2023 Women's World Cup: Penalties Galore On Day Three

We're three days into the 2023 Women's World Cup and what a tournament it's been already. Day Two saw Canada miss a chance to make history as well as several crucial injury updates, both good and bad. However, Day Three has brought us massive results, and of course the word of the day - penalties.

We are nine games into the tournament at the time of writing and of those nine, all of them have included at least one penalty. The sharp spike in spot kicks comes as the tournament embraces VAR technology for the first time. However, the rise in penalties, which have been the deciding factor in two games, has not gone unnoticed by fans.

Zambia, who won so many hearts at the Olympics two years ago, are having a terrible World Cup. They lost both their starting goalkeeper and a key midfield piece to major injuries, leaving them short-handed against a resurgent Japanese team. Japan took full advantage of this, recording the biggest win of the tournament so far as they beat Zambia 5-0.

The 2023 Women's World Cup will serve as Megan Rapinoe's swansong after she announced her impending retirement. The US' 3-0 win over Vietnam, in which Rapinoe came off the bench, served as the veteran player's 200th national team cap. Rapinoe is still recovering from injury, hence the decision to limit her minutes at the start of the tournament.

European champions England were lucky to escape with all three points after coming up against an upstart Haiti team making their World Cup debut. A 29th-minute penalty was the only thing to separate the two sides. Even then, the penalty had to be taken after the Haitian keeper, Kerly Theus, was ruled to have come off her line early. The World Cup debutants had several close chances but were always denied by English keeper Mary Earps.

New Zealand's national team has had to evacuate their hotel after a fire broke out late on Saturday night. "[We] can confirm that the Football Ferns team and staff have been temporarily evacuated from the Pullman Hotel, their team base for the FIFA Women's World Cup, due to a fire. All of the team and staff are safe and accounted for," a statement from New Zealand Football read. The team isn't due back on the pitch until July 25. However, it's the last thing that any team would want.

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