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What’s it like at Eden Park?
Team U.S. and Vietnam will face off at Eden Park, the National Stadium of New Zealand.
The stadium in Aukland is the home of New Zealand’s Rugby and Cricket teams and has hosted both the Women’s Cricket World Cup and the Women’s Rugby World Cup.
In recent years, it’s also hosted the Maori performing arts festival and competition Te Matatini, which celebrates the traditional art of kapa haka dance.
It’s currently winter in New Zealand, and fans and players can expect an overcast afternoon with highs in the mid-50s.
And they’re off …
Team USA is making its way toward the pitch.
The athletes departed for their match in their official custom World Cup suits, a collaboration between Nike and British-Jamaican designer Martine Rose.
Goalkeeper who helped U.S. win last two World Cup says Team USA ‘will deliver’
Canada held to a 0-0 draw by Nigeria
MELBOURNE, Australia — Olympic champion Canada was held to a 0-0 draw by Nigeria in its Women’s World Cup opener after Nigerian goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie made several key saves, including one on a penalty from Christine Sinclair.
It was a crucial miss for Sinclair, the 40-year-old Canadian who is the leading all-time scorer in international soccer, men or women, with 190 goals. Aiming to be the oldest player to score at the Women’s World Cup, she also missed a chance in the 9th minute when she was unmarked at the edge of the box but misfired.
Nnadozie, who plays in France for Paris FC, was voted Player of the Match.
President Biden: Cheerleader in chief
In a video posted this morning, President Joe Biden cheered on the team: “You’re going to do this.”
Switzerland beats Philippines 2-0 in opener
DUNEDIN, New Zealand — Ramona Bachmann drilled her penalty kick into the left side of the net moments before halftime to set up Switzerland’s 2-0 win over Philippines on Friday in the Women’s World Cup opener for both teams.
Switzerland’s Seraina Piubel added a second-half goal, scoring on the rebound from a missed shot by Coumba Sow that ricocheted off Philippines goalkeeper Olivia McDaniel.
The Group A encounter was the first game inside Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium, the tournament’s only indoor venue. The crowd’s cheers echoed around the walls of the roughly half-full stadium, with an attendance of 13,711 in a venue that can fit over 30,000.
While they have your attention …
“On the field or at the ballot box, give it your all,” Megan Rapinoe says.
She’s among TEAM USA stars who are making a pitch for voting in a PSA from former First Lady Michelle Obama’s national, nonpartisan effort to boost voting and voter registration.
Crystal Dunn and Andi Sullivan also are speaking out for When We All Vote, an organization that aims to increase voter registration and participation, especially among young people and people of color.
With 3-0 win in wintry Wellington, Spain sets the standard
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — When Alexis Putellas finally made her entry into Spain’s opener at the Women’s World Cup against Costa Rica, the match was already won.
The two-time Ballon d’Or winner waited 77 minutes to leave the bench, enter the tournament and provide an early answer to questions about her fitness after her long recuperation from injury.
Putellas damaged the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee just before Spain’s European Championship campaign last year, returned for the first time in April and has been played sparingly since, mostly from the bench.
Her appearance in the 3-0 win at Wellington on a night of stinging rain and cold was an affirmation of her fitness, the promise of better things to come as the tournament proceeds and the last component of a triumphant night for Spain.
Three goals in less than five minutes in the middle of a first half in which they enjoyed extraordinary dominance of possession and freedom on attack carried Spain to a 3-0 lead over Costa Rica by halftime. That lead endured for all of the second half, though Spain finished with 45 shots on goal, an extraordinary total.
A brief history of the women’s fight for equal pay
It’s been just 1 ½ years since the U.S. women’s soccer team reached an agreement with the governing U.S. Soccer Federation following a lawsuit over unequal pay with men.
The USSF agreed to pay the women’s and men’s national teams equally for future friendlies and international tournaments, such as the World Cup.
The previous unequal pay had long been a sore point for American women, who have built the world’s most powerful program with four World Cup titles. The U.S. men, meanwhile, had their best showing at the 1930 World Cup, taking third place, but have otherwise never come close to a title.
Second gentleman getting in the spirit in New Zealand
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff has been gearing up for tonight’s matchup. He led the presidential delegation to the opening ceremony and will attend tonight’s match against Vietnam.
He’s been spending time with the U.S. athletes, too. Yesterday, Emhoff tweeted a picture of him posing with the team.
“@USWNT, the whole country is rooting for you. Let’s go Team USA!” he said.
Earlier this week, Emhoff shared a video of him Facetiming with the team.
“You will hear me with all those people in the stands,” Emhoff said to the players in the video. “I will be loud and cheering you on for everyone that couldn’t make it back home.”
LGBTQ athletes make history
A record number of out LGBTQ athletes are competing in this year’s Women’s World Cup.
At least 87 out athletes will compete — more than double the 38 who played in the last Women’s World Cup, in 2019, according to the LGBTQ sports website Outsports. That means more than 1 in 10 of this year’s 736 Women’s World Cup players — a whopping 11.8% — openly identify as lesbian, bisexual, queer or nonbinary.
Fun fact: Brazil currently holds the title for the most out queer players on its roster, with nine out of 23 identifying as LGBTQ, according to Outsports.
Read the full story here.
Just four countries have ever won
Only four teams have ever won the Women’s World Cup.
Most recently, the United States scored back-to-back championships in 2015 and 2019, but also had two trophies before that from 1991 and 1999.
Germany has won it twice: in 2003 and 2007.
And Norway and Japan have each gone home the big winner one time. Norway in 1995 and Japan in 2011.
The 411 on the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup
The once-every-four-years tournament is being played in Australia and New Zealand. Play got underway yesterday and won’t wrap up till Aug. 20, when a new champion is crowned at Stadium Australia in Sydney.
Up to 83,500 fans can fill the stadium, which has previously been in the spotlight of international sports competition: In 2000, it hosted the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Olympic Games.
Watch the action on Fox, Telemundo and Peacock.
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