A 32-team pool at the Women's World Cup has not disappointed, and as the competition transitions to the knockout stages in a few days, we look at the surprises so far.
2023 Women's World Cup surprises: African nations combining for three wins and three draws
No longer is it just Nigeria that is making all the noise for Africa on the world stage of women's football. Both Morocco and Zambia collected wins while South Africa led its first two contests including one against a European juggernaut.
Morocco took down South Korea while Zambia put up three against Costa Rica for their respective first triumphs on the world stage. Neither the Copper Queens nor the Atlas Lionesses progressed past the African Cup of Nations group stage until 2022. For those two countries to have earned a win while South Africa competed against a top-three ranked FIFA side on top of Nigeria's success shows that African women's football is on the up. Few predicted it, but going forward, this continent is more than capable of playing spoiler.
Given how the two began the tournament with losses by five or more goals, seeing those two earn three points was impossible to comprehend. The expanded pool of 32 has allowed for confederations to show exactly how deep and talented they are. The Confederation of African Football is the perfect example of that. Many thought the Super Falcons would contend for a knockout stage berth, but nobody saw the three other nations sitting in the top three of their respective groups.
For the first time in Women's World Cup history, four African nations qualified for the competition. Heading into this tournament, African countries combined for just eight victories. Nigeria became the third Africa women's football team since 2003 to make it out of the group stages.
The gap in women's football has decreased significantly, and that mostly has to do with the disruption Africa has made so far in this tournament. Three out of the continents' four teams represented are among the top 50 teams according to FIFA. A ranking is merely a number. For African women's football, this is a massive step in the right direction.
2023 Women's World Cup surprises: Canada's elimination in the group stage
For the first time in the history of this competition, the nation that was awarded the gold medal in the previous Olympic Games will not be progressing into the knockout stages. Equipped with world-class talent from the goalkeeper to the frontline, Bev Priestman and Canada could not earn a spot in the top two of the "group of death". In a win-or-go-home match, the Canadians failed to show up.
Even with the majority of the possession against the Australians, the CONCACAF powerhouse could not consistently muster up quality chances in front of the net. They had the opportunity to potentially send off the world's greatest international goal-scorer into the sunset. Instead, what looks to be her final crack at a World Cup will be considered a catastrophic failure.
It is not the first time this nation has bowed out of the group stage.
In 2011, Canada finished dead last at the World Cup in Germany (16/16). The following cycle, this nation bounced back, reaching the quarterfinals before two goals inside the first 20 minutes for England sent the host nation packing. Out of the eight World Cups Canada has qualified for, five of them have concluded with a group stage exit. Even with that past history, the talent was some of the best in international women's football.
Sinclair said it best after the game, "this should be a wake-up call to the Canadian football federation". History shows that if you invest in women's sports, the rewards are bound to follow. Now with both of Canada's national teams missing out of the Round of 16 in the last World Cups, the federation needs to realize fair and just resources are needed to rebound in the future.
2023 Women's World Cup surprises: Colombia controlling Group H, taking down Germany
Going into this summer, Linda Caicedo and Colombia were considered a talented group with a chance of progressing into the knockouts. Not only does it look like they will, but the South American side may also win Group H ahead of Germany and quality Asian side, South Korea.
In two matches, the 18-year-old Real Madrid player Caicedo has announced herself to the majority of women's football. Two games, two goals, and six points for her team. When she has the ball at her feet, it is more than likely she is going to do something special with it.
Martina Voss-Tecklenburg's team finished runners-up in the Women's Euros last summer. In front of over 40,000 fans in Sydney, the Colombians went right at them. The Germans had just one shot on target the entire 90 minutes plus stoppage time.
The runners-up from the CONMEBOL Copa América Femenina in 2022 had four including Caicedo's brilliant strike that has to be considered the goal of the tournament so far. With a victory over Morocco on Thursday morning on the east coast of the United States, Nelson Abadía's team will reach the Round of 16 for the first time since 2015. Without Caicedo, the Colombians fell short 2-0 to the USWNT, but this time around their competition could be their CONMEBOL rivals, Brazil.
The 2023 Women's World Cup resumes with three matches on Aug. 1, 2023 including the USWNT vs. Portugal at 3:00 am EST on FOX Sports.
