The first round of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2015 has been played and we have seen some great football. Here is a short summary. In group A, the host nation Canada won a tight match against China, 1-0. That was also the result in the other match of the group when Netherlands beat New Zealand. Group B has two favourites that can go all the way in this tournament, Norway and Germany. They won their first matches in this year’s World Cup, Norway beating Thailand 4-0 and Germany crushed Ivory Coast 10-0(!). World Cup 2011 champions Japan won against Switzerland, 1-0 after a penalty shot. In that group Cameroon run over Ecuador 6-0. In group D, team USA are destined to win and they got a good start through a 3-1 win against Australia, who did a solid match, despite the numbers. Sweden lost their lead twice against Nigeria, the match ended 3-3 and coach Pia Sundhage have to do some magic now, having injuries on many key players. Sundhage coached team USA earlier.
Marta made history
Brazil’s superstar Marta broke Germany’s Birgit Prince’s earlier record of most goals scored in the World Cup. With Marta’s 15th goal in Brazil’s 2-0 win over South Korea, she is now the overall top goal scorer. USA:s Abby Wambach is third in the goal scoring league, with 13 goals. Another record was broken by Formiga in the very same match: At the age of 37, she became the oldest goal scorer in the tournament. In the other game of group E, Costa Rica managed to get a 1-1 tie against Spain. Another superstar that delivered was France’s Eugenie Le Sommer. She scored the only goal in the 1-0 victory over England. The other match in group F, between Colombia and Mexico, ended 1-1.
The teams placed 1st and 2nd together with the fourth best third placed teams in each group goes through to the round of 16 play offs. The play offs starts June 20 and the final is played July 5.
