Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Team USA Is In Group D In The FIFA Women's World Cup

One of the major sporting events we will get to look forward to in a few months is the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup which will be contested north of the border in Canada.

In addition to the expanded field of 24 teams, the prize money was increased to $15 million.
In addition goal line technology will also be in use during this tournament. 

One of the things the players also want in this tournament is to play on grass instead of artificial turf. an which the organizers and FIFA have been recalcitrant on for now.

But with the June 6 date for the World Cup rapidly approaching and the qualification round completed, it was time to find out the groups the 24 teams would play in for the initial round of the tournament.

The draw for the upcoming 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup was held back on December 6 in Ottawa, with Team USA being placed in Group D as one of the tournament's top seeded teams. 

File:2015 FIFA Women's World Cup logo.svgThe other teams joining them in Group D when play kicks off June 8 in Winnipeg will be Australia, Sweden and Nigeria.   Sweden is now coached by Pia Sundhage, who coached Team USA to the 2011 Women's World Cup final in Germany and the 2012 Olympic gold medal in London.  She returned home to her native country to coach their national team after the Games.  

So that June 12 match should be an interesting one for FIFA world number one ranked Team USA, who is seeking to win their first world title since 1999 and they lost on penalty kicks to Japan in 2011.

The groups ended up as follows:

Group A: Canada, China, New Zealand, Netherlands
Group B: Germany, Ivory Coast, Norway, Thailand
Group C: Japan, Switzerland, Cameroon, Ecuador
Group D: United States, Australia, Sweden, Nigeria
Group E: Brazil, Korea Republic, Spain, Costa Rica
Group F: France, England, Colombia, Mexico

Will be interesting to see how the tournament plays out this June.


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