Understanding the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup

By Jennifer Edwards
Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved

HOUSTON, TEXAS (June 6, 2019) It’s bordering on 100 degrees in Texas and it is 53 degrees in France where elite Women’s National Teams are fighting to raise the FIFA Women’s World Cup trophy and declare victory for another 4 years. This tournament is over a year in the making with qualifying matches happening last year within the respective soccer organizations. This tournament is sanctioned and governed by FIFA, Fédération Internationale de Football Association, in English it stands for International Federation of Association Football. FIFA governs both Men and Women’s international soccer matches and tournaments. 

Within this parent federation are the confederations. There are six confederations worldwide, with the United States playing in CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football). CONCACAF is the third most winning confederation in the FIFA organization. In order to qualify for the World Cup, national teams must play in the confederation’s tournament and win a certain number of games and score a certain number of goals to qualify for the World Cup tournament. Once the field is set with the winningest confederation teams, FIFA creates “groups” for group play in the World Cup. 

This year there are six groups of four teams playing each other in the first round. Once the dust settles on the group play, points for wins and goals are tallied and the team that has the most points wins the group. The top two teams from each group advance to bracket play. This narrows the field to the top 16 and they play a single game in knockout rounds until a champion is crowned. The United States has won the trophy three times in 1991, 1999 and in 2015 while Germany has won twice; in 2003 and again in 2007. These two teams are the teams that have won the trophy the most. Who will take the trophy this year? Watch the United States, as they are considered a powerhouse team. Yet, don’t count out some of the other formidable opponents such as Germany, Sweden and Norway. It will be interesting to see how this tournament unfolds in France.