World Cup digest: Complaints about ‘demeaning men’ and French manager’s self-sacrifice

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“The girls said something about Gary. I hadn’t a clue who Gary was.”

Abbie Larkin (18) on being told she had taken over from Gary Kelly as Ireland’s youngest-ever World Cup player. He was 19 at USA ‘94 … 11 years before she was born.

NUMBER: 46

That’s how many shots on goal Spain had in their 3-0 win over Costa Rica, a new World Cup record. Hopefully, Costa Rican goalie Daniela Solera, who saved a penalty, was paid overtime.

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When the city of Dunedin was chosen to host six World Cup games at its Forsyth Barr Stadium, including two of New Zealand’s group fixtures, its city council set about promoting the tournament with a string of adverts announcing that, “The Best Footballers in the World are Coming to Dunedin”.

That line irked an unnamed individual so much, they actually went to the trouble of submitting a complaint to the country’s advertising standards authority.

“The statement that ‘The Best Footballers in the World are Coming to Dunedin’ breaches rule 2 (b) because it is not true. None of the players in the Women’s World Cup would be among the best footballers in the world, who are all men. The statement is also in breach of rule 1 (c) because it demeans men.”

The ruling? “The issue you raised does not reach the threshold to breach the relevant codes and therefore we will not take any further action. The chair considered the context and audience of the advertisement, the product being advertised and when applicable generally prevailing community standards.”

In other words, ‘would ya get a life, ya eejit’.

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Hervé Renard became just the second manager in history to lead teams at both the men’s and women’s World Cups when his French side played Jamaica on Sunday. He’d previously taken Morocco and Saudi Arabia to the men’s World Cup, very famously overseeing the latter’s group win over Argentina last November. John Herdman was the first to achieve the feat with Canada’s men and New Zealand’s women.

Renard was in the middle of a seven-year contract with Saudi Arabia when they agreed to terminate it once he told them he wanted to take the French job back in March. How much did the switch cost him? He told the New York Times he was paid at least “20 times” more by the Saudis, while the Athletic reckons he took … a 90 per cent pay cut. Ninety!

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Monday is the ninth anniversary of one of the finest achievements by an Irish underage side when the under-19 women’s team reached the semi-finals of the European Championships. A Vivianne Miedema hat-trick helped end the run, the Netherlands beating Ireland 4-0, two of their side, Dominique Janssen and Jill Roord, featuring in their 1-0 win over Portugal in Dunedin on Sunday.

Of the Irish team that played that day, Katie McCabe, Megan Connolly and Chloe Mustaki are all on duty in Australia, with Savannah McCarthy, Roma McLaughlin and Hayley Nolan among those who were unlucky to miss out on selection. One other member of the side is back home too, but it’s not like she was idle at the weekend. Amy O’Connor, who already has four All-Ireland camogie medals to her name, captained and top-scored for Cork in their semi-final win over Galway on Saturday to set up an All-Ireland final meeting with Waterford. That’s a decent sporting CV.

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She might not start for Brazil against Panama on Monday, but 37-year-old Marta, the six-time winner of the World Player of the Year award, will more than likely feature at some stage in the game and will look to add to her record 17 World Cup goals in this her sixth tournament.

A while back, Louise Quinn recalled coming up against the Brazilian in Swedish football. “She was pretty much everything you thought she was going to be — skilful, left foot, right foot, head, free-kicks.” Lippy, too. “I got in hard on her with one tackle and in Swedish she managed to call me a tall loser.”