Women’s World Cup: The stars and storylines that could define 2023 tournament
This is set to be the biggest Women’s World Cup yet, in many senses. Literal, in that the expansion from 24 to 32 competing teams means there will be more games, but also in terms of the attention that will be paid to it.
More eyeballs than ever before will be on the teams as they work their way through the tournament that begins tomorrow (Thursday) in Australia and New Zealand, so what are the things you should keep an eye on, as this most-anticipated global jamboree draws ever nearer?
Who can stop the United States? This has been their tournament from the beginning, really. The Americans have won four of the eight Women’s World Cups so far, and have never finished outside the top three in one. But the achievement they are chasing this time is an unprecedented ‘three-peat’ of back-to-back-to-back triumphs, something they have managed in the Olympics, the CONCACAF Championship (three separate times), even the SheBelieves Cup. But not the big one.
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They will be favourites, but the gap between the U.S. and the rest of the world, which at some previous tournaments felt vast and insurmountable, has closed and there are plenty of countries snapping at their heels. England, Spain, Germany, France and Australia, plus a few optimistic others, will all fancy their chances of toppling the giants. If the USWNT do pull this off, it would be their greatest success.
Here is a non-comprehensive list of the players that we might have been looking forward to watching play in Australia and New Zealand over the next month, but won’t see because of injuries: Leah Williamson, Mallory Swanson, Beth Mead, Amandine Henry, Vivianne Miedema, Fran Kirby, Janine Beckie, Becky Sauerbrunn, Delphine Cascarino, Sam Mewis.
The Americans have
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