Twelve of the world's best in the women's game. One ultimate goal. We can't ask for much more than that. Here is a look at where each nation ranks in the field of 12 at the Paris Olympics.
By Caden Charpentier | Jul 23, 2024
Spain v Belgium - UEFA Women's EURO 2025 Qualifier / Quality Sport Images/GettyImages
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Janine Beckie put it perfectly, "The Olympics is chaos."
That's exactly what it is. 26 games in just 16 days. Only two full days in between games. At the World Cup, you get four. It's condensed. Mentally taxing. A true challenge like no other. But in the end, the reward - a Gold Medal - is all worth the struggle.
This time last year we were previewing a field of 32 teams for a major women's football tournament. For the Olympics, only 12 qualify. It's the cream of the crop. The elite of the elite from every region around the world. Making it into this prestigious group is difficult enough. To win the gold is a completely different challenge only four countries have ever managed to do.
Before the drama begins, it seems like a good idea to lay down some groundwork by power ranking the entire field to get an understanding of where each nation stands at the moment.
Here is where these 12 giants from six different confederations rank in relation to each other.
2024 Olympic women's soccer power rankings
12. New Zealand
Group: A
World Ranking: 28
Just weeks before New Zealand's fifth Olympic Games, its head coach since September of 2021, Jitka Klimková opted to stand down from her position for the time being. Insert assistant Michael Mayne. The acting head coach leads the Oceania Football Confederation in another major competition, a year after bowing out of the World Cup on home soil in the group stage.
It's difficult to judge the Football Ferns by virtue of the fact that the Confederation they are in just isn't very strong. They rolled through qualifying, scoring 32 goals in just five games, seven of which were converted by the 25-year-old Grace Jale. The backline is a clear strength. That experience in defense showed last summer at the World Cup, allowing one goal in 270 minutes of football.
Six of its seven oldest players are defenders, the most important being Katie Bowen, the Inter Milan center back. The player to watch on Mayne's crew is Katie Kitching, an ultra hard working midfielder from Sunderland AFC who should be a key piece for the Football Ferns on both sides of the ball.
Getting to work in Saint-Étienne