Women’s World Cup 2023: Watch, Who’s Playing, Predictions, and More

The entire list of teams that made it to the 2023 World Cup include: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Haiti, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Morocco, Netherlands, Latest Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Philippines, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United States, Vietnam, and Zambia.

4. Tournament play begins in groups before the competition whittles down.

The 32 teams set to compete will undergo a grueling four-week playing process to fight for a spot in the ultimate. Here’s what you could know: Each team is assigned certainly one of eight groups: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, or H. (The US team is in Group E, which also includes the Netherlands, Portugal, and Vietnam.)

Teams play one match against the opposite squads of their group. The emphasis is on racking up enough points, that are determined by each team’s variety of victories (3 points), draws (1 point), and losses (0 points). The highest two teams with essentially the most points from each group move on to the primary knockout stage. That is often known as the round of 16, called that for the variety of teams that remain.

On this stage, the first-place team of every group plays the second-place team of one other group. The winners of this—the eight teams left—go on to the following knockout stage, or the quarterfinals. The winning 4 advance to the semifinals, after which two teams are left standing for the ultimate. Third place is decided in a match between the losers of the semifinal round.

5. The US is seeking to be the primary team ever to three-peat.

For the reason that inaugural Women’s World Cup in 1991, the US has dominated the event, racking up 4 titles out of the eight tournaments. They’ll remain the leaders after the 2023 World Cup, no matter who wins, because the country in second place, Germany, only has two titles.

Still, the US team is seeking to add to their lead, and so they’re in good position to accomplish that: After back-to-back titles in 2015 and 2019, they enter the 2023 edition because the two-time defending champions and the returning favorite.

They’ll face some tough competition, though. Canada is returning after securing Olympic gold in Tokyo, and England won the European championship in 2022. The US can also be coming off a disappointing showing on the 2020 Olympics, where they earned bronze.

6. The US captain could also be out, but other players are able to step up.

Only a month before play was set to start, US captain Becky Sauerbrunn confirmed that a foot injury she sustained in April would keep her from World Cup play. “I actually have little doubt that the 23 players on the ultimate roster have the whole lot they need—of their feet, their heads and their hearts—to bring our fifth trophy home,” she wrote on Twitter.

Even with Sauerbrunn out, there are still a bunch of players to look at on the US team, including several achieved mainstays and a few up-and-coming talent: