Women's Football World Cup: A tournament of equals

As Brazil and USA crash out, while Jamaica and Colombia succeed, the women's football world order is changing

- Shrenik Avlani

The difference was marginal. The football hit the post and ran away from the goal and Team USA held out for a draw against debutants Portugal and advanced to the knockout stages of the Women's World Cup 2023. In their knockout game against Sweden, it was marginal, again, but not in USA's favour. The American goalie, Alyssa Naeher, got her hands to Lina Hurtig's penalty, the ball looped up and came down, Naeher got her hands on the ball again and pushed it away. But the entirety of the ball had crossed the whole of the line by that time. Hurtig scored. Sweden knocked out the reigning world champions and the top ranked team in the world.

In the group stages, teams such as Jamaica, Nigeria and Colombia had already stunned other traditionally big teams of women's football, issuing a strong challenge to the reigning queens. Olympic gold medallists Canada, Germany (the second ranked team in the world going into the tournament), Brazil, and Asian champions China all crashed out during the group stages.

Instead, in Morocco and Jamaica, there were two teams playing their first World Cup, who did qualify for the Round of 16. Teams like Colombia, Nigeria and South Africa, that had made up the numbers in previous tournaments, were suddenly the teams to beat.