It’s a given. The year after we have the excitement of the men’s World Cup, we get the excitement of the Women’s World Cup the following year. While I had the unusual situation of watching the men’s games in coffee houses at 7am some days and during some unusually cold weather for a December in Vancouver, I will be watching most of the women’s games during hot summer nights! It always makes sense to watch either World Cup during the summer months. It just seems right. The main problem about trying to watch them live is the time-zone situation. There are a few evening games for us North Americans to watch live, but most will take place in the early mornings while we’re sleeping.
So far only two games have been played. None of the groups have completed their first matches, but both host nations played their first games on Day 1. Makes sense. Now the rest of the teams just have to start their games. I know I’ve been delivering previews to each of the Women’s World Cup groups. This is just simply a post with hyperlinks to all my group analyses. I will also post the two countries from each group I think will qualify for the knockout round. Here are the links:
Yes, the Women’s World Cup is back for its ninth edition. This is actually the very first Women’s World Cup that the hosting will be between two countries: Australia and New Zealand. This will be quite something as their time zones greatly differ and most of the games will be contested during times most people aren’t used to: early morning in Europe and sleeping hours in North America.
This year’s tournament promises excitement with this being the very first WWC to have thirty-two teams competing! How about that? Right after Qatar 2022 becomes the last men’s World Cup with 32 competing teams, Australia/New Zealand 2023 will be the first Women’s World Cup to contest 32 teams. I will be focusing more on various aspects of this year’s Women’s World Cup over future blogs. In the meantime, this is the first of my eight group focuses. Here’s my look at Group A. In addition, FIFA ranking as of June 2023 is in brackets:
-New Zealand (26): Usually for the World Cup, the draw is to make sure the host nation or nations don’t have such a tough time trying to qualify to the knockout round. It backfired for Qatar 2022 as the host nation achieved three ignominious World Cup records: first host nation to lose its opening game; first host nation to lose all three of their Group Stage games; and first-ever host nation to get a last-place finish at the World Cup.
New Zealand is one of the two host nations. It has always finished in the Group Stage in all five of their previous Women’s World Cup appearance without ever winning a game. Nevertheless the Football Ferns are a team that can deliver. They once made the quarterfinals of an Olympics (in 2012) and have won two Olympic matches. The current team plays for teams mostly in Australia and the United States. The team is coached by Czech coach Jitka Klimkova. You can be sure New Zealand won’t deliver the same Qatar-like disappointment here.
New Zealand has not had it good this year. They played seven friendlies this year, five at home, and they lost all but one. Their last win was back in September against the Philippines. Whatever the situation, New Zealand knows they will need to deliver a team that will make their nation proud. Sometimes home-field advantage can work and I’m confident the Ferns will deliver. Even achieve New Zealand’s first WWC win ever.
-Norway (12): If there’s one thing about Norway, they want people to stop seeing them as a blast from the past. Their WWC and Olympic wins may have come in 1995 and 2000 respectively and their last Top 4 finish may have been in 2007 but they still have a lot to prove. In fact 2019 saw them return to the WWC quarterfinals and win the Algarve Cup that year The team is even coached by Hege Riise who was part of both the 1995 World Cup winning team and the 2000 Olympic champions.
Most of the team plays for the Norwegian league and other leagues around Europe. The Grasshoppers, as they are commonly known, finished third at this year’s Tournoi de France. Since the start of 2022, their play has been off and on. They’ve won against New Zealand and the Netherlands, had draws against England and Sweden, had a win and a loss against Denmark, a draw and a loss to France and losses to England, Brazil and Spain. The World Cup is where the team has to come together if they want to prove they’re a force to be reckoned with now.
-Philippines (46): It seems as though ever since the Philippines have qualified for this World Cup, they’re doing the best they’ve ever done. Mind you football is a new sport in the Philippines. The team has had a stellar set of last few years winning the AFF Championship (for Southeast Asian teams and Australia) and becoming semifinalists at last year’s Asian Cup. The Filipinas even won their first medal at the Asian Games since 1985.
This will be the team’s World Cup debut. The team is coached by Australian Alen Stajcic. The team members play mostly for leagues in Europe and Australia. In its play since 2022, the team have amassed a lot of wins but they were all against Asian teams. Outside of Asian teams, they’ve had a draw and a loss to both Costa Rica and Chile. They’ve also had losses to New Zealand, Scotland and Iceland. Whatever the situation, this World Cup is the perfect opportunity for the Philippines team to grow and learn and maybe surprise us sooner than we expected.
-Switzerland (20): Switzerland is a team working to make a name for themselves. La Nati have competed at Euro 2017 and 2022 but never made it past the group stage. In their first and only previous World Cup back in 2015, they did qualify for the knockout stage but lost to hosts Canada in the Round of 16.
The current team is coached by German Inka Grings who was part of Germany’s bronze medal-winning team at the 2000 Olympics. The team mostly plays for leagues in Switzerland, Germany, England and Spain. Since the start of 2022, Switzerland have had wins against Croatia and Wales, draws against Portugal, Poland and China and losses to Sweden, Netherlands and Denmark. Australia and New Zealand provide Switzerland with another chance to make a name for themselves and a chance to go further than most will predict.
My Prediction: For first timers at my blog, I usually predict as I go with the World Cup. That means whenever I do group reviews, I predict who from that group will qualify into the knockout round. Group A is not too easy to predict which two will advance to the knockout round. All four teams have noticeable strengths and noticeable weaknesses. My prediction will be Norway will top but New Zealand will also qualify.
And there you have it. That’s my review for Women’s World Cup Group A. There’s more to come over time. Hard to believe it’s just two weeks away!
Jon The Blogcentric 