The U.S. women’s national team remains the favorite to win the 2023 Women’s World Cup, and the field looks as wide open as ever after a wild international window.

While the USWNT looked shaky in its two wins against Ireland, several of its competitors did not fair any better.

England fell 2-0 to World Cup co-host Australia, snapping its 30-match unbeaten streak, while Germany lost to Brazil for the first time since the 2008 Olympics. Sweden tied with long shot Norway, and France bested Olympic gold medal-winner Canada.

After the break, the USWNT leads all odds at +275 to win its third straight World Cup, according to DraftKings Sportsbook.

England follows with +350 odds. That represents a slight change from January, when both England and the USWNT were tied with odds of +300 to win the World Cup trophy. At that time, Spain stood in third with +600 odds, while France and Germany tied for fourth at +700.

Spain and Germany now are tied for third at +650, while France is fourth at +750.

Sweden’s odds have slipped to +1400, while Australia remains at +1400 and is now tied for fifth. The Netherlands (+1600), Canada (+2500) and Brazil (+2500) also remain the same.

The international window represented the last chance to see national teams in action before World Cup rosters are finalized. The USWNT next takes the pitch at 4 p.m. ET Sunday, July 9, in San Jose, California, for a World Cup send-off match against Wales.

The United Kingdom government will put £600 million toward equal athletic opportunities for girls as a result of a push from the England women’s national team.

“We want every young girl in the nation to be able to play football at school,” the Lionesses wrote an open letter to government leaders last August after winning England’s first Euros title.

Just 67% of schools offer equal access to soccer in their physical education curriculum, according to the country’s Football Association. And just 46% of schools offer girls the same extracurricular activities as boys.

With the new standards set by the government, schools will be required to offer at least two hours of physical education per week as well as equal access to sporting activities — including soccer.

“The success of the summer has inspired so many young girls to pursue their passion for football,” England captain Leah Williamson said. “We see it as our responsibility to open the doors for them to do so and this announcement makes that possible. This is the legacy that we want to live much longer than us as a team.”

FA chief executive Mark Bullingham said that England’s Euros win “can now live on with a legacy,” adding that the government’s plans have “the ability to change the future of women’s football.”

The £600 million funding package will support the improvements to the physical education curriculum and extracurricular activities in primary schools.

“Last year the Lionesses’ victory changed the game,” U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said. “Young girls know when they take to the pitch that football is for them and, thanks to the Lionesses, they too could be a part of the next generation to bring it home for their country. We want schools to build on this legacy.”

Spain’s Alexia Putellas won the Best FIFA Women’s Player award for the second straight year, beating out fellow finalists Beth Mead of England and Alex Morgan of the United States.

Putellas tore her ACL last summer ahead of the Euros but led FC Barcelona to their third-straight Primera División title before her injury. She becomes the first repeat winner of the award since its introduction in 2016.

The 29-year-old midfielder also won the Ballon d’Or for the second consecutive year last October, and she became the first player to win back-to-back UEFA Women’s Player of the Year awards last August.

Morgan was the lone U.S. women’s national team player to make the 14-player shortlist for award. She was also the lone USWNT or NWSL player to make the FIFA Women’s World 11.

The 33-year-old striker won the NWSL Golden Boot in 2022, scoring 15 goals in the regular season for the San Diego Wave.

While Mead, like Morgan, lost out to Putellas, the Lionesses had a strong showing at the ceremony. The 27-year-old forward finished behind Putellas after she helped push England to its first Euros title. She also stars for Arsenal in the Women’s Super League.

England goalkeeper Mary Earps, who also plays for the WSL’s Manchester United, won Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper. And England manager Sarina Wiegman won Best FIFA Women’s Coach after leading the Lionesses to the Euros title

“It’s incredible to be here right now & celebrate women’s football,” Wiegman said in her acceptance speech. “The dangers, we have to take care of too. Yes, we want to develop, but we need to do the right things. We’re competing on the pitch, but off it we have to work as a team to grow it more.”

Nominees for the awards were selected by a panel of former players, including retired USWNT star Carli Lloyd. Nominees were evaluated for their play from August 2021 through July 2022.

The winners for each award were selected through a wider vote, which included four groups: national team coaches; national team captains; soccer journalists; and fans. Each group received equal weight (25%) in the process.

The United States women’s national team enters 2023 as co-favorites to win the World Cup, according to DraftKings.

Along with England, the USWNT’s odds are +300 to take home the World Cup trophy, which would be their third straight tile after they won the 2015 and 2019 tournaments. Spain comes in at third with +600 odds, while France and Germany are tied for fourth at +400.

The USWNT held onto their No. 1 FIFA ranking at the end of 2022, but they experienced some turbulence throughout the year. The last few months included the team’s first three-game losing streak since 1993, with losses to England, Spain and Germany — three of the world’s best teams. Despite that, the U.S. enters 2023 poised to return some of its best players from injury.

Catarina Macario, who ruptured her ACL during the UEFA Women’s Champions League final last summer, is expected to return at some point in February. Christen Press, who also tore her ACL at the beginning of the NWSL season, could return around the same time.

Other stars like Sam Mewis and Tobin Heath are also recovering from injuries, though their timelines remain unclear. Defender Crystal Dunn will likely see more playing time in 2023 after giving birth to her first child in 2022.

A number of young players have stepped up in their absence, giving the USWNT more depth options for the World Cup roster. Most notably, Sophia Smith and Mallory Pugh have established themselves on the frontline, and Naomi Girma was a force at center-back in her first year with the team.

While much has been made of the USWNT’s injury status, they appear poised to have reinforcements ready in time for the World Cup, just as other national teams are weathering the absences of star players.

Previous odds could also lend further insight into the USWNT’s chances in 2023. According to Fox Sports, the USWNT entered the 2019 tournament as co-favorites to win the title (+350), and in 2015, their odds were +300, the best of any team.

“No country has won three straight World Cups on the men’s or women’s side,” soccer analyst David Mosse told Fox Sports last July. “But if Catarina Macario comes back strong and youngsters like Sophia Smith continue to develop, the U.S. is more than capable of accomplishing that feat.”

Notably, Canada has +2500 odds to win the World Cup, putting the reigning Olympic gold medalists behind eight other teams. Spain’s chances could also improve if Alexia Putellas returns from her ACL injury sooner than expected.

Sarina Wiegman is confident in her team’s abilities heading into 2023.

England, the reigning Euros champions, have found a new level in 2022 with Wiegman at the helm. But for the Lionesses boss, winning the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand is paramount.

“You can’t beat that – you can only get equal on that,” Wiegman told The Guardian when asked about the team’s year. “We actually don’t talk about these results all the time. We want to win every game, but we talk about how we can improve the next game.

“Of course, we want to break all the records, but breaking a record doesn’t say what you have to do. We always bring it back: How do we stick together as a team? I truly believe that’s where it starts.”

The upcoming World Cup could bring about a sense of déjà vu for the coach. Wiegman lost to the United States in the 2019 final as head coach of the Netherlands.

“I’m not about revenge; I’m not really vengeful,” she said. “I don’t really think that way. At that time, they were the better team, although I thought after halftime we could have won that game until the penalty.”

Even while she tries to keep perspective, winning is always on Wiegman’s mind.

“Don’t always think of the result,” she said. “We’re not going to a World Cup just to play, we’re going there to win.”

Arsenal striker Beth Mead ruptured her ACL in a Women’s Super League match against Manchester United on Saturday, the team announced Tuesday.

The 27-year-old, who helped lead the England women’s national team to the Euros title in July, will spend “an extended period on the sidelines” as a result of the injury, per Arsenal’s statement, with the timeline for recovery to come after she sees a surgeon.

An ACL injury typically requires six to nine months of recovery time.

For example, U.S. women’s national team star Catarina Macario tore her ACL while playing for French club Lyon in June. The 23-year-old is expected to return to the USWNT in February, eight months after her injury, coach Vlatko Andonovski said ahead of the team’s November friendlies.

The 2023 World Cup kicks off July 20 in Australia and New Zealand, almost exactly eight months after Mead’s injury.

Mead excelled for the Lionesses at the Euros, which were held in England in July. She won both the Golden Boot and the Player of the Tournament awards.

She also finished as runner-up for the 2022 Ballon d’Or. Spain’s Alexia Putellas won the prestigious award for the second year in a row — though Putellas is recovering from her own ACL tear in the lead-up to the Euros.

A week before Mead’s injury, she made her 50th career appearance for England in a 4-0 win against Japan. She has scored 29 career goals with the Lionesses.

Mead led Arsenal with four assists and also had scored three goals this season before the injury. The Gunners are in second place in the WSL standings after Saturday’s 3-2 loss to Manchester United, trailing only Chelsea.

At the 2022 men’s World Cup, armbands have become a signifier of the greater issues that plague the sport of soccer.

This year’s World Cup kicked off Sunday in Qatar, which has been accused of human rights violations as well as the persecution of LGBTQ+ people. The host nation has been accused of bribing FIFA to win the privilege of hosting the event.

Several national teams’ captains had planned to wear rainbow armbands throughout the competition in a show of support for the LGBTQ+ community. Seven captains had confirmed their plans to wear the armbands, including England’s Harry Kane.

And then FIFA stepped in.

The international governing body for soccer threatened players with yellow cards if they wore the armbands, so the players backed down from the gesture. But that didn’t stop former England women’s national team star and current pundit Alex Scott from wearing the armband on the sideline as she joined the BBC broadcast.

Wales women’s national team star and OL Reign midfielder Jess Fishlock took to Twitter to call out FIFA and to implore the captains to wear the armbands.

“It was never a huge message, but it was a message,” she wrote. “As the weeks have gone on, FIFA are getting defensive, hostile & have realized the noise surrounding this WC is not going anywhere.”

She continued to lambast FIFA in a later tweet.

“More I think about this armband situation, I am disgusted by FIFA,” she wrote. “Imagine threatening players: ‘Stand up for others and I’ll book you.’”

In another powerful response, Bernd Neuendorf, the president of the German FA, accused FIFA of an “unprecedented demonstration of power.”

He also said that the timing of the reprimand seemed “deliberate,” as the European nations had informed FIFA of their plans “months ago” without hearing back but the threat of yellow cards came just before matches started Monday.

“FIFA have prevented a statement for human rights and diversity. These are values that they pledge to uphold in their own statues,” he said. “That’s more than frustrating, and unprecedented. In our view, this is a show of power from FIFA.

“They told us we were facing sporting sanctions (for wearing the armband), a few hours before Harry Kane and [Dutch captain] Virgil Van Dijk were to step on the pitch. We didn’t want this conflict being fought on the backs of the players and expose players to this risk. They can take our arm band but we will continue to express the values we stand for.”

When BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year Beth Mead sat down for a conversation with The Guardian to promote her new book, “Lioness: My Journey to Glory,” she touched on her mother’s battle with cancer as well as personal struggles that led to her on-field success.

But when asked about the England women’s national football team’s lack of diversity, Mead, a forward for Arsenal and the Lionesses, dismissed concerns of racism in elite women’s football, calling the makeup of the team’s roster “coincidental.”

Just three Black players featured on England’s Euros-winning squad: Jess Carter, Demi Stokes and Nikita Parris.

“I think it’s completely coincidental,” Mead said. “We put out our best 11 and you don’t think of anyone’s race or anything like that. I think that’s more an outsider’s perspective.”

Mead did mention that more should be done to make sure football is accessible to everyone at a grassroots level, but she didn’t see racism as a concern at the elite level of the women’s game, The Guardian reported.

Amid the Lionesses’ historic run in July, former England international Anita Asante criticized England’s player pipeline for creating exclusivity that bars many girls of color from playing at the highest levels.

“Like England, France have reached the quarter-finals of Euro 2022, but unlike the Lionesses their 23-woman squad contains 15 black or brown players,” she wrote.

Asante went on to note that the scouting process in England doesn’t have enough resources or “the imagination required to look in the right places.” She also spotlighted how coaches of color are rarely promoted or seen, and how a lack of resources to travel for training or games can be prohibitive to underserved populations.

“Visibility – or the lack of it – remains the biggest problem,” Assante concluded.

Current England captain Leah Williamson also has addressed the team’s lack of diversity head-on, telling BBC Sport in October: “Within the squad, this is an important issue and we’re all aware of it. There’s nothing that we can do right now to change it.”

Lotte Wubben-Moy, a teammate of Mead and Williamson on Arsenal and England, also discussed the issue with BBC Sport.

“I’m from London, I see a lot of deprivation,” Wubben-Moy said. “I see a lot of young children who don’t have opportunities. And while I feel like I have responsibility to talk about it, I think everyone does.”

Less than 10% of the 300 players in the Women’s Super League are players of color, The Athletic reported in July, much lower than the estimated 33% in the men’s Premier League.

“The visibility, the accessibility, all of those things from the bottom need to be better so that we don’t lose the diversity of the game,” Williamson said.

The Lionesses also have faced allegations of racism within their program in the past. In 2017, Angel City FC director of recruitment Eni Aluko, who played for England at the time, accused then-manager Mark Sampson of making racist comments. Incidents included making a joke about Ebola towards Nigerian-born Aluko and asking forward Drew Spence how many times she had been arrested.

The English FA eventually formally apologized to Aluko for her experiences. Sampson’s tenure ended before Mead’s first call-up to the England first team.

In contrast with her comments on diversity, Mead has spoken out about other social issues, most recently in relation to the men’s World Cup that will be held in Qatar in November.

Last week, Mead — who is openly in a relationship with Arsenal teammate Vivianne Miedema — told BBC Radio 4 that Qatar’s laws banning homosexuality were “the complete opposite to what I believe and respect,” and that she would not be backing or promoting the event.

“Although I’m cheering for the boys who are going to play football there, from the minute it was announced I thought it wasn’t the best idea,” she said. “We’re in the 21st century and you fall in love with who you fall in love with. It doesn’t matter who they are.”

Coming into this European swing, the U.S. women’s national team hadn’t lost consecutive games since March 2017. This week, while handling the emotional weight of the Sally Yates report that outlined systemic abuse and sexual assault in the NWSL, the back-to-back World Cup champions watched that streak come to an end with a 2-1 loss to England on Friday and a 2-0 defeat to Spain on Tuesday.

Multiple defensive errors led to four goals conceded during the two-game trip. Even though many of the USWNT’s issues involved the midfield, head coach Vlatko Andonovski made changes only to defense in the starting lineup for the second game against Spain.

In goal, Casey Murphy came in for Alyssa Naeher. On the backline, Becky Sauerbrunn replaced Naomi Girma at center back, Hailie Mace took over at fullback for Sofia Huerta and Carson Pickett started on the left side for Emily Fox, who was ruled out of the Spain friendly after taking a knock to the head against England. Veteran defender Kelley O’Hara was absent for both games.

Girma’s absence from the starting XI against Spain was the biggest surprise coming off of her impressive performance against England. In that game, the NWSL rookie played solid defense, distributed the ball well to the attack and singlehandedly shut down a breakaway.

The back-to-back losses were a wake-up call for the USWNT, giving Andonovski some work to do in the nine months leading up to the FIFA World Cup. Here is a closer look at the defensive errors that contributed to the USWNT’s difficulties in Europe.

Defending runs down the flank and crosses in front of goal

In a recurring play that resulted in a goal for both England and Spain, the opposing player ran down the left channel and sent a cross in behind the center backs, where another opponent was waiting to score. Considering it resulted in a goal twice, this is a key weakness for the USWNT and something Andonovski needs to act on, whether it requires marking more tightly in front of goal or reading balls better from out wide.

2-0 Spain

Spain set up a give-and-go in the midfield that sent Oihane Hernández flying down the sideline past U.S. fullback Crystal Dunn. As Sauerbrunn filled the space between Dunn and the goal, Cook was left to cover Esther González, who stood at the penalty spot between the two U.S. center backs. A couple of steps too far from González, Cook couldn’t shut down González’s one-time volley past Murphy.

1-0 England

U.S. midfielder Lindsey Horan lost sight of her player and couldn’t read the pass from England’s Lucy Bronze, who started the play. Beth Mead got behind Emily Fox and took a run down the sideline before sending the ball across the box. Cook got a foot on it but not enough to slow down the play, and England’s Lauren Hemp slotted it away. Cook was positioned well on the ball side of Hemp, but due to an unlucky slip, she lost control of the interception.

Knowing roles in zonal coverage

Zonal coverage is the modern-day preference to player marking, as long as players know which zone is theirs and are constantly communicating between one another. At various times in their half of the pitch, the USWNT didn’t look confident in whose job it was to step up to challenge for the ball. That was especially true in the midfield, where they might have benefitted from shifting their 4-3-3 formation to a 4-5-1 for more support.

The lack of pressure led to multiple shots against that, fortunately for the U.S., went wide. They paid the price when they conceded their first goal against Spain.

1-0 Spain

Spain opened the scoring Tuesday off a corner kick. The USWNT had organized in a zonal marking system, with five players in a line at the top of the six-yard box, another on the side of the six, one inside in front of the goal, and two on the cluster of five Spanish players who started in the middle of the 18 and ran toward goal. 

After the ball pinged off five red shirts, Laia Codina buried it from the top of the six. Carson Pickett slipped before reaching what probably would have been her zone, and there appeared to be confusion among the U.S. players over who should step up to cover that area. In the end, none of them challenged the ball.

Conclusion

With the World Cup looming, there’s no need to panic yet. The USWNT was missing veterans like O’Hara, Mallory Pugh and Alex Morgan, and Andonovski rotated in players who hadn’t gotten many minutes previously with this group. Chemistry takes time.

There’s another international window in November, when the U.S. will have a chance to smooth out their errors against World No. 2 Germany, the 2022 Euro Cup finalists. If the USWNT loses those games, too, we’ll likely be having a different conversation in a month.

Jessa Braun is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering the NWSL and USWNT. Follow her on Twitter @jessabraun.

It’s been two and a half months since Chloe Kelly’s sports bra goal celebration caught the attention of Brandi Chastain, who became an icon after scoring the game-winning penalty kick for the U.S. women’s national team in the 1999 World Cup title and taking off her sports bra in celebration. Kelly scored the game-winner in the 2022 Euro final this summer at Wembley Stadium in London to help the Lionesses claim their first major tournament trophy.

After England’ 2-1 win over the USWNT at Wembley on Friday, Chastain met the English forward to reflect on Kelly’s big moment and what it meant for the next generation of women’s soccer players.

“I think that’s what every young girl wanted to be, is seen on the football pitch and to have a space out there that they belong,” Chastain told her. “The fact that it was on such a big stage and the significance of that victory obviously has changed the world of football here in England just like in the U.S. 20 something years ago.”

Chastain said there were a lot of young girls in the stands for Friday’s game, which had a crowd of 76,893 fans, and that Kelly’s goal in the Euro final in July helped propel the game forward. Kelly had scored 20 minutes into stoppage time to secure the 2-1 win over Germany.

“They will forever remember the moment,” Chastain said. “And they will want to have an opportunity to replicate it in 20 years. That’s fantastic to me.”