FIFA Women's World Cup

No thread yet for this, cant say I'm really surprised either....

But anyway, it kicks off today in Auckland.

I really don't follow womens football very closely, despite having a sister in law who was in the NZ team a (fair) few years back but I suspect that over the next month or so, I will probably watch more women's football than I will for the rest of my lifetime.

Am attending a few games too as I think it's great to show to try show some local support for the event. Will be at Italy vs Argentina (thanks to the TAB) and USA vs Portugal and then some knockout games.

Will NZ win a game? Perhaps vs the Philippines?

@JK There are 32 competing nations and only the co-hosts didn't have to qualify.

Like any FIFA tournament they look for a geographical spread rather than the top 30 countries. Otherwise NZ would never qualify for the mens event.

11 qualified from Europe
5 from Asia
4 from Africa
4 from Nth America
3 from Sth America

Philippines got through to Asian qualifying semi-finals which is how they qualified. Vietnam won a play-off from the losing 1/4 Finalist's

3 teams qualified by winning through an Inter Confederation play-off in NZ last Feb - Portugal, Haiti and Panama

Panama 52, Haiti 53, Morocco 72 and Zambia 77 are all ranked below Philippines.

All up eight of the qualifiers are outside the top 32

So can we beat Philippines? We are no 26 in the world. Surely.....

They are also targeting the Switzerland game. To state the obvious, NZ needs to score goals as that has been the problem against non-Oceania opposition.

I'll be interested in watching Hegerberg tonight.

Word cup? Is that like a giant spelling bee?

Here's the match schedule:

Excellent crowd.

@KiwiMurph said in FIFA Women's Word Cup:

Excellent crowd.

What time is kickoff?

@canefan said in FIFA Women's Word Cup:

@KiwiMurph said in FIFA Women's Word Cup:

Excellent crowd.

What time is kickoff?

Right now

More competitive opening 20 than I was expecting. Good stuff.

Great start so far by NZ.

Lots of good positions and half chances. Still 0-0.

Looks like we have the Norwegians rattled a bit

Wilkinson's heavy touch has let her down a couple of times. NZ aren't out of the game.

Fantastic first half, we finished stronger!

A great first half by the Football Ferns. Really frustrating Norway and getting big support from the crowd.

Norway defence looks slow. Could be a chance if NZ can get a fast runner on the end of a straight, long ball.

That's very good from the Ferns - I was mainly hoping we wouldn't concede in the first five minutes, but we've dominated that half.

Need one or two more who are willing to pull the trigger and shoot - we seem to be looking for a few extra touches.

Good start to the tournament

A home win would be massive

@MiketheSnow said in FIFA Women's World Cup:

Good start to the tournament

A home win would be massive

Norway are a good side and move the ball well. It would be a massive win.

Norways last few results:
3-3 draw with Sweden. Sweden ranked #3
4-2 loss to Spain. Spain ranked #6
0-0 draw with France. France ranked #5

Get in!!!!!!

What a goal

New Zealand 1 Norway 0.

Gooooaaaaallll

Champagne football

Brilliant opening goal!

Nearly a second. Norway being run ragged at the moment.

VAR looking at a penalty.

Not given.

Norway lucky it’s only 1 at the minute.

Norway fluff a good chance.

Bit of frustration emerging for Norway

Really entertaining watch so far

Fantastic passage of play for the first goal

Much more lively in the second half. Good game.

Huge performance from the Football Ferns so far. Really impressed.

Well, they've already exceeded my expectations regardless of the next 20 minutes.

I don't know much about soccer, but pure time in half and shots at (general direction) of goal Ferns look well on top

We are making some great runs and the through passing has been very good

Great move again from the Football Ferns.