Morning Coffee: New Zealand opens Women’s World Cup with stunning upset

New Zealand entered the 2023 Women’s World Cup with the distinction of being the only team in the history of the tournament to play 10-plus matches without recording a single win.

It took them one game on home soil to shed that label.

New Zealand kicked off the tournament with a stunning upset win over Group A favourite Norway.

The Football Ferns were +850 to win the match outright at FanDuel.

To put that number in perspective, four teams have shorter odds to win the Women’s World Cup than New Zealand did to win that match alone.

Is New Zealand’s remarkable victory a sign of things to come at this tournament?

This is the Morning Coffee for Thursday, July 20, 2023.

New Zealand opens Women’s World Cup with stunning upset

Norway was the heavy pre-tournament favourite to win Group A at FanDuel.

After securing their first-ever Women’s World Cup win against the best team in their group, New Zealand is in excellent position to qualify for the knockout stage with games remaining against Switzerland and the Philippines.

Every host nation has reached the knockout stage at the Women’s World Cup. New Zealand is in a much better position to get there now after their impressive start to the tournament.

This year’s event is the first Women’s World Cup with 32 teams in the field, so it’s no surprise that we will see some major long shots in the tournament.

However, I think we will see a lot more lopsided results than upsets moving forward in the group stage.

Meanwhile, co-hosts Australia took care of business with a 1-0 win over the Republic of Ireland in their group stage opener.

In addition to being a heavy favourite to win that match, Australia is the favourite to win Group B and a top-five choice to win the tournament.

The Canadian Women’s National Team will look to keep pace with Australia atop the group with a win over Nigeria tonight.

Canada is currently a -290 favourite to win that match.

Two FanDuel Best Bets for Thursday’s MLB slate

After a 31-15 start at Truist Park, the Atlanta Braves have lost four in a row to fall to 31-19 at home this season.

It’s the third time they’ve lost four in a row overall. They still haven’t dropped five in a row.

This afternoon, it will be a battle of the co-favourites to win the NL Cy Young award as Atlanta sends Spencer Strider to the mound opposite Zac Gallen for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Gallen has been a much better pitcher at home than on the road this season – a 1.48 ERA versus a 5.11 ERA – and the Braves have been the best team in baseball, so I like Atlanta in this spot.

While I don’t love the price at -188, I’m going to parlays Braves ML with the Houston Astros ML against the Oakland Athletics at +135 as my FanDuel Best Bet.

Speaking of the top choices to win the NL Cy Young award, Blake Snell is currently the third choice to win that award behind Strider and Gallen.

Snell is 6-7 with a 2.71 ERA this season. However, he’s produced elite numbers in day games, going 2-1 with a 1.32 ERA in six day starts.

On the flip side, Chris Bassitt is 1-2 with a 9.69 ERA in six day starts this season.

The Blue Jays bats have suddenly gone cold, and I don’t think they will be able to score enough runs off Snell to overcome any issues that Bassitt has on the mound.

I’ll take the Padres ML at -118 as a second FanDuel Best bet for Thursday’s MLB slate.

Good luck to anyone who tails the best bets!

Hopefully, we can cash a couple of winners and get back in the green for this week.