Commentary: No shortage of drama and excellent football at Women’s World Cup

SINGAPORE: “Football is back,” read a post on my social media feed as the English Premier League kicked into life last weekend.

In Singapore, football fans eagerly watched the Aug 2 preseason friendly between Liverpool and Bayern Munich, and in the preceding days, games between Liverpool and Leicester City, as well as Tottenham Hotspur and Lion City Sailors.

But perhaps fans have not been paying attention to an even bigger tournament. For over three glorious weeks, the Women’s World Cup has been delivering dramatic storylines, unbearable tension and pure emotion.

Put simply, it’s the beautiful game in its finest form.

I’ve been lucky enough to spend a decent chunk of time in Australia during this tournament, witnessing firsthand how a nation has become wrapped up in its quest to lift the World Cup.

From the shopkeeper who spent five minutes explaining to me why Australia captain Sam Kerr was missed at the Jul 27 match against Nigeria, to the thousands of supporters packing into fan zones for the Matildas, this festival of football is elevating the women’s game to the next level.

Refreshingly, the lazy stereotyping around women’s football has been absent from this World Cup.

Instead, the action has been enjoyed and analysed on its own merit, rather than subjected to constant comparisons with the men’s game. The ever-increasing standard of women’s football has certainly helped to even the playing field.

There’s an infamous clip of two football pundits laughing on live television at highlights of the 1998 Women’s FA Cup final between Arsenal and Croydon.

It’s a scene that is almost unimaginable today. The 1998 final was littered with mistakes, poor goalkeeping, mis-hit shots and physics-defying deflections. What