There has been a lot of build up and excitement over the past few weeks, and it is great to say that the Women's World Cup begins tomorrow! To kick off the tournament, Canada – the host country – are going head to head against China PR.
With Canada being the host team, they appear to be one of the favorites to win. However, lest we forget that the last time the Canadians took part in a Women's World Cup tournament, they came exactly last and only scored one goal in three games.
That being said, the team have been lucky to have John Herdman sign on as their coach after 2011 and he seems to have turned the team around and enabled them a win in the 2012 Olympics. This success for the team seems to only have made them hungry for more, and they are not set to leave without a fight. We recently listed team captain Christine Sinclair as a player to look out for this year.
The Women's World Cup in 1999 was the last time that China PR were an extremely strong force to reckon with. Their tragic and disappointing loss to the US lost the women's team sponsorships and public interest.
Despite this, though, the Chinese are trying their hardest to make a comeback in this years tournament with the help of their 12th coach since 2000 - Hao Wei. He took control after the team failed to qualify for the 2011 World Cup, and is hoping for the team to capture a bit of the magic that they once had. A player to look out for in the China PR team is Ma Jun, the 26 year old Midfielder who, on paper, is the strongest player with a total of 50 caps and 15 goals.
With both of the teams' recent history, it's difficult to say who will be the winner, especially as both seem to be aiming towards a comeback in this Women's World Cup. Therefore our prediction for this match is 1-1.
What is your prediciton for the match? Let us know on our twitter page or use our dedicated hashtag #wwc15df.
The match kicks off on Saturday 6th June at 16:00 local time, and you can download our full charts of the tournament in our Resource Centre.
