The USA‘s record-setting win over Thailand on Tuesday – the most goals scored in any World Cup game, men’s or women’s, including a record-tying five goals from Alex Morgan – put a punctuation mark on the first round of group stage play at the 2019 Women’s World Cup.
This edition of the WWC was supposed to be all about parity; more teams than ever with a chance to win it, and more countries eager to show off the results of their increased investment in the women’s games. That may yet be the story, but in a first round bookended by the USA’s romp and France‘s 4-0 opening-game rout of South Korea, there was only one upset: Italy‘s 2-1 thriller over Australia (or perhaps one and a half, if you count Argentina‘s dour, scoreless draw with Japan).
Those games highlight the other major trend thus far: European dominance and Asian disappointment. European teams won all seven of their intercontinental games; Asian teams managed just one draw and four losses. That continued Wednesday as the second round of games began with Nigeria shutting out South Korea, and Germany and France booking their places in the knockout round with wins over their toughest group rivals, Spain and Norway, respectively. But while host France still looks like the real deal, Germany hasn’t really impressed in either game so far; Spain controlled the play through most of Wednesday’s game. That has a bearing on the USA’s future; if results hold and the USA wins Group F, they’ll likely face Spain (second place in Group B) in the first knockout game. See more info and kinda-daily updates at austinchronicle.com/wwc.
Game Results by Group
Group A: France 4, South Korea 0; Norway 3, Nigeria 0; Nigeria 2, South Korea 0; France 2, Norway 1
Group B: Germany 1, China 0; Spain 3, South Africa 1; Germany 1, Spain 0
Group C: Italy 2, Australia 1; Brazil 3, Jamaica 0
Group D: England 2, Scotland 1; Argentina 0, Japan 0
Group E: Canada 1, Cameroon 0; Netherlands 1, New Zealand 0
Group F: Sweden 2, Chile 0; USA 13, Thailand 0
The top two in each group, plus the four third-place teams with the best records, advance.
Remaining Group Stage Schedule
All times CDT; all games televised on Fox, FS1 or FS2, and Telemundo.
Thu., June 13: Australia-Brazil, 11am; South Africa-China, 2pm
Fri., June 14: Japan-Scotland, 8am; Jamaica-Italy, 11am; England-Argentina, 2pm
Sat., June 15: Netherlands-Cameroon, 8am; Canada-New Zealand, 2pm
Sun., June 16: Thailand-Sweden, 8am; USA-Chile, 11am
Mon., June 17: Germany-South Africa, Spain-China, 11am (Group B); France-Nigeria, Norway-South Korea, 2pm (Group A)
Tue., June 18: Italy-Brazil, Jamaica-Australia, 2pm (Group C)
Wed., June 19: England-Japan, Scotland-Argentina, 2pm (Group D)
Thu., June 20: Cameroon-New Zealand, Netherlands-Canada, 11am (Group E); USA-Sweden, Thailand-Chile, 2pm (Group F)
Sat., June 22: Knockout stage begins with Round of 16 games, 10:30am & 2pm.
WWC Watch Parties: Your favorite sports bar or soccer pub will doubtless be showing all the games listed above, but here are a few special events:
• Haymaker will host American Outlaws and the Austin Soccer Foundation for all the U.S. matches, with merch raffles benefiting ASF. 2310 Manor Rd., www.haymakeraustin.com.• Native Hostel will show every WWC game, plus Copa América and Gold Cup, with Austin FC there for select matches; drink specials benefit local youth program Upper Ninety. 807 E. Fourth, www.nativehostels.com.• Easy Tiger and the Lady Birds of Austin Anthem host this all-ages watch party for Thailand-Sweden (8am) and USA-Chile (11am). Sun., June 16, 8am-1pm. Easy Tiger Linc, 6406 N. I-35 #1100. www.austinanthem.org.
On the men’s side, the Copa América in Brazil and the Gold Cup in the U.S. both kick off this weekend, with more or less daily games running through Sunday, July 7. Gregg Berhalter‘s U.S. team has looked awful while getting shut out in two recent friendlies, but has a weak Gold Cup group to warm up with: Guyana (Tue., June 18, 9pm), Trinidad and Tobago (Sat., June 22, 7pm), and Panama (Wed., June 26, 8pm). All the Gold Cup games will air on FS1, FS2, and Telemundo; Copa América is on Telemundo, and streaming on ESPN+. … The U-20 Men’s World Cup final (Ukraine-South Korea) is this Sat., June 15, 11am on FS2.
The Locals
Austin Bold FC tries to get back into playoff position in the USL West this Saturday night at 7:30pm against Tacoma. It’s Down Syndrome Awareness Night, benefiting the Down Syndrome Association of Central Texas on behalf of Bold midfielder Sonny Guadarrama’s Sunshine Soccer of Central Texas.
Austin FC, which will play in MLS starting in 2021, started taking season ticket deposits Wednesday morning; by Wednesday afternoon, they’d taken “thousands and thousands,” setting an MLS record for such things, but are still accepting orders at press time.
This article appears in June 14 • 2019.