Jill Ellis expresses her excitement over this year’s women’s world cup
Double World Cup-winning coach Jill Ellis confesses even she is blown away by the utter unpredictability of the 2023 tournament, which has already seen six top-20 sides bow out at the group stage.
This year’s women’s world has seen some big names being shown the exit door.
After Brazil’s elimination from the group stages, Germany also suffered the same faith on Thursday as they were held to a one-all draw by South Korea which saw the Atlas Lioness of Morocco progress to the next stage of the competition.
“It’s been a doozy so far,” said Ellis, who guided the USA to back-to-back titles in 2015 and 2019 and now heads the tournament’s technical study group.
“I think we all feel this. Gone are the days of total predictability. Progress sits very clearly at the core, and certainly the competitiveness can be felt [with] giants in the game getting knocked out, we see debutants advance to the next round, which I think lends itself to this being just one of the most unpredictable and arguably exciting World Cups we’ve seen to date.
“If I’m candid, I really am surprised. I think when you suddenly see a Germany or a Brazil get knocked out of a World Cup in group stage.
“I don’t think any of us could have predicted that. I’m excited by the development, of course, for sure. But I think I was thinking that one more iteration of the World Cup before we started to see even more parity that we’re starting to see right now.”
Jill Ellis said: “I was blown away by the facility. It’s one of the nicest I’ve ever seen, and it just kind of made me realise that yes, there are federations that are taking this very seriously.”
Jill Ellis added: “We hear this constant comment about gaps and where are the gaps. We can arguably say that there aren’t gaps. That on any given day, a team can come out here and be competitive against another team.
“And so it’s going to be incredibly exciting to see how this plays out.”
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SOURCE: XtratSports.com
