Women's World Cup

So the 2006 World Cup is over and the Italians won.

But there is the 2007 Women's World Cup to look forward to!

Starting from 10th to 30th of September, 16 teams will fight through their way into the finals. It will be held in Hangzhou, Tianjin, Wuhan, Chengdu and Shanghai with the opening match in and the finals in Shanghai.

Looking at the groupings....

Well, USA is already whining about being put in the perceived "group of death". China appears to be in a relatively easy group. Things might be different if this weren't the women's world cup. Group A will be exciting to watch if it were the men's world cup. The English rivalry between World War 2 nemesis Germany will guarantee lots of talks about blitzkrieg and bluff. Futhermore will be the Thatcherite era issue of Falklands War with Argentina. And Japan! I don't know. Perhaps the English are still bitter about the Beatles being broken up by Yoko Ono. Who knows?

Group C is kind of boring. Perhaps it features two of the biggest countries in the world, Canada and Australia, with the most commonly mistaken capital? Canada's capital city is Ottawa. Not Vancouver, not Winnipeg, not Toronto, not Montreal and certainly not Quebec City. Australia's capital city is Canberra. Not Sydney. Not Melbourne. Not Brisbane and certainly not Perth.

Group D is deliberately created to ensure that host country, China, gets an easy ticket out of the group stages.

Group B! Wow! It features North Korea and USA! Exciting! It's like the Bush Administration versus Dear Leader Kim Jong Il. I expect lots of coverage on this match up. Weirdly, amongst the six nations involved in the (duh) six nations talk, only North Korea, Japan, USA and China are here. What happened to South Korea and Russia? South Korean girls, well, maybe they are still trying to get an appointment with their plastic surgeons. And Russian women are, well, busying occupying spots in the world of tennis instead?