What a tournament
Do you believe it now?
What a relief that the months of occasionally over the top, but eventually quite accurate hype gave way to one of the great sporting events this country has hosted.
The Football Ferns’ extraordinary victory over Norway on opening night ignited the sort of festival of football everyone has been dreaming about since New Zealand was confirmed as a co-host for what will almost certainly be the only senior Fifa World Cup we get to have.
You can’t tell me there won’t be thousands of New Zealand girls wanting to give football a go next season.
Boys, too. How cool to see crowd shots of young fellows enjoying the women’s game, and to hear older blokes analysing the relative merits of Betsy Hassett and Ria Percival.
Some minor quibbles
- Is it me or are the commentators really underwhelming? It still jars that we had an English man describing the Football Ferns’ historic win, and talking about "Marry" culture during the opening ceremony. Why is the voice of football, Jason Pine, not in the commentary box as much as possible?
- Again, is it me or is the sound balance through our screens really odd? Sterile, almost.
- VAR is easily the worst invention in the history of sport. Takes so much emotion out of the most emotional of games. And decisions like the one that ruled out New Zealand’s goal against the Philippines are ridiculous.
- No penalty shootouts. Bring on the knockout games!
- The Football Ferns not arriving in Dunedin until today. While I understand teams have their bases, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spread the gospel of women’s football. It would have been great to have them in the city for a few days.
That’s the spirit
Gone are the days, it seems, when rival Otago sports did everything they could not to make life easier for each other.
Kudos to local rugby and tennis crews for looking after each other in recent times.
When Fifa invaded ... er, arrived in Dunedin, and took over Forsyth Barr Stadium, the Otago Rugby Football Union was left homeless at a busy time of year.
The rugby folk approached Tennis Otago to see if the nearby Stevenson Centre would be available as a temporary base, and a deal was struck.
"With it being our offseason, we were happy to help our rugby counterparts with minimal disruption," Tennis Otago general manager George McLenaghen said.
Major performer
Keep the faith that Ryan Fox can become just the third New Zealand man to win a major.
It was impressive to see Fox was just one of 12 male golfers to make the cut at all four majors this year.
Other names on that list include heavy-hitters Cameron Smith, Scottie Scheffler, Brooks Koepka and Jon Rahm. Our Foxy belongs.
Mo’ money
One of the oil-rich clubs is said to be wanting to grab the French forward from PSG for a transfer fee of $NZ530 million.
It would then pay Mbappe, for just one season, a staggering $NZ1.24 billion — yes, billion.
Professional athletes like to endorse products on the side, but you get the feeling this is a footballer who will not be needing to flog Mbappe chapstick, Mbappe energy drinks or Mbappe sneakers.
Stand by as Saudi Arabia keeps turning the sports world on its head.
Names of the week
The Last Word has always been fascinated by wonderful names, and it is that time of the year when various accounts on social media platforms highlight the coolest names ahead of the new college football (gridiron) season.
My favourites — and a reminder these are real names of real young men — are as follows:
General Booty. Decoldest Crawford. Da’Realyst Clark. Phat Watts. Rowdy Beers. Dodge Sauser. Fish McWilliams. Memorable Factor. Pig Cage. Moh Bility. Dude Person.
Just magnificent.
And if you’re wondering, the coolest player names at the Fifa Women’s World Cup are Desire Oparanozie, Gift Monday, Alba Redondo, Comfort Selemani, Lotte Wubben-Moy, Tiernny Wiltshire and Giulia Dragoni.
