Top 25 Montreal Sports Moments Of 2014: 25-21
By Jared Book
23. The Women’s Under-20 World Cup
Before the major tournament in 2015, Canada hosted the Under-20 Women’s World Cup in 2014 and Montreal hosted several games, including the championship game between Germany and Nigeria.
The highlight of the games I attended was Canada qualifying for the playoff round with a win against North Korea in their final group game. The crowd was big (over 13,000) and enthusiastic and a preview of the group game between Canada and the Netherlands in the main World Cup to come in 2015.
The Montreal games were pretty well attended, including over 15,000 for the final game. The low-point was the first group stage games which had under 5,000 fans.
Having the world’s best junior women’s players was a great event in Montreal and the games being held at Olympic Stadium made even the bigger crowds seem small, but the crowds were comparable with the best attended games in the tournament, with the exception of the Canada-Germany quarter-final in Edmonton.
The final game between Nigeria and Germany was a thriller, scoreless until extra time was needed. Germany’s Lena Petermann scored the only goal to seal the championship for the Germans.
The championship game had loud fans for both countries which added to the atmosphere.
-Jared Book
Next: No. 22: Weise Lightning