USWNT enters 2023 Women’s World Cup opener as the hunted

Four years ago, the U.S. Women’s National Team started its World Cup title defense against a Southeast Asian country ranked 29th in the world.

This time, it does so against a Southeast Asian country ranked 32nd in the world, and making its World Cup debut to boot.

It is a little bit too easy to draw a parallel between the 13-0 trouncing of Thailand in 2019 that took place in Reims, France, which set off a news cycle questioning the USWNT’s sportsmanship, and Friday night’s match against Vietnam in Auckland, New Zealand.

While no longer the runaway favorite to win the whole thing, the U.S. is still the overall favorite to win its third straight World Cup, and anything but a win against Vietnam would be an upset of Tyson-Douglas proportions — and set off alarm bells around the national team.

Even so, this figures to be more competitive than its equivalent four years ago, a testament to the growth of the women’s game globally.

The Vietnamese team, for example, has become nationally known in their country for participating in a sport that women were unofficially prohibited from playing from the end of the Vietnam War through the early 1990s.

Even now, they still face low salaries to play in the country’s domestic leagues, which often force them to take second jobs, according to a recent New York Times report.

Qualifying for the World Cup represents a milestone for Vietnam, even if the Golden Star Women Warriors fail to record a point in the group stage.

They are also well aware of what happened to Thailand, and looking to avoid that sort of embarrassment.

As for the U.S., this is the first step onto new ground for a team that brings 14 World Cup debutants to New Zealand, while the likes of Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan are looking to win a third straight world title, an unprecedented feat in the sport’s history.

The USWNT are very much the hunted, but have a team missing a number of key players due to injury, with a fair handful of question marks about how all the pieces fit together.

“I think it comes down to understanding what you’re about to get into, and I think that this group does understand that,” right back Kelley O’Hara said, per ESPN. “And then I think it’s just the little things: the details, the intangibles. Mentality is like an intangible. But if you have the preparation, if you’ve honed in on the details, I feel like the mentality can be there and is that much easier because you’re prepared and you’re ready for anything.”

That is, in essence, the message from veterans like O’Hara to the newcomers stepping onto the world stage for the first time.

“We have a team talk about the pressures and the external pressures that can happen,” defender Emily Fox told reporters in Auckland. “And it was really cool to hear from the veterans and how we can lean on them and that they’ve been through every position, whether starter, not starter, coming in [off the bench], all those things.”

Of course, it’s one thing to hear about a situation and another to experience it yourself.

The eyes of the world will be on the USWNT for — they hope — the next month.

That is no small deal, even in an opening match that looks on paper like more of a rehearsal.

“Being on this team, it comes with a big target on your back,” forward Sophia Smith told reporters. “It comes with pressure, it comes with a big platform and we all know that this is nothing new.”