On Saturday night, the FIFA Women’s World Cup draw will be made, giving the Football Ferns a good idea of who and where they will be playing when they host the competition the following year.
Carli Lloyd, a two-time champion from the US, will preside over the draw at Auckland’s Aotea Center. She was present today at a media conference in the City of Sails along with another “FIFA legend” Ian Wright to promote the event and next year’s competition.
As you approach this draw, this really sets the stage and begins the excitement, Lloyd said. “This is great, qualifying for the World Cup is the first step and then you’ve got some lag time in between.”
“It’s truly a period for preparation – all these teams and coaching staffs will look at the teams that they face in the group stage, thinking out ways to prepare and friendlies before the official matches, building up different situations.
It’s quite thrilling.
I’m a little disappointed I won’t be playing in it, but I’m excited to watch because it’s going to be the largest and best one yet.
Four pots will be used in the draw, each containing one team, to create eight groups of four teams.
POT 1: Australia (ranked No. 13 in the world), New Zealand (ranked No. 22), the United States, Sweden, Germany, England, France, and Spain (6).
POT 2: Canada (7), Netherlands (8), Brazil (9), Japan (11), Norway (12), Italy (14), China (15), South Korea (17).
POT 3: Vietnam (34), Costa Rica (37), Jamaica (37), Colombia (27), Switzerland (21), Ireland (24), Colombia (27), and Argentina (29). (43).
POT 4: The three play-off winners were Nigeria (45), the Philippines (53), South Africa (54), Morocco (76), and Zambia (81).
When it comes to the draw, though, teams from the same confederation [except for Europe] cannot be drawn against each other – meaning Australia cannot be drawn against Asian rivals such as Japan and so forth.
Wright, a 33-cap England forward and club legend for both Crystal Palace and Arsenal, said he was “petrified” to be a part of the spectacle tomorrow night.
You want to be sure that you aren’t the one messing it up since it is such a significant thing, he added.
So I’ve been practising properly unscrewing items so I can reinstall them, that’s all.
The teams will be assigned to slots in each group immediately after the draw, which will set the schedules and locations of their games.
Three places are yet to be filled in the 32-nation tournament, with New Zealand hosting a 10-team play-off in February to complete the line-up..
The format of Auckland’s draw spectacular for the FIFA Women’s World Cup
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