Women's World Cup schedule: Start times for every match and how to watch
The 2023 Women’s World Cup, which kicks off in Australia and New Zealand on Thursday, will be the largest ever, with 32 teams playing 64 games over a month.
It will also be the most competitive with England, the reigning European champion; Germany, a two-time world champion; Canada, the Olympic champion; and the Netherlands, a World Cup finalist four years ago, among a half-dozen teams poised to knock off the U.S., which is going for an unprecedented third straight title.
“It’s our responsibility to find the next step, to find the next 1% to push the team forward and keep this team up front,” said U.S. manager Vlatko Andonovski, who will be coaching in his first World Cup. Here’s a look at each of the teams in the biggest and deepest women’s soccer tournament in history.
Group A
The buzz: Norway is the most experienced and successful team in the group, having played in the previous eight Women’s World Cups, winning in 1995 and reaching the quarterfinals five other times. And it will be even better with the return of former Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg, who declined to participate in the last World Cup in protest of the Norwegian federation’s treatment of its women’s team.
Switzerland, making its second appearance in the tournament, also has a veteran team, boasting four players with more than 100 caps.
Hometown favorite New Zealand, captained by Angel City’s Ali Riley, is playing in its sixth World Cup but has won as many games here as the Philippines, a tournament debutante.
New Zealand vs. Norway
The buzz: This probably isn’t the way New Zealand wanted to open the tournament it is co-hosting. The Football Ferns haven’t won a game in five trips to the World Cup and have won just one of their last 12 matches overall heading into this tournament.
Norway is a former world champion that has made it at least as far as the quarterfinals in six of its eight World Cups appearances. Plus, it now has former Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg back on the team.
Philippines vs. Switzerland
The buzz: The draw was kinder to the Philippines, which opens its first-ever World Cup against Switzerland, a loser in three of four games in its only previous trip in 2015.
Plus, Switzerland hasn’t won a game since October, drawing five times in seven matches while the Philippines came to New Zealand having won five of its last six, albeit against the likes of Malaysia, Tajikistan and Pakistan. Santa Clara-born forward Sarina Bolden scored five goals in those wins for the Philippines.
Group B
The buzz: Australia, which reached the quarterfinals in three of the last four World Cups, has been pointing toward the chance to play a World Cup final at home for years and the timing might be right. Superstar Sam Kerr, the team’s all-time scoring leader, is in the prime of her career at 29, having led Chelsea to four straight WSL titles.
Canada, the reigning Olympic champ, and Nigeria, the 11-time African champion, are two of more than a half-dozen teams who come to the tournament feuding with their federations, which could be a distraction.
Canada, led by the ageless Christine Sinclair, international soccer’s all-time leading scorer, threatened to strike earlier this season to protest funding cuts while Nigeria shorted players’ pay, then canceled a domestic preparatory camp. Omitted from the Nigerian roster was veteran MF Ngozi Okobi.
Australia vs. Ireland
The buzz: The U.S., in 1999, is the only country to win a women’s World Cup that it hosted. Australia could match that year. It comes into the tournament ranked 10th in the world, has lost just once in 10 matches dating to October and is led by captain Sam Kerr, the all-time NWSL scoring leader, who is playing some of the best soccer of her career.
Ireland, meanwhile, is making its World Cup debut and it hasn’t played well since qualifying: in its first five games this year it failed to score in four of them.
Nigeria vs. Canada
The buzz: Canada, the reigning Olympic champion, should have come here riding some serious momentum. Instead, a dispute with its national federation over funding, which nearly led to a players’ boycott, has derailed the team: Canada has won just once in the last nine months and has scored just one goal in five games this year. That’s certainly not the way Christine Sinclair, whose 190 international goals is the most in history by any player, male in female, wanted to go out.
Nigeria’s players were squabbling with their coaching staff and federation as well, and less than a week before the World Cup, there were fears this game might not be played. If Nigeria does show up, it will be missing midfielder Ngozi Okobi, who was left off the roster.
Group C
The buzz: Spain is another team that has been rocked by internal problems, with 15 players quitting last fall to express their displeasure with coach Jorge Vilda. But while Vilda remains, 11 players, including MF Patri Guijarro, D Mapi León and GK Sandra Paños, who have all played more than 50 times for Spain, won’t be at the World Cup, weakening a team that had been considered a contender.
Spain will have Alexia Putellas, a two-time Ballon d’Or winner who returned in late April after missing 10 months to a torn ACL, and Pachuca’s Jennifer Hermoso, Spain’s all-time scoring leader with 48 goals.
Japan, which reached consecutive World Cup finals in 2011-15, will be without pint-sized striker Mana Iwabuchi, 30, the team’s leading active scorer and a three-time World Cup performer.
Spain vs. Costa Rica
The buzz: Sixth-ranked Spain may have had the most dominant run-up to the World Cup, losing just three of its last 40 games dating to early 2020, posting shutouts in 31 one of those. During that run Spain had some internal turmoil to overcome when 15 players quit to express their displeasure with coach Jorge Vilda, who remains.
Barcelona midfielder Alexis Putellas, winner of the last two world player of the year awards, quit training on Monday, raising doubts about her availability. Costa Rica, fourth in last summer’s CONCACAF W Championship, won just twice in its next 14 tries after that tournament.
Zambia vs. Japan
The buzz: Despite reaching the semifinals of last year’s Africa Cup, little was expected of Zambia in its first trip to the World Cup. That changed when the Copper Queens stunned No. 2 Germany earlier this month, a week after playing Switzerland to a draw.
Zambia is led by electric forward Barbra Banda, who became the first woman to score hat tricks in consecutive Olympic matches in Tokyo two years ago, yet her team didn’t win either game.
Japan has advanced beyond the group stage in the last three World Cups; a loss here would put that streak in peril and set up Zambia up for a spot in the Round of 16.
Group D
The buzz: England, a semifinalist in the last two tournaments, is among the favorites here after winning the women’s Euros last summer. But the Lionesses are missing three key contributors from that team — Beth Mead, captain Leah Williamson and Fran Kirby — to knee injuries.
England’s roster is still deep, though, featuring D Lucy Bronze, M Keira Walsh and the trio of Alessia Russo, Rachel Daly and Beth England at center forward. That’s one reason England has lost just once in 32 matches since April 2021 (England played to a scoreless draw in a World Cup warmup with Canada on Friday).
China and Denmark, both ranked among the top 15 in the world, figure to battle for the group’s second invitation to the round of 16. Denmark hasn’t played in a World Cup or Olympics since 2007 but comes in with the better run of form, having won four of its last five, with three of those wins coming against World Cup qualifiers.
England vs. Haiti
The buzz: England is the reigning European champion and was a World Cup semifinalist four years ago, but the Lionesses came here missing three key players in Beth Mead, captain Leah Williamson and Fran Kirby, who are all injured.
Haiti, meanwhile, needed wins over Senegal and Chile in an intercontinental playoff to qualify for its first World Cup, and comes in with a fast, dynamic team that includes seven players from U.S. club and college programs.
Denmark vs. China
The buzz: Denmark hasn’t played in a World Cup or Olympics since 2007 but enters this tournament having won four of its last five, with three of those wins coming against World Cup qualifiers; its seven goals this season have come from seven different players.
China, meanwhile, has scored just once in six games against World Cup qualifiers dating to last July. It will have to do better here since this game will go a long way toward determining who advances out of group play.
Group E
The buzz: This is a top-heavy group with the two 2019 finalists, the U.S. and the Netherlands, matched with a pair of debutantes. That makes the second game of group play vital since it will almost certainly decide the group winner.
The last time the U.S. and the Netherlands met was in the quarterfinals 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where the Americans won on penalties. If their group-stage match here also ends in a draw, the group winner could be decided on goal differential.
The Dutch have a veteran squad, boasting eight players with more than 85 international caps. But they’ll be without F Vivianne Miedema, the team’s all-time scoring leader, who is also sidelined with an ACL injury.
The U.S., which has 14 players making their World Cup debuts, is unbeaten this year and has won its last nine in a row, eight coming against World Cup qualifiers.
United States vs. Vietnam
The buzz: The U.S. opened the last World Cup by blitzing Thailand 13-0 en route to a second straight title. If the Americans get a chance, they’ll do the same again here since goal differential could decide the group winner.
The top-ranked U.S. has one of the oldest, most-experienced rosters at the World Cup, with an average age of 28. But the team also includes 14 players who have never been to this tournament, among them Studio City’s Alyssa Thompson, just the second 18-year-old to make a U.S. World Cup team. Vietnam has lost four games to World Cup qualifiers in the last two months, by a combined score of 15-2.
Group F
The buzz: Some of France’s top players announced last winter they would not play in the World Cup without changes to the national team structure. That led to the firing of coach Corinne Diacre in March, which seemed to quell the controversy and brought captain Wendie Renard and MF Kadidiatou Diani back into the fold.
But it didn’t heal every problem since the team, which will now play under former Saudi Arabian men’s manager Herve Renard, will be without forwards Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Delphine Cascarino and Angel City midfielder Amandine Henry, France’s former captain, who are all out with injuries.
Brazil will again be led by Marta, who will be playing in her sixth World Cup and is looking for her second trip to the final. Her 115 international goals ranks third among active players, trailing only Canada’s Christine Sinclair and American Alex Morgan.
Group G
The buzz: South Africa, the reigning African champion, heads to the World Cup as another team mired in controversy after much of the roster sat out the final pre-tournament tune-up earlier this month in a pay dispute with its federation. Fielding a makeshift team that included a 13-year-old, South Africa lost for the fourth time in six games dating to September.
Third-ranked Sweden should be the dominant team in the group though the blue and yellow have been on a poor run of form of late, winning once since October. The team’s captain, Caroline Seger, will be the most experienced player in the World Cup with 235 caps; missing, however, is defender Hanna Glas, who is recovering from a knee injury.
No. 16 Italy comes in with an inexperienced team with 20 of the 24 players on its roster having fewer than a dozen caps.
Group H
The buzz: Last fall in Qatar, Morocco became the first Arab nation to send a team to the men’s World Cup semifinals. This summer Morocco’s women’s team will be the first from an Arab country to compete in the women’s tournament after finishing second in the last African championships, the confederation’s qualifying event.
But Morocco has lost more games then it has won since then and is the only team in the group ranked outside the top 25 by FIFA.
Germany, an extra-time loser to England in the last European Championships, is the class of the quartet. Captain Alexandra Popp, who will be playing in her fourth World Cup, is the team’s active leader in goals and caps.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
