Women’s World Cup Roundup: Colombia and the Philippines get massive wins; Norway and Switzerland fail to score on Day 6

We are almost a full week into the 2023 Women’s World Cup. Now, all 32 nations have played their first match; Colombia vs South Korea was the final game of matchday one. On top of that, Group A has now played their second match as well. The tournament is entering the nitty-gritty phase of the group stage. Who will advance, and who will go home? We’re starting to see that picture take shape. Let’s look back at day six.

Women’s World Cup Roundup Day Six

Colombia put two first-half goals past South Korea in win

Colombia and South Korea was the final game in the first matchday of this Women’s World Cup. In this Group H clash, both of these nations saw that Germany won their match 6-0 over Morocco to take the top spot in the group. This presented the chance to also get three points, and put themselves in a position to advance from the group with the favorites. As the game started, it was clear that neither team was going to sit back to get acclimated to the tournament.

South Korea and Colombia both came out of the gate playing at a frantic pace. The game was open and went back and forth for the first half an hour. Each side created decent chances to score, but it would be Colombia that would convert first. In the 29th minute, a nice Colombia buildup was halted in the box as a shot hit the arm of a South Korean defender. The referee pointed to the spot and Colombia took full advantage of the chance. Catalina Usme stepped up to the spot and sent the goalkeeper the wrong way with a cheeky outside-of-the-foot finish to give Colombia the lead.

The opening goal pushed Colombia to keep their intensity up and beat down South Korea a bit. Nine minutes after getting their first the Colombians worked their way to get a second. Teenage sensation, Linda Caicedo won the ball off of a South Korean goal kick, took on two defenders cut inside to set up a shot, and hit the ball toward keeper Young-Geul Yoon. She could not handle the shot as it hit her hands and still went in the net. It was 2-0 Colombia going into halftime!

South Korea was beaten in the first half, and could not break down Colombia in the second half. In the end, all three points went to Colombia on the final first match of this tournament.

Group H Standings

Germany – 3 pts | +6 GD
Colombia – 3 pts | +2 GD
South Korea – 0 pts | -2 GD
Morocco – 0 pts | -6 GD

Philippines shock co-host New Zeland 1-0

As the games now shift to second matches, Co-host New Zealand took on World Cup debutants the Philippines. The two sides could not have had different opening matches. The Philippines fell to Switzerland in their first game 2-0, while New Zealand found a late winner in their first match against Norway. With these two nations starting their tournament in completely different ways, it set up this game to be vital for both.

If New Zealand could win this second match, they’d be sitting on six points and make their chances of making the knockout rounds rise exponentially; consequently, this would mean that the Philippines would likely be out of making the knockouts if they lost this match as they’d have no points after two games. This set the stage for a match that was very competitive with two teams looking to execute their game plans to perfection.

In the game itself, New Zealand dominated possession while the Philippines looked to stay compact and pick and choose their moments to attack. This paid off for the Philippines as they had a dangerous free kick in the 24th minute. Sara Eggvik sent in a beautiful freekick and Sarina Bolden finished it off to stun New Zealand 1-0. The co-hosts kept pushing and had thought to have equalized in the 66th minute from a Jacqueline Hand header, but in the buildup, Hannah Wilkinson was offside as VAR found. The match went on and New Zealand kept looking for a goal, but they never found one.

The Philippines scored their first-ever World Cup goal and won their first-ever World Cup match. Now both they and New Zealand sit on three points heading into the final match of Group A play. Who will make the knockout rounds, or could both make it out of this even Group A?

Group A Standings

Switzerland – 3 pts | +2 GD
New Zealand – 3 pts | 0 GD
Philippines – 3 pts | -1 GD
Norway – 0 pts | -1 GD

Switzerland and Norway play to a goalless draw

The final match of day six saw two European sides with differing first matches meet. Norway came into the tournament as the favorites to win Group A, but their opening-day loss to New Zealand threw a wrench into their plans. Switzerland started off in flying form beating the Philippines 2-0. Now both of these teams met knowing that points were crucial to their goals of advancing in this World Cup.

Norway needed to get on the board and hoped that their star Ada Hegerberg would be the one to help them do just that. However, she was a late scratch from the gameday roster. She was slated to start but pulled up in warmups with an apparent injury. Switzerland now had an advantage with what would be the game’s best player sidelined, could they make the most of it?

The answer to that question is no, Switzerland could not find a goal in this game. They put up eight shots, but only one was on target. None of their shots and attacking movement created a big chance to score. Norway on the other hand, might feel hard done to only come away with a point. They created 15 shots, five of which were on goal. One of those chances was considered a big chance that was not converted.

In the 75th minute, Norway were on the front foot. Tuva Hansen was able to get through Switzerland’s defensive shape, passing three defenders and firing a shot. Gaëlle Thalmann was able to get down to make the save for Switzerland and popped back up quickly to deal with a rebound chance as well. The double save preserved a point for Switzerland to give them the slight lead in Group A play; Norway sits at the bottom of the group with just a point at this World Cup.