WWC 2011

The Women's World Cup is held the year after the men's tournament, and this year's event is in Germany. The US is ranked #1 in the world, but Germany is considered the favorite. They have won the last two World Cups, and the US has not won one on foreign soil. A few notes from watching the first set of group stage matches:

1) Please watch this commercial. I already love Abby Wambach to begin with, so I'm happy to see her getting some face time. After watching the Italian team in last year's men's tournament, I started falling to the ground whenever a family member brushed lightly against me, screaming in pain, grabbing at different places as if I'd been shot. I particularly liked shouting, "My eyes!" even if I'd been touched on the elbow. The practice of diving is a huge problem in international soccer, and you can find over 3,200 results on youtube for "soccer diving".

2) This is the first WWC for Equatorial Guinea, a small country on the west coast of Africa sandwiched between Cameroon and Gabon (but you already knew that). I sometimes wonder about the differences between the men's and women's games. The announcers said that "EQG", as they called it, were missing some players they had used during qualifying. One was killed in an accident. Others couldn't prove they were really citizens. These sorts of things happen on the men's side as well. Then they said some players couldn't adequately answer -- and I quote -- "the gender question". Apparently a set of twin sisters on the team may have actually been twin brothers.

3) North Korea is a pretty strong force in Asian soccer on both the men's and women's side, but sometimes political or other off-the-field topics overshadow what happens on the field. In last year's men's tournament, the head coach said that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was giving him strategic advice through an invisible cell phone. After the team lost 7-0 to Portugal, the players were subjected to a six-hour public humiliation, and the coach was sent to work on a construction site.

After the PRK women lost to the United States 2-0 (a game in which they played pretty well, I must say) the coach claimed that several of his players had been struck by lightning while training in Pyongyang.

North Korea is a pretty crappy, oppressive place, and I feel bad for the people who have to live there. Having said that, I have to admit that whenever one of their sports teams is involved in something, I pay attention. There's almost a guarantee that something quirky is going to happen.

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Every time I see the word "guh" written in place of "girl", my eyes start to bleed and I die a little inside.