Women’s Soccer United
by Aissa Huysmans
PASSION. DEDICATION. BELIEF.
The motto “Passion. Dedication. Belief.” lines every page that you open on the Women’s Soccer United website, and those three words are mirrored in the writing and images promoted throughout the blog. Passion for the beautiful game, dedication in supporting and bringing more awareness to the women’s game, and a never-ending belief in the women’s soccer movement. The world of women’s soccer remains the slightly forgotten sister to the men’s game, but with increasing amounts of media pushes and followers, fans of the game worldwide are beginning to pay more attention to the female counterparts.
This site, created in 2008, aims to bring together a community of soccer lovers who are passionate and dedicated to the women’s game. The site informs fans worldwide of the goings-on in women’s soccer, which often lacks appropriate coverage and air time. It informs its readers of the different international tournaments and leagues on each continent, following more in depth the leagues in both Europe and North America. It then goes on to give more detailed coverage of worldwide tournaments on the African continent, in South America and Asia, to name but a few. The whole site gives a comprehensive view of international women’s soccer competitions, aiming to raise awareness and keep its viewers informed on issues specific to the women’s game.
With intimate interviews with top personalities in the women’s game, fans scrolling through the website can also get to know different players on top teams in a more personal format. Interested in getting to know American striker Alex Morgan better? Swedish Coach Pia Sundhage? Brazilian left-winger Rosana dos Santos Augusto? It’s all just a click of a button away. The entire site is easy to navigate, with handy tabs labelled “News”, “Tournaments”, “Leagues”, “Multimedia”, “Interviews” and “Blogs” clearly indicating exactly where to find what you’re most interested in.
In the blogs section, you can find posts that focus on a multitude of aspects of the game. Some look at the technicalities of play such as warm-up drills, formations and team philosophies, whilst others take a more personal perspective on the game. The blog posts are written by an array of authors; male and female, fans and players. Leading up to the 2015 Women’s World Cup, there are more intimate blog posts following particular teams journeys. For example, one of my favorite blog posts explores the politics that lie behind the Brazilian teams’ efforts. It discusses how the arrival of a new Minister of Sports has made a huge difference for the women’s team as they have recently gained much more financial support and more air-time on television, all combining to uplift the teams efforts to train harder for the upcoming world cup. This positive story of the growing support for Brazilian women’s soccer is still an outlier though, as financial woes still plague many women’s leagues worldwide, and this is reflected in multiple blogs on the site. In a blog written by Ellen Terry, Terry follows the Kenyan league and discusses some of the financial troubles the teams have faced:
“Some teams could not make the 8 hour trip to Mumias from Nairobi due to insufficient funds. These teams had enough funds to see them through the first leg of the league and have not been able to secure funds for the second half. Funding of Women Football has been the biggest challenge in the country with individual supporters stepping in to try and sponsor their home teams. The players hope to overcome this challenge by improving their skills individually, since team practice is not regular and trying to get football fans interested in the game.”
Many of these blogs also aim to raise awareness for the challenges faced by many female teams as they attempt to gain more widespread recognition and financial support. It is a tough road for many teams, and although support is increasing, it still has a lot of catching up to do. Most women who play in international leagues do not only play soccer, but also have another job on the side in order to make ends meet. Now although the blog gives a lot of time to the discussions of the difficulties faced in the women’s game, there is a lot of hope that underlies the challenges too. In an inspiring post, Nick Aitken shares some of coach De Reus’ optimistic words about women’s soccer in Iran:
“Everything is 100 per cent driven by women themselves… All the coaches, referees and referees’ assistants involved in women’s football are female – with the exception of the national team’s goalkeeping coach Kourosh Estakhri. I see it as a strength that after hanging up their boots women’s footballers take up jobs to further develop the game…”
Further articles go on to explore championships leading up to the World Cup, such as the African Women’s Championship. You can even find personal player accounts of their day to day lives playing for professional women’s teams. What does a typical day in the life of a woman’s soccer player in Germany look like? Click here and you can find out! There are also a number of blog posts written in Spanish for readers looking for an alternative format, also pointing to the continual aim of the site to widen its audience.
What I love most about this site is that it starts wider conversations about women’s soccer as a whole, not only the game itself, but also the politics surrounding it that either help it’s progress or hinder it.With multiple resources available through this site, users can get the latest news in women’s soccer, post their own blogs, and join forums discussing different leagues and tournaments worldwide. Currently the forums do not have many members so the discussion is limited, however there is certainly hope for increased activity and new users visiting the site in the months to come building up to the 2015 World Cup! Women’s Soccer United gives fans of the women’s game a wonderful platform to both air their own views and engage in conversation with others.
In one of the posts I mentioned above, De Reus beautifully captures what I think is also one of the biggest take aways from this site; that there is hope, dedication and passion for the women’s game. Sites like this remind us of that. I highly recommend exploring it! You can also follow Women’s Soccer United on Twitter (@WomensSoccerUtd) and Facebook for more live updates and stories.
