CHENGDU, China -- The two Women's World Cup matches
scheduled for Wednesday have been postponed for a day, team
officials said.
The Canada-Australia Group C match in Chengdu and the China-New
Zealand Group D match in Tianjin will both be played on Thursday,
team officials said.
That will allow them to be played simultaneously with the other
final group matches set for Thursday -- Norway vs. Ghana in Group C
and Brazil vs. Denmark in Group D.
All four games are critical and will determine which of the four
teams advance to the quarterfinals. Of the eight teams, only New
Zealand and Ghana have no chance to advance.
Under FIFA's planned schedule, all group matches were to be
played at the same time, ensuring competing teams could not get an
advantage by knowing the outcome beforehand of another match.
The schedule was disrupted when two matches scheduled for
Wednesday were set back until Thursday, a move made necessary by
Typhoon Wipha.
Although teams confirmed the move, FIFA, the world governing
body of soccer, was late making the announcement.
"It's disappointing to find out so late about the rescheduling,
but that aside it allows all teams to compete on an equal
footing," Australia coach Tom Sermanni said.
Crowds in the northern city of Tianjin are likely to be upset.
There was a big crowd expected in the 60,000-seat Tianjin Olympic
Center Stadium to watch host China play.
"We just heard this ourselves," China's media officer Meng
Hongtao said Wednesday afternoon. "We were prepared and the
players were getting ready for the game. They ate at 4 o'clock and
were planning to leave for the stadium at 6."
