Remembering Fifa Women’s U-20 soccer

By THOMAS HUKAHU
DECEMBER 3, 2016 has gone down in Papua New Guinea’s sports history book as the conclusion of a World Cup sporting event that it successfully hosted.
That was the night that France took on Korea DPR in the grand final of the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup where the Europeans lost to the tactically superior Koreans 3-1.
The National Football Stadium was packed to capacity – of the 15,000 available seats, less than 50 were not taken. However, if you count the number of all the support personnel and other officials who were participating in their different roles, it is likely that over 15,000 were actually present that evening.
Earlier in the evening, Japan edged US 1-0 to be third-placed in that world-class event.

I thoroughly enjoyed the show
I “thoroughly enjoyed” the three weeks in witnessing the future of the best of women’s football in the world.
Yes, many of these U-20 girls will in the next few years be elevated to their senior national team and play a role in who will win the next Women’s World Cup, as in 2019 in France.
Apart from closely watching the performance of the PNG girls, I was a France supporter and am glad to say that I was very happy with their performance, despite their losing to the Asians in the grand finale. I told my friends that I became a follower of France football and followed Zinedine Zidane after France beat Brazil in the 1998 FIFA World Cup 3-0.
As a follower of Brazilian football from the 1970s and 1980s, we were all shocked in 1998. It was in that year that the world (if they had not known yet) came to know of Zidane, whose two powerful headers in the first half put Les Bleues (The Blues) comfortably in front of Brazil.
French striker Emmanuel Petit’s third goal in stoppage time in the second half caused everyone to ask:
“How did France beat Brazil?”
Incidentally, Melanesian boy and New Caledonian local, Christian Karembeu, also played in the grand finale with the 1998 French team.
I read an article in a weekly paper in 1999 describing Zinedine as the maestro attacking midfielder who “sees the holes in the defence” before they appear.
You would understand the significance of that phrase if you have played midfield in football. Top midfielders have that ability, they can read a game and know where they can slip a ball through a defence line or chip it over for a forward to push it past the opponents’ goal keeper.
So my following of France football goes back that much – almost 20 years now.
Watching the French U-20 girls, who are nicknamed Les Bleuettes, play and supporting them vocally was the next best thing to supporting their men’s team.
The name Les Bleuettes by the way may have come from bleuette, a French doll. A French website mentions that bleuette is a small articulated bisque doll made in Paris from 1905 until 1957. She was the invention of the Paris publisher, Henri Gautier, and his staff at the girls’ magazine, La Semaine de Suzette, published every Thursday from 1905 until 1960.
It was interesting to note that most supporters who were supporting the French girls in this tournament, expats and locals were yelling “Allez Les Bleues (Go the Blues)”. The local cheering team learned the phrase and used that effectively during Les Bleuettes games.

France’s group matches
The France U-20 Women’s team started off their campaign on Nov 14 with a 0-0 draw against a favourite of the tournament, USA.
They did not really impress a lot of people like the Brazilian, Spanish and Japanese teams which registered wins of 6-1, 5-0 and 6-0 respectively in their first group matches.
However, from the very start, a few of the French players, like regular captain and attacking midfielder Delphine Cascarino, left back Sakina Karchaoui, right back Marion Romanelli, two “Africans” Hawa Cissoko and Grace Onema Geyoro, ever-running Clara Mateo, dependable lanky goalkeeper Mylene Chavas and others, impressed the crowd, even if France was not their favourite team at the start of the tournament. Cascarino and Sakina, particularly, were favourites with their footwork when with the ball in attack.
I was there for their first game and ensured I was there for all their games, which for me meant taking an hour or two out to go out and cheer for the French girls along with a few groups of supporters – some comprised of expatriates living in the country.
After their draw against USA, the French girls managed to come from behind at the very last segment of the game to draw with Ghana 2-2 on Nov 17.
Their most impressive score line though was in their last group match where they beat the Oceania champion New Zealand 2-0.
As a follower of the France men’s national football team, and a perpetual student of French, the language, I had to actually get behind the French girls in their time here – and call for them in the stand in their language.
My enthusiasm kind of rubbed on others too and it so happens that some of my colleagues are now supporters of France too.
Actually, before France’s Nov 17 game, I prayed that they should win, knowing that a win would place them first or second in Group C with USA and that would allow them to enter the quarter finals.
As fate would have it, Les Bleuettes performed to expectations, they beat the Kiwi girls and were placed second to USA in Group C and slid into the quarter finals.
Yes, my work of faith was in motion – my prayer was answered.

Into the quarter and semifinals
It seems many knew that France’s opponent in the quarter final was Germany, the world champions – they were undefeated and topped their Group D.
When the game commenced on Nov 25, the French girls looked the fitter and faster side. I do not know if it was to do with the humid conditions in Port Moresby or the preparedness of Les Bleuettes that made the Germans less superior.
That game was my favourite – not the semifinal match against Japan or the grand final against Korea DPR.
It also was a show for the best in European women’s junior football.
I was watching the YouTube videoof that match again the other day and noted what two English-speaking TV commentators – a male and a female – were saying.
Before the game, the discussion between the two was that Germany looked to be the better side from their Group D matches.
It was sensible, Germany won all their group games – they registered a 3-1 win against Venezuela, 3-0 against Mexico and 2-0 against Korea Republic. As a result, they topped their group, with Mexico placed second.
France, on the other hand, kind of scraped through with two draws and managed a single win against New Zealand.
That was the general perception that the many people had too – the Germans should win.
However, in the first 10 minutes of the game, it was clear that Les Bleuettes were dominating in possession with some good runs up to the German goal mouth On 15 minutes, attacking back Karchaoui, made a dashing run and managed to get past three German defenders, however the fourth, Pia- Sophie Wolter, pushed the ball out from her for a corner.
It was from the corner that the French captain Cascarino took and passed it to midfielder Juliane Gathrat who ran out of the penalty box.
Gathrat then pushed it back to Cascarino before she faked a strike and danced around a German back to the right to smash the ball within two metres inside the 18-yard box. That saw the ball flying past a number of German defenders as well as the goalkeeper, into the goal and hitting the net at the back of the far post.
That caused the male commentator to say: “Oh, look at that! That was absolutely unstoppable! And that is why she is the special player they sayshe is. Delphine Cascarino, with one of the best goals of the tournament so far.”
The female commentator added:
“Everybody is talking about this player. Look at that first touch beyond.
Like you said, it’s a perfect strike; she goes through the ball perfectly.
Just what France needs.”
France goalkeeper Chavas was named the player of the match for her many saves that denied the German attacking players – like Stefanie Sanders, Saskia Mathies, Jasmin Sehan and Anna Gerhardt – from scoring.

The years ahead
It was quite emotional too to see the young players of many teams shedding tears after being forced out of competition after losing. I am sure we all felt the sadness they expressed too – it is contagious, their wins were our wins, and their losses were ours too. However, I know everyone who has supported their favourite team in this year’s tournament will continue to follow their teams and the favourite players in years to come as some of them will make it into their nation’s senior women’s team.
As the male commentator said in the first few minutes of the games:
“You never know, – some of these players may well be able to force their way into the reckoning for the European Championships. We’ve seen that in the past.”
That is true for the German and French players with the UEFA Women’s Euro 2017 around the corner, as well as the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup to be hosted in France.
A number of the young players who played in PNG may well make it into their senior women’s team then.
We will be watching and cheering them on.