No more small teams? Women's World Cup minnows closing the gap

AUCKLAND: With the opening round of group games completed, fears that a first 32-team Women's World Cup would see a flurry of embarrassing mismatches appear largely misplaced.

Admittedly, Morocco experienced a painful introduction to the tournament on Monday (July 24) as their debut ended in a 6-0 hammering in Melbourne at the hands of Germany, one of the favourites.

Zambia too suffered a heavy 5-0 loss to former winners Japan, but there has been nothing on the scale of the United States' 13-0 annihilation of Thailand with which they began their triumphant campaign in 2019.

England, another of the favourites, struggled to break down a Haiti side ranked 53rd in the world and making their World Cup debut.

The European champions only secured a 1-0 win thanks to Georgia Stanway's penalty.

The United States were expected to rattle in the goals against 32nd-ranked Vietnam but settled for a 3-0 victory in Auckland, although they missed a penalty and the shot count was 26-0.

Similarly, Spain beat Costa Rica 3-0 but it could easily have been more: They had 46 shots to one for their opponents.

"Going into this World Cup the game has just grown and a lot of federations have grown as well, so I think it is great to see so many countries coming in and making a great impression on the world stage," said United States defender Naomi Girma.

FIFA has overseen a rapid expansion of the Women's World Cup, from 16 teams in 2011 to 24 in the last two editions, and now 32 for the first time this year.

Eight teams are appearing in the finals for the first time, and that exposure to this stage will stand them in good stead for the future, even if there could be some more heavy defeats along the way.

"It's part of growing the game. They'll improve from