Winnipeg lacking in fan-friendly activities for Women's World Cup

Just before the traveling circus of American fans and media left Winnipeg, a columnist for the Winnipeg Free Press wrote a lament about the lack of buzz on the city's streets during the Women's World Cup.

Bartley Kives put the blame at FIFA's feet for not putting resources into having festivities downtown. Soccer's governing body is always fair game, considering the organization's vast financial resources. It would have cost pocket change for FIFA to set up community events, or even just a gathering place for fans.

Kives might want to turn the spotlight back on Winnipeg's local organizers, though - and he can cite Vancouver as proof. Vancouver's city council spent more than $1 million to help fund construction of a fan zone that takes up a square-block parking lot just around the corner from BC Place. And the city ensured that it would be open to host fans wanting to watch games from across the tournament, not just in Vancouver.

That's more like what FIFA has done for recent men's World Cups, especially in Brazil last year and in Germany in 2006.

An e-mail came down from FIFA's media relations office on Sunday with an ominous-sounding subject line: "Potential drawing of lots."

Yes, that's right. When determining the order of finish in a group, if every tiebreaker is even, the final judgment is made by a lottery.

If two teams finish tied on points atop the group, a series of tiebreakers is used to pick the winner. First comes goal difference, which is goals scored minus goals conceded. Then comes goals scored. If the teams are still level, next is the result between the teams. If that was a tie, the lottery comes into play.

A lottery also could come into play to determine which of the four third-place finishers from the six groups will advance to the round of 16.

- Jonathan Tannenwald