Days before the opener, Women’s World Cup hosts Australia suffered a massive blow. Star forward Sam Kerr, widely regarded as one of the best players in the world, suffered a calf injury in training. Shortly after, it was revealed Kerr would miss the first two group-stage matches, leaving the Matildas in trouble. However, another forward […]
The 2023 Women’s World Cup is underway, and the hosts couldn’t have asked for a better start. New Zealand and Australia both recorded 1-0 victories over strong opposition, giving them great odds of advancing to the Round of 16 already. New Zealand, ranked 26th internationally, opened the tournament against Norway, ranked 12th. Neither team scored
In 2018, France won the World Cup after navigating through a tricky group that consisted of Peru, Australia, and Denmark. Four years later, they return to the tournament again being considered the favorites in a similar group. Not only are Denmark and Australia returning, but Australia additionally had to beat Peru in the World Cup
Australia is heading to their fifth consecutive World Cup, having bested Peru on penalties earlier in the year. Unfortunately for the Aussies, they also have struggled at the tournament: five total appearances and they’ve made it out of the group stages once. That was in 2006 when they promptly lost in the Round of 16.
The Gold and Bronze medal matches have been confirmed, and there are some surprising results–the United States failure to reach the final among them. Ranked first in the world according to FIFA, the United States struggled early in the tournament but thought their troubles were behind them after beating the Netherlands in the quarterfinals. Up
If you missed my article yesterday, I reviewed the men’s Olympic Group Stages. Here is my analysis of the women’s Olympic Group Stage: Group A Technically the Olympics list this as Group E (a continuation of the men’s, I guess?) but that makes no sense. Great Britain topped the group with seven points, finishing as
The Olympics have started, and to be honest, this isn’t a tournament that most soccer fans favor. For a starter, the men’s eligibility rules prevent some of the best players from playing. Only four players above the age of 24 can be selected for the national teams. They don’t even have to be the best
It’s hard to believe, but it has been only two years since France won the World Cup. More importantly, there are less than two years remaining until 32 teams head to Qatar to decide who are the new world champions. Because of coronavirus, these qualifiers will be unlike any others. With all of the qualifying
Soccer is well and truly back, and World Cup qualifiers will soon be back as well. I’ve already written about the African World Cup qualifiers, which you can find here and here. The Asian World Cup qualifiers are the next to return, so I am going to review these groups over two parts. It’s currently
When the whistle blew after five minutes of added time in Paris, the host nation slumped down in defeat while the Americans celebrated an 8th straight World Cup semifinal. USA had beaten France, 2-1, in what had been an exciting game but not the prettiest for either side. Two more Megan Rapinoe goals not only