We look at the top players from the Group Stage of the 2019 Women's World Cup in France as selected by respected French Sports Daily L'Equipe, with some other names that we would have added in picking a select team from the first round. We also look at the Round of 16 matchups with 8 European Teams matched against sides from other Confederations.
L'Equipe Top Players from Group Stage of the Women's World Cup
French Daily Sports Newspaper L'Equipe on June 22, 2019presented their top players in a 4-4-2 formation after the end of the Group Stage, based on average player ratings from each match—which are done frequently by European media outlets—on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being superb. Their selections were:
Goalkeeper
Claudia Endler—Chile (6.33)
Defenders
Lucy Bronze—England (7.00)
Griedge Mbock Bathy—France (6.33)
Becky Sauerbrunn—U.S. (7.00)
Crystal Dunn—U.S. (7.00)
Midfielders
Tobin Heath—U.S. (7.00)
Lindsey Horan—U.S. (7.33)
Sam Mewis—U.S. 9&.5)
Eugenie Le Sommer—France (6.5)
Forwards
Ellen White—England (7.5)
Barbara Bonansea—Italy (6.67)
Other Mentions included:
Goalkeeper
Vanina Correa—Argentina (6.67)
Defenders
Chidinma Okeke—Nigeria (6.50)
Abby Dahlkemper—U.S. (6.63)
Midfielders
Sophie Schmidt—Canada (6.67)
Nikita Parris—England (6.50)
Forwards
Jenni Hermosa—Spain (6.67)
Vivianne Midema—Netherlands (6.67)
This is a very quantitative approach to selecting a top 11, though one could argue that the individual ratings are qualitative, though they certainly are reliable and utilize a set methodology. From my perspective, I probably thought Correa was slightly better than Endler and more important to her team exceeding expectations in this tournament. We will talk about this in a later column but the play of the goalkeepers in this World Cup—particularly from countries developing women's football—has been superb and you can add Nigeria's Chiamaka Nnadozie (River Angels) and Spain's Sandra Panos (Barcelona) to that list.
French wingers Amel Majri and Delphine Cascarino (both with Olympique Lyon) have been difference makers in this tournament and deserve mention, as well as Wendie Renaud in the back and Amandine Henry (both Olympique Lyon) in the middle of the park. Sam Kerr (Chicago Red Stars/Perth Glory) of Australia should be added as well as Germany's Alexandra Popp (Wolfsburg) at forward and goalkeeper Almuth Schult (also of Wolfsburg).
UEFA Is Almost Perfect in Advancing to the Semifinals.
In an interesting quirk of the scheduling, UEFA had 8 teams advance to the Round of 16 and all were drawn with a team from another confederation (3 from AFC, 2 from CONCACAF, 2 from CAF—Africa and 1 from CONMEBOL). In the round of 16, seven UEFA sides advanced:
Germany bested Nigeria 3-0
England defeated Cameroon 3-0
Norway defeated Australia 4-1 on penalties after a 1-1 tie after 90 minutes
France held off Brazil 2-1 in Extra Time
Sweden defeated Canada 1-0
Italy bested China PR 2-0
Netherlands triumphed over Japan 2-1
The only European side to fall in the Round of 16 was Spain, losing 2-1 to the Americans in a close game, with Megan Rapinoe's two goals from the penalty spot the difference.
UEFA, which sent 9 teams to the Finals, saw only Scotland fail to make the Round of 16, and that was a near miss after surrendering a 3-0 lead against Argentina—Scotland would have advanced at the expense of Nigeria with even a one goal win.
UEFA's 2019 success shows that UEFA's regular formula of European Championship and World Cup Qualifiers every four years is providing enough quality games for teams to improve on a two year cycle. The problem in other confederations is that they do not have tournaments for their national teams as frequently; some hold their continental championship every four years (including CONCACAF and Oceania) plus Olympic Qualifying—which typically doesn't attract as many sides—is usually the next year. In addition, CONMEBOL and OCEANIA sent the winner of the last WWC qualifying tournament Copa America/OFC Nations Cup to the Olympic Games Finals next year in Japan.
UEFA will send their 3 sides from this year's Women's World Cup—which they have done in the past to avoid fixture conflict with the beginning of 2021 European Championship qualifying; with their strong showing in France, the semifinals will be used to identify the 3 UEFA sides for next summer's Olympic Games Finals.
Tim Grainey is a contributor to Tribal Football. His latest book Beyond Bend it Like Beckham on the global game of women's football. Get your copy today.
Follow Tim on Twitter: @TimGrainey
