FIFA Women’s World Cup live: Japan defeats Norway, Spain wins 5-1 against Switzerland
Two of the World Cup’s top contenders made huge statements on the first day of round of 16 matches, with a Japanese star netting her fifth goal of the tournament.
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Japan and Spain have showcased their World Cup title credentials with crushing wins in the first round of 16 matches on Saturday.
Spain blitzed Switzerland 5-1 and Japan continued its ominous form with a 3-1 victory over Norway.
Hinata Miyazawa scored her fifth goal of the tournament in Japan’s victory and had commentators in awe of her form.
American striker Jessica McDonald told Optus Sport: “World watch out for this one because she’s on her front foot. She’s on a roll. And once a striker starts scoring goals, it’s so hard to stop.”
Spain will next face Netherlands or Sputh Africa, while Japan will be up against either Sweden or USA in the quarter-finals.
8PM: JAPAN STORMS INTO QUARTER FINALS
In a clash between two former champions, the teams were level at the break before Japan pulled away in the second half through goals by Risa Shimizu and Hinata Miyazawa.
Japan. Clinical, revitalised, smart, relentless. What a performance. #JPN#FIFAWWC
— Grace Gill (@gracegill9) August 5, 2023
7PM: US STAR EXPLAINS ‘MELBY’ NAME
US great Alex Morgan has explained the story behind the ‘Melby’ nickname the team gave to Melbourne which has caused a stir in the Victorian capital.
Victorians are a parochial bunch and many did not take kindly to their capital city being referred to as Melby.
But there was nothing sinister in the name, as Morgan explained.
“I didn’t know there was a stir caused from shoterning a city’s name,” she said.
“I mean they say brekky. So I thought Melby, it was just the next continuation of that. But we’ll call them whatever they want. So it’s Melbourne.”
6.20PM: RECORD EQUALLED FOR OWN GOALS
After the opening goal of Japan’s clash with Norway was an own goal, there have already been eight at this tournament — with a host of matches still to be played.
That is the current record, set at the 2019 tournament.
It would take a brave fan to predict the record isn’t broken in the next few days the way games have been going.
8 - There have now been eight own goals scored at the 2023 #FIFAWWC, equalling the 2019 tournament for the most at a single edition of the competition. Oops. pic.twitter.com/UG9hATOSId
— OptaJason (@OptaJason) August 5, 2023
5.50PM: RECORD KIWI CROWD WATCHES ON
Take a bow New Zealand!
The Kiwis might have been knocked out in the group stage of the World Cup, but their absence hasn’t stopped a record crowd turning out for the round of 16 match between Spain and Switzerland.
A crowd of 43,217 attended the match at Auckland’s Eden Park, a record for any men’s or women’s football fixture in New Zealand history.
They saw Spain reign supreme 5-1 to book its place in the last eight.
5.30PM: WORLD CUP PROVES NEW ERA OF WOMEN’S FOOTBALL HAS ARRIVED
The days of “total predictability” at the Women’s World Cup are over, two-times winning coach Jill Ellis said on Friday, after Germany became the latest and most high-profile victims.
Ellis led the United States to World Cup glory in 2015 and 2019, but the Americans were made to look anything but champions as they squeezed into the knockout rounds.
Last year’s European Championship runners-up Germany, Brazil, Italy and Olympic champions Canada were all turfed out in the group phase. Morocco, Nigeria, Jamaica and South Africa instead all progressed.
“Whoa, it’s been a doozy so far,” the 56-year-old Ellis told reporters.
“I think we all feel this -- that gone are the days of total predictability. “We’ve seen giants of the game knocked out, we’ve seen debutants advance to the next round, which lends itself to this being one of the most interesting, unpredictable and arguably exciting World Cups we’ve seen to date.”
Looking into the reasons for the success of the lower-ranked teams, Ellis -- now head of FIFA’s technical study group -- said: “Overall the level of play is advancing.
“The level of coaching has advanced clearly and we’re seeing stars that we’ve never seen before on this kind of stage.” Better defending and goalkeeping were chief among the reasons for the gap closing on the teams traditionally regarded as the best, Ellis and her FIFA colleagues said, digging into the data from the group stage.
4.30PM: GERMAN COACH TALKS FUTURE AFTER SHOCK EXIT
has no intention of quitting despite their shock early exit from the Women’s World Cup and denied reports of a rift with her squad.
A 1-1 draw against South Korea on Thursday meant Germany, one of the pre-tournament favourites, went out at the group stage for the first time in their history.
After the German men’s team also failed to reach the last 16 at both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, their women’s team has endured the same fate.
“The easy thing is to run away when things get difficult in life,” Voss-Tecklenburg, who is under contract until 2025, told reporters north of Sydney.
“I’ve never run away when things got tough.” Germany won the World Cup in 2003 and 2007 and started their bid for a third title with a 6-0 demolition of Morocco.
But a shock 2-1 defeat to eventual Group H winners Colombia and the draw with the Koreans saw them exit at the first hurdle.
“I still have the firm belief to take the next steps in German women’s football with everyone involved,” Voss-Tecklenburg, who has been in charge since 2019, said.
“I will stay tenacious and strong.” She was given a vote of confidence by German FA president Bernd Neuendorf on Friday.
Voss-Tecklenburg denied a report in Germany’s top-selling newspaper Bild of a rift and communication problems with her squad.
“We talk to the players, we haven’t experienced that here during the tournament. I have full confidence in the honesty of the players,” she said.
Joti Chatzialexiou, sports director of the German FA, also dismissed speculation of a falling-out.
“Nothing like this was communicated to us,” he said.
4PM: SPAIN CONCEDES HORROR OWN GOAL
There’s own goals.
The there’s the horror own goal Spain produced during its round of 16 tie against Switzerland.
Laia Codina was the culprit, attempting a back pass from near the halfway line which was badly overhit and eluded goalkeeper Cata Coll.
That made the score 1-1 but Spain has since regained its composure and cruised to a 5-1 victory to be the first team into the quarter-finals.
WATCH THE GOAL IN THE PLAYER ABOVE
11AM: US LEFT RED-FACED AFTER WOEFUL ATTEMPT AT AUSSIE SLANG
The Twitter admin of the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team might have just turned the whole of Melbourne against them.
That’s certainly the sentiment from comments replying to a tweet posted on Friday night in which ‘Melbourne’ was shortened to ‘Melby’.
Aussies were quick to let our American friends know that they’ll be supporting Sweden in the USA’s upcoming round of 16 clash, while others wanted the post immediately deleted.
A-League side Melbourne Victory decided to chime in with an “excuse me?” followed by a perplexed-looking emoji.
The ‘Melby’ drama even entered the AFL world, with News Corp employee Tim Michell tying in this weekend’s round of football.
Who’s up for North Melby vs Melby on Sunday?
Fixed it pic.twitter.com/LTDnLc1zqs
— Tim Michell (@tim_michell) August 4, 2023
8:00AM BIGGER THAN MANCHESTER DERBY: TILLIES SMASH STREAM RECORDS
- Erin Smith
More than 6000 football games have been streamed on Optus Sports – the do or die clash between the Matildas and Canada was the 17th most watched game in the platform’s seven year history.
Optus vice president of television, content and product development Clive Dickens said the second week of the FIFA Women’s World Cup group stages had attracted the largest ever week of audience on Optus Sport – taking over the record set in the first week of competition.
The streaming service has broadcast numerous big games including European Cup finals, Champions League and Premier League — with the Matildas V Canada game the 17th most streamed — sitting ahead of the Manchester City and Manchester United English Premier League derbies from 2021 and 2022.
It follows the free to air coverage on Channel 7 also smashing records with the Matildas first three games attracting 8.02 million broadcast viewers.
Dickens is confident the Matildas have what it takes to defeat Denmark in their Round of 16 clash on Monday and progress to the quarterfinals and even beyond.
“With (hopefully) four more big games to come we are definitely going to see more people watching,” Dickens said.
“We expect Monday’s game to eclipse the Canada game and get into the top 10 or five which would be amazing.
“It’s obviously a hugely important event. It’s been big for decades. I think the France World Cup had a total audience of one billion and FIFA is still predicting the total audience by the end of August will be 2 billion.
“I think it’s so much more than being a women’s sport. It’s just elite athletes doing an amazing job.”
Dickens said it was the stories off the pitch were also attracting attention – with Optus produced social media content being viewed 25 million times in the past two weeks by Australians.
“We saw the story from the Jamaica game where they progressed to the Round of 16. They acknowledged that they actually used GoFundMe to partially fund their travel to Australia,” Dickens said.
“Now that shouldn’t have to happen, and won’t happen in the future, but it’s just incredible. When you go through that type of struggle and focus to perform on a World Stage of course you’re not going to go home early unnecessarily.”
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