The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup will be the ninth edition of the quadrennial international women's football championship contested by the women's national football teams organized by FIFA.
Australia and New Zealand will share hosting duties for the event, which is slated to take place from 20 July to 20 August 2023. This year’s edition will mark the first time the tournament will be hosted by more than one nation, as well as the first senior World Cup of either gender to be held across multiple confederations, since Australia is part of the Asian Confederation and New Zealand is part of the Oceania Confederation.
The increased format of 32 teams, up from the previous 24 teams, will also be employed for the first time in this event, matching the format of the men's World Cup. The first game will take place on July 20, 2023, at Eden Field in Auckland between New Zealand and Norway. On August 20, 2023, the title game will be held in Sydney Olympic Stadium in Australia.
The United States is the reigning champion after winning the last two competitions, and is among the favorites to lift the trophy this year. There has never been a team that has defeated England under Sarina Wiegman, but obviously, a lot can change between now and the summer, so supporters won't allow themselves to make premature predictions. Yet after seeing England defeat some of the tournament's biggest favorites, like Sweden, Spain, and the United States in 2022, fans may understandably become a little enthusiastic.
Below, we take a brief look at some of the favorites to win it all at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Canada
The FIFA seventh-best squad in the world will, at the very least, want to do better than they did in 2019, when they were eliminated in the Round of 16. In the CONCACAF championships this summer, Canada was a deserving runner-up to the United States after being undefeated until a last-second Alex Morgan penalty gave the United States the victory.
Canadian fans who are enthusiastic about the team’s chances at the upcoming World Cup can enjoy a bonus code to back their national team for a title in Australia and New Zealand, even though it is a long shot, since they’re now at +2200 odds to win the tournament.
France
France has been one of the most consistent teams in the twentieth century. They qualified for the majority of the major championships and advanced through the group stage in most World Cups. Yet, they are still lacking trophies. Being the hosts, they were considered the second favorite to win the previous World Cup. Nonetheless, they were unlucky to be drawn against the United States in the quarterfinals.
They had a perfect record in the European qualifying rounds, winning all 10 games with no losses and no draws. Also, they had a remarkable +50 goal differential. Three friendly matches were played this autumn, and Corinne Diacre's squad struggled in all three. They won a game against Norway but lost to Germany and Sweden.
England
Although France's World Cup performance was great, England's was superior. With 10 victories, they not only won their group in the qualifying rounds but also did it without giving up a goal. They ended up with a staggering +80 goal differential as a result. England, who advanced to the last four in both the 2015 and 2019 tournaments, is optimistic going into the next World Cup.
This summer's European Championship was won by England. For the first time in more than 50 years, they returned home with a gold medal from any significant senior tournament, including men's football. Because of this, the majority of Women's World Cup odds indicate that Sarina Wigman's side is the second-best bet to win the tournament. They and the first favored USA don't vary all that much.
United States
The USA national team, as we already mentioned, has won the past two world championships, and bookmakers now rate them as the clear favorite to do so again. The USA national team's head coach, Vlatko Andonovski, replaced Jill Ellis after the most recent World Cup. The squad earned a bronze medal in the 2021 Summer Olympics, and in the summer of 2022, they won their ninth CONCACAF title.
In October and November, they played a number of friendly matches with mixed results. The USA team suffered losses against Spain, England, and Germany. The record of 71 straight home victories was broken with the defeat against Germany. The Americans did, however, come back and win the second leg two days later. In any way, tournaments are different from friendly matches. Yet the United States are undoubtedly skilled at winning competitive games.