Sophia Smith sparks USWNT in underwhelming Women’s World Cup opener
The U.S. got all three points against a vapid Vietnam team, but were left with questions over an experimental lineup and lack of cutting edge in the final third.
The U.S. women’s national team is held to the highest standard in women’s soccer. The two-time defending Women’s World Cup champion has consistently been laying down a marker for other teams to emulate. However, any weakness is magnified and anything besides domination is scrutinized.
That is to say, a 3-0 win over Vietnam was not a bad result to open the USWNT’s title defense of the Women’s World. But the U.S. performance was far less assertive performance than many onlookers expected. The U.S. rolled out a lineup that had never played together before, and it showed. The trend of a lack of tactical identity under head coach Vlatko Andonovski continued with a static and stagnant display that was too reliant on individual brilliance.
The aforementioned lineup featured Julie Ertz playing at center back for the first time since 2019, a midfield made up of Savannah DeMelo and Andi Sullivan—two players who had trouble getting on the ball and impacting the game. The front line was headlined by two World Cup first-timers Sophia Smith and Trinity Rodman.
Sophia Smith found the net twice on the day and Lindsey Horan added a third in the waning minutes of the match, but the USWNT missed a slew of opportunities. The Stars and Stripes registered 28 shots and controlled the ball for the whole game, but lacked the finishing ruthlessness to run up the score to the heights they reached by scoring 13 against Thailand in the first match of the 2019 tournament.
"If you look at this team, it's the first time that this 11 has been on the field together,” said Andonovski. “They've never been on the field together in a game scenario for one minute, so to see some of the connections and combinations they were able to make was very positive.
Entering the tournament there were questions about who would play in the heart of the American defense. U.S. captain and defensive stalwart Becky Sauerbrunn missed the tournament due a foot injury. Ertz, who is re-entering the fold for the USWNT after giving birth to her son, Madden, last year, started alongside Naomi Girma. The first opponent in Vietnam did not offer any sort of offensive challenge, but Girma was a tidy distributor and Ertz was a threat on set pieces. It is not clear if the veteran Ertz will start in the backline for the rest of the tournament over Alana Cook or if Ertz starting against the lowly Asian opposition was a tactical choice by Andonovski, knowing that the U.S. would be on the attack for the majority of the match.
"When we knew that Becky is not going to be able to make it, that's something we started looking into even deeper," he said after the game. "We had a conversation with Julie before we even tried, did a lot of work before we got into [pre-World Cup] camp in terms of video analysis."
"I'm glad we made the decision and I know that the back line is just going to get better and better going forward," Andonovski said, also declining to state whether Ertz would stay in that role throughout the tournament.
In the center of the park, DeMelo made her first start for the USWNT and provided some solid chance creation in her surprise inclusion on the team sheet. Andi Sullivan played all 90 minutes and offered little to the game—positioning herself poorly in offense as if she seemingly did not want the ball, and struggling defending on the few Vietnam attacks.
“It was good — I mean, a clean sheet [shutout], that’s what you want,” Ertz said afterward. “Throughout my entire time with the national team, you always have to be versatile, so you’re always kind of thrown in, in different things, just to be able to ask what you’re needed [for].”
Smith and Rodman offered a youthful dynamism in attack with their ability to take on their defenders, get to the end line, but far too often the final product was lacking. Smith was the most clinical American attacker on Saturday, scoring two well-worked goals and making smart runs off of Alex Morgan, who started at the No.9, as she had for the previous three World Cups.
"I feel good. I think it was a good starting point for our team in this tournament," Smith said. "I also know that we have a lot more that we can give, a lot more to do, little things to work on.
"So I think it's a good place to start. And personally, it was good to just get a World Cup game under my belt, kind of see how it felt, know what to expect. But yeah, I think it honestly just makes me more excited for the next game."
The usually unfazed Smith conceded that she was a bit nervous entering the World Cup stage. On her second goal, the former Stanford Cardinal dedicated her goal to her fallen college teammate, goalkeeper Katie Meyer.
“That was for Katie,” Smith said in the mixed zone after the match. It was a planned celebration she had worked out with center back Girma. Led by Girma, Smith and some of the rest of their USWNT teammates put out a campaign ahead of their World Cup opener promoting mental health — a project they did in honor of Meyer, who died by suicide in March 2022.
The usually potent Morgan missed her lone opportunity of the match, by striking a poor penalty that Vietnamese goalkeeper Tran Thi Kim Thanh saved.
"It wasn't a good penalty for me and I know that," Morgan said. "But I'm glad that the team put three goals away and that we're onto the next one."
One caveat of the opener was the effectiveness of Rose Lavelle off the bench. The midfielder, who is nursing an injury and is not 90 minutes fit, offered a different dimension to this USWNT with her ability to take defenders one-on-one and create space with her control in tight spaces. Even if this team is not as deep as it was in 2019, the depth they do have—Lavelle and Megan Rapinoe both came off the bench Saturday—can offer a boost to maintain the USWNT’s level for the entirety of a game
“The U.S. team has always had depth — it’s something that we show off every time and that’s why it makes it so hard to get on this team and be a part of this team,” said starting right-back Emily Fox, who made way for Sofia Huerta. “I think in every position, we have threats, whether it’s center back, outside back, forward. So yeah, we will probably have lots of rotation.”
The USWNT do move on to their next game against a much better opponent in the Netherlands, but much must be learned from a confounding performance in the first match. The USWNT had 297 touches in the final third compared to Vietnam's 20, but it largely wasn't the free-flowing and dynamic attack we've seen from the United States in the past—Sophia Smith's first goal was the lone exception. The U.S. underperformed their expected goals of 4.34—partly due to Alex Morgan's missed penalty—and struggled to use the flanks, constantly trying to aim their attack at the congested middle of the field.
"If there's one thing we need to do better besides finishing, it's how can we help the players that are in a position to finish, giving them a little bit of service," Andonovski said. "Whether it's finding them on the right step or the proper foot, the final touch— the service before the finish."
The opening game served as an opportunity to release any jitters the mostly-inexperienced American team faced entering the tournament and a chance to solidify an otherwise unfamiliar lineup. A 3-0 win is a positive start, but the U.S. is capable of much more. And they will hope to grow into the tournament and get sharper in the final third.
“Partially, I’m sure that nerves had something to do with it,” Andonovski said. “I also know that any one of those opportunities, every single one of our players is capable of finishing them up. So I’m not worried about it.”
The words and lineup choices by Andonovski will be put to the test as the opponents in this World Cup will only get tougher.