2023-07-20 07:47:00
2023 Women’s Football World Cup dossierFrom blue legend Eugénie Le Sommer to rising star Lena Oberdorf, a spotlight on the most anticipated footballers of the World Cup, which begins this Thursday, July 20, for one month, in Australia and New Zealand.
Eugenie Le Sommer (France)
The returning
The iconic Lyon striker returns to service with the Bleues with a heavy load: to overcome, notably alongside the powerful Kadidiatou Diani, the offensive deficit of a team decimated by injuries (Delphine Cascarino and Marie-Antoinette Katoto absent, Selma Bacha uncertain after her sprain during the preparation match against Australia, July 14). Shunned by the fallen former coach Corinne Deacon, and therefore excluded from Euro 2022, the top scorer in the selection, men and women combined (89 achievements in 179 selections), eight-time European champion with Olympique Lyonnais, was reinducted as a manager by coach Hervé Renard, who describes her as “the best in a penalty area, at least at French level”. Placed at the forefront and vice-captain, she will have to combine quality of finishing and motivation of the troops. In his strings.
Sophia Smith (United States)
The American Succession
Certainly, she embodies the next generation of superstars Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan, who will play (unless surprised) their last World Cup. The 22-year-old striker is the image of the promotional clip (one could say of intimidation) that the United States team released before the World Cup. “The whole world is wondering: what will it take to stop the American team?” enjoys the video which, with a biting tone, paints imaginary wacky attempts by opposing teams to prevent their third consecutive coronation. The embodiment of legendary “Stars and Stripes” confidence, which Sophia Smith is no exception to. “I am a winner. I have to win. It makes me sick to lose anything. Card games, or whatever. When it comes to football, I always find a way to win,” she told the media across the Atlantic. Second top scorer last season with the Portland Thorns – second in the American league – in a style full of precision, opportunism and Olympian calm, she will be an offensive pillar in the absence of Lyon’s Catarina Macario, injured.
Alexia Putellas (Spain)
The centerpiece
She wants her revenge. Deprived of a Euro where her team was still able to deploy an inventive game, before being taken out by the English in the quarterfinals, the 29-year-old Spanish double Golden Ball returns from nine months of injury with the intrepid desire to win the cup for which the female Roja has only competed in the last two editions. She takes on board her experience acquired as captain in one of the most powerful clubs in Europe, FC Barcelona, winner of the 2021 and 2023 vintages of the Champions League and team holding the record for spectators for a match played by women (91,648 people at Camp Nou in April 2022). Unimpressive therefore, the left-hander, the most capped Spaniard, deploys a crazy technicality in the midfield, where she officiates as a boss, just like in the penalty area, punishing the slightest inattention of the opponent. The comeback promises to be explosive.
Sam Kerr (Australia)
The star at home
Tasty coincidence, his surname recalls the name of the short-lived but legendary Dick team, Kerr’s Ladies FC, a workers’ club that pioneered football played by women in England during the First World War. More than a century later, in 2020, barely arriving on British soil, Australian Sam Kerr won the title of top scorer for two consecutive seasons. And has been bringing Chelsea to the firmament of the English championship for three years. The 29-year-old center-forward is used to the heights: after having exploded the goals record in the American NWSL league with 77 goals (dethroning the Canadian Christine Sinclair, who is also playing her sixth World Cup at the age of 40), she re-enlists with the Australian selection (54 goals) in 2022. aim at her. On all fronts, she embodies the hope of the co-host country to see their “Matildas”, who have never passed the quarter-finals at the World Cup, lift the cup at home.
Lena Oberdorf (Germany)
The dreadful hope
Breathtaking in sagacity and percussion, the German defensive midfielder won the title of best young player at Euro 2022, where her team lost in the final to the brilliant “Lionesses”. At just 21, the Wolfsburg player has established herself in the Mannschaft midfield, feared for her incisive tackles and her propensity to shake her opponents. At the Guardian, Lena Oberdorf recalls an epic dialogue, provoking the hilarity of her teammates, with coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg: “We had a meeting and [elle] asked me how many yellow cards I had received. It was in front of the whole team and I replied: “Do you mean in this match or in general?” But more than a defensive and aggressive wall, “Obi” (nickname due to the large number of “Lena” in the German teams) deploys a fine reading of the game, an ability to distribute the balls and project his teammates. Dangerous at all levels, she could find herself facing the France team after the group stage.
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