The 2015 Women’s World Cup kicks off Saturday, June 6 , and fans can watch live online as host nation Canada faces China in Edmonton in the opening match of the 52-game tournament which for the first time features 24 teams — with 16 of those teams advancing to the knockout round.
To find out how to watch the Canada vs. China 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup match live online, see the information at the bottom of this article. The streaming video broadcast begins at 5:45 p.m. Eastern Time, 2:45 p.m. Pacific.
The 24 teams are divided into six groups of four teams each for the group stage competition. But this time, not only will the top two teams in each group advance, the four third-place teams with the best record in points and tiebreakers also head into the Round of 16, needing to win four games in a row to win the Women’s World Cup.
The defending champion Japan is situated in Group C with Cameroon, Ecuador, and Switzerland. The United States, runners-up in the 2011 Women’s World Cup, must get out of Group D, where they will face Australia, Nigeria and Sweden.
The United States women open their tournament on Monday against Australia.
The Canada vs. China match is a Group A pairing between two nations that have never won the Women’s World Cup, and each faces an uphill battle in the seventh edition of the tournament.
In 1999, China narrowly missed out on victory, falling in a penalty shootout 5-4 to the United States team after 120 minutes of goalless play.
Since then, however, China has fallen sharply and been surpassed by Japan as the top team to come out of Asia, while experts say that the China team could struggle even to advance to the knockout stage following group play.
Canada has won the previous three meetings with China, each time by a 1-0 score. But the Canadian women have advanced to the knockout stage only one time in five World Cups — and failed to even qualify for a sixth.
Led by their all-time leading goal scorer Christine Sinclair, Canada has found scoring opportunities that don’t involve the 31-year-old difficult to come by.
But even though neither Canada nor China are expected to threaten for the Women’s World Cup title in 2015, both teams come into Saturday’s game with a proverbial chip on their collective shoulders, which should make for a scrappy, exciting match.
Viewers can watch not only the opening Canada vs. China match, but every match of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup live online via Fox Sports Go. Fortunately, login credentials to any major cable or satellite provider are all that’s required to watch the free service, where Canada vs. China will be streamed Saturday at this link .
[Image: Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images]