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 US, 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 US 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.
Group B
The buzz: Australia, which reached the quarterfinals in three of the last four World Cups, has been pointing towards 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 champion, and Nigeria, the 11-time African champion, are two of more than a half-dozen teams who came 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.
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.
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.
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 his last five, with three of those wins coming against World Cup qualifiers.
Group E
The buzz: This is a top-heavy group with the two 2019 finalists, the US 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 US and the Netherlands met was in the quarterfinals of the 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 US, 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.
Group F
The buzz: Some of France’s top players announced last winter that 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 although 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 than 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 the Los Angeles Times.