Football stayed home
Saving my summer
Women’s football has saved my summer.
Well, soccer-wise, anyway. I was in Europe for two weeks. Saw Oasis. Climbed a mountain. Walked with puffins. My summer has been pretty good. Except for the soccer. That has been, mostly, dreadful.
Toronto FC, the men suddenly forgetting how to win in Concacaf, even my cheat code (Manchester City) wasn’t working. I tried to care about the World Club Cup, but that proved to be a step too far. Well, I did see PSG beat Bayern in a public square in Dunkerque, France. That was OK, even if I felt they should be Lille fans.
In the end, though…yeah, not much to grab hold of there. I’m sure they will roll it out again in a few years and try to convince us that it matters, but no one seriously thinks Chelsea is the world champion right now.
One team that is undisputedly the world champions right now is the Spanish women’s national team, which treated us to a month of inspired football in Switzerland at Euro 2025. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t inspire at the very end of the month for the 15 minutes that mattered most, losing a penalty shoot-out to England (I know!), who retain their European championship after what can charitably be called a fortunate run through the knock-out stages.
The less charitable way to put it would be to say that England was dreadful and lucky as hell. That’s probably a bit unfair. Defending is part of the game. So is just kind of finding a way.
That, they did well. Late goals and weird penalty shoot-out wins. England was entertaining as hell. Also, football isn’t fair and that’s why we love it, really.
Football is staying home and that is all that matters. So, thank you Lionesses, and Spain, and the enigmatic French and Switzerland and to all the teams who made it a great tournament. The women’s Euro has been the best thing to happen to summer football in a generation and I cannot wait to see where these teams are in two years’ time when Spain looks to defend its world championship.
I also can’t wait for the exhausting post-tournament culture war that is raging on social media on whether Chloe Kelly could break into Real Madrid’s (men’s) starting XI (Sigh. No. She couldn’t) / if she wouldn’t make your pub team’s starting XI (Sigh. Yes. She could).
Why are we still doing this shit? Just enjoy the women’s game for what it is — a brilliant, highly entertaining sports product involving the most talented women in the world.
That message is especially for you, RawDogg1994. We both know you get winded playing FIFA on your PS5. So shut it.
Please.
We shall leave it here for today, but there is plenty more to talk about in the women’s game in the days ahead. I heard you Bev Priestman (and I have thoughts. Oh, do I have thoughts), and there is a domestic league here in Canada as well that needs some love.
WoSo has made remarkable inroads since I started writing about this sport. It’s gotten to the point where it can even pull a blasé soccer writer out of the doldrums.
Overall, I'd say the soccer market is saturated. Too many teams. Too many games and too many tournaments. Too many player transfers. Less would be better, me thinks.