The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup draw happened on Saturday in Auckland, New Zealand. Here are 3 things we discovered.
The finalists who will participate in next summer’s Women’s World Cup discovered their fate on Saturday when FIFA conducted the draw that placed the 32 groups into their first round groups.
The United States, a four-time World Cup winner, will be seeking to win its third straight trophy after taking it all in 2015 and 2019. The USWNT were placed in Group E.
The tournament will be hosted by Australia and New Zealand, marking the very first time that a Women’s World Cup will feature co-hosts. In a series of other history-making firsts, the tournament will happen in the Southern Hemisphere as well as function a broadened field of 32 teams, up from the previous 24.
The Women’s World Cup will be played from July 20 to Aug. 20. The draw yielded the following eight groups:
Here are 3 things we gained from the draw:
3. Co-host Australia gets the ‘Group of Death’
The draw was not kind to the Aussies. The Matildas were positioned in Group B along with Canada, the defending Olympic gold medal winners, Ireland and Nigeria.
Canada, ranked seventh general by FIFA, just recently beat Australia in back-to-back matches just last month. Ireland, ranked 24th, defeated the Matildas last year. Lastly, Nigeria, one the most successful females’s national group from Africa, caught three of the last four Africa Women’s Cup of Nations titles.
2. Playoff winners could contribute to the list of first-time participants
Seven countries– Brazil, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Japan, Nigeria and the United States– have actually qualified for every Women’s World Cup given that the inaugural edition was kept in 1991. At the very same time, 5 teams in the draw– Morocco, Ireland, Vietnam, Zambia and the Philippines– will be there for the first time.
It might not end there. Since FIFA broadened the field to 32, the number of first-time entrants could rise even more following a series of World Cup championship game that will be objected to in New Zealand come February. The larger field, however, could lead to more uneven scores, specifically during the group phase.
1. USWNT get an easy group
The United States were lucky after being placed in Group E together with the Netherlands, Vietnam and the winner of the playoff round in between Portugal, Cameroon or Thailand.
However, the two-time protecting champs head into the World Cup at a time when the remainder of the world seems to be catching up with them following the increase of new competitors such as England and Spain and old foes like Canada and France.
“Today’s a good day,” USWNT midfielder Lindsey Horan told Fox Sports following the draw.” It’s amazing.” She stated the opening video game versus Vietnam” provided us a fantastic chance to get going in the competition.”
The U.S. will play their first match versus Vietnam on July 22, deal with the Netherlands on July 27 and close out the group phase 5 days later versus the winner from the Group A playoff winner.
