Women's World Cup Live Updates: Group Stage Underway

In their first (international) match with one another, France vs. Jamaica reached a draw on day four of the Women’s World Cup at Sydney Football Stadium. During the game, Jamaica’s Khadija Shaw, known as ‘Bunny,’ was removed from the game with a red card after she received two yellow cards against the opposing team. Still, Jamaica’s team earned their first point in the World Cup with this match.

Currently, France and Jamaica each have one game point — as do Netherlands and Portugal, who faced off on day four as well. Netherlands beat Portugal 1-0 in Portugal’s first Women’s World Cup appearance. In July of last year, Netherlands also beat Portugal 3-2 in UEFA Women's European Championship.

Also, Sweden, which ranks number 3, according to the FIFA website, beat South Africa, which ranks number 54, 2-1. According to Reuters, Amanda Ilestedt gave Sweden its winning point at the last minute. As it stands, Sweden and South Africa also each hold one game point.

Day five matches include Italy vs. Argentina, Germany vs. Morocco, and Brazil vs. Panama.

Two-time defending champions the United States kicked off the World Cup with a 3-0 win over tournament first-timers Vietnam.

Read the full match report from The Associated Press.

A number of players on the U.S. Women’s National Team are making their World Cup debut today. Here are a few to look out for:

• Trinity Rodman is a 21-year-old forward. She was the 2021 rookie of the year in the National Women's Soccer League, playing for the Washington Spirit. She just had a big moment earlier this month scoring two goals in Team USA’s match against Wales, making her the youngest player to score multiple times in a game since Mallory Swanson (née Pugh) did in 2019. She also happens to be the daughter of NBA Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman.
• Sophia Smith (pictured above on the left) is a 22-year-old forward. She was named MVP of the NWSL last year, and with 10 goals in 13 games this season, she currently has the league’s overall scoring lead. She was the No. 1 draft pick in 2020, landing on the Portland Thorns. If you’re looking for Smith on the field, you can spot her by her signature bubble braid.
• Naomi Girma (pictured above on the right) is 23-year-old defender. She was the No. 1 pick in last year’s NWSL draft and plays for the San Diego Wave FC. She’s expected to play a big role on defense while veteran defender Becky Sauerbrunn is out due to injury. Girma is the daughter of Ethiopian immigrants to the San Francisco Bay Area and got her start playing in a program her dad started.

The U.S. Women’s National Team will play its first game today. Here’s the full schedule of matches for the third day of Women’s World Cup:

• USA vs. Vietnam at New Zealand’s Eden Park at 1 p.m. local time, or 9 p.m. EDT.
• Zambia vs. Japan at New Zealand’s Waikato Stadium at 7 p.m. local time, or 3 a.m. EDT on Saturday.
• England vs. Haiti at Australia’s Brisbane Stadium at 7:30 local time, or 5:30 a.m. EDT on Saturday.
• Denmark vs. China at Australia’s Perth Rectangular Stadium at 8 p.m. local time, or 8 a.m. EDT on Saturday.

And here’s how things shook out on day 2 of the tournament:

• Switzerland beat the Philippines 2-0.
• Nigeria and Canada had a 0-0 draw.
• Spain beat Costa Rica 3-0.

Spain’s Women’s World Cup team blasted three goals past Costa Rica in just four minutes to seal a 3-0 win in Wellington, New Zealand, on Friday.

Costa Rica’s Valeria del Campo scored an own goal to give Spain a 1-0 lead.

Spain's Aitana Bonmati and then Esther Gonzalez added a second and third soon after.

Read the full match report here.

Goals from Ramona Bachmann and Seraina Piubel on Friday gave Switzerland a 2-0 win over the Philippines in the Group A opener at the Women’s World Cup.

Read the full match report from The Associated Press here.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff met with former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in Auckland, New Zealand, on Friday to talk about fighting online extremism and hate.

The world is seeing a “global epidemic of hate,” said Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, who is leading a delegation at the Women’s World Cup.

Read more from The Associated Press here.

If you’re new to soccer, here’s how the group round – the first set of matches in the Women’s World Cup – works.

The 32 teams competing are divided into eight groups of four teams. Each group has one team from the four ranked "pots." Pot 1 is made up of the host nation and teams ranked in the top seven, Pot 2 is the next eight teams, and so forth. The idea is to ensure each group has an equal competitive balance.

Beyond those parameters, the draw is random – mostly. There’s a general principle that each pot will also have a balance of teams from different geographic regions. The exception is Europe, which has more than a third of the teams.

For example, the U.S. Women’s National Team (Pot 1) is in a group with the Netherlands (Pot 2), Vietnam (Pot 3) and Portugal (Pot 4).

Every team is guaranteed to play three games in the first round – one against each team in their group. This stage will last through Aug. 3 for this tournament. The two that do the best in each group advance to the knockout stage, but determining the top two requires a bit of math.

A team gets three points for winning a game, one point for a draw and zero for a loss. In the event of a tie for a top-two spot, the winning team is chosen via one or more tiebreakers. A goal differential is used first, but if there is none, the team with the higher number of goals scored overall advances. If that figure is still the same, FIFA runs through several more factors to determine who advances, including a rarely used “fair play” criteria with points detracted for red and yellow cards obtained during games.

The first time FIFA used a fair play tiebreaker was at the 2018 men’s World Cup between Japan and Senegal, with Senegal being eliminated due to accruing two more yellow cards than Japan.

The knockout round with 16 teams kicks off on Aug. 5.

The second day of the Women’s World Cup features three games:

• Nigeria vs. Canada at Australia’s Melbourne Rectangular Stadium at 12:30 p.m. local time or 10:30 p.m. EDT.
• The Philippines vs. Switzerland at New Zealand’s Dunedin Stadium at 5 p.m. local time or 1 a.m. EDT on Friday.
• Spain vs. Costa Rica at New Zealand’s Wellington Regional Stadium at 7:30 p.m. local time or 3 a.m. EDT on Friday.

The wife of Grant Wahl, the sports journalist who died of an aortic aneurysm while covering the men’s World Cup last year, tweeted Thursday that her husband would have been at the Women’s World Cup right now were he still alive.

He was “planning to be in New Zealand right now,” Céline Gounder said Thursday. She also shared a link on how to watch the U.S. team’s first game against Vietnam.

Wahl, who was 48 at the time of his death, was a fixture in soccer coverage for years. He was a soccer analyst for CBS Sports and a longtime reporter for Sports Illustrated. He was also a vocal supporter of LGBTQ+ rights while covering last year's World Cup in Qatar, where same-sex relationships are illegal. Qatar authorities briefly detained him after he posted a photo outside the U.S. game against Wales in a rainbow flag T-shirt.

Australia’s star striker Sam Kerr will miss the co-host’s opening two games after a calf muscle injury during practice on Wednesday.

Kerr, who captains the Matildas, will miss the group matched against Ireland and Nigeria.

“Sam will be unavailable for the next two matches with the Matildas medical team to re-assess her following our second group stage match,” Australia's national team tweeted.