France Seeks Higher Ladies’s World Cup Consequence After Falling Quick in Paris 4 Years In the past

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — 4 years after France fell flat within the Women’s World Cup because the host nation, Les Bleus return to the global stage with a brand new coach decided to dethrone america.

France hoped to contend for the 2019 match title however was eradicated by the Individuals within the quarterfinals in Paris. The plan for a greater consequence this 12 months was almost derailed in February when captain Wendie Renard stop the workforce “to guard my psychological well being” and two different gamers adopted her exit.

The French federation vowed to look into the scenario and in March fired coach Corinne Diacre with a 12 months remaining on her contract. The workforce changed her with Hervé Renard, who resigned as coach of Saudi Arabia’s males’s workforce to take the job.

Hervé Renard led Saudi Arabia to an upset over eventual winner Argentina within the males’s World Cup in November and, when he leads France towards Jamaica on Sunday in a Group F match in Sydney, he shall be simply the second coach to handle at each the boys’s and girls’s World Cups.

Hervé Renard additionally beforehand coached Morocco’s males’s workforce.

His hiring prompted Wendie Renard to return to the workforce and he or she’ll be on the sphere for the primary ever assembly between France and Jamaica in ladies’s worldwide play. It’s France’s fifth look within the match, and Jamaica’s second look.

Jamaica misplaced all three of its matches in its 2019 debut, scoring solely as soon as whereas giving up 12 objectives. Its play on this World Cup will hinge on the efficiency of Khadija Shaw, a Manchester Metropolis striker who was one in all solely two gamers to attain not less than 20 objectives within the English Ladies’s Tremendous League from 2022-23.

Jamaica is one in all many groups battling its federation over funding, and its gamers created a GoFundMe campaign to boost funds for his or her preparations.

The Netherlands returns to the Ladies’s World Cup seeking to go only one spot additional than 2019, when the Dutch misplaced to america within the last.

The hunt begins Sunday in a Group E match towards Portugal in Dunedin. The Dutch beat Portugal 3-2 within the group levels of final summer season’s Ladies’s UEFA European Championship, and Portugal has misplaced seven of its earlier eight video games — together with 5 straight — towards the Netherlands.

The Netherlands is with out star participant and all-time main scorer Vivianne Miedema, who ruptured her ACL enjoying for Arsenal in December.

Portugal is one in all eight groups making its match debut and has performed in solely two earlier ladies’s worldwide tournaments — the European Championships in 2017 and 2022. Portugal was knocked out within the group stage in each tournaments.

However the focus forward of this match has been the coaching circumstances in New Zealand, and each groups have complained that the amenities have been insufficient. Portugal coach Francisco Neto mentioned his squad couldn’t apply on its assigned area Friday as a result of heavy rain had made the enjoying floor insufficient.

The Netherlands has complained that its apply area in Tauranga is designed for cricket and too exhausting for soccer.

Neto mentioned neither workforce can use it as an excuse in Sunday’s sport.

“It’s what it’s, and we have to modify,” he mentioned. “Everybody has some issues with that. Once we come right here we don’t have many selection of pitches. All of the groups and coaches need the identical for his or her groups. We’ve issues with that too, not simply the Netherlands.”

Caroline Seger will begin her fifth and last Ladies’s World Cup on Sunday when Sweden performs South Africa in a Group G match in Wellington.

Will probably be Seger’s last alternative to win a World Cup, one of many few gaps on her resume. Her 232 appearances for Sweden are probably the most for any feminine participant in Europe.

“The World Cup has been my objective all this time, to be there and be capable to prepare and play soccer once more is every part I’ve ever wished. I’m super-proud of the journey I’ve had,” Seger mentioned. “It’s about getting the one medal I’m lacking — to be right here with this nationwide workforce, that is my final likelihood. I gained’t be enjoying any extra World Cups.

“So to have the ability to hopefully assist the workforce in each manner I can to convey residence gold could be in fact a dream come true.”

Seger has two Olympic silver medals and two World Cup bronze medals. Sweden has by no means missed a Ladies’s World Cup, however has but to win a serious match.

It has been an emotional journey for her and he or she broke down in tears discussing her comeback from harm in time to play in a single last match. The 38-year-old midfielder has been preventing calf issues and has barely performed for membership FC Rosengard this 12 months.

Sweden coach Peter Gerhardsson nonetheless selected her for the roster, even when there was no assure Seger could be match to play. Seger was a second-half substitute in Sweden’s pleasant towards Norway in April however was changed shortly afterwards as a result of her calf was bothering her.

“When I’ve felt that I’m on the best way again, I’ve had one thing occur that has brought on me to again up once more. Time runs away,” she mentioned as she began to cry. “I by no means thought that I’d miss so many matches, I didn’t see that coming. It’s been a nasty interval.”

South Africa, in the meantime, is making its second match look. The workforce misplaced all three of its group video games in 2019 and is the the lowest-ranked workforce within the group that features Argentina and Italy.

South Africa can also be a workforce embroiled in controversy as its gamers boycotted a pleasant this month in a dispute over wages. The South African Soccer Affiliation put collectively a makeshift workforce that included a 13-year-old for the sport, a 5-0 loss because the World Cup squad watched from the stands.

The gamers mentioned Saturday the pay dispute was settled and they’re dedicated to enjoying the World Cup and won’t strike.

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