Auckland, New Zealand, July 20th 2023: during the 2023 FIFA Womens World Cup Group A football match. Ada Hegerberg, featured, missed Norway’s must-win game on July 30. (Brendy Nunez / SPP)
Reporting from Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand.
Norway entered Sunday’s match against the Philippines at the bottom of Group A. The highest-ranked team in the world in the group had begun the World Cup with a horrible effort in a 1-0 loss to the co-hosts, New Zealand, then followed it up with a scoreless draw against Switzerland that was further marred by the team’s discontent going public.
Sunday, then, was an inflection point for the 12th-ranked team in the world: crash and burn against a World Cup debutant to complete a wretched tournament or come together and respond.
Norway did the latter.
“There’s been a lot going on in our team so far in this tournament – not in a good way,” Norway midfielder Guro Reiten said. “We’ve been talking and discussing like, ‘Are you in or are you not?’ Everyone is in, stick…
