A Nation Shrugs: Women's World Cup Soccer in Germany

World Cup? Wasn't that the soccer tournament in South Africa last year? Yes indeed-- but that was the men's World Cup. The Women's World Cup is talking place right now here in Germany. While my memories of business slowing to a crawl, entire city plazas converted into makeshift viewing areas with multiple jumbotron TV's, and a palpable sense of patriotism surged from the usually apolitical and button-down Germans (who eventually claimed 3rd place) last year, the women's World Cup has inspired a lot of... er, apathy. How apathetic? Well, both Puma and Adidas are located in the area, and through my connections and associations (trust me, English speakers manage to find each other when living abroad), I know for a fact that neither company is doing much to really support this event, nevermind that these are 2 of the larger players in the world of soccer. I don't want to tell tales out of school, but I managed to be hanging out with nearly the entire Puma soccer division the other weekend, and they weren't sure if they even sponsored any country's national women's team-- they honestly couldn't remember. Adidas, who has both the tournament's leading scorer and the winning team trophy named after the company, did not know if they were even going to be showing the games on the TV's there.

The Women's World Cup also differs in that there are less teams playing-- 16 instead of the men's 32, so the actual tournament is shorter-- it started on Sunday (June 26th) and will be finished by mid-July. I was working on a project at home today and I had the games on the TV with the sound off. You know what? They were actually really good-- the teams are very evenly matched so far with no blowouts. Aficionados of the women's game will tell you that the players at this level have much better skills and fundamentals-- stuff that men's players sometimes can cover up with better speed or power to compensate. We'll see how this plays out in the days and weeks to come, but early favorites to win the whole megillah are... Germany and the USA.

The header photo is not a Photoshop-- it's the actual cover of German Playboy with the German women's team in various cheesecake-y (but not compromising) photos. Naturally, there is a flap about this, but it should be noted that nobody forced the players to participate. Their logic is that, OK, we need more people to follow the sport, so if some yokel tunes in to see the "Playboy girls" and comes away an actual fan of the game, then so much the better and it was worth it. You can follow the Women's World Cup wherever you are by checking out this website, run by FIFA, the sport's governing organization. Unlike the 2006 Men's World Cup (also held in Germany), Nuremberg is not a host city/stadium. The closest city would be Augsburg, about 2 hours due south of here, and neither the USA or Germany are scheduled to play there.