I WAS walking through the Olympic Park on Monday, on the way to work, when I noticed a group of schoolchildren playing a game of football.

There was a girl which really stood-out. She must have been no older than 11 but she was clearly the best player on the custom-made pitch.

She was skipping past players like a young Fran Kirby and it was a delight to see. I obviously missed the moment when teams were picked and maybe she had to beg to play but judging from her skills I doubt this was the case.

It interested me as there have been plenty of stories during the Women’s World Cup of players having to pretend to be boys when they were growing up just to play for teams in organised leagues.

This is no longer the case as I have witnessed mixed teams on Saturday and Sunday mornings and this is how it should be.

Though this is just a start, it may help in stopping the ignorant view that women’s football is not as good as men’s.

It annoys me when I log into Twitter during games and see people that I studied Sports Journalism with belittle the game because a pass was played out for a throw or a goalkeeper made a mistake.

Type football bloopers into YouTube and you will see millions of clips of players in the Premier League, Champions League and even the World Cup make a hash of things and look like total idiots.

These players are human and they will mess up but to say it is because of their gender is sexist. If you don’t want to watch it because you think it is not to “your standard” then turn it off.

We don’t want to read about your opinions because frankly they are wrong.

Not to mention, those same people complaining that the match is keeping you up is nonsense because you are not being forced to stay up until 4am. Go to sleep. Your misogynistic brain could do with the rest.

Many people are enjoying the tournament and so they should, it has been brilliant. Kirby’s goal on Saturday night was taken superbly and was unlucky to be scored on a weekend when Jack Wilshere put Slovenia to the sword with two cracking strikes.

If you haven’t seen Marta’s skill against Spain, please watch it on YouTube or Vine or wherever you can.

She has been hailed as the greatest player to ever grace the game and with moments like that, it is difficult to argue with that statement.

The turn was graceful and had it been done by Lionel Messi or Neymar, it would be celebrated by everyone as the best thing ever seen.

The people that were tweeting out the video were judging it not as a woman doing something that they didn’t think she could do but a footballer who just so happened to be woman performing a brilliant piece of skill.

People are surprised by the high level of football being played in Canada and some viewers are slowly accepting that women’s football is an actual sport, not just some sideshow to the men’s game.

They are also realising that it is better than they expected. Many are surprised by the way Germany pass the ball and how organised they are.

It is different to the fast paced action witnessed in Brazil last summer. But the Championship is different to the Premier League and some argue that the old second division is better than the first.

And let’s be honest, some of the games from the 2014 World Cup were dull and boring.

Football matches don’t guarantee goals but you are much more likely to see two teams attack each other in the women’s game then you will in the men’s.

If you haven’t seen a game yet I highly recommend you watch England’s match against Colombia tomorrow. Mark Sampson has put together a young, exciting England squad and their opponents are surprisingly top of the group.

For those of you who have been staying up late to watch the games, keep doing so.

It is shaping up to be a spectacular World Cup.

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HOPE SOLO must play for the United States for them to stand any chance of winning the Women’s World Cup. It is a valid point to make but should she have been called up?

Arguably the best goalkeeper in the world, Solo has a troubled past to rival Joey Barton.

Solo was arrested nearly a year ago for two counts of domestic violence. She had allegedly attacked her half-sister and her 17-year-old nephew at the time.

The goalkeeper has continued to plead her innocence while maintaining that her nephew had attacked her and not the other way round.

The charges were dropped based on a lack of co-operation from the supposed victims so she is innocent. But after an ESPN report was leaked before the US’s opening fixture, there had been calls for the US not to call her up for the tournament.

According to the leak, Solo was aggressive towards the police officers called out and this led to calls for her to be dropped as well as a direct attack on the way US football handled the situation.

President of US football Sunil Gulati was forced to issue a statement in which he stated that the organisation took domestic violence seriously.

“The federation has been a long-standing leader in the pursuit of gender equity in sport — a role of which we are quite proud,” Gulati wrote. “Accordingly, rest assured that the federation considered domestic and family violence a very serious matter.

“The federation understands its role and obligation as the national governing body for the sport of soccer and will continue to investigate and address such issues as they arise.”

But this is not a good look for the sport at a time when the team are the focus of the nation. Gulati said that Solo was not suspended because the statements were redacted but admitted that they never spoke to the sister or nephew and instead let the case play out.

That is a terrible way to handle the situation and smells more like they buried their heads in the sand in the hope that the issue would go away.

They did suspend her for 30 days for being the passenger in her husband’s car when he was arrested for a DUI. But took no action when she was the suspect in a domestic violence case.

And it is also suspicious how four years ago in Germany, she was lauded as the face of the national team and paraded in front of the press.

This time in Canada she is just another player, almost like they are aware they may have made a huge mistake.