The United States women's national team learned their path to ending a 16-year Women's World Cup draught on Saturday, when the draw for the 2015 edition of the world's biggest women's sports event was held in Canada on Saturday.
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The 2015 Women's World Cup kicks off on June 6 and runs through the July 5 final. All of the games will be aired live on the FOX Sports family of networks.
The Americans were drawn into Group D, a brutal lot, which will pit the world's long-time number one team against Australia, Sweden and Nigeria. They play Australia first in Winnipeg on June 8; followed by Sweden, also in Winnipeg on June 12; and Nigeria in Vancouver on June 16, respectively.
The USA's batch of opponents was immediately labeled the "group of death" and rightly so. Australia are a rising power in women's soccer and expect to improve on their quarterfinals berth in the last two World Cups. Sweden, the hugely seasoned European powerhouse, are managed by former USA coach Pia Sundhage, who led the Americans to the last two Olympic gold medals and the 2011 Women's World Cup final, which was lost to Japan on penalties. She knows this team as well as anyone. Nigeria, meanwhile, are easily the best team in Africa, having won nine African Championships and reaching all seven World Cups.
To advance to the Round of 16, teams will have to place as one of the top two teams in their group after a round robin of group play. Failing that, the four best third-place teams will move on as well. Once they are in the knockout stage, it is a single-elimination tournament.
As usual, the Americans are considered among the favorites to win the World Cup, along with usual suspects Germany and defending champions Japan. The hosts Canada and France, Sweden and Brazil are considered outsiders. The USA sports more depth in every line than any other country and have a wealth of experience within the team. Playing so close to home, anything but a record third World Cup title will be considered a major disappointment. But then that was also true at the last three editions of this tournament, none of which they won.
The other groups for the seventh edition of the Women's World Cup, expanded from 16 to 24 countries for the first time, are as follows:
Group A: Canada, New Zealand, China and the Netherlands
Group B: Germany, Ivory Coast, Thailand and Norway
Group C: Japan, Cameroon, Ecuador and Switzerland
Group D: United States, Nigeria, Australia and Sweden.
Group E: Brazil, Costa Rica, South Korea and Spain.
Group F: France, Mexico, Colombia and England.
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