The group stage of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup is in full swing, which means it’s time for FOX Sports soccer analyst Alexi Lalas to share his first batch of power rankings for the tournament.
Three powerful favorites that made impressive debuts fill the top three spots, but none are two-time defending champions United States, which slipped to No. 4 despite a solid 3-0 win over Vietnam early in their campaign.
“This is just a snapshot,” Lalas said. “This isn’t like these are the best teams in the world forever, the way we are now. Just because you score goals doesn’t mean you’re automatically on top, even though we have some teams that have scored a lot of goals.”
With that said, here are Lalas’s 10 best teams in the World Cup so far, along with each team’s starting result.
1. Spain: Defeated Costa Rica, 3-0
2. Germany: defeated Morocco, 6-0
3. Brazil: Defeated Panama, 4-0
4. USA: defeated Vietnam, 3-0
Spain and Germany lead Alexi Lalas’ World Power Ranking
5. Japan: defeated Zambia, 5-0
6. England: defeated Haiti, 1-0
7. Australia: defeated Ireland, 1-0
8. Sweden: defeated South Africa, 2-1
9. Netherlands: defeated Portugal, 1-0
Did the Netherlands prove that they are a serious threat to the USWNT?
10 Haiti: Lost to England, 1-0
The group stage continues on Monday (10 pm ET on FS1 and the FOX Sports App) with Colombia taking on South Korea to kick off a full week of group stage games.
[Related: FOX Sports Insider Martin Rogers‘ Women’s World Cup power rankings]
FIFA Women’s World Cup
USA
Spain
Get more from the FIFA Women’s World Cup Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more
