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
Well, that was exciting. The World Cup group stage is officially over, with 16 of the original 32 teams moving to the knockouts. Many of those 16 teams were not expected to advance: just look at Australia, who stunned Denmark to advance. South Korea advanced over Uruguay, Japan over Germany, Morocco over Belgium: the list
Group G has some of the typical World Cup powerhouses. Brazil, obviously, are fixtures in the tournament — they’ve never missed one and have more wins than any other country. Switzerland, too, are regulars at the tournament, having only missed the tournament once since the turn of the century. Cameroon missed out on qualification in
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
Group B is easily one of the most exciting groups in the World Cup, if not the most. The USA is returning to the tournament for the first time since 2014, with a completely new group of players. Wales, too, is returning from a (much longer) absence at the tournament, led by star Gareth Bale.
The World Cup has long been a proving ground for football’s most exciting talents. In 2006, FIFA created an award acknowledging this: the FIFA Young Player Award (YPA). In each tournament, the best player under the age of 21 would be given the award. So far, there have been some notable winners. In 2006, the
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 US national team has upgraded substantially over the past few years. Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams, Brenden Aaronson, and more have all demonstrated the increase in development that the US’s federation has emphasized. However, there’s one position where the team is unclear: striker. In the US’s last ten games, four different strikers have
The 2022 World Cup in Qatar is just a few short months away, but a lot of factors remain to be determined. One of the most pressing questions is that of hosts Qatar – will they be able to progress through their group, despite having a mainly domestic-based untested squad? I’ve already done a review