The Orange Lionesses will meet defending champions the United States in the group stage of the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand next year. National coach Anders Juncker’s team was at Tier 2 in the draw and ranked in Group E with the four-time world champion, meaning that the Dutch footballers play all of their team matches in New Zealand.
Holland vs USA means repeating the 2019 World Cup final. Then the ‘Leeuwinnen’ team lost 2-0 to American football players. The two teams also met in the quarter-finals of the Olympic Games last year. The Netherlands, led by national coach Sarina Wijmann, lost to first place in the world standings in Yokohama on penalties.
From Pot 3, Vietnam first came into the World Cup finals as a contender. It is not yet known which country from Pot 4 will complete the group. The winner of Thailand over Cameroon will face Portugal just before the World Cup. The winner can join the Netherlands, the United States and Vietnam.
The World Cup kicks off in Auckland on July 20, and the final will take place in Sydney on August 20. Group A, C, E and G matches will take place in the cities of New Zealand, Auckland, Dunedin, Wellington and Hamilton. In Australia, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide host B, D, F and H group matches. Thus the Netherlands plays all group matches in New Zealand.
Dutch footballers had a huge problem qualifying for the World Cup for the third time in a row. After last summer’s disappointing European Championship in England, where Orange faltered in the quarter-finals as the defending champions, the KNVB decided to sack national coach Mark Parsons. With his successor Juncker on the bench, the orange won their last World Cup qualifier against Iceland 1-0 in injury time. As a result, the “Lionesses” avoided the play-offs and qualified as group winners for the 2023 World Cup.
Juncker was present in Auckland for the draw. The national coach attends several seminars there on all the organizational aspects of the World Cup. In the coming days, Juncker will be looking for suitable training facilities and hotels with the team manager. Next month, participating countries must register their options. Juncker will return to the Netherlands at the end of next week.
Pauw against host nation Australia, Wiegman meets Denmark
Vera Pauw will play Irish footballers on the opening day of next year’s World Cup. Ireland, who qualified for the final round for the first time under the Dutch national coach, will play Australia on July 20 in Sydney. This country, along with New Zealand, will host the ninth Women’s World Cup. New Zealand plays the opening match of the World Cup against Norway in Auckland. These countries are ranked in Group A and Ireland finished in Group B with Australia and will compete directly with this country on the first day of the World Cup. Nigeria and Canada are the other rivals of Team Pau.
Sarina Wegmann was placed in Group D with European champions England. The English Women’s World Cup opened on July 22 in Brisbane, Australia against a country that qualified for the World Cup via intercontinental qualifiers and then played against Denmark and China.
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