USA Women Draw Netherlands But Expected to Advance

While the Men's World Cup gears up for the first fall tournament, the Women's WC recently had their Final Draw a few weeks ago where the four-time champion #1 E1-USWNT drew #8 E3-Netherlands (who USA beat 2-0 in the 2019 final) but then got #34 first-timers E2-Vietnam and then the Group A playoff-winner.  USA, playing all matches in New Zealand, will play its last group match against either #41 Thailand (which the USA won 13-0 four years ago), #58 Cameroon, or #23 Portugal.  

In addition to Group E, Groups C and F also feature two powerhouses (#6 C1-Spain & #11 C4-Japan and #5 F1-France & #9 F3-Brazil).  The hosts #22 A1-New Zealand and #13 B1-Australia drew decent groups and should make it out.  #2 G1-Sweden and #3 H1-Germany have easy groups while #4 D1-England got two teams in the teens (#15 D4-China PR and #18 D3-Denmark) in the closest Group of Death candidate.

So the reason this post came up is that USA is in the midst of a 3-match losing streak, their first since 1993.  Three.  Losses.  Granted, they were against top-tier teams (2-1 @ENG Oct 7, 2-0 @ESP Oct 11, and 2-1 vGER Nov 10) but it is unnerving because you don't want the team to be used to losing.  USA did go 9-0 against teams such as ENG, NED, JPN, ESP, and CAN in 2020 but last year had to settle for bronze in the Olympics after losing to CAN in the semifinals in their only loss of 2021 (but with 5 ties).  

Our 3rd HWCI Women's World Cup pool will be next July.

Issue #1.0.1 "Nobody's Listening!"

 Archive

Wednesday, November 9, 2022 
Issue #1.0.1 "Nobody's Listening!"
[||| Mini-Updates | Enter Now! ]

ITALY BACK-TO-BACK FAILURES, BRAZIL BACK TO #1
Our 7th World Cup pool in the late autumn will test if anyone's listening

EL SEGUNDO, CA (smt) --  The World Cup is a premier summer event but not this one.  When FIFA awarded Qatar the World Cup back in 2010, the country's average summer temperatures over 40 deg Celsius (104 deg F) forced FIFA to move the World Cup to winter (well, technically fall) to avoid the heat.  This messed up most of the world's domestic league's schedules (except Major League Soccer, which had their wild MLS Cup season-ender November 5) and add to it the controversies of Qatar hosting, who knew the World Cup will soon be upon us?  Can the World Cup coverage in America break though the noise and be heard with the NFL and college football in full swing (both conflicting with FOX's World Cup broadcasts), seasons underway in the NBA and NHL, and college basketball soon to start?

Qatar will feature eight stadiums all condensed within 34-miles of each other, four set kickoff times (2 am, 5 am, 8 am, and 11 am in the Pacific Standard Time), a short 29-day window, and again no gil Azzurri.

For the second straight World Cup, it will be missing 4-time champ #6-Italy which suffered an embarrassing 1-0 loss to #65-North Macedonia in one of the UEFA semi-finals.  However, #16 B3-USA bounced back from missing the World Cup in 2018 to actually make Pot 2 of the World Cup draw (avoids two top tier teams in the group).  Unfortunately, with #19 B4-Wales winning the playoff to be put in Pot 4, the USA will face #5 B1-England, Wales, and #20 B2-Iran in the only group with all four teams in the top 20.  The other 7 groups each have two teams outside the top 20.  So ENG's Group B is the closest to a Group of Death but there really isn't one this year.  Group D (#4 D1-France and #10 D3-Denmark) and E (#7 E1-Spain and #11 E3-Germany) each have two clear top teams with #8 A4-Netherlands lucky to land in Group A with #18 A3-Senegal, #44 A2-Ecuador, and host #50 A1-Qatar.  H2-Ghana is the worst-ranked team at #61.