Women’s World Cup schedule: Start times for every match and scores

The 2023 Women’s World Cup, which kicked off in Australia and New Zealand last week, is the largest ever with 32 teams playing 64 games over a month.

It also could turn out to be the most competitive Women’s World Cup ever, with England, the reigning European champion; Germany, a two-time world champion; Canada, the Olympic champion; and the Netherlands, a World Cup finalist four years ago, among a half-dozen teams poised to knock off the U.S., which is going for an unprecedented third straight title.

“It’s our responsibility to find the next step, to find the next 1% to push the team forward and keep this team up front,” U.S. manager Vlatko Andonovski said before the start of the tournament. Here’s a look at each of the teams in the biggest and deepest women’s soccer tournament in history.

The buzz: This tournament has already been a wild ride for New Zealand, which opened play by upsetting Norway on a Hannah Wilkinson goal for its first-ever World Cup, then two days later was briefly burned out of its Auckland hotel, with police arresting a 34-year-old man on charges of burglary and arson.

A win here would all but assure the Ferns of a spot in the second round. The Philippines, make its first appearance in either a World Cup or Olympic tournament, held Switzerland to just one goal from the run of play in its opener, which ended in a 2-0 loss.

Anything short of a victory here would leave the Philippines with only the narrowest of routes through to the next round.

The buzz: After dropping its opener to New Zealand, Norway needs at least a draw here to keep alive any

hope of reaching the knockout stages for the eighth time in nine World Cups. The Norwegians played well in their opener, outshooting New Zealand, but they made one mistake and that led to Hannah Wilkinson’s counterattack score for the game’s only goal. Switzerland was dominant everywhere but on the scoreboard in its

opening win over the Philippines, controlling the ball for more than 65 of the 90 minutes, running up a 17-3 advantage in shots and putting eight of those on target. But

the Swiss managed just one goal from the run of play in a 2-0 win. A win here would all but lock up a spot in the next round.

The buzz: Canada was forced to settle for a scoreless draw in its opener when Nigerian keeper Chiamaka Nnadozie stuffed Christine Sinclair’s second-half try from the spot. That leaves the reigning Olympic champion needing a win here to improve its chances of a second-round berth. But Ireland, too, has its sights on the round of 16. It served notice it’s not going to lay down by giving Australia a battle in its opener before falling 1-0 on Steph Catley’s penalty-kick goal. Beating Canada in its second-ever World Cup game would keep alive its chances of advancing.

The buzz: Japan blitzed Zambia 5-0 in its opener, outshooting the Africans 25-0, putting 11 shots on target and scoring four times in the second half, with Angel City’s Jun Endo bagging one of those scores.

Now, needing a win to give it a firm grip on a second-round berth, it faces a Costa Rican team that gave up an extraordinary 45 shots in a 3-0 loss to Spain.

As bad as that loss was for the Ticos it could have been worse: goalkeeper Daniela Solero celebrated her 26th birthday by stopping a first-half penalty kick and making 10 saves overall.

The buzz: This one could get really ugly really fast. Spain took 45 shots in its opening win over Costa Rica while Zambia gave up 25 in its opening loss to Japan. And Spain could be even better in this one after getting Alexis Putellas back.

The two-time Ballon d’Or winner, who sustained an ACL injury 15 months ago, played the final 13 minutes off the bench against Costa Rica, proving her fitness.

A win here would clear a wide path for Spain to move on to the second round. For World Cup debutante Zambia, which made its first appearance on the world stage in the Tokyo Olympics, this tournament has already proved a valuable learning experience.

The buzz: Brazil’s incomparable Marta, a six-time world player of the year and the World Cup’s all-time leading scorer with 17 goals, is playing in this tournament for the sixth time still in search of her first title. Brazil hasn’t made it past the round of 16 in its last two World Cups, and though its came to Australia with a deep, experienced roster — five players, including Marta and Debinha, have at least 106 caps — it has won just one of its last four games against World Cup qualifiers.

Panama is making its first World Cup appearance, qualifying with a 1-0 win over Paraguay in February’s inter-confederation playoffs. It has been on a poor run of form on late, however, losing its last two games to Japan and Spain by a combined 12-0. The roster is mostly domestically based, although top midfielder Marta Cox, the team’s leading active scorer, plays in Mexico for Pachuca.

The buzz: After going two decades without qualifying for a World Cup, Italy surprised with a run to the quarterfinals four years ago. But it was bounced, winless, from the 2022 Euros. Now it’s going the other way again, with wins over World Cup qualifiers South Korea and New Zealand following a close loss to fourth-ranked England in February. As for Argentina, this is its fourth World Cup and it still is seeking its first win.

The buzz: Much was expected of second-ranked Germany, the runners-up in last year’s European Championships, but after a 2-1 win over the top-ranked U.S. last November, the Germans have won just twice in six games, one of them a one-goal win over lowly Vietnam. The last loss came to No. 77 Zambia. A two-time champion, Germany has made the final eight of every World Cup and has a roster led by captain Alexandra Popp, the team’s active leader in goals and games, and midfielder Sara Dabritz.

Morocco, another World Cup debutante, was second in last year’s African Championships. Its top player in Casablanca-born captain Ghizlane Chebbak. After wins over Slovakia and Bosnia-Herzegovina in February, the Lionesses went winless — and goalless — in their last five.

The buzz: Colombia is back in the World Cup after a four-year break, qualifying in last summer’s Copa América Femenina, where it finished second to Brazil. But its stay in Australia got off to a rough start when its penultimate World Cup warm-up was abandoned after 20 chippy minutes that ended with Ireland’s Denise O’Sullivan on her way to the hospital with a shin injury. (She recovered in time to play in Ireland’s tournament opener.)

Since the Copa América, Colombia has lost just twice in 14 games and its roster includes Real Madrid teenager Linda Caicedo, one of the best young players in the world. She’ll likely be paired up front with Catalina Usme, Colombia’s all-time leading scorer. South Korea won just one game in three previous trips to the World Cup and warmed up for this one with three consecutive wins, beating Haiti and Zambia twice by a combined 12-3.

Ji So-yun, the county’s all-time leading scorer, is known as Ji Messi at home because of her technical ability. But also watch out for 16-year-old Korean-American Casey Phair, the national team’s first mixed-race player.