Women’s World Cup Winners: Legends, Victories, Scores

Girls’s World Cup Winners: A Wonderful Historical past of Triumph

The 2023 Girls’s World Cup is right here, and it’s the largest but: 32 groups will battle it out in Australia and New Zealand, with essentially the most prestigious prize in girls’s soccer up for grabs.

The shift to 32 groups is simply the most recent leap within the evolution and rising recognition of the ladies’s sport. Symbolically, it comes 32 years after the very first Girls’s World Cup, which featured only a dozen groups.

Following the massive success of final summer season’s European Championships – the place followers packed grounds round England and over half one million individuals attended video games – the 2023 Girls’s World Cup might be one more landmark of the sport.

It’s the primary Girls’s World Cup to be hosted within the Southern Hemisphere, and the primary to have co-hosts. USA are striving to develop into the primary nation within the historical past of the boys’s or girls’s sport to win the World Cup 3 times in a row. In the meantime, groups like England, Brazil, the Netherlands, Spain and Australia want to raise the trophy for the primary time of their historical past.

As we head right into a month-long pageant of soccer that includes the easiest of the ladies’s sport, let’s have a look again on the nice groups of the previous which have written their names into the historical past of this competitors.

Girls’s World Cup: Outcomes Desk from 1991 to 2019

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Early Years and Pioneers

Girls’s soccer is now crammed with international stars and performed in entrance of packed stadiums on the highest degree – however barely 30 years in the past, the sport was nonetheless in its infancy. That every one modified in 1991, with the first-ever Girls’s World Cup.

Held in China and that includes 12 groups, the inaugural Girls’s World Cup was a giant success. Six feminine referees and assistant referees officiated for the primary time in FIFA historical past, and over half one million followers attended.

The USA had the excellence of profitable the very first World Cup in girls’s soccer historical past. In fact, the ‘Stars and Stripes’ regarded unstoppable by way of a lot of the match, racking up 14 targets in three knockout video games. Of the 25 targets scored by the USA by way of the primary World Cup, 20 have been bagged by the lethal attacking trio of Michelle Akers, Carin Jennings and April Heinrichs.

Though the 1991 World Cup was successful, video games have been performed over 80 minutes as an alternative of the everyday 90. That may quickly change, nonetheless, with the ladies’s sport persevering with to develop by the point the following match rolled round.

Dominance of the USA

All through the historical past of the Girls’s World Cup, there’s one nation that seems many times. The USA are four-time winners of the match, with no different facet having received the trophy greater than twice.

The ‘Stars and Stripes’ received the very first World Cup and barely a match has passed by with out them enjoying a major function. In addition to the win in 1991, additionally they triumphed in 1999, 2015 and 2019. They have been additionally runners-up in 2011 and completed third in 1995, 2003, 2007. Add all of them collectively and also you’ll see that the “worst” performances by a US crew on the Girls’s World Cup nonetheless noticed them taking house the bronze medal.

They’ve performed 50 video games with simply 4 defeats and racked up a purpose distinction of +100 within the course of. With titles in 2015 and 2019 behind them, the USA are actually focusing on a record-breaking third consecutive World Cup triumph.

Underpinning this success is the recognition of ladies’s soccer in the USA – a hearth that was additional fuelled by the 1999 World Cup, hosted within the nation and received by the house nation. Girls’s soccer rocketed in recognition in US excessive colleges and boomed on the faculty degree. In the meantime, a lot of the remainder of the world was nonetheless enjoying catch-up – and the USA capitalised.

In 2023, the ladies’s sport has by no means been larger within the US, in addition to round the remainder of the world. This summer season will present us if the remainder of the planet has caught as much as the excessive requirements of the USA – or if the ‘Stars and Stripes’ stay on high of the world.

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Germany’s Legacy

Just one nation may even maintain a candle to the achievements of the USA in terms of Girls’s World Cups, and that’s Germany. The 2-time champions received back-to-back World Cups in 2003 and 2007 and have been additionally runners-up in 1995.

When Germany received the 2003 World Cup, it made them the primary – and nonetheless solely – nation to win the World Cup in each the boys’s and girls’s sport. They did so in excellent fashion, profitable all six video games on the match, together with a 7-1 thrashing of Russia within the quarter-finals. Birgit Prinz was the star with seven targets within the match, though Nia Kunzer grabbed the headlines together with her golden purpose winner within the remaining.

Their 2007 success was much more spectacular, as Germany went your entire World Cup with out conceding and have become the primary Girls’s World Cup winners to efficiently defend their title. Prinz was at it once more, with 5 targets that made her the file scorer in competitors historical past on the time.

Germany couldn’t make it a hat-trick of titles once they hosted in 2011, however with a semi-final look in 2015 and a visit to the ultimate of Euro 2022, are Germany on the rise once more?

Brazil’s Aptitude and Particular person Brilliance

Brazil have been the highest girls’s facet in South America for a era, though not like the boys’s crew they’re but to raise the World Cup. Nonetheless, their contribution to the ladies’s sport runs deeper than their single runners-up end in 2007.

Like the boys’s crew, Brazil are famend for his or her technical means and particular person brilliance – and nobody epitomises this like Marta, arguably the best participant within the historical past of the ladies’s sport. She is a six-time FIFA World Participant of the Yr, and the primary footballer – man or lady – to attain at 5 separate World Cups.

Now 37, Marta remains to be on the core of the 2023 Brazil facet and has been outspoken about her need to encourage the following era of nice girls’s footballers for when she finally hangs up her boots.

The 2007 World Cup stays the closest that Brazil have come to lifting the trophy, once they effortlessly dispatched the USA 4-0 within the semi-finals earlier than shedding to Germany. Will the remainder of the crew have the ability to give Marta the send-off she undoubtedly deserves with glory in Australia and New Zealand?

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Emergence of New Powerhouses

No nation has but come near the historic dominance of the USA on the Girls’s World Cup, however a number of nations are on the rise and 2023 might be their yr.

England shall be filled with optimism following their Euro 2022 win. Sarina Wiegman has solely overseen a single defeat since turning into supervisor of the ‘Lionesses’, who boast among the finest expertise in Europe even with out the injured Leah Williamson or Beth Mead, each of whom starred final summer season.

As a bunch nation, Australia seem like they may shake up the established order. In Sam Kerr, they possess one of many best strikers within the sport. Kerr captains the Matildas and is her nation’s all-time main scorer. Her targets might be pivotal in firing Australia into the latter phases of this match.

Elsewhere, the Netherlands have been the overwhelmed finalists in 2019 and boast a wealth of expertise of their squad. Vivianne Miedema shall be a giant miss as she recovers from an ACL harm, however in Jill Roord, Lieke Martens and Danielle van de Donk they’ve a trio of skills who’ve carried out on the highest degree for a very long time.

Sweden have a superb World Cup pedigree and have been semi-finalists in 2019, in addition to silver medallists within the 2016 and 2020 Olympic Video games. They give the impression of being able to take the following step, with attacking full-back Fridolina Rolfo more likely to be one of many fundamental creators at this match in assist of Stina Blackstenius.

Lastly, Japan is probably not the pressure they as soon as have been – they lifted the trophy in 2011 and got here so near defending it 4 years later – however are nonetheless a crew to be reckoned with. Lately, extra Japanese gamers have moved to Europe, with Man Metropolis’s Yui Hasegawa notably spectacular. They are going to be determined to enhance on their disappointing last-16 exit from 4 years in the past.

Notable Moments and Memorable Tournaments

Though the Girls’s World Cup is simply simply over 30 years outdated, it’s nonetheless a match full of memorable and iconic moments. Japan’s 2011 triumph was an astonishing achievement for a rustic nonetheless reeling from a devastating earthquake and tsunami earlier within the yr.
In 2007, Brazilian celebrity Marta showcased all her flicks and methods in a 4-0 humbling of the nice United States, though America would have their revenge 4 years later when Abby Wambach sparked one of many maddest celebrations on file together with her 122nd-minute equaliser.

Germany turned the solely facet to win a World Cup with a golden purpose in 2003, because the rule was later scrapped. Then, although, if a sport entered extra-time, then the scorer of the primary purpose would finish the sport proper there – Nia Kunzer’s purpose was sufficient to beat Sweden within the cruellest means doable.

For the largest second in Girls’s World Cup historical past, although, we’re but to see something high Brandi Chastain’s profitable penalty and iconic celebration for the USA in 1999. After a tense penalty shootout in opposition to China within the remaining, Chastain transformed her decisive spot-kick and celebrated by swinging her shirt round her head. Chloe Kelly would repeat the celebration in 2022 after her profitable purpose for England, however Chastain’s stays the highest World Cup second and one which impressed tens of millions of younger soccer gamers in the USA and world wide.

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