Keep Kicking (Editor’s Letter)

Jen O’Neill opens the World Cup issue admitting the tournament always seems ages off and then takes her by surprise. If Canada 2015 is only half as good as Germany four years ago, she writes, it will be amazing, and she welcomes extensive BBC and Eurosport coverage for an expensive trip few can make. She poses the questions the tournament will answer: can Mark Sampson’s squad pass the quarter-final barrier, will the Canadian hosts crumple or be carried by home support, do injuries to key German players open the door, can Marta or Wambach sign off with a winners’ medal, and will the classy French or brave Swedes finally step up from perennial nearly women. In the end, she concludes, it comes down to nous, nerve and some luck.