AUCKLAND, New Zealand — The U.S. women’s national team arrived at the 2023 Women’s World Cup 10 days ago. The players have talked about the environment, their teammates and how they fill the days. Now, with less than 24 hours to go before their first game, they finally have an opponent to talk about, that being World Cup debutantes Vietnam.
Manager Mai Duc Chung’s side is something of a wild card, having qualified out of the Asian Confederation via a playoff at the expense of Chinese Taipei and Thailand. Their recent friendly results have been a hodgepodge; there’s no disgrace in losing to Germany 2-1, a match in which the Golden Star Women Warriors showed improved organization and defensive discipline. But that was followed up by a 2-0 defeat to New Zealand and a 9-0 hammering by Spain behind closed doors.
So what version of Vietnam is the U.S. expecting? U.S. manager Vlatko Andonovski is clearly consulting his “Worst Case Scenario Handbook.”
“We’re preparing to see the best Vietnam team that has ever been on the field, and if that is the team that we saw against Germany, that’s what we’re preparing for,” Andonovski said at…
