Canada will play host to the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup from June 5 to July 5, 2015. This will be the seventh quadrennial tournament, the first for Canada, and the first to expand the format to 24 teams. As a warm up the host country also gets the rights to host the previous year’s FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup. Six Canadian cities, Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montreal, and Moncton will host matches during both tournaments. (Toronto removed itself from consideration due to conflicting Pan-American Games schedule).
The 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup was hosted in Germany and won by Japan in a tight match ended by penalty kicks. Earlier this month to mark the 2 year countdown to 2015 the schedule was released for the tournament, with Vancouver’s BC Place being selected the host of the marque final match. Edmonton plays host to the third place as well as a semi-final match along with Montreal hosting the other. With the qualification rounds still underway, the only known competitor in the finals is host, Canada, who will play in Group A. However, we can expect perennial favourites; USA, China, Brazil, Germany to join them in the round-robin. Canada will play their opening round matches in Edmonton, Montreal and Winnipeg.
When Canada hosted the inaugural FIFA U-19 Women’s World Championships the attendance was unprecedented and marked a turning point in Canadian Women’s soccer when Canada met the USA in the final match in Edmonton, which is still one of the most watched sporting events in Canada. So be sure to get tickets as soon as they go on sale and don’t miss one of the world’s premier sporting events on home soil!