The Canada Women’s National Team finally gets its 2023 FIFA World Cup campaign underway on July 21, facing off against Nigeria in a rather congested Group B.
Luckily, Canada’s bringing a stacked squad of stars should all go well behind the scenes, with Christine Sinclair, Ashley Lawrence, Kailen Sheridan, Desiree Scott, and Kadeisha Buchanan all set to make the trip to Down Under.
Despite ranking seventh in the world, however, Canada clocks in at +3300 in the soccer betting to win the World Cup this summer, suggesting a tough potential route through the group stage. The USWNT stands as the favourite at +225.
So, let’s have a look at how the CanWNT shapes up less than a month away from the tournament and see if we can predict the results to come.
Unsure Footing for Canada as the World Cup Approaches
Like France and Spain, Canada’s women’s national team has been locking horns with its governing body over the last several months, and most recently, Canada Soccer has revealed that it’s in a crippling financial situation.
Right now, there’s an argument that the company that has a media and sponsorship agreement with the governing body, Canadian Soccer Business, has been holding back the national teams. CSB, naturally, refutes these claims.
That information, as well as Jason deVos’ (interim general secretary of Canada Soccer) declaration of potentially considering filing for bankruptcy, comes after months of the team attempting to get the same backing for their World Cup campaign as the men’s team received for Qatar 2022.
National sporting legend and team captain Christine Sinclair has said that a deal needs to be in place before the World Cup that’ll see them through to the end of the year.
She’s optimistic, but Canada Soccer has stated that their most recent offer is their “best and final” one.
If everything’s ironed out with a couple of weeks in hand before the team needs to head over to Australia, Canada looks to boast one of the stronger squads at the World Cup, but if it persists, they could struggle.
That momentum was forged in the fire of the Tokyo Olympics, which saw Canada take gold in the summer of 2021. Later last year, they defeated Australia twice, followed by wins against Argentina, Morocco, and Brazil.
The 2022 campaign ended with a 2-1 loss to Brazil to reverse the scoreline from a few days prior, and then came an understandably mixed 2023. Canada lost to the US, defeated Brazil again, but lost to Japan and then France.
The Climb Begins 💪🧗
— CAN Soccer’s WNT (@CANWNT) June 8, 2023
Your @CANWNT Preparation Camp Roster for @FIFAWWC!@CANWNT x @CIBC pic.twitter.com/Yrj0kE6O1U
Calling the Scores for Canada at the 2023 World Cup
Canada enters Group B as the highest-ranked team at seventh, but hosts Australia (ranked tenth) are well ahead at +1200 to win the tournament, particularly because they boast one of the best players in the world: Sam Kerr.
Even so, Canada looks the stronger team – just as they were in September 2022 – and should be able to get the better of Nigeria and Ireland, or at least do enough to top the group.
Nigeria 0-3 Canada
Canada 2-1 Ireland
Canada 2-2 Australia
With it seeming likely that Australia and Canada will be on two wins by the time of that final group game (July 31), it looks primed for a heated battle and good odds in the live betting online.
Winning Group B would pit Canada against the runners-up of Group D, which is far preferred to needing to face the winners of Group D – the fixture if Canada comes second.
Assuming the former, Canada should meet Denmark in the Round of 16, narrowly missing recent Euro winners England, who the hosts would be served up to in the knockout stage.
Canada (AET) 1-0 Denmark
Denmark’s defence is the anchor of all of their success, and even in defeat to strong sides like France of late, it’s only been by a single goal.
So, it would seem to be a close, low-scoring battle, but the higher quality of Canada would shine through eventually. Next for Canada would be the victor of the game between the Group F winner and Group H runner-up.
This could be France or Brazil against, most likely, the Korea Republic. With Marta seemingly at her last World Cup, there’ll be extra pep in the decent Canarinhas side, and France will be without some key players.
Perhaps Brazil can squeeze atop the favoured French to win Group F, putting them on a collision course with Canada. As the FIFA Rankings reflect, with the two a mere point apart, this would be a very close game.
Canada 1-2 Brazil
If Brazil have enough momentum to top Group F following a superb, continent-conquering qualification campaign, they would likely have just enough to defeat Canada. If this meet were with France, the same outcome would be predicted.
One minute of Marta. Enjoy! 😍🇧🇷@MartaVieiras10 | @SelecaoFeminina | #FIFAWWC
— FIFA Women's World Cup (@FIFAWWC) June 27, 2023
Say Canada made it through this test, in the Quarter Finals, it’d most likely be a match against one of the two 2022 Euros finalists: England or Germany.
This would be a far more daunting task than facing the French or Brazilians, but even so, reaching the Quarter Finals in Australia and New Zealand would be a decent showing from Canada this year.
*Credit for all images in this article belongs to AP Photo*
