#danielle slaton

FIFA prize money investment is three times greater compared to 2019 with the goal of equalizing pay between the Women’s and Men’s World Cup by 2026/2027.” - Danielle Slaton

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With the Samurai Blue old guard having recently retired, not as much was expected from this fairly young JPN team, but it was still the greatest surprise of the tournament so far (for me and for most people paying attention) that they could not get more than a point from an ARG that nearly everyone discounted. You want a Cinderella story? ARG didn't even have an official national structure from 2015-2017. Their international training for 2019 consisted of friendlies against American college teams. They'd never even scored a point in any of their previous World Cup appearances. Their performance today reflected none of this: they were cool and collected, with a tight shape that confounded their opponent. Honestly, I was a bit shocked at the lack of imagination on the JPN side (did they even study ARG beforehand?) and irritated by their overreliance on laying up for overlapping runs that never came off. But even for a nil-nil draw, it was an entertaining game that busts this group wide open. Mad props too to the commentating team of Derek Rae and Danielle Slaton. Everything about today's match raised the game.