“To be honest, I cried. I cried a lot,”Vanina Correa, who will lead Argentina at the 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup in New Zealand, admits that she shed a lot of tears.
The seasoned goalie discusses her feelings after the national men’s team was named world champions in December. She was a member of the team during the 2003 competition in the United States.
After Argentina’s Lionel Messi and his team defeated France on penalties in the championship game in Qatar, an estimated five million fans flocked to the streets of Buenos Aires to welcome them home as heroes.
La Albiceleste are getting ready for their opening encounter at the Women’s World Cup against Italy at Eden Park in Auckland on July 24 at 07:00 BST, seven months after those extraordinary sights in Argentina’s capital.
No nation has ever been able to simultaneously host the men’s and women’s World Cups. It’s doubtful that will alter in the upcoming weeks.
Argentina leads the men’s game, while the women, who are ranked 28th in Fifa’s rankings, haven’t won a game in any of their previous three outings at the international competition, which took place in 2003, 2007 and 2019.
That may help to explain why there isn’t much indication in the nation, which is obsessed with football, that manager German Portanova and his team will compete in the biggest women’s athletic event.
“Most people in Argentina are fans of football – but women’s football, it’s not that popular,”, according to Daniela Lichinizer, a sports writer for TN Deportivo in Argentina.
“I’m sure most of them don’t know that our national team is playing in a World Cup in a few days’ time. There are no television commercials promoting it right now. It’s a little bit sad.”
