The nominations for FIFA's self-indulging award of naming "The Best FIFA Football Awards" for coaches and players were announced Wednesday morning. The winners will be revealed Sept. 23 in Milan at The Best FIFA Football Awards show. Here are the FIFA Best Awards nominees for 2019.
Ready? #TheBest Men's Player nominees:
With the USWNT and Spain knotted at 1-1 after the hour mark at the Stade Auguste-Delaune in Reims on Monday, La Roja’s Patricia Guijarro broke free on the left-hand side of the U.S. defense and fizzed a shot just wide of Alyssa Naeher’s far post. It was in this moment that a possible upset of historic proportions went from “there’s no way in hell” to “oh shit, this kinda feels like it’s happening.”
The USWNT overcame a spirited, physical and tactically disciplined Spain to advance to the quarterfinals of the Women’s World Cup and setup an enthralling match with France, but the manner of the victory was hardly assuring.
The U.S. required two penalties from captain Megan Rapinoe — one in the seventh minute and the next in the 76th — to overcome a defensive error that allowed Jennifer Hermoso to score the first goal against the USWNT of this tournament.
Spain is widely considered a rising power in women’s soccer, and la Roja had a tremendous opportunity to accentuate that sentiment with a victory over two-time world champion Germany on Wednesday. But they blew it, and their failure is compounded by the fact that they’re now possibly on a collision course with the USWNT in the Round of 16.
The majority of the first half was dominated by Spain, and two glorious opportunities fell to Nahikari García to open the scoring in the opening 14 minutes.
What hurts more, a man getting kicked in the crotch or a woman giving birth?
It’s a question that is just about impossible to answer accurately. Determining pain thresholds for men compared to women is about as easy to do as herding cats, and it’s an issue scientists for decades have struggled to even appropriately consider.
Since there are 24 teams participating in the 2019 Women’s World Cup, the knockout format is slightly different than the men’s format. To ensure 16 teams make it to the knockout stages, out of the six groups, four of those groups have three out of the four teams in the group go through the to the knockout stages. The way these four teams are chosen is simple: The third-place teams with the most points out of the six move on to the knockout stages.