This article is part of the Guardian’s Women’s World Cup 2023 Experts’ Network, a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the 32 countries who qualified. theguardian.com is running previews from two countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 20 July.
Overview
With the expansion of the tournament to accommodate 32 teams, China found their path to qualification smoothed considerably thanks to the availability of at least five places in the Asian Football Confederation (especially with Australia qualifying as hosts). After triumphing 3-1 over Vietnam in the quarter-final of the 2022 AFC Asian Cup, the Steel Roses secured their place.
We can't exactly criticize anyone else for attempting to capitalize off the Maurice Clarett sentencing yesterday: We've certainly earned our fair share of frequent flier mileage from the story. But we nevertheless can't help but chuckle when several sportswriters across this great land inform us that, yesterday afternoon, they received a public relations email offering up the quotability of none other than our old pal Darren Prince. From the email: As former Ohio State football star Maurice Clarett pleads guilty to aggravated robbery and carrying a concealed weapon today, he will be sent to prison for at least 3 years. Clarett is not the first, and certainly not the last, sports star to be involved in robbery and other misdemeanor. Managing troubled athletes is a diffic…
For all the fathers and mothers out there, when Girl Scout Cookie season rolls around, your first and foremost emotion should be relief. It could be worse: You could be dealing with a Boy Scout instead. Those poor saps have to sell popcorn. It’s clearly an inferior product. Everyone loves cookies! This is easy. Selling these things is all about having the right attitude, and the right battle plan. Even if you can’t leverage your gig hosting the Oscars, you and your daughter can still sell a pile of cookies while spending some quality time together. Here are my tips for total cookie domination. * Know your product. You got Savannah Smiles, Do-si-dos, Rah-Rah Raisins, Samoas, Trefoils, Tagalongs, and the fan favorite: Thin Mints. All these cookies taste like crunchy, sweet heaven, s…