2023 Women’s World Cup | Everything you need to know about the Orange Lionesses in New Zealand and Australia | Lionesses at World Cup

National coach Andries Jonker announced the final selection for the World Cup on June 30. Regular customers Stefanie van der Gragt, Dominique Janssen, Sherida Spitse, Daniëlle van de Donk, Jackie Groenen, Jill Roord, Lieke Martens and Lineth Beerensteyn are ‘normal’ in Australia and New Zealand. Top player Vivianne Miedema unfortunately has to miss the World Cup, she is struggling with a serious knee injury.

Some absentees include Kika van Es (PSV), Fenna Kalma (FC Twente), Romée Leuchter (Ajax) and Tiny Hoekstra (Ajax). With Kalma, Leuchter and Hoekstra, the three most scoring players of the past Eredivisie season are missing from the final selection of the Orange Lionesses. Kalma became the top scorer of the Eredivisie with 30 goals, Leuchter and Hoekstra scored 17 and 15 goals respectively on behalf of Ajax.

Attacker Shanice van de Sanden and goalkeeper Barbara Lorsheijd are not part of the final selection, but will travel to Australia and New Zealand. If players get injured, they are called up by national coach Jonker. Check out all the selections of the 32 World Cup participants here.

The Dutch football players had quite a bit of trouble qualifying for their third World Cup in a row. After the disappointing European Championship last summer in England, where the Dutch defending champion got stuck in the quarter finals, the KNVB decided to fire national coach Mark Parsons.

With his successor Jonker on the bench, the Orange won the last World Cup qualifier against Iceland 1-0 well into injury time. As a result, the Lionesses avoided the play-offs and qualified as group winners for the 2023 World Cup. They will soon meet defending champions United States, Vietnam and Portugal.

Jonker’s team plays all group matches in New Zealand. The Orange Lionesses play twice on the south island in Dunedin and once in Wellington, located on the north island.

In Dunedin, the Orange Lionesses will play their first game of the tournament on July 23. The opponent in the Forsyth Barr Stadium, which can accommodate more than 24,000 spectators, is Portugal. The last game in the group stage, on August 1 against Vietnam, will also be played here.

A total of nine matches will be played in the Wellington Sky Stadium, which can accommodate around 31,000 fans. The Dutch women will play at least one match in the capital of New Zealand: the top match against defending champion United States is scheduled for July 27.

The other host cities of the World Cup are Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide in Australia and Auckland and Hamilton in New Zealand.

If the Orange Lionesses become first in group E, the road to the final will run via Sydney, Wellington, Auckland and Sydney again. At second place in the group, the route is Melbourne, Auckland, Auckland and Sydney.

In New Zealand and Australia, the Netherlands will compete for the FIFA Women’s World Cup Trophy, a cup of half a meter high, made of gilded bronze, aluminum and granite, weighing almost five kilograms. Unlike the men (they receive a replica), the women are allowed to take the real cup home.

At the 2023 World Cup, the countries will play with the OCEAUNZ, the match ball that was spectacularly presented in Sydney. The ball is ‘a celebration of the cultures of both host countries’ and features subjects by Aboriginal artist Chern’ee Sutton and Mãori artist Fiona Collis.

The same time zone applies to all host cities in New Zealand and it is ten hours later than in the Netherlands. This means that the top game against the United States will be played on July 27 at 03:00 Dutch time. The other two group matches, against Portugal (July 23) and Vietnam (August 1), will be played at 9:30 AM and 9:00 AM Dutch time respectively.

In Australia, the time difference differs per playing city (in Perth, for example, it is six hours later and in Brisbane eight hours), but the fans of the Lionesses do not have to take this into account. If the Netherlands survives the group stage, the Orange will only play in Sydney or Melbourne, where it is eight hours later than with us in the Netherlands.

While the Dutch temperatures are breaking record after record this summer, it is a lot cooler for the Orange Lionesses in New Zealand and Australia. The tournament is played in the winter and especially in New Zealand this can lead to lower temperatures between 12 and 16 degrees. Winter weather is also possible.

If the Dutch women advance to the next round, they will play the eighth final in Australia (Sydney or Melbourne), where the temperature is between 16 and 25 degrees.

A total of three Dutch national coaches will be in action at the World Cup. In the Netherlands, of course, is the 60-year-old Andrew Jonker in the dugout, who took over last year from the fired Mark Parsons. The born Amsterdammer is the former trainer of Willem II, Wolfsburg and Telstar, among others, and was given the task by the KNVB to bring the ‘vibe’ of success coach Sarina Wiegman back into the team. The World Cup in Australia and New Zealand is his first major tournament as a trainer of the Orange Lionesses.

Sarah Wiegman (53) may no longer be ultimately responsible for the Dutch women (with whom she became European champion and reached the final of the World Cup), she has certainly not disappeared from women’s football. She has been working for the English Federation since 2021, and with success: with the ‘Lionesses’ she won the European title in 2021 by beating Germany in the final.

She also won the Finalissima (the match between the reigning champions of Europe and South America). In recognition of her work, the top coach has already been appointed a Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau in the Netherlands, and she can now call herself Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in Great Britain. This year she is going for the world title with the English women.

The third Dutch coach who is active at this World Cup is the 60-year-old Vera Peacock. She has been in charge of the Irish football players since 2019, who are participating in the World Cup for the first time in history. The former defender played 85 times for the Dutch women’s team and was national coach of the Leeuwinnen between 2004 and 2010.

In the following years she was in charge of the Russian and South African women. She also worked as a coach for the Houston Dash women in the American league, where she was accused of harassment. With Ireland, Pauw hopes to survive Group B, which includes Australia, Nigeria and Olympic champion Canada.

United States is the absolute ‘woman and master’ in World Cup history. The Americans have won no less than half of all world championships, including the last two editions in 2015 and 2019. Also this year the Stars and Stripes favorite for the final victory. The team of national coach Vlatko Andonovski is at the top of the FIFA ranking and is in good shape: the country has won 21 of the last 24 games.

Wiegman’s England and the Spanish women led by Jorge Vilda are, according to the bookies the biggest competitors of top favorite United States. Both countries have never won the World Cup. The English did take the bronze in 2015.

Germany won two world titles, but those prizes date back to 2003 and 2007. This year there may be a new title for the number 2 in the FIFA ranking, although the German women must first deal with Morocco in the group stage , South Korea and Colombia.

Norway (1995) and Japan (2011) can also call themselves world champions, but it seems unlikely that a new title will be added this year. Both countries are currently outside the top 10 of the FIFA ranking.

The bookmakers do not estimate the chances of the Orange Lionesses to be high. The losing finalist of 2019 is a dangerous outsider, but the international bookmakers expect that Jonker’s team will be stranded in the quarterfinals.

Click here for an overview of the selections of all participating countries.