Women's World Cup: Biggest surprises, top underdogs and title favorites
by Kevin Baxter, Los Angeles Times
Aug 03, 2023
4 minutes
AUCKLAND, New Zealand — When FIFA decided to expand the Women's World Cup to a record 32 teams and 64 games this year, the expectation was many qualifiers would arrive in New Zealand and Australia unable to compete at this level. The reality has been exactly the opposite: the group stage of this tournament has been the most competitive, exciting and well-played in history.
The most surprising, too.
Second-ranked Germany is out of the tournament and the top-ranked U.S. is on the ropes. Two other top-10 teams — No. 7 Canada and No. 8 Brazil — have also gone home while No. 72 Morocco, a World Cup debutante, No. 54 South Africa and No. 40 Nigeria
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