Women's World Cup 2023 - Ozealand

Not looking great for PNG (OFC's representative) as they prepare for that WC qualifying tourney in February. Losing to both Solomons & Fiji in a 4 team series (Australia U20 is the other team) in Aussie.

https://www.oceaniafootball.com/solomon-islands-stun-png-while-fiji-lose-to-australia-u-20-at-pacific-four-nations/

Last game in 4 Nations tourney for PNG against Aus U20, cancelled. Sounds like Covid cases in the PNG team, who lost both games they played.

That could be a challenge for WWC organisers in a Aus/NZ winter, trying to reduce outbreaks of Covid amongst the teams.

https://www.oceaniafootball.com/solomon-islands-claim-second-place-at-pacific-four-nations-as-australia-u-20-win-title/

The Solomon Islands secured OFC bragging rights at the Pacific Four Nations tournament in Canberra, Australia as a 1-1 draw with Fiji earned a second-place finish in the overall standings.

However, Australia’s U-20 side came top of the group, despite the abandonment of their final game against Papua New Guinea due to sickness in the PNG camp.

A few days after thrashing World no 2 Sweden 4-0, Matildas only beat Thailand (no 41) by 2-0.

Likely a weaker Aus lineup, but note that Foord & Kerr both started. Fowler on at HT.

https://us.soccerway.com/matches/2022/11/15/world/friendly-women/australia/thailand/3969711/

newzealandpower

Sounds good. If you change your mind, let me know! Happy to pay it forward and buy you a ticket if that helps. 

Thank you for the offer. We're fine as we are but thanks again. 👍👍

I have a feeling the football ferns will do a qatar against Norway in the opening game

morgenstern12

I have a feeling the football ferns will do a qatar against Norway in the opening game

Losing to Norway won't be the end of their World Cup. It will likely all come down to their 3rd pool game against the Swiss.

coochiee

morgenstern12

I have a feeling the football ferns will do a qatar against Norway in the opening game

Losing to Norway won't be the end of their World Cup. It will likely all come down to their 3rd pool game against the Swiss.

Has a women's world cup host ever lost their first match?

morgenstern12

coochiee

morgenstern12

I have a feeling the football ferns will do a qatar against Norway in the opening game

Losing to Norway won't be the end of their World Cup. It will likely all come down to their 3rd pool game against the Swiss.

Has a women's world cup host ever lost their first match?

 
Sweden lost to Brazil in ‘95 but still made group stage

Team Bases

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/women-in-sport/130714547/where-the-stars-will-be-based-during-the-2023-fifa-womens-world-cup

chopah

Team Bases

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/women-in-sport/130714547/where-the-stars-will-be-based-during-the-2023-fifa-womens-world-cup

 Do they have exclusivity for the venues before/during the tournament? If so it'll take a big chunk out of Northern League grounds and community grounds

carlind

chopah

Team Bases

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/women-in-sport/130714547/where-the-stars-will-be-based-during-the-2023-fifa-womens-world-cup

 Do they have exclusivity for the venues before/during the tournament? If so it'll take a big chunk out of Northern League grounds and community grounds

To take my local example, Western Springs are renovating their biggest grass pitch (where we used to play Gaelic football) for Norway to practice on, but that'll leave the artificials untouched. I assume the same goes at, for example, Keith Hay where the Fernies will be training.

Doloras

carlind

chopah

Team Bases

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/women-in-sport/130714547/where-the-stars-will-be-based-during-the-2023-fifa-womens-world-cup

 Do they have exclusivity for the venues before/during the tournament? If so it'll take a big chunk out of Northern League grounds and community grounds

To take my local example, Western Springs are renovating their biggest grass pitch (where we used to play Gaelic football) for Norway to practice on, but that'll leave the artificials untouched. I assume the same goes at, for example, Keith Hay where the Fernies will be training.

not entirely true - there are some FIFA regulations which mean adjacent pitches to a training can not be used - if this is enforced or not may be up to the country based there - could be massive disruption.

I heard it was so bad in Auckland that they were seriously considering delaying and/or not having the season... Obviously they have figured something out - but certainly won't be a normal year in terms of ''home games'' and clubrooms etc

Do we need to introduce a 'No Gilbert' (similar to ('No Sherrin') rule in NZ Football?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/world-cup/300791978/rugby-greats-dan-carter-sarah-hirini-help-unveil-new-ball-for-fifa-womens-world-cup

We are 6 months out and half a million tickets already sold. 

She's going to be a big event alright.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/women-in-sport/300795659/matildas-womens-world-cup-opener-moved-to-bigger-stadium-due-to-huge-demand

tickets for the opening nz game are selling well. the only seating left is behind either end. 

Be interesting to see if any female players took a stand, if Saudi's sportswashing made them a sponsor of the WWC.

Also do I read it right that Saudi, Egypt & Greece plan to jointly bid host (a presumably 48 team) 2030 WC? How would that go. At least US, Mexico & Canada have land borders. Though I guess Japan & Sth Korea (2002) didn't.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/world-cup/131115213/saudi-arabia-tourism-board-set-to-sponsor-2023-fifa-womens-world-cup--report

Saudi Arabia is expected to join with Egypt and Greece in bidding to host the 2030 men’s World Cup.

Australia and NZ have made clear their opposition to the KSA idea.

https://i.stuff.co.nz/sport/women-in-sport/131125300/womens-world-cup-hosts-nz-australia-urge-fifa-not-to-sign-saudi-sponsor

Totally support NZ and Aussie footbal for saying "we weren't consulted and we're not happy about it" but at the end of it all, FIFA is gonna do what FIFA wants to do and we all know for them money talks. 

I don't know, I suppose the players will have to ask themselves if they prefer money or their principles. It's a tough one because more money means more growth for the women's game it just so happens that they're now finding out that dodgy sponsors are the way you get it.

The men's game has been dealing with morally unscrupulous sponsorship for years, if we want the womens game to make the same this will be the reality.

Was surprised to learn that KSA actually has a women's league though. More you know.

Monto

I don't know, I suppose the players will have to ask themselves if they prefer money or their principles. It's a tough one because more money means more growth for the women's game it just so happens that they're now finding out that dodgy sponsors are the way you get it.

The men's game has been dealing with morally unscrupulous sponsorship for years, if we want the womens game to make the same this will be the reality.

Was surprised to learn that KSA actually has a women's league though. More you know.

They also have a women's national team now. Women there can finally drive.
They know the days of oil are a bit numbered, and they are looking to the UAE/Dubai as an example how to rebrand yourself and/or become a tourist destination.

They know improving women's rights is part of the journey. But sponsoring this WWC is way too early. They have such a long way still to go. Plus their involvement in the nasty war in Yemen looks terrible. But then plenty of 'first world' countries have been meddling in other nations wars for centuries.

coochiee

Monto

I don't know, I suppose the players will have to ask themselves if they prefer money or their principles. It's a tough one because more money means more growth for the women's game it just so happens that they're now finding out that dodgy sponsors are the way you get it.

The men's game has been dealing with morally unscrupulous sponsorship for years, if we want the womens game to make the same this will be the reality.

Was surprised to learn that KSA actually has a women's league though. More you know.

They also have a women's national team now. Women there can finally drive.
They know the days of oil are a bit numbered, and they are looking to the UAE/Dubai as an example how to rebrand yourself and/or become a tourist destination.

They know improving women's rights is part of the journey. But sponsoring this WWC is way too early. They have such a long way still to go. Plus their involvement in the nasty war in Yemen looks terrible. But then plenty of 'first world' countries have been meddling in other nations wars for centuries.

Precisely. They are making big improvements.

Personally I don't care where the money comes from if it's going into helping the game. No one's batting an eyelid about the US hosting the world cup because at least theve got good women rights right? It's just weird. No one cares if a big evil corporation sponsors a team, nor a sportswear company that's complicit in litteral slave labour. No one cares. But suddenly a country that holds some views that we don't like starts throwing money our way and it's a big issue. 

02DA138B-E12E-489A-B434-8F67CE22A53B.jpeg 667.54 KB

Who is going to be the first female player with a $1m transfer fee? In the men’s game the fees have gone up exponentially. As more money is invested in the women’s game and the layers in the pyramid build up with more divisions underneath the top leagues the quality will improve and the crowds will build and the more sponsors will come on board and players won’t have to work as a kindy teacher etc before heading to training as some currently do in so called professional leagues just to make ends meet. Not even close to what academy players or fringe first teamers in lower leagues earn in the men’s game. You can’t expect female players levels to improve as much as they are capable of - which is the same as men, if they don’t have the same environment and opportunities. Even if you took the wages of a top mens player on $200k per week and invested that in a wsl squad that would make a huge dent and for savvy early investors the pay off would be immense. Who will be the first $1m female player? It’s coming sooner than we think. 

Playoff game at NHS this Sunday, weather permitting.
https://us.soccerway.com/international/world/womens-wc-qualifying-intercontinental-play-offs-/2023/s16785/final-stages/

Be nice if another OFC team in PNG managed to qualify, but I think they will have their work cut. Wandering Panama City this time last year, and came across some street football. The star was this super athletic girl of about 13. She could play.

Panama only lost 0-1 to Olympic champs Canada last year in their WC qualifying. They have just shared a warmup series 1-1 against Chile women in Santiago. Chile to playoff against winner of Senegal v Haiti.

Winner Papua New Guinea / Panama, to play winner of Chinese Taipei / Paraguay.

https://www.oceaniafootball.com/watch-png-name-squad-for-fifa-womens-world-cup%ef%b8%8f-play-off-tournament-opener/

Papua New Guinea coach Spencer Prior has named his squad that will face Panama in their FIFA Women’s World Cup™️ Play-Off Tournament 2023 match in Auckland, New Zealand.

The team has been based in New Zealand for the past month and has had warm-up games against a Wellington Phoenix men’s age-grade side, and a local Auckland women’s team.

Other first round fixtures in the tournament are: Cameroon v Thailand, Senegal v Haiti (both Saturday NZT) and Chinese Taipei v Paraguay (Sunday).

Papua New Guinea v Panama
Sunday 19 February – 7.00pm (NZT) kick-off
North Harbour Stadium, Auckland

FIFA Women's World Cup Qualifying play-offs and friendlies at Waikato Stadium and North Harbour Stadium starts Friday night with the Ferns friendly vs. Portugal in Hamilton and continues next week.
Squad lists for all ten teams in the FIFA Women's World Cup Qualifying play-offs at Waikato Stadium and North Harbour Stadium :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_FIFA_Women%27s_World_Cup_play-off_tournament_squads
Article analysing the contenders:
https://www.fifa.com/fifaplus/en/articles/womens-world-cup-2023-play-off-tournament-hopefuls-in-focus
MATCH SCHEDULE FOR BOTH HAMILTON & AUCKLAND (incl. the friendlies):
https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/2a6ed26b4c7a883b/original/FWWC-2023-POT-Match-schedule_NEW.pdf

The following teams from each confederation qualified to compete in the play-off tournament.

Confederation           Qualified as                                                 Team
AFC | 2022 Women's Asian Cup play-offs runners-up |

Chinese Taipei
2022 Women's Asian Cup play-offs third place |

Thailand
CAF | 2022 Women's Africa Cup of Nations repechage winners |

Cameroon

Senegal
CONCACAF | 2022 W Championship Group A third place |

Haiti
2022 W Championship Group B third place |

Panama
CONMEBOL | 2022 Copa América Femenina fourth place |

Paraguay
2022 Copa América Femenina fifth place |

Chile
OFC | 2022 Women's Nations Cup winners |

Papua New Guinea
UEFA | Lowest-ranked winners of UEFA play-offs |

Portugal

Group A
(The winner of Group A will enter Group E in the World Cup)
Semi-final

Sat. 18 February 2023 19:00

Cameroon

Match 1

Thailand
Waikato Stadium, Hamilton

Wed. 22 February 2023 19:30

Portugal

Match 5          Winner Match 1
Waikato Stadium, Hamilton

Group B
(The winner of Group B will enter Group D in the World Cup)
Semi-final

Sat. 18 February 2023 14:00

Senegal

Match 2

Haiti
North Harbour Stadium, Auckland

Wed. 22 February 2023 14:00

Chile

Match 6          Winner Match 2
North Harbour Stadium, Auckland

Group C
(The winner of Group C will enter Group F in the World Cup)
Semi-finals

Sun. 19 February 2023 14:00

Chinese Taipei

Match 3

Paraguay
Waikato Stadium, Hamilton

Sun. 19 February 2023 19:00

Papua New Guinea

Match 4

Panama
North Harbour Stadium, Auckland

Thurs. 23 February 2023 14:00

Match 7:   Winner Match 3   v.    Winner Match 4
 Waikato Stadium, Hamilton

_____________________________________________________________________________
ASSOCIATED FRIENDLY MATCHES
The friendly matches are scheduled during the play-off tournament in New Zealand. They will have no bearing on qualification.

Fri. 17 February 2023 19:00

New Zealand

Friendly 1

Portugal
 Waikato Stadium, Hamilton

Fri. 17 February 2023 19:30

Argentina

Friendly 2

Chile
North Harbour Stadium, Auckland

Mon. 20 February 2023 19:00

New Zealand

Friendly 3

Argentina
 Waikato Stadium, Hamilton

Tues. 21 February 2023 19:00

Friendly 4: Loser Match 1 v. Loser Match 2
 Waikato Stadium, Hamilton

Thurs. 23 February 2023 13:00

Friendly 5; Loser Match 3 v. Loser Match 4
 North Harbour Stadium, Auckland

Thurs. 23 February 2023 19:00

New Zealand

Friendly 6

Argentina
 North Harbour Stadium, Auckland

TICKETS FOR ALL MATCHES:
https://www.fifa.com/fifaplus/en/tournaments/womens/womensworldcup/australia-new-zealand2023/play-off-tournament-ticketing

Two free child tickets with every adult ticket using the code below:

FIFA.COM

Single Match Passes on sale now for February’s Play-Off Tournament for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ in Hamilton and Auckland, New Zealand.

https://www.fifa.com/fifaplus/en/tournaments/womens/womensworldcup/australia-new-zealand2023/play-off-tournament-ticketing

All reactions:
7
You and 6 others

I'm going to the Senegal v Haiti match, and bought tickets online a couple of weeks back. The App says the tickets will be activated on match day (today), but nothing yet - has anyone else had the same experience? 

coochiee

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/world-cup/300809014/olympic-champions-canada-to-play-womens-world-cup-warmup-tournament-in-protest

There seems to be a lot of problems coming to the surface with various women's national teams on the eve of the World Cup - here the Canadian players are not only frustrated at their unresolved battle for pay parity with the men's team, they actually haven't been paid a cent since 2021.
And their national federation have been cutting back their program with shortened and under-resourced camps, no home games this year etc.

Meanwhile, the French team is in crisis and suffering a similar moment to our Football Ferns' Andreas Heraf experience with the captain Wendie Renard and two other players refusing to play under the current France coach or take part in the upcoming World Cup:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/world-cup/300816267/france-captain-wendie-renard-pulls-out-of-fifa-womens-world-cup-others-follow
Renard (142caps) is one of France's best-ever players and the other two have 114 caps between them.
The two strikers who have pulled out, Katoto and Diani, have scored the majority of France's goals for several years (48 goals between them).
Of the remaining strikers selected for the "Tournoi de France" friendly tournament which concluded this week (France coming out on top over Norway, Denmark and Uruguay) only two have scored more than single figures for France (one player with 14 goals in 60 games and another with 12 in 54)
Tournoi de France results:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Tournoi_de_France
That tournament can't have been a happy experience for many French players from the coaching point of view, despite the successful results, with so many quitting the side afterwards....
So that leaves France with much-depleted goal-scoring resources and without their popular superstar captain.

good news on the sponsorship front....
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/world-cup/300823800/fifa-poised-to-scrap-visit-saudi-sponsorship-for-womens-world-cup

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/64979989

FIFA drop Saudi Arabia idea.

However Infantino talks about "double standards".. 

double standard = Trade between Australia and Suadi yet Aus/NZ football wont have a Saudi sponsor. 
I gues he's kinda right, but it's a stretch, Aussie/NZ trade with Saudi isnt directly associated with women.

Found this whole sponsorship thing quite interesting. And I applaud NZF and FA for having a moral compass and stepping up to Fifa.

Same can't be said for our national rugby team, that are sponsored by a company that has been convicted for corruption and bribery in a european court recently, Been accused of corruption for years. Along with that Altrad are a company that profits heavily from oil and gas exploration. (someone needs to do this work yes. but would you select them as your national teams sponsor).
For me. This all just add to the arrogance shown by NZR, and one of the reasons I don't watch rugby anymore.

So good on you NZF for having some balls.