But now comes the bigger test, another group game against the Netherlands. It's a rematch of the 2019 World Cup final, which the USWNT won 2-0 (more on that below). The game kicks off at 9 p.m. ET, which is 1 p.m. Thursday in New Zealand, and will air on FOX. The USWNT, of course, knows it has a target on its back. Its players embrace the pressure. |
Find an official USWNT watch party near you |
Looking for a watch party for the U.S. women's national team game against the Netherlands? U.S. Soccer created a handy dandy map that allows you to find one near wherever you're located. Check it out. |
Netherlands preview: A rematch worth watching |
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Go ahead and call the USWNT's game against the Netherlands a rematch of the 2019 World Cup final if you must. The teams are the same, obviously. Some of the key players on both squads remain, too, including Megan Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle, whose goals lifted the USWNT to a 2-0 win. |
That isn't how the Americans see it, however. For everything that's the same about the matchup, so much more has changed. Each team has a new coach. The Dutch have a new goalkeeper and are without Vivianne Miedema, who led the team with three goals in 2019 but is missing this tournament with a – what else? – torn ACL. There are 14 players on the USWNT who are playing in their first World Cup, and six were in the starting lineup for the opener against Vietnam. |
"That match was fun. It was really competitive, physical," Lavelle said. "But that was four years ago. So I think it's a fun memory, but we have a different mindset for this game." |
While this game isn't quite at the level of a final, it does have great importance. Whoever wins it will likely win Group E and be put on a path that avoids Germany, England, France or Canada until the final. |
"It may seem like a rematch. It would have been a rematch if this was the final," USWNT coach Vlatko Andonovski said. "For us, it's just a very important game in the group stage, and we'll do whatever it takes to be successful in it." |
- Nancy Armour, USA TODAY Sports columnist |
On the ground in New Zealand |
AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Don't mess with what works. |
Sophia Smith wore her hair in a traditional braid for Saturday's World Cup opener rather than the "bubble braid" that's become her signature look. |
"I've been doing this in my last few NWSL games and I've scored in every one," Smith said, "so I can't go back. I'm not usually superstitious but …" |
It's understandable that she wouldn't want to risk it. Smith scored twice and had an assist in the USWNT's 3-0 win over Vietnam. This after scoring three goals in her final game with the Thorns and one each in Portland's previous three games. |
That means you can probably expect the traditional braid Wednesday, too. |
- Nancy Armour, USA TODAY Sports columnist |
New for 2023: USWNT base camp a big hit |
Traveling is highly overrated. |
For the first time at a women's World Cup, the teams are using base camps, just as the men do. Rather than hopscotching from one game to the next, never staying in one place for more than a few nights, teams are based in one city for the entire group stage. If they have a game outside that city, they travel the day before and return either immediately after the game or the next morning. This cuts down on the wear and tear of travel – to say nothing of the constant cycle of unpacking and repacking. |
The USWNT is based in Auckland, for example, and has two games there. Its Netherlands game is in Wellington, just an hour flight away, so the team left Wednesday morning and will fly back to Auckland afterward. The players could take only what they needed, leaving everything else in their rooms, and the staff did not have to pack up meeting rooms. |
Compare that to four years ago, when the USWNT opened in Reims, 90 minutes east of Paris. It then went to Paris and then to Le Havre, on the northern coast. |
"I love having a base camp. We actually were just talking about how great it is," Alex Morgan, who is playing in her fourth World Cup, said Tuesday. "Taking over the entire hotel, having all of our recovery modalities available, having U.S. Soccer put in all the resources that we need to be successful. Not only do we have everything we need at the hotel, but the training field-slash-training center has modular units, a locker room, a gym. … It just makes us feel a little more like a daily routine and less than a traveling circus." |
-Nancy Armour, USA TODAY Sports columnist | Defenders Naomi Girma (L) and Crystal Dunn (R) of will be critical in the USWNT's match against the Netherlands, which kicks at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday (1 p.m. Thursday in New Zealand).
Phil Walter, Getty Images |
Did you catch Julie Ertz playing centerback vs. Vietnam , a position she hasn't regularly been playing since 2017? "Throughout my entire time with the national team, you always have to be versatile," she said. "You're always thrown into different things, you just ask what you're needed to do." |
"I always say, I think I would have expected a moment like that to feel different or change me. I don't really feel like it did. It was a goal, it was fun. But I feel like I'm still just me." Rose Lavelle on scoring in the 2019 Final
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