The ninth Women’s World Cup, which was held in Australia and New Zealand a month ago, began with some skepticism because it was held in a remote time zone and featured eight extra teams.
Those worries subsided long before Sunday’s championship game, in which Spain defeated England 1-0 in front of a raucous stadium in Sydney to win the tournament for the first time.
La Roja’s victory was only one of the surprises for record crowds and TV audiences throughout the month-long festival of women’s football, which occurred less than a year after a player revolt split the Spanish team in half.
Fears that the first Women’s World Cup, which had 32 teams, may suffer from its scale were unfounded, as were expectations that the United States would win another processional match.
The four-time champion Americans were eliminated by Sweden in the round of 16 and the Germans were eliminated prior to the knockout round, making Sunday’s final the first in which neither the U.S. nor Germany participated.
After winning back-to-back championships in 2015 and 2019, the U.S.’s elimination via penalty shootout put a stop to a dynasty.
The face of 2019 for the United States, Megan Rapinoe, exited international soccer in the shootout with a reckless kick over the bar.
American women’s soccer, which served as the standard for a long time, is now at a crossroads as talent and investment go to Europe, which produced three of the four semifinalists.
Australia stood out among the final four teams, and their spectacular run contributed to the games drawing nearly two million spectators, breaking the previous attendance record of 1.35 million for the 24-team event in Canada in 2015.
Sam Kerr’s calf injury caused home supporters great pain, but her miraculous goal in the semi-final provided some solace in the defeat by England.
Co-hosts New Zealand, a country of 5 million people, exited the tournament much sooner but showed great enthusiasm for it. There, more than 700,000 people attended games.
Eight countries made their World Cup debuts, and the majority celebrated with joy.
The best of these was Morocco, the first Arab team to play in the event, which overcame a humiliating 6-0 loss to Germany to go to the knockout round.
Given that the men’s team had advanced to the semifinals in Qatar, it was Morocco’s second World Cup fairytale in a calendar year.
In contrast, fellow debutants Portugal were denied a position in the round of 16 by a goal post that saved the United States’ face in their group encounter, while the Philippines reveled in a victory against New Zealand.
Three of the continent’s four soccer teams advanced from their groups, with Nigeria and South Africa joining Morocco in the round of 16, marking a small victory for African soccer.
Four years after leaving France with three crushing defeats, Jamaica’s “Reggae Girlz” garnered widespread acclaim when they defeated Brazil and advanced to the knockout round.
Colombia was the only Latin American team to advance to the quarterfinals, taking over for Brazil thanks to a horde of ecstatic, yellow-clad supporters.
The event introduced new players while bidding adieu to some of the game’s legends.
The all-time best goal scorer in women’s international competition, Christine Sinclair, left unhappy when Olympic winners Canada failed to advance past the group stage.
Marta, a legendary player from Brazil, drew Jamaica in her final World Cup game.
They were replaced by young athletes, with 19-year-old attacker Salma Paralluelo winning the Young Player Award after scoring goals for Spain in the quarterfinal and semifinal.
The 18-year-old attacker from Colombia, Linda Caicedo, impressed on her World Cup debut by notching two spectacular goals.
Aitana Bonmati, a playmaker for Spain, won the Golden Ball as the tournament’s top performer after scoring three goals throughout an outstanding season.
But during Japan’s thrilling run to the quarterfinals, Hinata Miyazawa’s five goals made her the surprise Golden Boot winner.
Gianni Infantino, the head of FIFA, claimed that despite a significant increase in prize money, Australia and New Zealand’s combined income of more than $570 million allowed FIFA to break even.
The success of the Women’s World Cup, however, may put pressure on FIFA to advance its long-term aim of gender parity more quickly because teams are only fighting for a portion of the prize money given to the men in Qatar.