For those Winnipeg soccer fans still vexed you won't get to see Team Canada live at the Women's World Cup, we give you instead: the Group of Death.

While many local fans would surely prefer to have Canada make an appearance at Winnipeg Stadium for the tournament that gets underway Saturday, having the toughest most talented group in the draw playing in your backyard is a pretty nice consolation prize.

Three of the four teams who will be playing games in Winnipeg starting Monday are ranked in the world top 10 with the fourth, Nigeria, 33rd out of 50 ranked FIFA teams.

And with the powerhouse United States, No. 2 in the latest FIFA rankings, among the group, Winnipeg fans are going to be treated to arguably the highest level of soccer in the group stage.

Group D also includes No. 5 Sweden and No. 10 Australia, with each of the four teams playing two matches apiece in Winnipeg.

Here's a look at what to expect with each team:

UNITED STATES

There is no team in the world the Canadians would more like to get a crack at than the Americans. Yet that match would have to wait until well into the knockout stage, so for the time being the Americans will go to work trying to place top two in a group that will be no cakewalk.

The U.S. made noise in the months leading up to the tournament with players' very public gripes about playing the tournament on artificial turf. A human-rights complaint against FIFA and the CSA was dropped in January and now the U.S. players – still not overly pleased to play on turf – say their focus is entirely on their opening match Monday against Australia.

The U.S., runner up in 2011 to Japan, brings largely the same squad that beat the Canadians in the Olympic semifinal in 2012, and those top players – Alex Morgan, Abby Wambach, Hope Solo, et. al. -- have the rockstar status that seems to follow any top athletes wearing the Stars and Stripes. Wambach, the 2012 FIFA player of the year, is the backbone of the U.S., a physical presence who can carry a match and exudes the leadership role.

Solo is the star on the back end, the keeper with the take-no-crap personality and off-the-pitch controversies. Solo has seemingly begun repairing her very public image that was tarnished by a 2014 arrest and a January suspension from the national program. She is nevertheless one of the best in the world at her job and a key piece to the American fortunes.

And while the U.S. is recognized as the de facto favourites seemingly every time out, it has not won a Women's World Cup since its 1999 triumph on home soil.

“We've got the veteran mix alongside the youngster mix and when you combine those two I think that we have a deadly force,” midfielder Carli Lloyd said.

“The build-up has been extremely long ... but we're really looking forward to it and we know that there's a lot on the line and we want to go after it.”

We'll see if having a close-to-home field advantage will serve the U.S. well.

SWEDEN

If there is an early favourite for winning over the hearts of local fans, it is Sweden, which arrived in Winnipeg on Wednesday with players spending ample time signing autographs and taking photos for the kids who arrived to welcome them.

Once on the pitch, the Swedes will be among the favourites to claim one of the top two spots to advance to the knockout phase.

“Of course you want to start with a good game and you want three points, of course,” defender Emma Berglund said of the team's opener against Nigeria. “It's been a long trip and everything so we just have to settle down a little bit I think.

“It's a tough group, but you can say we're used to getting in this hard groups, especially in the World Cup, so you just have to look positive on it and try to take every game one step at a time.”

The Swedes, pardon the expression, have been the bridesmaids on the world stage, having finished second in 2003, and third in 1995 and 2011, yet have never ascended to the top of the podium.

Sweden's coach is arguably its biggest star. Pia Sundhage was at the helm of the American team that won gold medals at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, and took over the Swedes shortly after the latter.

Striker Lotta Schelin, the team's captain, has nearly 150 caps to her name and was a World Cup all-star in 2011. The 31-year-old will have plenty of contemporaries for support as Sweden brings a veteran group that boasts six players with more than 100 international appearances, including midfielder Caroline Seger, a 30-year-old with 137 caps and a World Cup all-star honour in 2011.

AUSTRALIA

The darkhorse of the group, the Matildas could get their tournament jump-started in the opener against the Americans. Earning a result against the group favourites would put the Aussies off on the right foot in trying to usurp one of those top-two positions.

To do so, Australia will rely on a slew of young stars and up-and-comers who will follow the lead of co-captain Lisa De Vanna, the 30-year-old former Australian female footballer of the year. De Vanna has scored 35 goals in her career and will reach 100 caps in the tournament opener Monday. After that, the Aussies form a side with all but two players under the age of 30. In that group, midfielders Emily van Egmond and Katrina Gorry, and striker Kyah Simon, each of them 23 or younger, will be called upon to carry the Aussie offence.

The Australians, who have not finished in the top four in five previous World Cup appearances, qualified as one of five teams coming out of the Asian Football Confederation, losing to Japan in the AFC final in May 2014.

NIGERIA

The Nigerians will appear in their seventh straight World Cup coming out of the Confederation of African Football, yet will likely be seen as the easy points in this group.

While they are perennial attendees to the World Cup, the Super Falcons have mustered just three wins in their seven previous tournaments, highlighted by their 1999 trip that resulted in an extra-time loss to Brazil in the quarter-finals, the country's best result in a Women's World Cup.

Yet Nigeria's entry this time around could be more competitive than years past and fans here will get to see one of the game's brightest young stars in 20-year-old Asisat Oshoala.

Oshoala won both the Golden Boot (as top scorer) and Golden Ball (as tournament MVP) at the U20 World Cup a year ago and was named the world's top female footballer in an online poll held by the BBC just this month, even beating out five-time FIFA world player of the year Marta.

The veteran of the group is 39-year-old Perpetua Nkwocha, the country's legendary midfielder who has represented Nigeria in two previous World Cups, three Olympics and has 80 goals to her name in 98 international appearances.

Nigeria opens its tournament Monday against Sweden and a result there could suddenly make the Super Falcons this city's darlings of Group D.