By: Giovanni Ngai
The Women’s Fifa World Cup will be hosting games in 10 stadiums across Australia and New Zealand. The first game will begin on July 20th, 2023, and the last game will be held on August 20th, 2023. The Women’s Fifa World Cup will take place this year because Fifa hosts a World Cup every four years. The last Women’s World Cup was in 2019 and 2023 is four years after that, making this year the long-awaited tournament year. Fifa stands for Fédération Internationale de Football Association. The stadiums where the games will be played are Brisbane Stadium, Hindmarsh Stadium, Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, Perth Rectangular Stadium, Stadium Australia, and Sydney Football Stadium, which are all located in Australia. Dunedin Stadium, Eden Park, Waikato Stadium, and Wellington Regional Stadium are all in New Zealand.
The Women’s Fifa World Cup will have teams from all over the world, hence the word “world.” That also means that there will be a lot of teams, especially this year. “For the first time, 32 countries will compete in the women’s World Cup,” according to the BBC. The BBC also stated that out of those 32 teams, there would be eight new teams that would participate in the Women’s Fifa World Cup this year. Those teams are Haiti, Morocco, Panama, the Philippines, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland, Vietnam, and Zambia. The other 24 teams are New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, Austria, Nigeria, Canada, Spain, Costa Rica, Zambia, Japan, England, Denmark, China, USA, Vietnam, Netherlands, France, Jamaica, Brazil, Sweden, South Africa, Italy, Argentina, Germany, Columbia, and South Korea. Knowing all the teams is important since it can help fans better understand which teams are good and which teams are bad.
If they do their research properly, then tournament viewers will probably also know that Team USA has been the Women’s Fifa World Cup champion for the past two years. However, it could also be the case that their favorite team is the USA, and they are rooting for them to win again this year. According to the BBC, “The USA are bidding to become the first team – in the men’s or women’s game – to win three football World Cups in a row!” That would be a huge achievement for the team, and the fans would surely be hyped about it.
The Women’s Fifa World Cup is coming soon, and it will be a huge thing. Whether you know all the players on each team or have never played football (the American term is soccer), the Women’s Fifa World Cup will surely be a fun event to watch. You may even get to see a player on the field score a goal!
Resources: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/fifa
https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/66063766
https://www.fifa.com/fifaplus/en/articles/the-womens-world-cup-australia-new-zealand-2023-stadiums