New Zealand rolls in before Australia is sold out

Opening
The Women’s World Cup kicks off Thursday in Oceania with New Zealand-Norway and then Australia-Ireland, and it’s an action-packed day for the hosts in Auckland and Sydney with two registrations expected, despite concerns about filling up the archipelago’s stadiums.

The month of competition has kicked off at Eden Park, the legendary temple of rugby and the All Blacks, but it may not be full: 37,000 spectators are expected to fit into 43,000 places in FIFA’s make-up.
New Zealand, far from being the land of soccer, will host all group matches of the United States, two-time world champions. But only 320,000 tickets were sold in the country out of a total of 1.375 million tickets sold, less than a quarter.
This Thursday in front of their fans, Football Ferns can go down in history: they have never won a match in the final stage of a World Cup and, therefore, have not made it through the first round. But we hope to change that from the match against Norway, champions in 1995.

Their best result was in 2012 at the London Olympics, when they reached the quarter-finals.
“I hope this time we achieve our goal of winning a World Cup match and do it at home, making it the best match of my career,” said captain Ali Riley. In the face of Norway, the great favorite and led by the first Ballon d’Or in history, Ada Hegerberg, 28, and Barcelona midfielder Caroline Graham Hansen, Czech players Jitka Klimkova will have to adjust the statistics. Later in the day, 29-year-old Australian Matildas, famous captain Sam Kerr, will meet Ireland’s Arsenal striker Katie McCabe.

The goal: to launch the pageant as much as possible, which could be historic for yellow and green, worn by an entire country. Holy Confederation will be measured on Thursday, but it really started on Friday against France (1-0) during the last preparatory match.
If the Australians, who have had the backing of athletics legend Cathy Freeman, want to go far in the World Cup, they will necessarily have to rely on Kerr, the Chelsea striker and star player in Australia. In past World Cups, where Australia were knocked out in the round of 16 on penalties, Australia scored five times. His stats are equally impressive this season with the Blues, 29 goals in 38 games.

After several defeats last year, Australia have enjoyed a seven-match winning streak since October, including victories over Denmark, Sweden and Spain. Despite the loss in April to Scotland, which marred the schedule, Matilda then beat England, European champions.
Their best World Cup result dates back to 2015 with a quarter-final, as it did in 2011 and 2007.