Overview : Sixth Women’s Football World Cup 2011 - Germany
The Sixth Women’s Football World Cup was hosted by Germany and the matches were played in Nine Stadiums of Nine Host Cities in the country. The organization of the World Cup matches in Germany was a great success and the hospitality was at its zenith beating the previous occasions of the hospitality of other countries like South Africa. The final was held on 17th July 2011 at Frankfurt between US and Japan fighting for the coveted Cup. Japan did win the Cup for the first time.
Host Germany – Nine beautiful Cities and Nine Stadium with infrastructure
German society is defined by its openness to the world, the harmonious cooperation and coexistence. It was therefore a preconcluded notion that Germany can deliver the goods in organizing the matches in a befitting manner.. Once the host was decided, an Organising Committee was formed under the Presidentship of the former German Footballer, Steffi Jones who started her work on 1st January 2008. The Nine host cities are (1) Augsburg (2) Berlin (3) Bochum (4) Dresden (5) Frankfurt (6) Leverkusen (7) Monchengladbach (8) Sinshiem and (9) Wolfsburg. 16 Countries selected with their world's best soccer teams participated in the World Cup during the period from June 26 to july 17, 2011. After the great inaugural ceremony, the ball started rolling on June 26, 2011 at Berlin between the Hosts, Germany and Canada.
Emblem and Mascot of Sixth Women's Football World Cup 2011
The World Cup tournament in Germany had a mascot "Karla Kick" and this was presented during the opening game of the Under20 Women's World Cup 2010 on 13 July 2010. It was beautifully designed and developed by the Frankfurt Agency GMR Marketing. As per Steffi Jones, President of the Organising Committee , the mascot represents "important attributes of women's football: passion, fun and dynamics".Teams and groups in Sixth Women's Football World Cup 2011
Group A -- Germany, Canada, France, Nigeria
Group B -- Japan, New Zealand, England, Mexico
Group C -- US, Korea DPR, Colombia, Sweden
Group D -- Brazil, Norway, Equitorial Guinea, Australia
Wonders happen in the Ground with the ball rolling – Great teams bite the dust.
The 16 Teams divided into Four Groups of Four each vied each other on round robin and two top point holders from each group made to the Quarter Final. They were (1) Germany (2) France (3) Japan (4) England (5) US (6) Sweden (7) Brazil and (8) Australia. At the Q Final, on knock out basis, Eight teams fought it toughly. The semi Finalists were (1) Japan (2) France (3) US and (4) Sweden from where the teams of Japan and US came victorious. As per the FIFA Rules, when any match in the knockout stage does not produce any result after regular 90 minutes, 30 minutes extra time is played to get result. If it is not productive, there is a penalty shootout that determines who progresses to the next round.Way to final for US and Japan in Sixth Women's Football World Cup 2011
The Semi Final match was on 13th July 2011 between US and France at Borussia Park at Monchengladbac, in front of a crowd of 25,676, controlled by the referee of Finland – Kirsi Heikkinen.. US smelt the blood at the very beginning of the match scoring at the 9th minute by Lauren Cheney, followed by Abby Wambach at 79th and Alex Morgan at 82nd minutes. Sonia Bompasor for France levelled the score at 55th minute. However, US girls were agile to seal the match in their favour.
The Second Semi Final was between Japan and Sweden on the same day itself. at Frankfurt in the stadium Commerzbank-Arena before a strong crowd of 45,434. The match was under the control of the referee Carol Anne Chenard from Canada. Though it was Sweden who first tasted the blood, netting a goal at the very beginning of the match at 10th minute through Josefine Oqvist, Japanese women proved their calibre and skills soon. Their striker, Nahomi Kawasumi made level the score at 19th minute to follow with another beautiful goal at 60th minute from the shoes of Homare Sawa. The fate was sealed by Kawasumi again at 64th minutes and brought laurels to their nation.
In the Third place play off between France and Sweden, played on 16th July at Sinshein , France was defeated by Sweden with a score of 1-2.Final match highlights between US and Japan in Sixth Women's Football World Cup 2011
The final was played at Frankfurt FIFA Women's World Cup Stadium on 17th July before a strong attendance of 48817 and the important match was controlled by Bibiana Steinhaus from Germany. At the end of the regulation time of 90 minutes the score was at a level of 1:1 as Alex Morgan gave the lead to US at 69th minute of the match but Aya Miyama found the net of US to level the score at 81st minute. Hence the grand final was extended for another 30 minutes. The regular scorer for US, Abby Wambach netted the goal at 104 minute but to the dismay of the entire US fans, Japanese girl Homare Sawa levelled it at 117th minute. The much dreaded Penalty Shoot out was therefore applied. From the Japanese team, Aya Miyama, Mizuho Sakaguchi and Saki Kumagai took the penalties and found the correct spot, catching the US Goalkeeper on the wrong foot. The kick taken by Yuki Nagasato was saved by the US Goalkeeper. The lady luck did not smile at the US team on 17th night as in their penalty shoot out, only Abby Wambach could score for US. The kicks from the shoes of Shannon Boxx and Tobin Heath were saved by the Japanese Goalkeeper while the penalty taken by Carl Lloyd missed the target. Thus, Japan for the first time became the World Champion.
Japan is still grappling with one of its worst-ever peacetime disasters and natural calamity, but there was jubilation and praise early Monday for a squad of previously unheralded women - the national football (soccer) team. Spontaneous eruptions of joy, punctuated the early morning calm in the Japanese capital, Tokyo.
The next Women's World Cup 2015 is awarded to Canada.
Attachments
