On Friday (Saturday in Australia & New Zealand), the U.S. women’s national soccer team defeated Vietnam 3-0 in their opening match of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Former Stanford standout Sophia Smith was the player of the match for the United States, scoring two goals (14’ & 45’+7) and adding one assist (Lindsey Horan, 77’). The match was played at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand.
The first goal that Smith scored was a thing of beauty. She found a nice seam down the left side of the field, pushed the ball forward, and found the right side of the net as Vietnam’s goalkeeper was unable to cut her off. Lindsey Horan came up to give her a big hug after the goal was scored, giving the United States some early momentum.
The second goal that Smith scored was initially waived off for offsides, but upon further review, Alex Morgan was not offsides, allowing the goal to stand. Smith found a ball that ricocheted her way in the left corner of the penalty area, punching it into the middle of the net. It was now a 2-0 lead for the United States as halftime was about to arrive.
In the 77th minute, Smith raced ahead to find the ball just off to the right of the goal area and passed it to Horan who was in the deep center of the penalty area. With the goalkeeper out of position, Horan kicked it straight into the net for the third and final goal of the match. 3-0 would be the final score as the United States was unable to tack on a fourth goal later on.
For Smith, this was truly a wonderful performance as she contributed to all three goals that were scored, scoring two and adding an assist. The United States had their opportunities to win by even more, but without Smith coming up like she did, this could have been a really frightening opening match for them. They would have liked to have won by more than three, but at least the match was never really in question.
Touching quickly on Vietnam, they should feel really proud of how they competed. Their goalkeeper Trần Thị Kim Thanh battled really hard, getting a clutch save against Alex Morgan in a penalty kick in the 44th minute. She made the United States work for every goal they got. The real problem for Vietnam was the fact that they had zero shots and zero shots on target (shots on goal). You’re not going to win a match if you don’t get at least a handful of shots on target and see if one can go your way. Still, the energy and fight was there from Vietnam, who was competing in their first World Cup. They played like a team that definitely belonged on this stage.
Up next for the United States is their second Group E match against the Netherlands on Wednesday in North America. That will begin at 6:00 PM PT/9:00 PM ET on FOX.
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