Key events
Suzy Wrack spoke to Norway’s Ada Hegeberg about the battle female footballers face and her hopes for the team after their Euros 202 flop.
Norway XI
23 Aurora Mikalsen
4 Tuva Hansen
6 Maren Mjelde
13 Thea Bjelde
16 Mathilde Harviken
7 Ingrid Engen
11 Guro Reiten
18 Frida Maanum
10 Caroline Hansen
14 Ada Hegerberg
17 Julie Blakstad
New Zealand XI
Teams are live! What do you think of this lineup?
21 Victoria Esson
4 CJ Bott
7 Ali Riley (C)
13 Rebekah Stott
14 Katie Bowen
2 Ria Percival
6 Malia Steinmetz
12 Betsy Hassett
16 Jacqui Hand
17 Hannah Wilkinson
20 Indiah-Paige Riley
Meanwhile, in Australia …
My colleagues are reporting buses are packed, traffic is backed up and fans are already starting to buzz around Stadium Australia.
Four hours until kickoff and express trains from Central have just begun. Glorious at Olympic Park and the bars are starting to fill. Spoke to an Irish couple who thought their team would win. Totally sober, they said. pic.twitter.com/ry4sGXbNdc
— Jack Snape (@jacksongs) July 20, 2023
New Zealand team guide
The coach, the star, the rising star, their World Cup hopes.
Here is everything you need to know about the Football Ferns.
They look like they are having fun already!
The New Zealand All Blacks have a message for the Football Ferns ahead of their match!
Wishing the Football Ferns all the very best for their opening match tonight! Good luck team, we’ll be supporting you all the way 🇳🇿 🖤 pic.twitter.com/vmdf1S7n4g
— All Blacks (@AllBlacks) July 20, 2023
With the biggest Women’s World Cup due to start in under an hour, it’s worth remembering where everything started for this tournament. It hasn’t been the smoothest road, but there have been some incredible moments in its relatively short history.
Look no further than David Squires’ extremely educational cartoon on the matter.
New Zealand may have the home advantage but you can be sure Norway fans will be out in force too.
Norway team guide
I’ll update you with the starting XI when it comes through. In the meantime do take a look at our extensive team guides.
Last year’s humiliating Euros exit hasn’t dampened expectations for a team who look more solid under new coach Hege Riise
Complete player guide
This interactive guide to all 736 players in the tournament is simply phenomenal. Details on every player have been contributed by a global network of experts.
Get to know every single squad member at the tournament.
The Football Ferns have arrived at Eden Park and have hit the pitch to warm up.
If, unlike me, you are calm and composed enough to focus on anything other than these two opening games … maybe have a go at this quiz:
ONE HOUR TO GO!
We inch closer to kick off. Can New Zealand get their first World Cup win? Fans of the Football Ferns are making their way into Eden Park.
Indigenous cultures are at the forefront of this Women’s World Cup. You will have noticed every host city has dual names – one being the English placename and the other in the language of the traditional owners of the land the city sits on.
The game in New Zealand tonight is in Auckland / Tāmaki Makaurau, and if you’re lucky enough to be at Eden Park you may be able to get your hands on a poi.
this is sick. everyone at the eden park #FIFAWWC opener tonight is getting their own poi with a qr code explaining it, mātaurangi māori & more. kiwi values on display! how good. pic.twitter.com/3NpG8PBnDM
— Ben McKay (@benmackey) July 20, 2023
Want to see the Matildas? Get in quick …
Thoughts and emotion. Plenty of them.
Enjoy the moment all of you.
And to help with it, I have x3 double passes to the game tonight.
Just DM with 25 words on what it means and I will give to the three best answers after 4.05 pm AEST. pic.twitter.com/lTGAEfxn7B
— Ann Odong 🐨🇺🇬 (@AnnOdong) July 20, 2023
While we’re getting ready for the first whistle, let me introduce you to some of the Guardian team who are covering the World Cup.
A few I have mentioned already: Suzy Wrack is bringing you all things England. She has been travelling with the Lionesses to their pre-tournament camp and home base, and will be on the ground in Brisbane when they play their opening game against Haiti on 22 July. You can find her on Twitter @SuzyWrack.
Women’s football writer and founder of the The Equalizer, Jeff Kassouf, is in New Zealand following the USWNT for the Guardian. He has written this thorough preview on the team chasing an unprecedented third consecutive World Cup trophy. Follow @JeffKassouf on Twitter for updates from New Zealand.
After a heavy morning in Auckland, there is soccer tonight. The World Cup starts in a few hours.
New Zealand vs. Norway
Australia vs. Ireland
There probably isn’t enough time in the day to read all the @guardian_sport coverage, but you could try 😀https://t.co/8lRcC5RZHL
— Jeff Kassouf (@JeffKassouf) July 20, 2023
Lapping up the home soil atmosphere in Australia is Kieran Pender with the latest from the Matildas camp as well as their games in Group B.
As the tournament rolls on we will have more coverage from Jonathan Liew, former Matilda Joey Peters, former England international Anita Asante and more.
OK first prediction is in from Kurt who is predicting USA over Brazil in the final.
“USWNT all the way! Despite injuries and inexperience the USWNT will win their third Fifa Women’s World Cup. They’ll win group E, defeat Sweden (managed by former USWNT manager Pia Sundhage) in the round of 16, kick Italy in their boot in the quarter-final, fish fry Norway in the semi-final & beat up Brazil in the final.”
Love the confidence Kurt!
Our writers have offered their views on how the tournament will pan out. There’s a suspiciously high number of votes for Australia and Sam Kerr. Can the co-hosts capitalise on their home advantage and run of excellent form?
Jonathan Liew and Suzy Wrack say yes … so that’s that then I guess.
It’s just after 6.30am in the UK (I think) and I’ve got a message from Melanie in Jersey.
“Football at breakfast, what’s not to like!
“Really looking to seeing how England cope with some key players missing, but there is a depth in the squad that offers lots of choice. I think the Lionesses can go all the way!”
Thanks for getting in touch Melanie!
Tickets might have been slow to shift at first in New Zealand but it seems fans are ready to get behind the Football Ferns now.
Hit me with your predictions! How do you think the 2023 Women’s World Cup will unfold?
Some Guardian readers have given their verdict on how the teams will go.
What do you think? Can the USA make it three in a row? Will veterans Christine Sinclair and Marta take Canada and Brazil all the way? Who are the dark horses?
Let me know: email or tweet @_jokhan.
The view from Australia is quite different. The national women’s team, the Matildas, are a Top 10 team and one of the most loved sport teams in the country.
Unless Fifa release some last minute tickets to the three Matildas group games you will be lucky to find one – they were snapped up fast.
After couple of hours after New Zealand’s opening game in Auckland today Australia will face the Republic of Ireland in front of about 75,000 fans – a record home crowd for them.
As Guardian Australia’s sport reporter, Jack Snape, writes, international sporting events are very much part of the culture. Plus, they have Sam Kerr.
Our Matildas correspondent Kieran Pender is on his way to Stadium Australia for the second game of the night.
4.5 hours to kick off and bus to Stadium Australia is already jammed. Tonight is going to be HUGE!
— Kieran Pender (@KieranPender) July 20, 2023
Looks like the atmosphere is building in Auckland but the word on the ground was New Zealand was moving a bit slower to catch up with the hype.
Ticket sales were lagging behind those across the ditch in Australia, although it looks like the opening game between the Football Ferns and Norway is close to sold out!
Gabi Lardies spoke to some of the key operators in women’s football in the country about the lead-up.
It’s still early but fans are starting to make their way into Eden Park.
Opening ceremony
There’s a few things to get through before the football. Fun things, of course!
The party starts in Auckland / Tāmaki Makaurau at New Zealand’s national stadium, Eden Park. Fifa have been pretty tight-lipped on what exactly we can expect before this opening game, but here is what we know so far.
The headline act will be a performance by Mallrat and BENEE of their official Women’s World Cup anthem: Do It Again.
Thoughts on the song?
Eden Park is most often home to rugby and tonight the New Zealand Māori All Blacks will perform a haka.
There will also be various pieces from the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and a poem about the power of football read by a group of children.
I’ll bring you everything from Eden Park as it happens.
It seems the Matildas have their preparation for their opener against Ireland sorted. I’m not sure there’s any better way to quiet the nerves than pat a puppy.
Let me set the scene a bit more.
This tournament will be the biggest Women’s World Cup ever. Ticket sales are on their way to 1.4m and have already surpassed the previous record. Fifa branding is dripping from inanimate objects in every host city.
The Guardian’s football writer Suzy Wrack has flown in from the UK to follow the progress of England’s Lionesses, and she’s also taken the pre-tournament temperature.
I think it’s fair to say football fever has taken hold.
Preamble
Jo Khan
Hello and welcome!
Are we ready for this? The Women’s World Cup is finally here. It’s been just over three years since Australia and New Zealand won the bid to host the 2023 tournament, and tonight both nations will be tested on and off the pitch.
My name is Jo Khan and I am very excited to be kicking off our live coverage today. If you had described this moment to young Jo when she laced up her first pair of football boots more than two decades ago she just wouldn’t have believed you. A record-breaking Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand? No way. But here we are!
Festivities are one thing, but the opening day took a sombre turn this morning with news of a fatal shooting in Auckland / Tāmaki Makaurau, where things will soon kick-off.
As my colleague Jeff Kassouf said, it’s a reminder that everything is relative. Millions of people around the world may be gearing up to celebrate women’s football today, but this morning three people died and six were injured not far from where that celebration will begin.
Today in Auckland is another reminder of everything being relative. We’re all here, all in on soccer, a sport we love. We travel the world to play it and discuss it. But lives were lost today, right there where most of us have been walking around.
— Jeff Kassouf (@JeffKassouf) July 19, 2023
New Zealand and Fifa officials confirmed the opening game will go ahead as planned, and players from the teams based around the area (the US, the Philippines, Italy, Norway and New Zealand) expressed sadness but assured fans they were OK.
And so, it begins. In two hours’ time the Football Ferns will play Norway at Eden Park.
Please get in touch and tell me how you are kicking off your World Cup spectating. Where are you tuning in from? What’s the vibe at the stadium, at the pub, in your living room? Send me an email or tweet @_jokhan.