This article covers the Ivorian women's national soccer team at the 2015 Women's World Cup in Canada . The Ivory Coast took part in the World Cup finals for the first time and met the two ex-world champions Germany and Norway . The team qualified as third in the 2014 African Championship and benefited from the increase in the field of participants to 24 teams, which gave the Africans one more starting place. According to their positions in the FIFA world rankings before the World Cup, Ivory Coast, 67th place, was the weakest team that could qualify for the World Cup.
The Ivory Coast first had to qualify for the 2014 African Championship . The team met Mali in the first round and won 4-0 and 1-0. In the second round, the team was able to prevail against the last World Cup participant Equatorial Guinea due to the away goals rule . After a 1-1 draw at home, a 2-2 draw away was enough to reach the African Championship in Namibia .
On March 21 and April 11, 2015, Ivory Coast was supposed to play against Guinea-Bisseau in qualifying for the African Games, but Guinea-Bisseau withdrew. On May 10, they lost a test match against World Cup participants Cameroon 2: 3. On May 22nd and 29th, Ivory Coast should qualify for the Olympic Games against Tunisia , since Tunisia withdrew, omitting the Games.
The team
Contingent
On May 15th, 21 players were named. The final squad of 23 players (including three goalkeepers) must be communicated to the FIFA general secretariat at least ten working days before the opening match.
The Ivory Coast, as the worst-placed World Cup participant in the FIFA world rankings before the World Cup, faced world number one Germany in their first World Cup match. With 0:10 the Ivorians conceded the highest defeat in their international match history and also the highest defeat of a World Cup newcomer in their first World Cup game. In the second group match against the other group newcomer Thailand, who is in 29th place in the FIFA world rankings, they took an early lead through Ange N'Guessan , the smallest player at the World Cup, but were unable to secure it and shortly afterwards fell 2-1 behind , which the Thai women were able to expand in the second half. Against the opponents, who were losing strength in the end, the 2: 3 goal was achieved shortly before the end, but the equalization was missed despite good opportunities. The last group game against ex-world champions Norway, who were 11th in the FIFA world rankings, was also lost. Thus, the Ivorians were eliminated as the first team as the bottom of the group.