Another of the women’s World Cup favorites will play England’s opener against Haiti on Saturday. The Englishman won last year’s European Championship and is looking to build on that success. Despite missing two key players, the Lionesses have more than enough material to make a serious appearance on the Euro roster.
Denmark and Japan are also two teams to watch throughout the tournament. Japan, who last reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup in 2015, want to return to being the favorites to win the title, with a commanding victory over Zambia on Saturday. Denmark beat Sweden, Norway and Japan last year.
Zambia vs. Japan
Japan were impressive against Zambia, not only scoring five goals, the most by any team in a match in the tournament so far, but also holding Zambia without a single shot. Yes, that’s right, Zambia had zero shots. Japan, on the other hand, looked fluid and comfortable while breaking through the Zambian defense.
Japan are longtime World Cup regulars and are the only Asian team to win the women’s tournament when they defeated the United States on penalties in 2011. However, the past few years have not gone as planned for Japan, and the team was eliminated early in the round of 16 at the 2019 World Cup, and was eliminated in the quarterfinals at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Led by Barbra Banda, Zambia is one of the newcomers to this year’s tournament. But the team has been embroiled in allegations of sexual abuse after players accused staff, including coach Bruce Mwape. solicit sexual favors. The Zambia Football Association and FIFA are investigating.
England vs Haiti
With the exception of the USA, England may have more expectations than any other team at this tournament. The Englishman won the 2022 Euros at home, catapulting his team’s players to prominence. However, some of those names are missing from England’s current World Cup roster after Euro captain Leah Williamson and star forward Beth Meade tore their anterior cruciate ligaments.
England still have a competitive team looking to move up the ladder. The first challenge will be Haiti, one of eight new entrants to this year’s Women’s World Cup. Due to gang violence and instability in the country, the women’s national team has limited training opportunities and no sponsors.Haiti unlikely to make it through group stage but team hopes to play inspire more girls To the island to start playing soccer.
Denmark vs China
China’s only appearance in a World Cup final was in 1999, when they lost to the United States on penalties in California’s Rose Bowl. The team lost to Italy in the round of 16 at the 2019 World Cup and hope to reach that stage again this year, but that is unlikely. According to their coach Shui Qingxiathe Chinese see this World Cup as an opportunity to reintroduce them to the world stage.
That reintroduction begins Saturday with a match against Denmark, a team that has missed the last three World Cup appearances and is looking to make up for lost time. A win by the Danes will ensure they advance to the last 16, and a win over China would be the first step.
Over the course of an hour, the US shot high and spun wide. It slid them over the crossbar and curled them to the width of each post. Occasionally, the Vietnamese goalkeeper threw one out.
However, three of his shots hit the Vietnamese net. In the World Cup, that’s all that matters. 22-year-old forward Sophia Smith scored the first two goals in her World Cup opener, while veteran midfielder Lindsay Horan, who was captained just weeks ago, scored the third.
But there was more than that, and Americans knew better than anyone. Alex Morgan failed to score a first-half penalty. Rose Lovell hit the crossbar late in the second half. “I could have probably scored three or four more goals,” admitted Horan.
“The World Cup isn’t always perfect or beautiful,” Smith said wisely, despite it being his first tournament. “But I definitely think we could have missed a few more chances.”
Those Chances – US Made 27 Shots whole These were perhaps the best evidence of the day’s events, which will be remembered more for goals that were almost scored than goals that were scored.
Sharpness, efficiency, ruthlessness: these are tomorrow’s debates. On a chilly afternoon in Oakland, the main takeaway for the United States was that the World Cup opened with a win just as the last one ended.
“Obviously we came here to win the game and we did it,” said USA coach Vlatko Andonovski.
Like the United States, Vietnam certainly knew that the situation could get worse. At the pre-match press conference at Eden Park the night before the game, a reporter from Vietnam took the microphone, introduced himself and asked a question about a match at the 2019 World Cup.
“What do you expect from the Vietnam team tomorrow?” he asked Andonovsky. “Are you going to crush it like the Thai game four years ago?”
To be honest, it was an obvious question. Every football fan, every player, every coach knows what happened in a similar shark vs. minnow scene. In a surprisingly uncompetitive 90-minute match, the United States won 13-0 against a dominant Thai team in a game that went from respect to awe to backlash. The concern was that the United States would challenge a rematch against World Cup debutant Vietnam.
Andonovski did not feed before the game. He spoke politely of respect, admitting, “They will fight for us with all their might.” Vietnam coach Mai Duc Chong promised to fight, saying the team came to fight, “not just to jog”.
But Andonovski couldn’t say that, but another 13-0 result would have been fine for him. In a group stage where goal difference matters a lot, the more goals the better.
So, with opportunity after opportunity wasted, he decided to focus on the positive. It is a reconstruction of the defense that has been rearranged as a center back around Julie Aerts. A strong debut performance from Smith, Trinity Rodman, Andy Sullivan and Savannah DeMelo. Rose Ravel and Megan Rapinoe’s confirmed injuries may have been a late game effect. Andonovski suggested that he was convinced that a goal would come after all because he had chances.
“I can’t say I expected more goals,” he said. “But given the way we played and the chances we created, we definitely wanted to see more goals and we should have scored more goals.”
Perhaps those goals are near. Presumably they will be in Group E’s next opponents, the Netherlands and Portugal. Perhaps Smith already looks like a breakout star candidate for the tournament, but he’ll be even sharper next time.
And perhaps America will look back on a victory that could have been bigger and rejoice that one day was big enough.
The battle for pay equity and equal treatment has shook women’s soccer in recent years, and the players of the US Women’s National Team have been at the forefront of that battle.
FIFA, soccer’s global governing body and organizer of the Women’s World Cup, has increased the prize money for the tournament to $110 million from just $30 million in four years. Much of that increase is due to greater sponsorship and new broadcast rights for the women’s tournament. However, the total prize money is still far behind the rest of the world. Recent men’s world cup prize money Qatar: $440 million, or four times.
Still, women players around the world tried to secure their share of the prize money.For the first time in World Cup history, FIFA Separately allocate funds to players and federationsThis was done to ensure that players could reduce part of the total prize pool.
The US team will not rely on FIFA for its share of the World Cup prize money, but will instead follow the terms set out in its contract with the United States Soccer Federation. In it, the American has already secured a tournament prize money well above the minimum set by FIFA.
It’s an interesting time for England’s women’s team. Qualifying for the Women’s World Cup is one of the favorites to win the tournament, but it’s also probably the most precarious after two years of mostly smooth sailing.
The Lionesses are European champions and this victory marked a major shift in women’s football in England in terms of popularity and expectations.
“Everyone in this England team expects us to win,” said manager Salina Wiegman.
But England are definitely the weakened champions at this World Cup. A few months after winning the European title, the match that began with the loss of one of the main starters and striker Beth Meade to injury went down to three. Midfielder Fran Kirby also underwent knee surgery and will miss the World Cup. Leah Williamson, who captained England during their conquest, also tore ligaments in his knee, as did Meade.
Recent results have proved equally alarming. England’s final pre-World Cup friendly against Canada ended in a goalless draw behind closed doors, making it the team’s third consecutive goalless draw.
But Wiegman remains pragmatic and down-to-earth. In her recent interview, she kept coming back to the same questions that were touchstones for her and her team. how do you want to play? What are your roles and responsibilities within the team? ”
