Looking for the best facts about the women’s world cup? From the trophy history to past legends, check out these women’s world cup facts now!
The Women’s World Cup is back in 2023! The United States are the defending champions and they’ll be looking to become the first team to win the Women’s World Cup three times in a row. The question is, can they do it?
Teams that’ll be looking to stop the US dominance will be hosts Australia and New Zealand, Olympic champions Canada, UEFA champions England, and other powerhouse nations like Germany and Sweden. It really is all set up to be the best world cup yet!
With these fun facts about the Women’s World Cup we’ll discover some incredible team records, take a deep dive into the history of the tournament, and highlight some of the most impressive players to emerge in the women’s game.
From a five-minute hat trick, to an incredible penalty shootout upset, to the team that didn’t concede a goal for 671 minutes, we’ve got some Women’s World Cup facts that will astound you!
With the expansion to 32 teams for the 2023 World Cup more countries than ever will get a shot at football glory and we’re pumped to see who will rise to the occasion!
Keep on reading to catch up with the most important records and facts before the kickoff of the 2023 Women’s World Cup!
Contents:
21 Fun Facts About The Women’s World Cup
1. When is the FIFA Women’s World Cup?
The 9th edition of the Women’s World Cup is scheduled to take place in Australia and New Zealand from July 20th, 2023, to August 20th, 2023.
The Australian host cities will be Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide. In New Zealand, there will be games in Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin and Hamilton. This is the first time the world cup will be played in Australia and New Zealand.
2. The largest attendance goes to Canada
The 2015 Women’s World Cup held in Canada had the largest overall attendance. Throughout the group, knockout and play-off stages, 1,353,506 people packed the stands.
The quarterfinal that saw England beat Canada was held at Vancouver’s BC Place and had a sold out crowd of 54,000!
3. Brazil dominance?
If you read our Fun Facts About The World Cup, you’d know the most successful male World Cup team is Brazil. So what about the Brazilian women?
Surprisingly, the Brazilian women’s team has never won the World Cup. Their best finish was runner-up in 2007.
4. Who won the last women’s world cup?
So if Brazil isn’t winning the tournament, who is? Well, in the eight world cups so far there have been four nations who have lifted the trophy.
By far the most successful team is the US winning on four different occasions (1991, 1999, 2015, 2019). Germany has won twice (2003, 2007), Japan once (2011) and Norway once (1995). Who do you think will win it this year?
5. Down to the wire
There have been two nail-biting Women’s World Cup finals that came down to the dreaded penalty kicks to decide the champion.
In 1999, the US team outlasted China by scoring all 5 penalties. It didn’t go quite as well for the US in 2011, when Japan shocked everyone with a 3-1 penalties win.
6. Ready for expansion
For the first time in 2023, the Women’s World Cup will have a full field of 32 teams. This will allow countries like Ireland, the Philippines and Zambia, to make their debuts at the tournament.
In contrast, the first Women’s World Cup in 1991 had only 12 teams, and the 2019 tournament had 24.
7. The magnificent 7
Here’s one of the coolest fun facts about the Women’s World Cup that we discovered. There are seven teams that have played in every Women’s World Cup. Can you name them?
Okay, time’s up! The countries are the USA, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Brazil, Japan, and Nigeria. How many could you name?
8. The host curse?
Hosting a Women’s World Cup is an exciting event for a country, bringing in tourist dollars and national pride. But what about the results?
The only team to win as a host country was the US in 1999. What do you think, will Australia or New Zealand capture the trophy this year and break the curse?
9. What are the odds?
This was one of the strangest Women’s World Cup facts that we uncovered. Almost mathematically impossible, there has never been a two-time runner-up in Women’s World Cup history.
Eight Women’s World Cups and eight different runners-up (Norway, Germany, China, Sweden, Brazil, US, Japan, Netherlands). This totally boggles our mind!
10. Defending the title
Germany (2003, 2007) and the US (2015, 2019) are the only two teams in history to have successfully defended the Women’s World Cup.
There’s a chance history can be made in the 2023 Women’s World Cup as the US looks to become the first team to three-peat.
11. Women’s World Cup records
It’s time for some Women’s World Cup records! In the win column it probably comes as no surprise that the US leads the way with 40 wins in their eight Women’s World Cup appearances.
The auspicious record for the most losses goes to Nigeria with 19.
12. What about the goals?
Let’s stick with the US and Nigeria for just one more fact. This time we’re talking about goals.
The US has scored the most overall goals in the tournament with an astonishing 138. Nigeria, on the other hand, has conceded the most goals with 63 (14 of them to the US).
13. Football’s ironwoman
Brazilian midfielder Formiga is one of the most impressive footballers ever. She is the only player (man or woman) to play in seven World Cups and seven Olympic Games.
Formiga, which means ant in Portuguese, was given that nickname due to her unselfish playing style that was cooperative like in an ant colony.
14. Gold for Canada?
Here’s an interesting question: Does Olympic success lead to Women’s World Cup success?
Canada, the 2020 Olympic gold medalists, have never performed well at the Women’s World Cup. Finishing 4th in 2003 was their best result. Do you think Canada has what it takes to convert their Olympic success into a World Cup win?
15. German defenders
The German women’s national football team are world-renowned for their incredible defensive skills. In fact, they hold some very impressive defensive records.
Between 2003 and 2011, the German team played 671 minutes without conceding a goal. During the 2007 Women’s World Cup they shutout every team they played on the way to the championship!
16. US veterans
Two legendary players from the US team hold the record for the most medals won at the Women’s World Cup with five.
The two players are Christie Rampone and Kristine Lilly. Lilly also holds the records for most matches (30) and most minutes played (2,537). Very impressive!
17. Youth vs experience
The youngest player to ever take the pitch in a Women’s World Cup game was Ifeanyi Chiejine for Nigeria in 1999 at just 16 years old.
The oldest player to play is someone we heard about earlier in these Women’s World Cup facts, Formiga! She took the field in 2019 at 41 years old.
18. Sharpshooters
The record for most goals scored in the Women’s World Cup goes to the Brazilian legend, Marta. Between 2003 and 2019, Marta scored an incredible 17 times!
The most goals scored in a single tournament goes to Michelle Akers, who found the back of the net 10 times during the 1991 Women’s World Cup.
19. Swiss scoring machine
Switzerland’s Fabienne Humm must have eaten her Wheaties on June 12th, 2015. Humm managed to score three goals in a span of five minutes, recording the fastest hat-trick ever in Women’s World Cup history.
Switzerland went on to demolish Ecuador 10-1 in the group stage match.
20. Norwegian legend
Out of all the goalkeepers in the women’s game, Bente Nordby of Norway may be the most impressive.
Nordby started in goal at the Women’s World Cup a record 22 times from 1995 to 2007. In 1995, she led Norway to their only World Cup win allowing only one goal in six matches.
21. Record-breaking numbers
The 2015 Women’s World Cup final between the US and Japan was the most watched football match in American history with nearly 23 million viewers!
The 1999 Women’s World Cup final between the US and China still holds the record for largest in-person attendance with 90,185 fans selling out the Rose Bowl to see the US win on penalties.
Who wants more fun facts?
If you’re looking for some recommendations, these are a few of our favorite fact books to buy. We use these when planning fun trivia nights with family and friends!
We really hope you enjoyed all our facts about the women’s world cup! Did you learn something new?
If there’s any we missed, you can let us know in the comments below and we’ll add them to this article!
