Spain’s goalkeeper Cata Coll carries teammate Mariona Caldentey as they celebrate beating Sweden 2-1 in the semifinals of the Women’s World Cup on Tuesday in Auckland, New Zealand. Andrew Cornaga/Associated Press
MADRID — Not long after Spain secured its spot in the Women’s World Cup final on Tuesday, Coach Jorge Vilda gathered with his players and staff in a huddle near midfield and sent them a brief message.
“We’ve put an entire country on its feet, now we want all of us to be on the streets celebrating together after winning this final,” he said before leading everyone into a loud celebration.
Spaniards were also celebrating back home as the national team made it to a Women’s World Cup final for the first time with a 2-1 win over Sweden in New Zealand. Olga Carmona scored the winning goal with a shot from the edge of the area in the 89th minute.
“Spain in ecstasy and into the final,” said the main headline on the website of the sports daily As.
Spain will play the final against either England or co-host Australia, which meet in the other semifinal on Wednesday.
If there is more success on Sunday, Spaniards will be expected to fill the streets of Madrid to celebrate the historic title, just as they did after the men won their lone World Cup trophy in 2010. Every major celebration by a Spain national team or top local club traditionally takes place around some of Madrid’s iconic monuments and plazas.
“History, history, history,” yelled the commentator after the women’s game being broadcast on Spanish television. “We are a match away from becoming world champions.”
Spain’s women had never advanced past the round of 16 of a World Cup, and expectations were not too high this time following a mutiny by its players against Vilda last year.
The controversy surrounding Spain dates to last September, when 15 players signed a letter complaining about Vilda and the conditions for the the national team. Three of those players are on this World Cup team, and Vilda a day before the game against Sweden praised the Spanish federation for its support.
Spain is playing in only its third Women’s World Cup. Four years ago, La Roja advanced to the knockout round but lost to eventual champions the United States. This was Spain’s first appearance in a major semifinal since the 1997 European Championship.
“Historic win against Sweden,” Spain’s royal family said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “The national team is one step away from taking us to the top, to being world champions.”
AUSTRALIA VS. ENGLAND: This is Australia’s Matildas against England’s Lionesses. The Women’s World Cup semifinals. The here and the now.
Both teams want to be clear, the semifinal meeting between the two teams at 6 a.m. Wednesday is not one of those clashes for the Ashes that have come to represent an intense international sporting rivalry dating back to the 1800s.
That began with the burning of some bails – small wooden pegs that sit atop cricket stumps – after a team of English gentry lost to a squad of colonial upstarts from Australia.
This is about an Australia team led by superstar striker Sam Kerr – who has been injured for most of the tournament but will play some part in the game – against England defender Millie Bright and her European champions.
Kerr and Bright are teammates at Chelsea and have combined to win titles for the London-based club, but they’re playing off here for a spot in the World Cup final against Spain.
England lost semifinals at the 2015 and 2019 Women’s World Cups. Australia is into the final four for the first time, and aiming to be just the second host to win the title on home soil.
Women’s soccer has been making its own history in England, where the Lionesses’ run to the European Championship title in 2022 captured the nation’s attention. And it’s making history in Australia, where the Matildas have twice attracted crowds exceeding 75,000 in this tournament and will again on Wednesday night.
The 7-6 penalty shootout win over fifth-ranked France last Saturday in Brisbane was the highest-rating program on Australian television in 2023. Local media reported that the shootout pulled the biggest domestic audience for a sports event since the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
As much as fans and the media have tried to frame it a fresh chapter in the Ashes, an England squad with a Dutch head coach and a Matildas roster with a Swedish head coach have repeatedly said their biggest rivalries in women’s soccer extend well beyond these two countries.
As soon as England had clinched a 2-1 comeback win over Colombia in the quarterfinals to ensure a match against Australia, coach Sarina Wiegman was asked what she knew about the Ashes rivalry. She said she’d check with the team and staff.
On Tuesday, at a pre-match news conference in Sydney that ran into the 21st minute of Spain’s 2-1 semifinal win over Sweden in New Zealand, Wiegman said the feedback related to cricket and rugby and netball, and “we didn’t feel that rivalry that much.”
ATTENDANCE: With Matildas’ matches becoming hot tickets, Australia’s run to the Women’s World Cup semifinals and the expanded 32-team format have helped set records for attendance at the tournament.
Soccer’s international governing body said that 1.77 million tickets have been sold for the tournament being co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, with a total 1,734,028 attendance for the first 60 games. There were four more to go.
The record match attendance for the 2023 edition is 75,784 for three games under a restricted capacity at Sydney’s Stadium Australia, which was built for the 2000 Olympics.
FIFA said the average crowd for games across the 10 venues had been 28,900, more than 7,000 above the average for games at the 2019 edition in France and more than 4,000 above the historical average at the eight previous Women’s World Cups.
The competition was expanded from 24 to 32 teams for this edition.
Australia reached the semifinals for the first time with a 7-6 penalty shootout win over France in Brisbane last Saturday, and will take on European champion England on Wednesday in Sydney for a spot in the final against either Sweden or Spain.
The country will be almost at a standstill when the semifinal is staged.
ONCE AGAIN, Sweden finds itself in a very familiar spot – playing for third place at the Women’s World Cup.
The Swedes were the third-place finishers four years ago in France, and at the first World Cup in 1991.
With a 2-1 loss to Spain in the semifinals on Tuesday in Auckland, Sweden will again play for third against the loser of Wednesday’s match between England and host Australia in Sydney.
The loss was disappointing for third-ranked Sweden after knocking off the United States in the round of 16. But the Swedes must now rally for the consolation game on Saturday in Brisbane.
“We’ve not come this far to just give up now,” Sweden defender Magdalena Eriksson said. “We have another game to play. We’re going to do everything we can to win it.”
The closest Sweden has come to winning the World Cup was in 2003, when they fell to Germany 2-1 in the final.
It’s been much the same at the Olympics. Sweden won silver medals at the Tokyo Games two years ago, and at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil. But the team has never won gold.
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