IFAF World Flag 2026: Top four women’s teams unbeaten on Day 1 as Japan stumbles

The opening day of the women’s competition at the IFAF World Flag 2026 Championships in Düsseldorf offered an early look at the teams that could be battling for medals, with Mexico, the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Austria and Spain all emerging unbeaten while several other contenders already found themselves under pressure.

Mexico leads unbeaten opening-day teams

Mexico handled business by defeating host-country Germany 38-14, and Slovenia 53-24. Team USA defeated Australia 46-14, and accepted a forfeit from Team Nigeria, who had to pull out of the championship because of difficulties securing player visas. Great Britain beat France 33-14, and then edged China by one point, 26-25. Canada also ran the table by overcoming Panama 27-14, and Brazil 36-6.

After that, things became less sure. Fifth ranked Japan started well, defeating Brazil 32-0, but then fell hard to number sixth ranked Austria 13-37. Austria was undefeated for the first day by also beating France 23-19. Likewise, Spain won by forfeit over Nigeria, and then overcame Australia 39-25.

To round out the top 15 teams at the championships, France lost both their games, Panama finished 1-1, Brazil was left out of the win column, as were China and Slovenia.

Mexico remains the team to beat

Based on recent history, Mexico is the team to beat. Their opponents, however, may take encouragement by the 38 points the number one ranked team gave up in their 2 games today. Perhaps the Mexican National team has some defensive issues that might cause them trouble against future adversaries. That may be the case, but Team Mexico’s offense is not hurting. Led by quarterback Diana Flores, the Mexican offense put up 91pionts in those contests. Until someone can slow down that offense a little, giving up 19 points per game is a luxury Team Mexico can afford.

Mexican fans make their presence felt

Flores and company can also count on home field advantage in their games. Mexican fans follow the team in large, and enthusiastic, numbers. Even against the nominal home team Germany, Team Mexico’s fans were at least more vocal than their German counterparts. In post-match comments, Flores remarked that “We are so lucky and blessed to have all our people here. I think that’s something that’s very rooted in our culture. Supporting each other, being proud of who we are, where we came from. That’s what you can see on the field, and off the field with our family and friends, and people that came here to support. So, I think that gives us a little bit more motivation, or inspiration to just be the best versions of ourselves on the field.”

USA and Canada make strong starts

Behind the play of first-time starting quarterback Akemi Higa, Team USA does not seem to be missing long time champion quarterback Vanita Krouch, but with only one game down against winless Australia, that has yet to be proven.

Canada, the last team that defeated Mexico, was not challenged today, and won both games by a combined 43 points. Quarterback Sara Parker seems to have them rolling, and perhaps they present the biggest challenge to Mexican domination.

China suffers another setback against Austria

The two hard luck teams of the first day are certainly China and Slovenia. Team China, coming off victories in the 2025 World Games and IFAF’s Asia-Oceania Continental Championship, were once again defeated by Austria in the first round. They had suffered the same result in the World Games, but came back strong. In this tournament, they followed up the Austrian setback by also losing a squeaker to Team Great Britain, who scored off of the second touchdown from quarterback Brittany Botterill to center Angelica Tait with 5:45 left, and then held on to keep Team China out of the endzone, preserving their one point, 26-25 victory.

Slovenia comes up short twice

Likewise, Slovenia, the surprise qualifier from the Euro Championship, seemed snakebit today. First, they lost by one point, 26-27 to Italy, who successfully went for a two-point conversion with time running out in the first game. Then they had to play the number one seed Mexico, and lost by a wider margin, but still racked up 24 points against Team Mexico. They played fairly well, but had only two losses to show for it. Slovenian team captain Astrid Kuhelj attributed much of her team’s success to Team Slovenia essentially being her Domžale Tigers, the only women’s flag football team in Slovenia. “Every practice is national team practice,” which is likely unique among the countries with national teams.