’s Coach: Sarina Weigman
Best Men’s Coach: Lionel Scaloni
Best Women’s Goalkeeper: Mary Earps
Fair Play Award: Luka Lochoshvili
Fan Award: Argentina fans
All of these winners I agree with because it was so evident that they were the most deserving out of all of those categories. For coaches, there was no way both of them were going to lose those categories. Winning the Women’s Euro the way that England did and then Argentina winning the World Cup is a for sure in these categories. That’s also why I agree with the best men’s player, the best fans, and the best women’s goalkeeper because each of them were so well showcased this past year that it was going to be a crime if they didn’t win.
The two that I was on the fence about was the best Men’s Goalkeeper and the Puskás award. Each of which I was debating because I think there were arguments for Emiliano Martinez for best goalie and Marvin Oleksy for best goal. Yet, my mind tells me that Bonou from Morocco should have won best male keeper and Dimitri Payet should have won with his long range rocket goal. Now, the two biggest things that I really disagreed with was only one American being in the best 11 in the world, and the Best Women’s Player award.

The Best Women’s Player award once again went to Alexia Putellas of Spain. However, in my opinion, both Alex Morgan of the USA and Beth Mead of England were far more deserving to win. Truly, I haven’t seen clips of Putellas that have made me say wow yet, but I certainly have seen amazing plays and goals from Morgan and Mead that have made me say wow. Putellas has gotten all of the awards recently, but I just think that this one really should have gone to someone else. But for now, there is nothing I can do about it, and we will see if she can prove me wrong come the World Cup.