In this series of posts, we're going to do a general analysis of the 2023 Women's World Cup, hosted simultaneously in Australia and New Zealand. We'll provide general comparisons between all the teams, and then delve into the four semi-finalists and the highlights of the competition.
In this post, we'll talk about both the finalists of the 2023 Women's World Cup: Spain and England.
Tournament Overview
Popularly known as a short tournament, since 7 is the maximum number of games a team can play, the World Cup is the biggest tournament in the world played by national teams. In 2023, Spain were crowned world champions in women's soccer against England, with a very young team, just like in men's soccer, with an average age of less than 26 in the starting line-up.
The final
The final of the 2023 Women's World Cup was held on August 20 and featured England and Spain. The Spaniards came out on top, winning the game 1-0 with a goal from Olga Carmona in the 29th minute (it's worth noting that Spain had the chance to extend the lead with a missed penalty in the second half). The Spanish team played a strong and solid game, accumulating more than 2 expected goals, superiority in possession, and 3 great chances created during the course of the match.
Despite a bitter fourth place in the previous World Cup, England were coming off the back of winning the Finalissima (a play-off between the winner of the EURO and the winner of the Copa America) over Brazil, as well as an excellent run so far in the 2023 World Cup. Even so, they were unable to impose their game on the Spain team. The English side accumulated less than 0.5 expected goals, as well as only one great chance created, showing that the 43% possession did not convert into volume of play.
Analyzing the finalists
In the graphs below, you can get a better idea of how the finalists played in the tournament. In the passing graph, it is noticeable that the English team tends to pass a lot behind the midfield line, with the defenders playing a significant role in a very withdrawn position. Spain's passing is more concentrated in midfield, suggesting a more aggressive style of play compared to their opponents in the last game. This analysis of the tournament is reflected in the final, as Spain, choosing to dictate the game more and exchanging more passes in areas closer to the opponent's goal, created most of the chances and accumulated a greater number of expected goals.
Graph 1. Pass Heatmap (in all the competition)
In this second graph, we show in which areas of the pitch each team applies the most pressure to their opponents throughout the tournament. Again, the Spanish side's map suggests a more aggressive style, concentrating their pressing actions on the opponent's pitch. On the other hand, the England team presses more evenly across the pitch, with only one area of high concentration: the right side, near the halfway line.
Graph 2. Pressure Heatmap (in all the competition)
Apart from the tactical aspect, something very interesting to note is the average age of the Spanish team. Spain's starting line-up in the final had an average age of 25.7, one of the lowest in the entire competition and the lowest among the teams that played in the knockout stage. This suggests that Spain's reformulation, which was much talked about and praised recently during the men's Euro, is also (very positively) affecting the women's team. In the final, 6 of the 10 best players in the world (according to the Ballon d'Or awards) were on the pitch. Of these, 4 were Spanish players (two were under 25, and we'll talk more about one of them in a later post!).
In the next section, we'll use shot maps to analyze the attacking performance of the finalist teams during the competition. Spain's map shows their aggressive style, being the team with the most goals and shots per game (22.1) of all the teams in the competition. On the other hand, it's important to note the efficiency of England's shots, as they had a positive balance of 3.18 in the difference between goals and xG. In addition, it's worth noting that the England side shoot far less than their opponents in the final, with an average of 13.2 shots per game.
Graph 3. Spain's Shot Map (in all the competition)
Graph 4. England's Shot Map (in all the competition)
As is often the case in many important finals, the teams had lower attacking numbers than "expected" (based on their performance throughout the competition), since, given the importance of the match, the teams usually choose to play in a more studied and less risky way. Spain had 13 shots in the match, while England had 8.
Conclusion
During the analysis, we can see that there is a certain duality between the teams. Spain, being an example of a young and dynamic team, successfully imposed their style of play during the tournament, being aggressive with and without the ball. On the other side, England play in a more methodical way, not daring to use high blocks of pressure and constantly keeping possession with their defenders. Both ways of playing soccer were examples of success during the competition, but in the end the Spanish style prevailed.
Despite finishing second in the most important international competition, England are the current champions of the Women's EURO (having knocked out Spain themselves during the tournament). So everything indicates that the duel that decided the world title in 2023 will continue to be very relevant and fierce in the future.
That was our first post analyzing the 2023 Women's World Cup. Our next post will focus on the young players who stood out in the tournament and are expected to be even more prominent in the 2027 World Cup, which will be hosted in Brazil.
