This major global extravaganza happens every four years, usually sandwiched between the men's World Cup and the summer Olympics.
This year the soccer tournament takes place all over Canada. The host cities are Vancouver. Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montreal, and Moncton.
24 nations from around the world have qualified teams into this tournament.
The favorites to bring home the victory are the United States, Germany and Japan.
The strong and talented US squad that was the runner up in 2011, and is currently ranked 2nd in the world, features Hope Solo in goal, a strong defense, and Megan Rapinoe leading the midfield. They also have Abby Wambach, who at 35, is still one of the best in the world when it comes to headers and scoring the ball. She'll be helped out up front by Alex Morgan and Sydney Leroux who are both capable of scoring goals when they need too.
4th ranked Japan comes in fresh off a victory in the last world cup in 2011 over the US on penalty kicks. They return most of the same players that know how to win this tournament since they just did it including their captain midfielder Homare Sawa.
Number 1 ranked Germany comes in to this tournament thinking they have a shot despite their best player Nadine Kessler (reigning winner of best girl player in the world award) not being able to play in the World Cup because of a leg injury. They still have a solid goalkeeper named Nadine Angerer and other good players that helped elevate them to the number one ranking in the world. They could pose a huge threat to the US.
Some other teams who will be favored to go far are France, Canada, and Brazil.
Brazil is led by Marta, one of the top women soccer players in the world who won the best woman's soccer player in the world award 5 years in a row.
Canada, the host nation, features Christine Sinclair who's capable of scoring in a hurry and will carry her host nation on her back. In their group, they will face a stiff challenge from the country that has the most people and where Mandarin and Cantonese are spoken.
France: They're one of the most improved teams and they're ranked 3rd in the world. They are predicted to advance pretty far.
Most of the other teams have good shots of pulling off some upsets, but a few are going to be over matched, like a 16 seed in the NCAA tournament.
I am sure that this will be an exciting tournament and I predict that the US will win over France.
While the soccer will be entertaining a far bigger concern is the state of FIFA,
First off, they're violating title 9 by having the woman play on all turf fields while the men played on all grass fields. Some of the best woman soccer players in the world tried to get them to switch, but they couldn't sway FIFA.
This is bad, but it gets worse.
FIFA officials were arrested on corruption/ bribery charges as the Swiss Police will begin to look into the 2018 and 2022 world cup winning bids for Russia in 2018 and then Qatar four years after that.
The police will look into if those respective countries bribed FIFA officials to vote for them.
I hope that they change the location for 2022 because Qatar is not fit at all to host a World Cup-too hot, not a tourist attraction, and not enough people. Plus, I hadn't even heard about the country till it won.
Just recently, 79 year old Sepp Blatter got elected to a 5th term as FIFA president and he vowed to try to fix what had been broken.
His 5th term didn't last too long as he got worried about what will happen next after the corruption problem, and resigned.
Now FIFA needs a new president, and I hope that they choose the right one that will bring FIFA back to its glory days. I think it will probably be either Prince Ali Bin Hussain of Jordan or Michael Platini of France.
I hope that all that's happening with FIFA doesn't overshadow the Woman's World Cup too much because I want an exciting and entertaining tournament.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/soccer/2015/06/05/womens-world-cup-predictions-usa-canada/28514899/
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/may/27/several-top-fifa-officials-arrested
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