We’re barely into this World Cup. It’s basically still in its footballing infancy. And yet, we’ve already had fantastic goals, we’ve had spectacular kit vs. even more spectacular kit, and we’ve had Chaos.
After seven spectacular games, though, we have to pay homage to the best thing about the competition so far: the hair. If you follow us on Twitter, or if you’re anything like us and love Megan Rapinoe, you’ve already seen the pink hair. It was our vote for Hair of the Tournament before the teams had even landed in France, but we soon realised just how short-sighted that was. South Africa’s Janine van Wyk and goalscorer Thembi Kgatlana both came to play (in both senses of the word) with contrasting shades of green. We also don’t want to talk about anything about the Norway vs. Nigeria game except Ordega and Chikwelu’s incredible ‘dos.
We’re excited to see what today and tomorrow bring in terms of fabulous hair, and we’re sure we won’t be disappointed. (Oh, and we’ll be bringing you a post fully dedicated to the hair of World Cup players, don’t you worry.)
And speaking of disappointing: one facet of equality between the men and women’s sport is unfortunately down to just how terrible commentators can be. We’ve seen seven games so far, and every single item on ‘racist and/or sexist’ bingo can already be ticked off. The discipline of the Asian teams? Check. The ‘power, speed, and athleticism’ of the African teams? Yup. The creativity and sophistication of European teams? Oh boy, you better believe it. All of that and trying to talk about the men’s sides at every given opportunity? Without a doubt.
Apparently it actually is too much to ask for commentators during the women’s World Cup to approach their jobs with any more nuance than they do during the men’s. At least our bingo cards are reusable, we suppose.
