For those who may not know, this summer was the Ninth edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, which was held in Australia and New Zealand from July 20 to Aug. 20.
It is important to note that since the World Cup was being hosted on the complete opposite side of the world, this meant that fans in the US had to get up early as most game times were either 2, 4, or 6 a.m.
Previously, there had only been four teams to win the Women’s World Cup. The United States won it four times, Germany twice, as well as Norway and Japan both won once. Going into the tournament, most of these teams were thought to be the favorites, the USA were the current trophy holders, Sweden and Japan were thought to be picking up steam at just the right time, and England was the last favored team as they are the current European champions.
The tournament started out with 32 teams from six confederations, divided into eight groups of four, with the top two teams from each group advancing. From there, only 16 teams would advance to the knockout stages, where half of those teams would be eliminated in each round – Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and the Final – until one was named the world champion. There is also a Third-Place match between the losing semifinalists.
The group stage saw some surprises as perennial powerhouses Canada, Brazil, Italy, Argentina, and Germany would all be eliminated in this first round of the tournament, despite all being heavily favored to make it out of their respective groups. The next big upset came in the Round of 16 when the USA, who had won the past two World Cups, was eliminated by Sweden in a penalty shootout that ended 5-4 Sweden.
The last big upset was in the Quarterfinals where Australia, who was already playing well on top of having home-field advantage, managed to hold France to a draw and eventually beat them 7-6 in a penalty shootout as well.
Host nation Australia would make it all the way to the semifinals where they lost 3-1 to England. The Aussies followed up with another loss to Sweden in the Third-Place match to ultimately finish in fourth place.
The final would be between Spain and England. Spain’s team was missing a number of players because they had signed a letter criticizing their coach as well as the Spanish Federation for poor and sexist treatment. Despite playing most of the tournament without Spain’s star player Alexia Putellas who was still recovering from ACL surgery, they successfully pulled off a 1-0 win to become first-time world champions. Although a one-goal game might seem like they lucked out this is not the case, as Spain dominated possession and had more opportunities but were just unlucky as they were not able to convert more of their chances.
Following the tournament, the Spanish team made headlines for an off-the-field reason. According to The New York Times, the president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales was seen giving an unsolicited kiss on the mouth to player Jenni Hermoso during the tournament’s trophy-and-medal presentation ceremony. He is currently suspended by FIFA, the sport’s world governing body, while the Spanish Federation has him under investigation.
The women’s game has been steadily improving, and with each World Cup, we see more and more fans coming out to watch and support. For the next Women’s World Cup happening in 2027, there are four bids to see who the host nation will be. FIFA is expected to select the winning bid on May 5, 2024.