After Australia and New Zealand, the co-hosts of the Girls’s World Cup, kicked off the event with victories, the main focus now shifts to the following video games of group play, and to a few prime contenders taking the sector: Canada, Spain and america.
Spain and america aren’t any strangers to the ultimate rounds of the Girls’s World Cup, and so they should face up to the strain of getting a goal on their backs. Canada faces a distinct kind of strain: its so-far-unrealized expectations on the World Cup stage. It performed Nigeria to a draw, 0-0, on Friday.
After these video games, there might be a clearer indication of which of those contenders are poised to make a championship run, and which have issues to handle.
Spain vs. Costa Rica
Spain, whose roster accommodates a number of gamers from the powerhouse European membership Barcelona, has misplaced solely as soon as within the final yr. Spain is yet one more program in a battle with its federation: A truce was known as earlier than the group set off for the event, however tensions stay.
When Spain and Costa Rica performed within the opening match of the 2015 Girls’s World Cup, the Costa Ricans had been capable of maintain the Spaniards to a 1-1 draw, a efficiency they’ll be trying to repeat.
United States vs. Vietnam
Vietnam, enjoying in it’s first Girls’s World Cup match, has odds of successful the event at simply 50,000 to 1, however the group gave the extremely rated German group a scare on June 24 by protecting a pleasant shut — the ultimate rating was 2-1.
The US was criticized after its opening efficiency in 2019, when the group beat Thailand by 13-0. Within the lead-up to this Girls’s World Cup, none of this yr’s gamers would decide to refraining from an identical aim frenzy, and as a group trying to make historical past with a 3rd straight title, the United State would take a win in any type.
Nigeria vs. Canada
Each groups momentarily put aside battles with their federations over funding and equal pay to play of their opening sport, which led to a scoreless draw.
Canada, the reigning Olympic champions, made the quarterfinals of the World Cup in 2015 however misplaced within the spherical of 16 in 2019. Nigeria has received the Africa Cup of Nations 11 instances however is dealing with a stiff problem in a gaggle that features the host nation Australia.
Philippines vs. Switzerland
The Philippines, in its first Girls’s World Cup, includes a roster with 18 American-born gamers. It misplaced Friday to Switzerland, a group with just one earlier Girls’s World Cup look (in 2015). Neither group is anticipated to advance far on this event.