Dear friends of football
Lydia Nsekera
Chairwoman of the Committee for Women’s Football and
the FIFA Women’s World Cup™
Exclusive news,
*******
Dear friends of football,
CopyHardNews / Reprodução
Welcome to the Technical Report for the FIFA Women’s
World Cup Canada 2015™. Produced by a panel of
experts from the FIFA Technical Study Group (TSG), this
report represents a key insight into the main tactical
and technical trends that marked the tournament. It is
also a fundamental educational tool for all of our 209
member associations.
Canada 2015 produced no shortage of exciting
football, as the USA became the fi rst nation to win
three Women’s World Cups following the highestscoring
fi nal in the tournament’s history against 2011
titleholders Japan. No one shone brighter than USA
midfi elder Carli Lloyd, whose hat-trick – in a mere
13 minutes – was the fi rst in a Women’s World Cup
fi nal. Lloyd collected the adidas Golden Ball as the
tournament’s most outstanding player, while the
adidas Golden Boot, awarded to the top scorer, went
to Germany’s Célia Šašić, and USA’s Hope Solo took
home the adidas Golden Glove award.
Since China PR hosted the fi rst event in 1991, women’s
football has continued to grow from strength to
strength. Canada 2015, the seventh edition of the
competition, marked a historic milestone with a rise in
the number of teams from 16 to 24. More groups, plus
an extra round – the round of 16 – meant that more
teams had and will have the opportunity to qualify for
the World Cup, helping to develop women’s football
around the world and to improve the standard of the
competition. It was encouraging to see that eight of
the 24 sides were led by female coaches. We hope
that this number will rise as we strive to create more
opportunities for women in football.
As the guardians of the game, FIFA works hard
to innovate: in Canada, FIFA introduced goal-line
technology and vanishing spray for match offi cials for the fi rst time at this level. Another tournament fi rst
was the use of football turf in accordance with the
Laws of the Game and the competition regulations.
All six venues featured the FIFA RECOMMENDED 2
STAR football turf – the highest standard of football
turf in the world, which FIFA developed specifi cally for
professional football.
As our women’s fl agship event, the FIFA Women’s
World Cup™ is a fundamental platform for us to
develop the game further in line with the fi rst pillar
of our mission. However, we can only achieve this
together with the commitment of our members and
confederations to support, promote and invest in
women’s football. This support, like that of hosts
Canada, is crucial to take the game to even greater
heights.
For the Game. For the World.