Expert dark horse picks for the 2023 Women’s World Cup

We are days away from the Women's World Cup getting underway in Australia, and everyone is trying to chase down the two time defending champion United States of America.

Everybody is looking for a dark horse in this year's World Cup, and the team most poised to make a run is the host country, Australia. We caught up with 90Min soccer expert Jaime Spencer about his thoughts on the Australian team heading into the 2023 World Cup.

"Some attention is already on Australia because they are co-hosts with home advantage and because they have Sam Kerr, but they've never actually been past the quarter-finals of a World Cup tournament and so will have to break new ground to go all the way." Spencer told BetSided.

"But they've never actually been past the quarter-finals of a World Cup tournament and so will have to break new ground to go all the way. However, they absolutely have it within them, especially if they can start to build momentum early in the group stage - they will need it later on because their knockout route is likely to feature France and Germany or England, before the United States in the final."

Australia enters the World Cup as the fifth choice in the outright market, +900 to win its first World Cup. However, the team has been building positive momentum in the lead up to this year's tournament.

"They showed promise at a global level in 2021 by finishing fourth at the Olympics, losing by just a single goal to Sweden in the semi-finals and the US in the bronze medal game," Spencer told BetSided. "Two years later, they are better and more experienced."

If you are looking for a dark horse in the Women's World Cup, look no further than the host country.

Here are the odds leading up to Thursday's start:

2023 Women's World Cup Odds

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.