The excitement is building up to epic proportions for the 7th annual running of the Women’s World Cup, the International level of competitive soccer. For the first time, Canada will have the pleasure of hosting the event, although this will be the third time it has come to North America. Hearts and heads will be held high as teams from around the world come to Vancouver to play for the coveted trophy during the international event being held between June 6th and July 5, 2015. Mark your Calendars!
This year brings an historic increase in interest around the world, especially for those who love to watch or play the game of soccer. With a jump in the number of teams who managed to celebrate qualifying for the 2015 tournament, everyone is anticipating an exciting expansion on the field with the addition of 8 teams, boosting the numbers from 16 to 24 teams competing this year. New additions to make their debut at this year’s tournament include Cameroon, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Ivory Coast, Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland. The other teams who have made the grade include Thailand, Zimbabwe, Norway, Sweden, France, England, Germany, Nigeria, China, Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Columbia, Mexico, USA and Canada. The Games will be played at 6 venues across Canada, 2 indoor stadiums (Montreal and Vancouver), 3 stadiums that host Canadian Football League teams (Edmonton, Ottawa and Winnipeg), as well as the Moncton Stadium.
As an interesting aside and an accomplished recognition, gaming giants EA Sports will finally be including 12 women’s teams this year in its release of FIFA 16, a popular and realistic 3-D soccer game for Video game fans set to release in the United States on September 12. Including the USA women’s team who is currently in 2nd place in the FIFA Women’s World Rankings, the other teams to be featured in the game will be Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain and Sweden.
To make the game as lifelike as possible, several key players were brought to a special 360-degree motion-capture facility here in Vancouver, The Capture Lab. Trying to ensure that they get every detail right, not only are they capturing true to life player movements and facial features, they are also getting other important details down such as making sure the player’s jerseys are the most recent and showcasing the US women’s national home and away jersey on key players like Megan Rapinoe and Sydney Leroux.
Canada’s Jonelle Filigno has her movements captured for FIFA 16. Photo from WorldSoccerShop.com
No matter what happens when the games begin, if there is anything to be learned from this year’s historic WWC, it’s that no matter how realistic they manage to make the game, the lucky Vancouverites who will get to see some of this tournament live will have the true experience of something passionate and exciting that they will never likely forget.
For more details on this fascinating motion capture process for EA Sports, check out the article on the World Soccer Shop website at http://365.worldsoccershop.com/fifa-16-to-include-12-womens-national-teams
