The Matildas and the Football Ferns are about to co-host the 2023 Woman's World Cup in their respective countries, Australia and New Zealand. If the New Zealanders are minions when it comes to women's football the Matildas had been one of the international powerhouses and yet so far they have constantly unperformed on the biggest stage. Is the Matildas' world ranking telling of their chances during their home World Cup? What is the Matildas' world ranking at the start of the tournament?
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The rise of the Matildas: How high they can go?
From 2019 onward the Matildas are one of the most popular sports teams in Australia. In 2019 the Matildas were labelled the most beloved national sporting team. During the postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympics the matches of the Matildas broke 3 consecutive times the TV viewing records of any women's sport in team history. Their semifinal defeat vs Sweden was viewed by 2.32 million.
With so much love and attention focused on them, how will the Matildas do in their first-ever home World Cup?
What is the Matildas world ranking at the start of their home World Cup?
The Matildas scraped into the top 10 of the FIFA World rankings right before the start of the 2023 Women's World Cup. The Australian ladies have had a few rough years. They dropped out of the world's top 10 in 2022 after a shameful quarterfinal exit from the Women's Asian Cup against South Korea.
Since, that defeat the Matildas world ranking has been 11th or 12th. However, after a series of high-profile wins in friendlies on the build-up to the 2023 Women's World Cup the Matildas reentered the world's top 10 teams with their 10th position in the current FIFA ranking.
#FIFAWWC co-hosts 🇦🇺 Australia climb into the top 10 of the #FIFARanking! 💪
🇺🇸 USA, 🇩🇪 Germany and 🇸🇪 Sweden hold the podium spots.
— FIFA Women's World Cup (@FIFAWWC) March 24, 2023
In any case, the Matildas have been one of the more consistent women's teams out there and they have never been lower than 16th in the world ranking, with this place taken by them way back in 2006.
Still, the Matildas world ranking shows that they are not considered as serious title contenders. Could that be deceiving though? What has been the Matildas
What has been the Matildas best-ever world ranking and when?
The Matildas reached their highest world ranking back in December 2017 when they climbed up to 4th after becoming the first-ever champions of the Tournament of Nations with wins over the USA, Japan and Brazil.
A series of successful tournaments after that kept the Matildas 4th in the world ranking for 2 full years before a 2-year decline in form and ranking followed.
What has been the Matildas' best World Cup result?
The Matildas are seen as constant under-performers at World Cups and despite being favoured to win big a few times over the years they have actually never been past the quarterfinal stage.
In their first 3 World Cup appearances (1995, 1999 and 2003) the Matildas failed to make it out of the group stage. However, they followed that with 3 consecutive runs to the quarterfinals in 2007, 2011 and 2015. The last World Cup in 2019 in France saw the Matildas eliminated in the round of 16. So can they finally break their duck and go deep at a World Cup tournament?
