Women’s World Cup Preview: Group H

Group H of the Women’s World Cup features four sides who all look to make amends for losing their continental finals last summer with Germany, Colombia, Morocco and South Korea all bidding to go that one step further this summer.

The final group of the Women’s World Cup gets Underway next Monday with one of the pre tournament favourites Germany hosting Morocco, with Colombia facing South Korea the following day. 

Germany are heavily tipped to top this group but the battle for second will definitely be one to watch with the other three sides looking to progress to the knockout stages. 

Germany

The European representative in Group H Germany are the 2nd ranked side on the Fifa World Rankings and Runners up from last year’s Euros, losing out to tournament hosts England in Wembley.

The two time World Cup Winners come into this tournament with high expectations from those at home, having run riot in their European Qualification group winning nine of the ten games and a goal difference of +42. 

The DFB Frauen are heavily favoured to finish top of this group. With a squad consisting of 20 players from the Frauen Bundesliga, most of which playing for Wolfsburg, Bayern Munich or Eintracht Frankfurt, it is not hard to understand why they are considered one of the contenders to win the World Cup.

Forward Alexandra Popp captains the side, having scored 62 times in 128 games, the most country appearances in the World Cup squad. Popp is also one of six Wolfsburg players to have started the Uefa Women’s Champions League Final in June, losing 3-2 to Barcelona in Eindhoven. 

Followers of Ireland captain Katie McCabe’s European campaign with Arsenal this season will be familiar with these names as Wolfsburg beat the Gunners in extra time in the final four to advance to the final. German captain Popp netted in the deciding semi-final as well as the final.

Colombia

The South American representative in Group H is Colombia. A team we know that are not afraid of a challenge, as we’ve seen in the headlines leading up to the group, the side ranked 25th in the world will be quietly confident of a good tournament run this summer. 

Colombia have a contender for nickname of the tournament, carrying the title “Las Chicas Superpoderosas” which translates to the Powerpuff Girls, qualified for the tournament through a successful Copa America Femenina last summer. 

Losing 1-0 in the Final to Brazil will provide all the motivation and experience needed to give the World Cup a real shot. The Colombians topped their Group Stage winning all four fixtures before beating hosts Argentina in the Semi-Final which guaranteed them a spot in the Aus/NZ finals this summer. 

The side has played eight times since that defeat only losing twice, both to European opposition in the form of Italy, along with shipping five to a well drilled French side in April.

As previously mentioned, they made headlines through a friendly fixture pre tournament as their fixture with Ireland was abandoned after 20 minutes, due to the game becoming “overly physical” according to the statement released by the FAI. 

There might be a real sense of unknown coming into this fixture for the South American side however, having never faced any of their three opponents in Group H previously. 

Striker Catalina Usme is the star of this team. The sides all time leading scorer has been featuring for her national team since 2006 and brings a whole host of experience including Copa America, Olympic and World Cup appearances. 

Of the rest of the squad, the majority of them play their club football in South America with many at home and in Brazil, however six of the group have made the move to Europe, all featuring for Spanish teams.

Morocco

Next in Group H, we turn to the African representative Morocco, who like Colombia, also suffered continental heartbreak in the final last summer. The AFCON runners up will be making their World Cup debut.

Morocco, nicknamed the Lionesses of Atlas also achieved World Cup Qualification through their successful campaign on home soil last summer in the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations. 

Going three from three in the group stages left them a QF tie against Botswana who they went into as favourites knowing victory would secure their spot at the World Cup, which Morocco won 2-1. 

A tense Semi-Final against Ireland’s WC opponents Nigeria ended in victory on penalties for the Moroccans setting up a dream opportunity to play the final at home against South Africa. Unfortunately for the hosts it did not go their way losing 2-1.

The African side face a tough test to qualify for the knockout stages of the World Cup though, and will be hoping Ghizlane Chebbak can replicate her successful AFCON campaign last summer with a couple of goals in this tournament. 

Their warm up campaign was very shaky, coming into the tournament winless in five, all against tough European opposition, with their last victory coming in February against Bosnia and Herzegovina. In fact, including the AFCON final, this side have only won two of their last twelve fixtures.

Those of Irish interest might remember the Moroccan side from last November when the Girls in Green beat Morocco 4-0 in a friendly in Spain. 

The majority of their 23 woman squad play their football in either Europe or Africa, with Moroccan club AS FAR having seven representatives.

A name of note to some might be Rosella Ayane who plays for Tottenham Hotspur in the WSL. Ayane featured for Spurs 12 times in the league last year and almost has a goal every two games for the national side with 9 in 21 appearances. 

South Korea

Finally we take a look at the Asian representative in the Group, South Korea. Following the pattern with the rest of their group, their qualification journey came through success on the continent with victory in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup Quarter Finals booked their spot in the World Cup. 

Now the standout point from an Irish perspective when learning about their team comes from their manager for the tournament, none other than Colin Bell, who of course Vera Pauw succeeded when she took over the Irish team in 2019. 

Bell departed Ireland to become Huddersfield assistant coach, which he only remained in for a matter of months before leaving for Korea. Bell earned his opportunity to coach this side at the World Cup due to his success in the Women’s Asian Cup where like both Colombia and Morocco, his side would lose in the final.

South Korea finished runners up in their group stage, losing out on goal difference to Japan, and as a result were handed a tricky Quarter Final tie against Australia, but upset the Matildas with a 1-0 win thanks to an 87th minute Ji So-Yun winner to qualify for both the last four of the tournament and the World Cup.

So-Yun would score in the Semi Final victory over Philippines also as the Korean side progressed to the final, and despite So-Yun netting her third in successive knockout rounds, they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory with opponents China coming from 2-0 down at the break to win 3-2 including a 93rd minute winner to provide Mumbai heartbreak in their first Asian Cup Final.

The majority of the Korean squad play their football at home, with eight of the squad playing for Incheon Hyundai SRA. They do also have four squad members playing in Europe, with two in the Women’s Super League in the UK. Lee Geum-Min moved to Brighton from Manchester City and has picked up 44 WSL appearances, whilst fellow midfield partner Cho So-Hyun will face her clubmate Ayane in their tie against Morocco, as So-Hyun also plays her club football with Spurs. Cho So-Hyun has featured 145 times for her country, tied for the most with Asian Cup star So-Yun, with the latter leading the all time scoring chart for the Tigers of Asia.