2023 Women’s World Cup, Semifinals Day 2: Match thread and discussion

Yesterday, Spain punched their ticket to the 2023 Women’s World Cup Final. Today, Australia and England will fight to do the same as the second semifinal takes place at Stadium Australia in Sydney.

Australia is as deep as it has ever been at a Women’s World Cup, arriving at this semifinal off an epic win on penalties against France. The co-hosts have gotten this far largely without relying on captain Sam Kerr, however this feels like a match where you can expect her to play a larger role and even start. Australia is looking to become the first hosts since the United States in 1999 to get to the Women’s World Cup Final, and to do that they will need their most complete match yet. They will do it before a capacity Stadium Australia crowd and with the entire country stopping to watch. It’s a lot of pressure for the Matildas, but they’ve responded to that pressure at every turn throughout this tournament.

Standing in their way is England, who beat Colombia in a wild quarterfinal by a 2-1 score. They’ve had to grind out some victories in the knockout stage against some tough opponents, and they’ll need to play much sharper if they want to beat the co-hosts in their home building. The defense will need to be there and the offense will look to be more creative in getting the ball to their playmakers. They will have to once again do it without Lauren James, who will serve the final match of her red card suspension. England will have to try and take the partisan crowd out of it and play their game well if they hope to join Spain and make it an all-European final.

The winner of this match moves on to play for a title. The loser joins Sweden in Brisbane on Saturday for the 3rd place match. Get ready, because this one will be a great one!

How to watch

Australia vs. England

Location: Stadium Australia, Sydney

Kick-off time: 6:00am Eastern, 3:00am Pacific

Available TV: Fox (English), Telemundo (Spanish), Universo (Spanish)

Available streaming: Fox Sports (App/Website), Peacock (App/Website), Telemundo (App/Website), FuboTV (Free Trial)

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