It may have been a wilful attempt to keep expectations at rock bottom but pre-tournament discussion in Albania centred for the most part on the nation's happiness to have reached their first tournament.
Taylor revealed before the tournament that discussions had been held over a switch to men's cricket.
Italy barely featured pre-tournament in discussions of potential champions, but critics who reckoned the azzurri were uninspiring and lacking distinction are hurriedly retracting their claims.
A Fifa taskforce has recommended a November/December tournament and held discussions about a 23 December final, which would affect domestic schedules.
They've had these wins where they were in a situation where their record wasn't great, but they had beaten some teams that were stronger college lacrosse teams in the discussion for the tournament.
She has crawled into the top 10 and is prowling for a defining victory to vault her into the discussion of major-tournament favorites.
The N.C.A.A. revealed the 65-team field for its men's basketball tournament on Sunday amid vigorous discussions about significantly changing this rite of March by adding 31 teams.
It was a provocative finish to a polemical week in Madrid, where the introduction of blue clay ruled discussions before the tournament, and that never let up once the stars started slipping and complaining in earnest.
In addition to the mooted restructure, which is still under discussion, future qualifying tournaments after the 2018 round-robin in Bangladesh could be held in the United Arab Emirates, where England are currently playing Pakistan in their three-match Test series.
Even before the inevitable happened, when two of ENIC's teams, Tottenham and Slavia, were drawn to meet in the same European tournament, UEFA had begun long discussions with the European Commission in Brussels, and ENIC took its fight to be allowed to hold shares in as many clubs as it pleased to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland.
This is the second part of a discussion previewing the Mastersgolf tournament April 9 to 12 in Augusta, Ga.
