My first response to the FIFA Award Shortlists was predictable confusion. But I found it hard to argue for players that were omitted, once you accept a few caveats.
First, these awards only go to the more successful teams. That’s important, especially for the Young Player Award.
Second, for the most part, defensive field players in general (whether defenders or midfielders) have to have spectacular tournaments in order to receive these awards. (This is part of what makes Griedge Mbock Bathy‘s–an unused substitute for France in Canada–selection as player of the tournament for the 2012 U17 World Cup so remarkable.)
Defensive players are almost always nominated, and for Julie Johnston and Amandine Henry, that’s probably as far as it goes while Lucy Bronze‘s nomination is more for her goals than her defensive prowess and Saori Ariyoshi‘s is … well … I don’t really know what it’s for. She scored, she won a free kick that was incorrectly given as a penalty, but if you really wanted another fullback from the final four teams, I would rather it be Leonie Maier.
That leaves Aya Miyama‘s overall class, Megan Rapinoe‘s early moments of brilliance and steady play, and the goal scoring exploits of Carli Lloyd and Célia Šašić. This is where comparisons become difficult: Šašić’s hat trick against the Côte D’Ivoire was both impressive and came against noticeably weaker opposition than Lloyd has seen all tournament.
I dunno. Given those choices, I think I would have to go for Lloyd, but I’m reduced to dubious concepts like pressure and clutch and important goals and the like, which is not comfortable territory.
Two other players probably deserved to be on the list: you can argue that Anja Mittag has been better than Šašić: all of her goals have come from the run of play, she has scored with both feet, and she has a couple assists to go along with the scores. Eugenie Le Sommer‘s play in her first four games should not be erased by her notable dip in France’s final match.
Right now, I think Šašić deserves it, but Lloyd will win it.
The Golden Gloves Award is just bizarre. Nadine Angerer and Hope Solo are shoo-ins on both reputation and performance, but Ayumi Kaihori? Really? Over Erin McLeod? Or Ingrid Hjelmseth? Or Lydia Williams?
But nobody knows how to judge Goalkeepers anyhow: you can’t really use saves, since they are so tightly tied to games played and, more importantly, the quality of your defense; shots on target is a useless stat; goals conceded is a team effort; etc.
In any case, no matter how you evaluate all of that, Solo hasn’t given up a goal since the first game, despite playing in a hard group. No matter how you unravel the goalkeeper question, that’s impressive. Hope deserves this one.
The Young Player is a case of a top two, and then a nice gesture. I thought Tang Jiali was China’s best player, but she really didn’t play enough to warrant her inclusion here, but it really doesn’t matter all that much: the standout young players of the tournament were Ada Hegerberg and Kadeisha Buchanan, and, at least until one of the young German strikers sees more playing time, the two of them are probably the brightest young lights in the game.
(A side note: you can learn a lot about both the depth of national programs and the philosophy’s behind them by looking at the age makeup of the WWC teams: Germany has included a fair bit of their “next generation,” and given playing time to many of them; France has included a few, but essentially only brought them along for the experience; the USA left them all behind; the nations with less established programs are also the ones most likely to field sixteen and seventeen year olds.)
(Another side note: a year ago, I thought it would be Sura Yekka who was most likely to be the breakthrough teenaged Canadian defender. Yekka’s omission from the team was sensible: she is even younger than Buchanan, and plays outside back, where Canada is noticeably deeper.)
I think Hegerberg would be my choice, as she seems fully formed in a certain way: adept at all the skills a forward needs to be successful, while Buchanan still relies on her reflexes and athleticism to cover for some poor moments of positioning. But, it’s very close, and I would not be surprised of Buchanan wins in a gesture towards the home country.
A day or three after the final, I’ll post up some more thoughts along the best … of the tournament.