FIFA Women's World Cup preview - Group A
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TSN.ca's lookahead to the FIFA 2023 Women's World Cup begins with a preview of Group A that features superstar Ada Hegerberg and Norway, hosts New Zealand, an upstart Philippines side and Alisha Lehmann and Switzerland.
Hannah Wilkinson New Zealand NEW ZEALAND
Confederation: OFC
FIFA ranking: No. 26
Manager: Jitka Klimkova
Captain: Ali Riley (Angel City)
Previous World Cup appearances: Five
Major honours: OFC Women’s Nations Cup (1983, 1991, 2007, 2010, 2014 and 2018) and AFC Women’s Championship (1975)
Qualifying as hosts, the Football Ferns are a team in flux, but Jitka Klimkova’s side have a good shot to make it out of the group stage in front of their home fans for the first time ever at a World Cup. The issue for New Zealand is likely to be scoring goals. In the 24 games since Klimkova took the helm of the team in 2021, New Zealand has only scored 11 times and experienced a six-game run with no goals scored that was finally ended this past April. In that same period, the Football Ferns have conceded 47. That isn’t to say that New Zealand isn’t without world-class and experienced talent. Stalwart defender Rebekah Stott (Brighton) returned to action at the beginning of the year after being sidelined with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and will be expected to be a calming presence on the backline. Stott will be joined on that backline by captain Ali Riley (Angel City). The 35-year-old Riley, who has had previous spells as Bayern Munich and Chelsea among other stops, will be competing in her fourth World Cup. The Football Ferns’ most-capped player, midfielder Ria Percival (Tottenham Hotspur) appeared to be a question mark for the World Cup. Percival incurred a serious ACL injury during an April 2022 friendly against Australia, but returned to action this past April in a 2-2 Women’s Super League draw against Brighton. If there is a player that will be leaned upon to provide offence, it will be Hannah Wilkinson (Melbourne City). The 31-year-old forward is the Football Ferns’ active goals leader with 28. What could be New Zealand’s saving grace is a relatively week group. Picking up points against Switzerland and the Philippines will be the path to the knockout round.
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Guro Reiten Norway NORWAY
Confederation: UEFA
FIFA ranking: No. 12
Manager: Hege Riise
Captain: Maren Mjelde (Chelsea)
Previous World Cup appearances: Eight
Major honours: World Cup (1995), Olympics (2000), Euro (1987 and 1993) and Algarve Cup (1994, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2019)
Simply put, Euro 2022 was a disaster for Norway. Hopes were high heading into last summer’s tournament with superstar Ada Hegerberg (Lyon) returning to the national setup after five years on the sidelines in protest of inequality between men’s and women’s football. Things started off well with a 4-1 win over Northern Ireland before an 8-0 shellacking by eventual champions England in the most lopsided match in tournament history. Shell-shocked, the Grasshoppers dropped their final group-stage match 1-0 to Austria and crashed out at the group stage for the second-straight Euro. The performance cost manager Martin Sjogren his job. In his stead for the 2023 World Cup comes a familiar face to Norwegian football fans in Hege Riise. As a player, Riise was the driving force behind a period of great success for Norwegian football, helping win the 1993 Euro, the 1995 World Cup and a gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics. Riise comes aboard with a great deal of coaching experience, having previously served as a coach with the United States and the interim manager of England in 2021. In Norway’s first chance to get the bad taste of the Euro out of their mouths, Riise has picked a squad full of quality. Joining Hegerberg up front is Caroline Graham Hansen (Barcelona), fresh off of a Champions League title. The midfield is also a strong one with Guro Reiten (Chelsea), Frida Maanum (Arsenal) and Ingrid Syrstad Engen (Barca) expected to play starring roles. Captain Maren Mjelde (Chelsea) anchors the backline. While few expect Norway to win the whole thing, a deep run in this World Cup would go a long way to reestablish the Grasshoppers as a dominant force in world football.
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Sarina Bolden Philippines PHILIPPINES
Confederation: AFC
FIFA ranking: No. 46
Manager: Alen Stajcic
Captain: Tahnai Annis (Þór/KA)
Previous World Cup appearances: None
Major honours: AFF Championship (2022)
For the first time ever, the Philippines will be competing at a World Cup. The team earned its berth through reaching the semifinals of the Asia Cup in January of 2022. They followed that up last summer by winning the ASEAN Football Federation Cup for the first time ever as hosts by defeating Thailand in the final. It’s obvious that the team has bought into Alen Stajcic’s management style. The former Australia manager has been in charge of the program since the fall of 2021. While this is a period of unprecedented success for the team, Stajcic is staying level-headed about approaching the World Cup. “For the World Cup, I don’t know how good we’ll be, but I know that we’re heading in the right direction,” Stajcic said. “My analogy is that we’ve just climbed and conquered a little hill, and that’s Southeast Asia. The challenges ahead are going to be a much bigger mountain: trying to conquer the rest of Asia and then the world." What has helped propel the team is convincing players born outside of the Philippines to buy into the program. A vast majority of the team headed to the World Cup is American-born, but eligible to play for the Philippines through familial ties. Midfielder Jaclyn Sawicki (Western United) is from Coquitlam, B.C., and appeared in a match for Canada at the senior level in 2011, but reclassified for the Philippines in 2022, eligible through her mother. While Stajcic and the rest of the team might not want to get ahead of themselves in playing in their first ever World Cup, Group A isn’t as daunting as some of the other groups in Australia and New Zealand and a spot in the knockout round could be within reach should the goals keep coming. Although the quality of some of the competition has been lacking, the Philippines have not been playing down to it in 2023, thus far, having scored 15 goals in five matches this year. Key to continuing that at the World Cup will be Sarina Bolden (Western Sydney Wanderers), who has 22 goals in 36 senior appearances.
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Alisha Lehmann Switzerland SWITZERLAND
Confederation: UEFA
FIFA ranking: No. 20
Manager: Inka Grings
Captain: Lia Walti (Arsenal)
Previous World Cup appearances: One
Major honours: N/A
To say Switzerland left it late to qualify for their second-ever World Cup would be an understatement. La Nati’s dream of playing in Australia and New Zealand was dealt a heavy blow last fall when they fell behind 1-0 to Wales in Zurich in the playoff for the final UEFA spot on an 18th-minute goal from Liverpool’s Rhiannon Roberts. But the hosts fought back and pulled level just before the half through Ramona Bachmann (Paris Saint-Germain). There were points in the match that made it appear that fate wasn’t on La Nati’s side. The Swiss were awarded a penalty for handball early in the second half with Barcelona’s Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic stepping up to the stop. She rang her effort off the post, but poked home the rebound. The goal was ruled off, however, because nobody had touched the ball before she did. Later in the dying minutes, Bachmann thought she found a winner, but that was ruled offside by VAR. Into extra time with penalties looming, veteran Zurich forward Fabienne Humm scored from the near post to send Switzerland to the World Cup. In many ways, just getting to the World Cup represents a big victory for Inka Grings’ team and it wouldn’t be unfair to wonder if the World Cup takes a backseat to Euro 2025 with the Swiss hosting the tournament for the first ever time. But that isn’t to say that Switzerland will be phoning it in this summer – far from it. There is a path in Group A to return to the knockouts as they did in Canada in 2015 when the Swiss were eliminated in the Round of 16 by the host CanWNT. With Norway the heavy favourites to claim the group, the Swiss will see themselves as the next best team there and can advance by picking up points against hosts New Zealand and the Philippines. Of concern will be Bachmann’s form coming off of injury, but with her, Crnogorcevic, Humm and Alisha Lehmann (Aston Villa), the potential for goals is there. Of issue, though, is form with the Swiss failing to win thus far in 2023.