Who has qualified?
Most of the favorites and the usual suspects easily advanced through the original qualifying round, creating an entry list that included football names fans should recognize and a few that might surprise:
Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Haiti, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Philippines, Portugal , South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United States, Vietnam, Zambia.
Who were the last teams to enter?
There will be 32 teams at this year’s Women’s World Cup, up from 24 at the last tournament in France in 2019, 16 at the previous ones and 12 at the inaugural event in 1991. But the field was finalized only after a tournament of playoffs in February in New Zealand, where 10 teams reached the playoffs to decide the last three places.
Those places went to:
Portugal, who beat Cameroon, 2-1, with a stoppage-time penalty kick to earn their first trip to the Women’s World Cup. His prize from her? Portugal landed in a group with the United States, the Netherlands and Vietnam.
