2015 Women's World Cup Draw Results: Groups, Schedule and Bracket Info

The draw for the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup took place in the Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa on Saturday, as the 24 teams that qualified finally got to know the opponents they'll face when the tournament kicks off in June.

As expected, the top five teams on the world rankings were given seeded status along with hosts Canada, although Sweden lost their seed to Brazil to bring the number of top seeds from Europe down to two.

Here are the full results of the 2015 Women's World Cup draw:

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D	Group E	Group F
Canada	Germany	Japan	USA	Brazil	France
China	Ivory Coast	Switzerland	Australia	Korea Republic	England
New Zealand	Norway	Cameroon	Sweden	Spain	Colombia
Netherlands	Thailand	Ecuador	Nigeria	Costa Rica	Mexico

The full playing schedule for the group stages:

Date	Group	Home	Away
June 6	Group A	Canada	China
June 6	Group A	New Zealand	Netherlands
June 7	Group B	Germany	Ivory Coast
June 7	Group B	Norway	Thailand
June 8	Group C	Japan	Switzerland
June 8	Group C	Cameroon	England
June 8	Group D	USA	Australia
June 8	Group D	Sweden	Nigeria
June 9	Group E	Brazil	Korea Republic
June 9	Group E	Spain	Costa Rica
June 9	Group F	France	England
June 9	Group F	Colombia	Mexico
June 11	Group A	China	Netherlands
June 11	Group A	Canada	New Zealand
June 11	Group B	Germany	Norway
June 11	Group B	Ivory Coast	Thailand
June 12	Group C	Japan	Cameroon
June 12	Group C	Switzerland	Ecuador
June 12	Group D	USA	Sweden
June 12	Group D	Australia	Nigeria
June 13	Group E	Brazil	Spain
June 13	Group E	Korea Republic	Costa Rica
June 13	Group F	France	Colombia
June 13	Group F	England	Mexico
June 15	Group A	Canada	Netherlands
June 15	Group A	China	New Zealand
June 15	Group B	Germany	Thailand
June 15	Group B	Ivory Coast	Norway
June 16	Group C	Japan	Ecuador
June 16	Group C	Switzerland	Cameroon
June 16	Group D	USA	Nigeria
June 16	Group D	Australia	Sweden
June 17	Group E	Brazil	Costa Rica
June 17	Group E	Korea Republic	Spain
June 17	Group F	France	Mexico
June 17	Group F	England	Colombia

Bracket info for the knockout stages:

Round of 16	Quarter-Finals	Semi-Finals	Final
Runner-up Group A vs Runner-up Group C
Winner Group D vs. 3rd Group B / E / F
	Winner vs.
	Winner
Winner Group B vs. 3rd Group A / C / D		Winner vs.
Winner Group F vs. Runner-up Group E		Winner
	Winner vs.		Winner vs.
	Winner		Winner
Winner Group E vs. Runner-up Group D		Winner vs.
Winner Group C vs. 3rd Group A / B / F		Winner
	Winner vs.
	Winner
Runner-up Group B vs. Runner-up Group F
Winner Group A vs. 3rd Group C / D / E

Julie Foudy of ESPN spoke about the ultra-competitive Group D: 

Fox Soccer provides quotes from U.S. women's national soccer team manager Jill Ellis, who weighed in on the challenge ahead for the team:

The 2015 edition of the tournament will see 24 teams participating, up eight from 2011. As a result, some changes have been made to the event's structure. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the round of 16, along with the four best third-placed teams.

Adidas released the design for the official match ball prior to the draw, as shared by Sports Illustrated's Grant Wahl:

Japan are the defending world champions and will once again be counted among the favourites, but the USA and Germany stand out as the heavy favourites to add another title to their collection.

A string of poor performances has cast some question marks around the Yanks, but the reappointment of Ellis should bring some stability to the squad.

As shared by the team's official Twitter feed, she has a hard time turning away from the game, even at important galas:

Winners in 2003 and 2007, Germany were flat-out dominant during qualifying, scoring 62 goals and conceding only four on their way to a perfect run through Group 1.

England may or may not be without 36-year-old Kelly Smith, one of the top players in the nation's history. Still recovering from an Achilles injury, the veteran forward is hoping to add one last major tournament to her resume before calling it quits.

Coach Mark Sampson was stunned when she recovered in time for a series of friendlies in November, as he told the Daily Star's Bruce Archer:

"

To be honest a couple of months we thought Kelly would be a bit of a doubt for this game.

We thought she needed an operation to get her problem solved, but it’s healed better than we could have imagined, and she’s in a good place now.

We’re delighted to welcome Kelly back, she’s not only an important player for us but she’s someone who’s great to have around the camp with big game experience and with the rest of the players.

"

Brazil's status as top seed should come in handy for Marta, joint all-time leading Women's World Cup scorer with 14 goals, according to BBC Sport. The five-time Player of the Year winner is yet to hoist the World Cup during her glittering career, something she hopes to change at the 2015 tournament.

Abby Wambach has also never won the title, and now aged 34, the 2015 Women's World Cup will likely be her last opportunity to add the biggest honour in the sport to her extensive list of achievements.