Women's World Cup preparation differed widely between teams, according to a new FIFPRO report

Imbalanced schedules in women's soccer hurt World Cup teams with too few matches to prepare for the tournament

Global players union FIFPRO published a report on Thursday that showcased imbalanced preparation between the teams and players set to play at this year's Women's World Cup, and also highlighted room for improvement for many as the tournament approaches.

The United States women's national team played 65 matches between winning the 2019 World Cup and May 2023, more than any other nation, while Brazil ranked second on the list with 53 fixtures. On the opposite end, China played just 25 games during that stretch while tournament newcomers Haiti ranked lowest with only 19 matches.

FIFPRO partially attributed the fixture inconsistency to confederations' scheduling of World Cup qualifiers, which is truncated in most continents. Most continental championships double as a qualifying tournament, resulting in a smaller number of competitive matches for players on those continents. CONCACAF's qualifying tournament lasted just 15 days this cycle, while European players competed for more than a year in UEFA's separate World Cup qualifying competition.

The union also noted that players are arriving in Australia and New Zealand with very different workloads at the club level. England's players played more than 65,000 minutes combined for club and country between August 2022 and June 2023, while the Philippines squad only clocked in around 28,000 minutes of prep ahead of the World Cup. The USWNT, by comparison, played more than 45,000 minutes during that span.

There remains an imbalance at the club level across the women's game, where some countries boast leagues that have 20 to 30 matches each season and others still don't have domestic setups to develop homegrown talent. Canada, which is home to the reigning Olympic gold medalists, notably still does not have a domestic league, though that is expected to change by 2025.

The impact on the World Cup

This edition of the World Cup is expected to be the most competitive yet thanks to a notable uptick in investment in the women's game around the world, to the point that the USWNT anticipates that defending its title will be harder this year than it was in 2019. That said, the report serves as a status update on the progress that still needs to be made by organizers of the game.

While the risks of playing too many minutes before a major tournament are well documented in both men's and women's soccer, FIFPRO's report highlights the woes of too few minutes. Despite the skills of individual players on any given team, a lack of preparation will no doubt impact their ability to build on-field cohesion. For the likes of Haiti and China, audiences may not be able to see each team's true potential at the World Cup because of it.

Having enough reps might also bolster the credentials of teams that are hoping to embark on their best World Cup runs yet. The USWNT's three group stage opponents -- Vietnam, the Netherlands, and Portugal -- each played at least 40 games over the last four years, which increases the chances that each game is decided on the skill of each team.