I think a bouquet is deserving to the NZ crowds who adopted a new team to support after the Junior All Whites' exit.
The vocal support for Senegal, Mali and Serbia were outstanding examples of this.
The Kiwi youngsters at the games I attended at North Harbour Stadium have to take credit for the increased volume and getting their parents involved. What a great advert for New Zealand's ability to stage a global tournament.
But NZ were well behind technically and in ball movement, compared with their opposition. This was very apparent in the early games. It was only when we reached the knock-out stages that we raised our game substantially, and a lot of that was to do with changes made by Bazely and the usual kiwi grit and endeavour shown by the NZ team playing against World Class opposition when rank outsiders.
It was no surprise to me that our outstanding players like Bill Tuiloma and Monty Patterson play their football overseas - as they are used to playing at an increased pace and skill level.
If there was one thing the tournament highlighted to me is the urgent need for a quality club-based National League.
There is no doubt we have some promising young players with real ability but they need a stage to perform on, that will allow them to increase their overall football intelligence and be better prepared when required for international duty.
The current league is not doing that for the majority of quality youngsters that are popping up all over NZ.
Players like Sam Brotherton, Deklan Wynne, and the like deserve to be playing quality and meaningful competitive games every week during the season.
I thought Serbia deserved to win as they were disciplined, played at pace, stuck to their game plan and gave the impression they were a very tight unit off and on the field. They also had a fabulous vociferous support from their legion of fans.
Whilst there was the odd standout individual performance, the tournament certainly never unearthed the next Lionel Messi or Sergio Aguero.
In fact the stars of the show were the men between the sticks, where there were countless sublime performances and out of the world saves.
One that springs to mind was the Senegal keeper's performance in the shoot-out that helped eliminate the much fancied Ukraine. However the top custodian was the Serbian goalie and captain, Predrag Rajkovic, who deservedly won the Golden Glove for Goalkeeper of the tournament.
I would be surprised if we don't see this young man turning up in some major league with a team like Barcelona, Man United etc - that's how highly I rate him.
I think the Local organisers can be proud of the way the tournament went and I think the NZ fans showed their support and appreciation for top football by supporting the competition in numbers despite the sometimes ropey weather, and not only the glamour countries but the minnows as well, so let's hope FIFA give NZ the Women's World Cup in 2023.
