The 10th FIFA Women’s World Cup will begin in Brazil on July 24, 2027. The tournament will be the first World Cup to be hosted by the country, and there are already plenty of exciting matches to look forward to.
So far, 14 teams have already qualified: Brazil, the United States, Denmark, France, Spain, Germany, Colombia, Argentina, the People’s Republic of China, Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand and the Philippines. The rest of the tournament’s participants will be determined during games played October 7-13, 2026, and November 26-December 5, 2026.
While not everything is set in stone, there are some factors already emerging as forces that could shape next year’s tournament.
A former European powerhouse is struggling
Many fans expected the Netherlands to make a leap ahead of the World Cup, but so far, the team hasn’t quite found a way to meet that challenge.
A big part of the problem is money. In May, FC Utrecht, the sixth place team in the Eredivisie league, announced the team did not intend to extend the contracts of several players, including two-time national team member Marthe Munsterman.
Munsterman later said the decision was purely financial. “Unfortunately, due to a lack of support from the club and therefore a minimal budget, many of us were not given the opportunity to build further,” a translation of her May 21 post on Instagram reads in part.
But the issues run deeper than just one team. Another club, NCA Breda, announced similar cuts, and the Netherlands did not qualify outright for the World Cup and instead will play Hungary in October. Dutch former player Sarina Wiegman, who is currently the manager of England’s team, told attendees at the 2026 Eredivisie Awards that the impact could be long-lasting.
“Several clubs are having problems with budgets,” a translation of her words reads. “They start with a good budget, but after two or three years it shrinks again. And then you can’t really call it professional football anymore.”
Analyst Leonne Stentler, who was part of the 2013 national team, told Dutch public broadcaster NOS that the budget cuts “show yet again that women’s football depends on someone at the boardroom table who truly believes in it. Apparently, that is not the case.”
There’s also the Daniëlle van de Donk question: the midfielder, who also plays for the London City Lionesses, has not indicated if she’ll retire ahead of next year’s tournament after suffering a serious knee injury in 2025. “No, I wasn’t working on that at all. I was especially busy with myself, wanted to recover,” a translation of a June 2026 interview with Vrouwenvoetbalnieuws reads. “When I started training again, I let Arjan know. I had already said immediately after the European Championships that the coach could always call me. During my injury, we had a lot of contact. He looked me up here too, very nice.”
Unfortunately, as she was preparing for her national team comeback, she suffered a separate muscle injury.
In short: the Dutch always have a lot working for them, but this year, they have seemingly just as much working against them as they prepare for qualifiers.
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The biggest threats to the USWNT are Spain, Japan, England and Brazil
The USWNT might be one of the top teams in the world and reigning gold medal winners from the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, but that doesn’t mean the World Cup will be easy for them. In fact, the team will face many serious threats, most notably from Spain, Japan, England and Brazil.
The United States has not won the World Cup since 2019, and next year’s tournament won’t inherently be any easier for them. Head coach Emma Hayes has done a masterful job of folding young talent in with veteran leadership, especially during a time period that’s seeing rapid growth throughout women’s soccer. That growth has led to more parity, which means everyone is good — and plenty of other teams are great.
The Spanish are the reigning World Cup champions, and therefore presumably the biggest threat to the USWNT’s goals. The current crop of Spanish national team members had a relatively easy time of it in the 2025 Euros and made it to the semifinals before encountering any real problems. They did, however, ultimately lose in the finals to England in a penalty shootout.
The English are actually back-to-back Euros champions, which means they’re just as intimidating as the rest of the list. Wiegman elevated the team to true contender status in a matter of years, and now they’ll have the opportunity to test that on the world stage. Lauren James and Alessia Russo are a dynamic pair up front, and Wiegman has an impressive track record when it comes to making it to tournament finals (she’s led teams to five of the last six).
The US has a long-standing lead over the Japanese, and the two countries have squared off nines times in either the World Cup or the Olympic Games. But the Japanese are ranked fifth in the world, and they won the last official outing between the two countries in 2025. The USWNT won two of the teams’ three friendlies earlier this year.
And, of course, the Brazilian National Team will be ready to meet the USWNT after two friendlies this month that concluded dramatically. As the tournament’s hosts, Brazil will be firing on all cylinders to take home the title.
England and Spain are also hoping to take one another out
The English and Spanish will absolutely want to defeat the Americans, but they’ll also really want to make sure they knock one another out of title contention, too.
The English suffered an excruciating 4-0 loss to Spain this month in Mallorca, a result that was the absolute opposite of what they hoped to achieve. “Of course, it’s not a great scoreline. It’s hard, it’s disappointing, and I think there was a difference — a big difference — between ourselves and Spain,” Wiegman told The BBC of the end result. “We review this, recover, stick together, play a good game and then move forward.”
Midfielder Keira Walsh put things more bluntly. “Spain played incredibly well but I think there are a lot of things we could have done better. It felt like they had bodies everywhere,” she told the BBC. “It was very difficult to get out of our own box. I don’t have solutions right now. Obviously we’ll look back but right now the emotions are very high.”
Many of the Spanish players were also part of the team that won the Women’s Champions League in Barcelona.
China has something to prove to the world
While there are a few teams everyone will be paying attention to, the People’s Republic of China’s National Team will also be looking to remind the world that they are contenders. The country was a dominant force in the 1990s, when their national team won the silver medal at the Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, and several AFC Women’s Asian Cup titles.
But they haven’t snagged any of the latter since 2006. They experienced a boost in 2022 when they bested Vietnam and then Japan in the Asian Cup, only to be nearly thwarted by the Republic of Korea. The Chinese team ultimately prevailed and will be heading into next year’s tournament with a new roster of young players who have a lot they want to show the world.
The USWNT will want to rise above 2023
Though they have a promising team this year, the USWNT still has plenty to prove themselves. Their 2023 World Cup performance isn’t exactly one that went the way the Americans wanted: the team didn’t finish in the top three after they were knocked out by Sweden. Their round of 16 exit was the earliest in the program’s history.
A lot of factors contributed to the team’s loss. As many noted at the time, the USWNT was in a transitional era in 2023. Superstars like Megan Rapinoe were announcing plans to retire as newcomers, such as Alyssa Thompson and Trinity Rodman, were beginning to place their own roots in the program.
Of course, much was redeemed the following summer in Paris. And now, the USWNT continues to look ahead.
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