The team's best placed to stop the USA winning the 2023 Women’s World Cup

The 2023 Women’s World Cup is fast approaching, and with the USA looking to win the competition for a third time, we’re looking ahead to the competition and naming the nations who might prevent Vlatko Andonovski’s team from lifting the trophy for the third successive time.

For those unfamiliar with women’s soccer, the US women’s national team has won the 2015 and 2019 World Cups. They go into the 2023 World Cup heavily fancied to win again, but they may not have things all their own way when the competition kicks off in Auckland later this year.

Which team are the favorites to win?

A good guideline when looking at who might win any competition comes from bookmakers odds. The bookmakers are rarely far off the mark, and in this year’s Women’s World Cup odds they are making the USA their betting favorites at +275. Following on from the USA is England at odds of +333, with Spain next at +600. When betting on football it’s always wise to do your homework first. And for those who have done their homework, they will know that Spain is a team with a lot of question marks hanging over them.

Who is worth avoiding?

Yes, let’s start with Jorge Vilda’s Spain. They may well be a team who are third favorites to win, and they have recently beaten the USA national team, but they are currently in the middle of a huge conflict.

In September 2022, 15 players sent emails to the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) stating that they wanted an improvement in conditions and that they didn’t want to be called up to represent their country until these demands had been met. This has led to a huge dispute, with a lot of the players out of the squad being from Barcelona, and their colleagues at Real Madrid failing to support them.

Either Spain has a very strong pool of players to pick from, or they probably shouldn’t be third favorites to win.

Can England finally win a women’s World Cup?

Sarina Wiegman’s England side are the second favorites and have to be regarded as serious contenders. The Lionesses won the 2022 Women’s Championship and are now ranked four in the world.

🚨 Sarina Wiegman has won #TheBest FIFA Women's Coach 2022! pic.twitter.com/s8mexAM3xq

— FIFA Women's World Cup (@FIFAWWC) February 27, 2023

In 2015, England finished 3rd, and in 2019, they finished in 4th place. Four years ago, the US women knocked England out at the semi-final stage. The match finished 2-1 to the US, but in reality, the competition winners were way better than the English.

This time around, the Lionesses have a stronger squad, but they have been hit by a string of high profile injuries in their build-up.

What about the Germans?

Despite the loss, USWNT coach Vlatko Andonovski was happy with his team's effort against Germany. pic.twitter.com/IvhYjJ5p4n

— Just Women’s Sports (@justwsports) November 11, 2022

The German women are the second most successful team in women’s World Cup history. They won this competition in 2003 and 2007. But the best they’ve managed since their last trophy win, was a 4th place finish in 2015, when they lost 1-0 to England after extra-time in the Bronze medal match.

The Germans are No.2 in the world and cannot be underestimated. But the truth probably is that the US women would prefer to play a potential final against Martina Voss-Tecklenburg’s team, than Sarina Wiegman’s England side.