FIFA Women's World Cup 2015: True equality a long way off

I don't know what I was expecting for the first double header in Montreal at this Women's World Cup.

• Fans packed into the highly-touted (by FIFA) Fan Zone in the Esplanade of Olympic Stadium?
• Players eager to speak with the media following their first ever World Cup appearance? 
• Enough bums in the seats to make the Big O feel less... big?

None of these things happened. And to me, it's clear the women's game needs some changes if it wants to grow into its full potential. 

The Fan Zone — as it were — was lacklustre, with not many activities save a few photo-ops and a mini-field for the little kids to play on.

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Thank goodness for the Steinman family, whose seven and 10-year-old Syla and Isla reminded me that some would travel all the way from Birmingham, Alabama for a chance to see the worlds best female players. 

Their favourite: Marta. A forward for Team Brazil and five-time winner of FIFA's female Footballer of the Year award.

And a big reason a large per cent of jerseys in the stadium were the blinding yellow of Team Brazil.

After Game 1, a surprising 1-1 draw between Spain and Costa Rica (two teams playing in their first World Cup), I made my way down to the bowels of the Olympic Stadium to take part in the dignified cattle run international tournaments call the mixed zone.

It is an area players must walk through, but where they are under no obligation to stop, or even slow down to to give you chance to figure out if they are indeed one of the few players that may speak English.

Oops, too late. They're gone.

I was saved that indignity this evening since a full hour after the game, nary a one had graced us with their presence.

With Game 2 between Brazil and Korea already underway, I made my way back up to the stadium bowl having my media pass checked no less than 20 times.

(Clearly, in the five feet since the last check I could have broken some kind of FIFA access protocol).

The place had mildly fleshed out at this point.

The actually attendance was announced to be 10,175. I'll just leave that there since I have no actual facts to dispute the announced number. Except my eyes.

To be fair, there were fans for this game that were downright raucous with a Korea fan section that could rival the Ultras.

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Korea played well in what Brazil fans prior to the game wrongly predicted would be: "a beautiful blowout." 

A mistake from the Korean back line gift wrapped the opening goal for Brazil and then the Koreans were victimized by a surgical PK from, who else? Marta to make it 2-0 Brazil. That held up for the final score.

Both games had rough moments and I shudder to think what the women's legs look like after a number of slide tackles on the artificial turf.

Because unlike the men's World Cup, which would never deign itself to play on anything but natural grass, the skin shearing, epidermis melting, cleat-grabbing surface is just good enough for the women's game.

So yes, there is still a ways to go until we see true equality on the pitch.

But until players show up for interviews, cities advertise for these international tournaments, and women get the same standard of venues, we will continue to struggle to motivate people to come watch the Beautiful Game when it's played by women.