why the women's world cup is a better game

this year's women's world cup in germany has made clear everything that has been cut out, forcibly removed, and exorcised by the forces of evil from the men's game:

1) offensive play: women's football is more tactically honest and faithful to the organizing principles of the game. the tactical disposition of women's world cup games are almost completely devoid of the sort of perverse speculation that utterly dominates the men's game and pretty much all the teams--even the less talented teams--play an associative style

2) strength: the scale of the field in relation to the physical strength of the players means that there are much more opportunities for playing into space, something which has--on the back of stingy and unethical coaching and the priveligening of musculature and marathoning skills--all but disappeared from the men's game. in the men's game, physicality and physical play typically carry such a premium that teams more often than not aim and strategize to play through the body of the opposition rather than into the space behind him or to his side.

3) teamwork and stars: standout players in the women's world cup are the sort of players that used to dominate the men's game prior to the era of multimedia and hyperglobalized television. marta, christiane, sonia bompastor, aya miyama, kelly smith, and homare sawa are all central figures on their teams not only for their own finishing and goal scoring prowess but also for their ability to set up teammates with precise passing.

overly defensive strategies crafted by would-be tactic wizards and hyper glamourized superstar strikers (with superstar egos) have been slowly but surely strangling (men's) football's creativity and appeal for decades. this year's Copa America quarterfinals are telling: stingy defensive and speculative teams displaced more offensive counterparts in every bracket leaving the weakest field in terms of on the ball talent in years. rather than emulating barcelona's (and spain's) example and favoring offensive football and privileging of talent over physical prowess, the world of (male) football has taken the lesson that more muscle, more senseless and endless running, and more air tight defensive strategies. maybe if they watched a bit of the women's world cup...