Thanks for your company – here’s a report leading on the draw which led to uproar in this here office …
Group F
Across the board it’s a pretty mouthwatering draw, but the final group offers a huge amount of intrigue.
Defending champions USA tweeted crossed fingers earlier, and they may have maybe been overlooked by the draw assistants. Sweden beat England last month, but more to the point the Swedes knocked the USA out of the 2016 Olympics at the quarter-final stage in a match that saw goalkeeper Hope Solo brand them “a bunch of cowards”. A return meeting between the sides has “tasty” written all over it.
Thailand debuted in 2015 and have two victories over Australia to their name this year, while Chile’s victory over Australia last month will make groupmates nervous also.
Updated
Group E
Canada may be the happiest of the Pot 1 teams. 2015’s hosts were knocked out by England in the quarter-finals last time out, but have good wins to their name this year over South Korea, Brazil, Jamaica and Russia.
The Netherlands will be stiff competition for the top spot, on the back of Euro 2017 victory and armed with Vivianne Miedema, the current top scorer in WSL with 14 goals from 10 games.
Cameroon were thrashed 6-0 by France in October, but recovered to finish third in the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations last month.
New Zealand, frankly, have had a bonkers 2018. They are yet to make the knockout stages at a World Cup but had an OFC Women’s Nations Cup campaign this year in which they played five games and finished with their narrowest margin of victory being 6-0. Tonga were tonked 11-0.
Updated
Group D - featuring England and Scotland
So … England will open their World Cup 2019 campaign against Scotland in Nice on 9 June. Journalists on both sides of the border, sharpen your quills.
Argentina didn’t qualify last time out, and had a horrendous time in their last appearance in 2007, when they conceded 18 goals from three group games – including an 11-0 loss to eventual winners Germany. They made it this time after downing Panama in a two-leg play-off.
I’m sure nobody in Pot 1 relished the prospect of drawing Japan, the 2011 winners, ranked No 8 in the world, who have won their last six games including wins over Norway, China and South Korea.
Updated
Group C
Australia fans will have ground their teeth during the draw too. They drew with the USA in July but were beaten 3-2 by Chile last month, albeit before immediately avenging that result in the same week. They were quarter-finalists last time around but there will be work to do before they reach that stage again.
Italy haven’t reached the World Cup since 1999, but although beaten by Germany last month they have a recent victory over Sweden to draw on, as well as a 1-1 draw with France.
Brazil lost to Australia in July, and have had a strange year that began with nine wins and 38 goals, but currently have four straight losses to their name.
Jamaica are a fascinating proposition, the lowest-ranked side in the finals, making their debut, but with a 16-year-old star in the making in Jody Brown, who scored three in a 9-0 win over Cuba this year.
Updated
Groups A and B
Group A
It’s a very tricky draw for the hosts France – the world’s No 3-ranked side face the world’s No 13 and 14 teams in Norway and South Korea, while Nigeria were a seriously dangerous Pot 4 pick – they have just won the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.
Group B
Two-times winners Germany, the No 2 side in the world, won’t exactly be high-fiving over their draw either. China were quarter-finalists last time out, and although huge wins over the likes of Mongolia (10-0) and Tajikistan (16-0) catch the eye from their recent record, it’s games against Thailand that will make coach Horst Hrubesch nervous – they beat them five times this year. The Thai team beat Australia twice in July.
Spain drew with Germany last month and are unbeaten in 2018, while South Africa only lost the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations final on penalties.
Updated
The draw in full
Group A
1 France
2 South Korea
3 Norway
4 Nigeria
Group B
1 Germany
2 China
3 Spain
4 South Africa
Group C
1 Australia
2 Italy
3 Brazil
4 Jamaica
Group D
1 England
2 Scotland
3 Argentina
4 Japan
Group E
1 Canada
2 Cameroon
3 New Zealand
4 Netherlands
Group F
1 USA
2 Thailand
3 Chile
4 Sweden
Updated
ENGLAND DRAW SCOTLAND!
Now we move to Pot 3 picks …
Group A: 1 France, 2 South Korea, 3 Norway
Group B: 1 Germany, 2 China, 3 Spain
Group C: 1 Australia, 2 Italy, 3 Brazil
Group D: 1 England, 2 Scotland (!), 4 Japan
Group E: 1 Canada, 3 New Zealand, 4 Netherlands
Group F: 1 USA, 2 Thailand, 4 Sweden
Updated
Pot 2 picks are a go …
Group A: 1 France, 3 Norway
Group B: 1 Germany, 3 Spain (no more European teams can be drawn here)
Group C: 1 Australia, 3 Brazil
Group D: 1 England, 4 Japan
Group E: 1 Canada, 4 Netherlands
Group F: 1 USA, 4 Sweden
Updated
THE DRAW BEGINS
Here is your Pot 1 distribution …
Group A: France
Group B: Germany
Group C: Australia
Group D: England
Group E: Canada
Group F: USA
Even the US contingent are tense …
Mood until further notice: 🤞🤞🤞#FIFAWWC coverage is live right now on FS2 and FOX Sports GO! pic.twitter.com/QgDLf4DKkM
— U.S. Soccer WNT (@ussoccer_wnt) December 8, 2018
Speaking of France 1998, this is a fact that has brightened my day immeasurably. Top mascotting …
On this day of the draw, please remember that Ettie, the 2019 WWC mascot, is the daughter of France '98 mascot Footix.
— Gaby Kirschner (@gabykirschner) December 8, 2018
Mascot cinematic universe pic.twitter.com/giFbnJslj2
They’re joined on stage by Kaka, who won the men’s crown with Brazil in 2002.
They’ve assembled a pretty impressive roster of “draw assistants” for tonight – joining the former Milan playmaker are Paralympian Marie Bochet, Steffi Jones, Michael Essien, Aya Miyama and Cindy Parlow Cone. Last to join them is Didier Deschamps, who this summer won the men’s World Cup as a manager to follow his victory as a player in 1998.
Updated
“Two legendary players” are about to help get things moving in Paris – Louis Saha and Alex Scott.
Saha, the former Fulham, Manchester United and Everton striker, was suspended from the 2006 men’s final, where his France side lost on penalties to Italy. Scott, a silky midfielder for Arsenal, helped England to third place four years ago, before retiring from on-pitch matters last year.
Top geekery from our own Suzanne Wrack, who is today wearing her newspaper design hat …
Buzzing. Ready to input the draw into Observer layout... #FIFAWWC
— Suzy Wrack (@SuzyWrack) December 8, 2018
The France 2019 stadiums
Starting on 7 June at Parc des Princes, the 52 matches that make up next summer’s tournament will take place across nine stadiums in France. Six of these have capacities hovering between 19,000-30,000, while the larger grounds of Nice, Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain will also be seeing plenty of action.
Six are men’s Ligue 1 grounds, with the remaining three – in Valenciennes, Le Havre and Grenoble – housing sides in France’s second tier.
Lyon’s Groupama Stadium, one of a couple that will shed their sponsor-led name for the tournament, plays host to the final on 7 July.
Here’s the full list:
Stade de la Mosson, Montpellier (World Cup capacity 27,310)
Allianz Riviera (aka Stade de Nice), Nice (36,178)
Stade du Hainaut, Valenciennes (25,172)
Parc des Princes, Paris (48,583)
Groupama Stadium (aka Stade de Lyon), Lyon (58,215)
Stade Auguste-Delaune, Reims (19,465)
Stade Océane, Le Havre (25,278)
Stade des Alpes, Grenoble (20,068)
Roazhon Park, Rennes (29,820)
… and today’s piece with Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg, where she reflects on her eventful week …
Before we get busy with the draw, a remainder to check out a couple of Suzanne Wrack’s great interviews from recent days – our top 100 2018 victor Pernille Harder, whose Denmark failed to qualify …
Updated
Eight minutes away from the glorious time of clacking balls in a perpex bubble, a brief thought for England’s Jordan Nobbs, who has already been ruled out of France 2019 with an ACL injury. It’s a terrible blow for the the Arsenal midfielder.
It’s also her 26th birthday today.
L.E.G.E.N.D @JordanNobbs8, we love you.
— Lionesses (@Lionesses) December 8, 2018
Happy Birthday GIFs below please 😎 pic.twitter.com/KQ57f6FsuT
A quick word about the holders. The USA avenged their 2011 final loss four years ago with a superb 5-2 victory over Japan – Japan did well to keep the score vaguely respectable after their opponents roared into a 4-0 lead within 16 minutes. Among those four early efforts in the Vancouver final, three for Carli Lloyd amid an astonishing performance, allowing her to secure the Golden Ball for the tournament’s top scorer.
Since then? They’ve not exactly taken their feet off the gas and are one of only two of the 24 clubs in the draw that have gone unbeaten this year (Spain are the other). The last time they were beaten? July 2017, when Australia pipped them 1-0. As you might imagine, they are strong, strong favourites to retain their title.
Their World Cup record is frightening – in the seven previous tournaments, they have won three and in the remainder either been beaten finalists or finished third.
Updated
Logically, teams in Pot 1 would prefer to avoid groups E and F. The winners of groups A to D face sides who have finished third in their groups in the first knockout stage.
Group E and F victors theoretically face stronger opposition – the second-placed sides from group D and E respectively.
As an example, here’s the permutations for hosts France, who we know are the Pot 1 pick for Group A:
Finish top: play a third-placed side from one of groups C, D or E in round of 16
Finish second: play runners-up of Group C in round of 16
Finish third: if one of top four third-placed sides, play winners of either groups B or C
Finish fourth: bus fare home, if that
Nobody here in Guardian towers is under any kind of illusion that women’s football can just pull itself up by its bootstraps by the way. And that’s why last week saw our first ever Top 100 female footballers in the world list, in association with The Offside Rule …
The pots! – and the draw explained
So, here are the pots for today’s draw, where 24 teams will be placed in six groups. These are based on Fifa’s latest rankings, which were published on Friday.
Pot 1: France (hosts), USA (holders), Germany, England, Canada, Australia.
Pot 2: Netherlands, Japan, Sweden, Brazil, Spain, Norway.
Pot 3: South Korea, China, Italy, New Zealand, Scotland, Thailand.
Pot 4: Argentina, Chile, Nigeria, Cameroon, South Africa, Jamaica.
The ordering in each pot is by ranking, other than France – the tournament hosts next year – who are the one sure thing in the draw: they will occupy the first spot in Group A. USA are both the world’s No 1 team and the holders, so they’re next. From there, one Pot 1 team per group, then one Pot 2 team and so on.
Smooth sailing then. Oh. Unless a non-European team is drawn that represents the same confederation as one already in a group – it’s one team per confederation per group. Note for these purposes that Australia, in Pot 1, are part of the Asian Football Confederation, so by process of elimination we know the other one sure thing: the Pot 2 team in Australia’s group will not be Japan.
Europe is the exception (isn’t it always?), as it has nine teams in the tournament, but there can be no more than two European teams in one group.
Upshot: three groups will feature two European teams, and the other three will have one each.
Incidentally, the breakdown of the 24 teams by confederation is:
Africa: 3 teams
Asia: 5
Europe: 9
North America, Central America and Caribbean: 3
Oceania: 1
South America: 3
Along with group winners and runners’-up, the four best third-placed teams across the six groups also progress.
I know, I know. But we all survived the brain-melting permutations of the Euro 2020 draw, so stick with it.
Preamble
Greetings. Long-winded explanation of the forthcoming ball-picking (draw due to begin 5pm GMT) will follow imminently. First: some #reflection.
Women’s football is having an odd week. Having begun with what should have been a lovely landmark moment, the first presentation of the women’s Ballon d’Or, the ceremony morphed into something akin to a sight I last saw at a “night spot” in Warrington in the mid-90s, where a bar manager would invite women to dance on a perilously lacquered bar in exchange for a tinselly garland round their neck. This from about 6pm, when nobody yet had a drink in their hands. Take-up, as you might hope and imagine: low. Disapproval: RIFE.
Ada Hegerberg, whose name appears at the start of this sentence for no other reason than I feel it important to mention it before I get to Martin Solveig’s, won. In every sense. Lots of young girls worldwide, many who didn’t know her name before last Monday, will have seen her kicking many, many balls into many, many goals on YouTube this week. But with one glance she also encapsulated the struggle women in football have had. One step forward, all too often followed by some wholly unnecessary, unexpected, weird, neanderthal, soul-crushing pushback.
Which brings us to today’s draw, which takes place at Paris’s La Seine Musicale. The draw features Hegerberg’s country of Norway, but for a competition that – hello there, soul-crushing pushback – is unlikely to see the Lyon forward participate due to misgivings she has about the way the women’s game is run back home.
That’s a shame, because from the outset next year’s Women’s World Cup looks like it could be something really quite special, and feasibly do wonders to advancing football’s cause as being a sport for all.
Timing, meanwhile, is everything where football is concerned. And here’s what’s going on elsewhere in Paris today …
Updated
