2015 FIFA Women's World Cup

The Chronicler · **on:** June 05, 2015, 11:30:18 PM

Tomorrow will be the first match of the 2015 FIFA Woman's World Cup in Canada. Apparently, this will be the first one in which 24 teams get to compete instead of just 16, so a lot of countries have been able to make their very first appearance in this tournament.

Unlike in the men's division we saw last year, I'm expecting to see team USA to go all the way and win the final match. After all, this team has never done worse than third place in any previous World Cup.

The Chronicler · **Reply #1 on:** June 09, 2015, 10:00:08 PM

The first round of the group matches are now over. The only one I watched was USA vs Australia, where the United Sates won 3-1.

As much as I enjoy watching the World Cup, I'll be watching only the matches that the US will play in and no more (at least until the quarterfinals). Not only do I simply not have the time to do so, but also because many of these matches will be played at the same time as others. The downside to not watching these is that I might miss some truly remarkable matches, like Germany's 10-0 win over Ivory Coast a few days ago.

Mumbling · **Reply #2 on:** June 10, 2015, 10:37:07 AM

Although I don't watch football at all, I've heard it is the first time the Dutch team got in. So good for them

The Chronicler · **Reply #3 on:** June 13, 2015, 10:18:36 PM

^Yes, the Netherlands is one of eight teams for which this is their very first Women's World Cup (mostly because the number of teams competing has been increased from 16 to 24). Some are doing pretty well, like Switzerland and Costa Rica, while others are doing quite poorly, like Ivory Coast and Ecuador.

The second round of Group Stage matches are now over. The United States played against Sweden (ranked 2 and 5, respectively, so they are both very good teams) and the game ended in a 0-0 draw. That puts the U.S. at the top of the Group D for now, with a good (but not yet guaranteed) chance of advancing. We'll just have to see how they do against Nigeria on Tuesday. So far, the only teams that are definitely advancing are Japan and Brazil, with the latter being the only one already confirmed as the winner of their group.

The Chronicler · **Reply #4 on:** June 17, 2015, 11:00:04 PM

The US managed to beat Nigeria 1-0, not much but it was enough to win the group. After watching these three matches, I can say that I'm now starting to see how well team USA actually performs. Basically, they have very excellent defense (conceding just one goal in the entire World Cup, so far), but aren't doing so well on offense. This means that to advance through the tournament, they'll need to work on scoring goals.

The group stage of matches are now over. In order of when they'll be played, these will be the matches for the Round of 16: Germany vs Sweden, China vs Cameroon, Brazil vs Australia, France vs South Korea, Canada vs Switzerland, Norway vs England, United States vs Columbia, and Japan vs Netherlands. I'm not sure how some of these games will go, but I definitely expect the US to beat Columbia on Monday.

The Chronicler · **Reply #5 on:** June 23, 2015, 07:25:48 PM

Yesterday, the United States won against Columbia, 2-0, but it wasn't exactly a nice game. There seemed to be a lot of fouls in that game. In fact, the only two US players who had so far accumulated a yellow card both got their second yellow card in this match (in fact, they were the only US players to receive a card in this game), and both will be forced to sit out the next match on Friday (just unbelievable, if you ask me). And just after halftime, the Colombian goalkeeper (who happened to be taking the place of the original goalkeeper who was forced to sit out this game due to yellow cards) received a red card for a very bad foul, so that team was forced to sub in their last remaining goalkeeper and play the rest of the game down a player, during which the US managed to score their two goals.

The Round of 16 is now over, and the matchups for the Quarterfinals will be: Germany vs France, China vs United States, Australia vs Japan, and England vs Canada. Quite some interesting games for Friday and Saturday. I was especially surprised when I heard that Australia managed to beat Brazil. Hard for me to tell who will win some of these, though I still expect to see the US at least reach the Semifinals.

Nick22 · **Reply #6 on:** June 27, 2015, 12:36:42 PM

US beats China 1-0, Germany beats France on penalty kicks 5-4, its US vs Germany on Tuesday. winner goes to the final loser gets 3rd place game.

Nahla · **Reply #7 on:** June 27, 2015, 11:55:53 PM

Japan beat poor old Australia last minute.

Poor Australia can never win, we got our asses kicked last year and this year we get beaten in the dying seconds.

I only watch the matches Australia is in, maybe we'll win one day. Really only team an Australian team can beat is another Australian team. No wonder every other country laughs at our so called 'soccer skills'.

Pretty sure Australia is now out of it, once again we go home with nothing.

The Chronicler · **Reply #8 on:** June 28, 2015, 10:30:38 PM

I wouldn't call Australia a complete failure. Keep in mind, in their Round of 16 match, they actually managed to beat Brazil of all teams (a team that included Marta, who currently holds the record for most goals scored in Women's World Cup matches). Not to mention, they are so far the only team in this World Cup to have even scored a goal at all against the United States. All of that tells me they certainly had what it took to make it this far, and reaching the top 8 definitely proves that. It's just unfortunate that their quarterfinal match had to be against the defending champion.

Anyway, the rest of the Quarterfinals are over. Japan won against Australia 1-0, and England won against host nation Canada 2-1. If what I've heard is true, this is actually the very first time that England has made it this far, so congrats to them.

The two Semifinal matches will be Untied State vs Germany on Tuesday and Japan vs England on Wednesday. I have a feeling we might end up seeing a rematch of the Final from the previous World Cup.

Edit: I'd also like to point out that (unlike the Men's division last year, when half of all Knockout Round matches went into overtime) there has been only one match so far that went into extra time, France vs Germany, which also went on to penalty kicks. All the other matches were able to be finished in the regular 90 minutes.

The Chronicler · **Reply #9 on:** July 02, 2015, 08:40:30 PM

Both semifinal matches are now over. USA defeated Germany 2-0, with both goals scored in the second half. Japan defeated England 2-1, with each team scoring a goal in the first half, and the winning goal being, unbelievably, an own goal on practically the final minute (what an awful way to go).

The final match on Sunday will be United States vs Japan, the exact same teams as in the previous championship final four years ago (Japan won that one on penalty kicks after a 2-2 draw). Either USA will become the first team to win three championships, or Japan will join USA and Germany in having two championships. Personally, I expect the United States to win this time. But first, there's the third-place match on Saturday between Germany and England.

The Chronicler · **Reply #10 on:** July 05, 2015, 10:30:24 PM

USA!
The United States just won against Japan, 5-2! Most incredible of all was that after only the first 16 minutes, the US was ahead 4-0, including a hat trick (3 goals in a single game) from Carli Lloyd. Definitely don't see a lot of World Cup Final matches end up like that. Too bad the US shutout streak ended (coming within only seconds of breaking the record, I've heard) by the only goal Japan was able to score (the second point was an own goal).

Also, yesterday, England managed to beat Germany 1-0, so that tells me they'll likely be a team to keep an eye on next time.