Speaking from firsthand experience, I know how hard it can be on your body to wake up in the middle of the night to watch Olympic soccer played in Japan. I thought it was fun in 2002 for the World Cup, but my body rebelled hard after the first day of play on Wednesday.
And yet, I can’t wait to wake up early for the next Group F match, because those games have been stupidly entertaining at the 2020 Olympics.
Barcelona Femení just completed one of the most dominating football campaigns we have ever seen. Barcelona beat Eibar 9-1 to cap a near-perfect season that dwarfs Arsenal’s Invincibles or any men’s treble winner. You could argue it was the best season ever in soccer.
The Covid-19 pandemic had many sporting casualties in 2020. While nothing compares to the immense (and ongoing) loss of life, U.S. soccer fans were denied the opportunity to pay NFL-level prices to watch preseason friendlies between indifferent European clubs in the International Champions Cup. Similarly, the less-promoted but far-more-interesting Women’s International Champions Cup was canceled in 2020.
An unstoppable Barcelona won its 20th game out of 20 on Saturday, thrashing Rayo Vallecano 4-0 away from home to continue its record-breaking run in Spanish women's soccer's top flight.
Swiss international Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic and Nigeria forward Asisat Oshoala struck in the first half while France's Kheira Hamraoui and Lieke Martens of the Netherlands completed the rout in the second period.
As much as we at The18 love women’s soccer, it’s a sad fact that the men’s game receives far more attention, whether it’s from FIFA, other media companies, potential sponsors or the fans themselves. (We could spend hours debating why this is the case, but that’s for another story.) Despite this, there are still a large number of women’s footballers who are far more famous than their partners, who are themselves professional soccer players.