After last year’s World Cup in Qatar and last month’s Under-20 World Cup, it’s time for the Women’s World Cup. The ‘biggest ever’ and the first in four years, the Fifa Women’s World Cup kicks off tomorrow (20th) for a month of frenetic action.
Lee Jung-chan reports.
Australia and New Zealand are co-hosting the Women’s World Cup for the first time ever, and the excitement is building.
With the global boom in women’s football, Fifa has expanded the number of participating nations from 24 to 32, and is confident that this will be the biggest and best tournament yet.
[Infantino/FIFA President: Before I became president of FIFA, the prize money for the Women’s World Cup was $15 million, now it’s $150 million, more. We’re moving in the right direction].
Right now, we’re expecting crowds of over 100,000 for the opening two matches in Sydney and Auckland on the first day.
In their fourth appearance at the tournament, South Korea will be looking to surpass the first round of 16 they achieved in 2015 and reach the quarter-finals.
[Lee Geum-min/Women’s National Football Team Midfielder: I think nothing is impossible for us, beyond the round of 16 to the quarter-finals, beyond the quarter-finals to the semi-finals, beyond the semi-finals to the final].
We are in Group H, the last of the eight groups, and will play our first game against Colombia on the 25th of this month, the opening day.
The ‘favourites’, the USA, who have won four of the last eight editions of the tournament, will be looking for their first ever three-peat, while Brazil’s Marta, the ‘living legend of women’s football’ and the top scorer in the tournament for both men and women with 17 goals, will be making her ‘last dance’ in her sixth World Cup at the age of 37.